049 



BENTHAM, JEREMY. 



BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM. 



650 



an outline, Benthatn, without intendiug it, has formed a corpus juris particularly by exposing the viciousnesa of the existing language of 

 very nearly similar to that of the Roman classical jurists. jurisprudence ; and by what he has done towards enforcing the expe- 



National, Municipal, or Internal Law (that is, Jus Civile, in one of its numerous senses) : 



containing-, 



International or External Law (that is, Jus 

 Integrurum Gentium). 



Droit Politique (that is. Jus Publicura) : 

 containing-, 



Droit Civil, as opposed to Droit Politiqne (that is, Jus Privatum) : 

 containing-, 



Droit Constitutional : relating to 



1. The Powers of the Sovereign, in the large 



and correct signification. 



2. The Distribution of the Sovereign Powers 



when not united in a single person. 



3. The Duties of the governed towards the 



Sovereign. 



I 



Law regarding 

 The Rights and Obligations of Persons 

 who are clothed with Political Powers 

 in subordination to the Sovereign. 



Code General, ou Lois Generales (that is, Jus Rerum) : 

 containing-. 



Codes Particuliers, ou Recueil Hi Lois Particulieres (that is, Jus Personal urn). 



Droit Snbntanlif (or The Law) : 

 containing-, 



Droit Civil. 



Droit Penal. 



Bentham's great merit, and that probably by which his name will 

 be moat remembered, was as a philosophical jurist, and writer on 

 legislation. II iS excellence in this department mainly consisted in 

 substituting rational principles as rules of law in the place of the 

 time-honoured maxims which hardly anyone before his time had dared 

 to dispute. It has been said, indeed, and said truly, that the doctrine 

 of utility, as the foundation of virtue, is as old as the earliest Greek 

 philosophers (see the ' Protagoras ' of Plato ; also the ' Memorabilia ' 

 of Xenophon) ; and has divided the philosophic world, in every age of 

 philosophy, since their time. Hut the definitions of natural law, 

 natural justice, and the like, which pervade all the writers on legis- 

 lation and law from Ulpian down to Montesquieu and Blackstone, 

 show how little progress had been made, previously to Mr. Bentham, 

 in the application of this great principle to the field of law. For his 

 services in this department Bentham deserves, and we doubt not will 

 receive, the admiration and the gratitude of all ages. 



It is impossible to know what the philosophy of jurisprudence 

 and legislation owes to Bentbam, without knowing what was the con- 

 dition of it when he began his labours. No system of law then 

 established, least of all that of the country of his birth, exhibited in 

 its construction a comprehensive adaptation of means to ends. The 

 age to which the English law owed its foundations may have pro- 

 duced some works in architecture deserving of admiration, but it has 

 certainly produced no such fabric of law, notwithstanding the loud 

 eulogies of the English lawyers. And that fabric, faulty from its 

 foundations, was rendered still more so by the patch-work manner in 

 which additions were made to it 



The English people had contrived to persuade themselves that the 

 English law, as it was when Hr. Bentham found it, was the perfection 

 of reason. It was a fabric reared by the most powerful and exalted 

 intellects, by wisdom little and only short of divine. To utter a 

 word therefore that might tend to impugn such a system was the 

 height of arrogance and presumption ; to raise a hand against it was 

 absolute profanation, nay, the most atrocious sacrilege. Accordingly, 

 when Mr. Bentham commenced his attack, he was at first looked upon 

 aa a sort of harmless lunatic. By and by however he began to be 

 regarded in a more serious light aa a madman, who might be 

 dangerous if not put under some restraint. He was assailed from all 

 sides with all sorts of weapons, from the stately contempt of the 

 dignified man of office down to the ridicule and scurrility of the small 

 wits and critics. Nevertheless he did not slacken in the work he had 

 begun, but continued it with unwearied and reiterated efforts. 



Hr. Bentham fought this battle for nearly sixty years, and the 

 greater part of that time he fought it alone : for a long time too 

 almost without making a single convert to his opinions. Latterly, 

 M. Dumont gave him considerable assistance by putting his ideas into 

 French. At length his energy and perseverance were rewarded with 

 some degree of success. Some of the leaders of public opinion became 

 convinced, and they in their turn convinced or persuaded others. 

 Mr. Bentham has not been merely a destroyer. Indeed, he considered 

 it a positive duty never to assail what is established without having a 

 clear view of what ought to be substituted. In some most important 

 branches of the science of law, which were in a more wretched state 

 than almost any of the others when he took them in hand, he seeuis 

 to have left nothing to be sought by future inquirers ; we mean the 

 departments of procedure, evidence, and the judicial establishment. 

 He has done almost all that remained to perfect the theory of punish- 

 ment. It is with regard to the civil code, that he has done least, and 

 left mot to be done. Yet even here his services have been very great, 



Droit Adjectif (or Law of Procedure) : 

 containing-, 



Law of Civil Procedure. 



Law of Criminal Procedure. 



diency of a code, that w, of a complete and systematic body of law. 

 The Law Amendment Society, now containing the most eminent 

 lawyers of the age, have adopted, and are enforcing, many of his 

 views. 



One of the excellences of Mr. Bentham's early writings is the ease 

 and elegance, the force and raciness of their style. This remark may 

 surprise those who take their idea of Bentham from the specimens 

 presented by those of his critics, whose object was to depreciate by 

 turning him into ridicule. Certainly, he gave some occasion for this 

 by some peculiarities which he contracted in the latter period of his 

 life ; bat for the truth of our remarks above, any reader may satisfy 

 himself by referring to Mr. Bentham's earlier works ; we would par- 

 ticularise the ' Fragment on Government,' the ' Defence of Usury," the 

 ' Plan of a Judicial Establishment,' or even the ' Panopticon.' In the 

 style of this work there is a vigour, a freshness, a vivacity, a playful- 

 ness, a felicity of expression, that renders the perusal perfectly 

 delightful. Indeed, of these qualities instances abound, even in some 

 of his works that are reckoned most unreadable ; for example, in the 

 'Rationale of Judicial Evidence.' This makes us the more regret 

 Bentham's seclusion, to which we have before alluded, inasmuch aa 

 its tendency was to make him less cultivate the above qualities of 

 writing. 



Mr. Bentham's principal works aro the ' Introduction to the Princi- 

 ples of Morals and Legislation,' the ' Fragment on Government,' the 

 ' Rationale of Judicial Evidence,' in 5 vols., including a very full 

 examination of the procedure of the English courts : the ' Book of 

 Fallacies ; ' the ' Plan of a Judicial Establishment,' one of his meat 

 finished productions, printed in 1792, but never regularly published ; 

 his 'Defence of Usury;' 'Panopticon,' an admirable work on prison 

 discipline ; ' Constitutional Code,' and many others ; besides the 

 treatises so well edited in French by M. Dumont, from the above 

 works and various unpublished manuscripts, which contain all his 

 most important doctrines. A collected edition of his works, in 

 11 vols., has been recently published by Sir John Bowring, with an 

 introductory volume by J. H. Burton, Esq. 



BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM CHARLES CAVENDISH, was 

 the second surviving son of William Henry, third duke of Portland, 

 and wag born September 14, 1774- He entered the army, served in 

 Flanders, Russia, and Egypt, rapidly attained high rank, and aa early 

 as 1803 be became governor of Madras. Here be distinguished 

 himself by the advocacy of many useful reforms, but one which he 

 supported though it did not originate with him that of prescribing 

 or prohibiting various forms for the beards, the moustaches, and the 

 turbans of the sepoys, and the wearing of ear-rings when on duty 

 led to the violent and dangerous mutiny and massacre of Vellore, in 

 1805. The consequence of this was Lord W. Bentinck's recall. On 

 his return he filled some slight diplomatic appointments, and after- 

 wards had the command of a brigade in Spain for a short time. In 

 1810 he went as plenipotentiary and commander-in-chief of this English 

 troops sent to the assistance of Ferdinand, king of Sicily, but gave so 

 little satisfaction to the queen, Caroline (probably from his advocacy 

 of reforms in tbe government of that island), that in 1811 she repaired 

 to Vienna to court the alliance of Bonaparte. Bentinck took advantage 

 of her absence to induce Sicily to accept the protection of Great Britain, 

 and in 1812 bestowed on the island a liberal constitution, that has 

 proved of small benefit to it, and which has been more than once 

 the cause of civil discord between the king and his subjects. In 1813 

 he conducted on expedition from Sicily to Catalonia, to operate in the 

 rear of the French armies, but he failed of success, and was forced to 



