B E N 



2 is 



BEN 



Was at first looked upon at a aort of harmless lunatic. By 

 and by, however, he began to be regarded in a more se- 

 rious light as 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. 



Mr. 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 con- 

 vert to his opinions. Latterly, M. Dumont gave him con- 

 siderable 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, con- 

 vinced or persuaded others. Mr. Buntham 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 im- 

 portant 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 seems to have left nothing to be 

 ought 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 

 punishment It is with regard to the civil code, that he 

 has done least, and left most to be done. Yet even here 

 his services have been very great ; particularly by exposing 

 the viciousness of the existing language of jurisprudence; 

 and by what he has done towards enforcing the expediency 

 of a code, that is, of a complete and systematic body of 

 law. 



One of the excellencies 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 later period of his 

 life. But of the truth of our remark above, any reader may 

 satisfy himself by referring to Mr. Bentham's earlier works ; 

 we would particularize the ' Fragment on Government,' 

 the ' Defence of Usury,' the ' Plan of a Judicial Establish- 

 ment,' or even the ' Panopticon ;' from which last, a work 

 but little known, we shall give an extract, which by its elo- 

 quence will surprise many in whose minds the name of 

 Bentham has long been associated with sentences un- 

 readable from the roughness of the materials, and the clum- 

 siness or the complication of the structure. Everybody has 

 beard of Burke's eulogy of John Howard, generally styled 

 the philanthropist, but few know that Bentham has also 

 written a eulogy of Howard, which may challenge competi- 

 tion, we think, even for eloquence with Burke's. Speaking 

 of the want of leading principles, order, and connexion in 

 Howard's publications, he says : ' My venerable friend 

 .vas much better employed than in arranging words and 

 sentences. Instead of doing what so many could do if they 

 would, what he did for the service of mankind was what 

 ccarce any man could have done, and no man would do, 

 but himself. In the scale of moral desert, the labours of 

 the legislator and the writer are as far below bis, as earth is 

 below heaven. His was the truly Christian choice ; the lot 

 in which is to bo found the least of that which selfish 

 nature covets, and the most of what it shrinks from. His 

 kingdom was of a better world he died a martyr, after 

 lni:ig an apostle.' Panopticon, Postscript part ii. p. 2. 



In the style of the work from which the above is ex- 

 tracted, 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 Judi- 

 cial Evidence. This makes us the more regret Bentham's 

 seclusion, to which we have before alluded, inasmuch as its 

 tendency was to make him less cultivate the above qualities 



TV "TraWi d- I>jljlallon- Brit .ppeand in 180S. In 18M a templet. 

 l.i on ofthoM wotki of BtUhno. which m edited in French bv I 

 (mulshed at ItruwU In t\*. rteral TO!., royal 8w>. Of ihii edition 1600 

 eoriu km b*jn already told II ii computed thm of Mr. Ilentliam > wi.rki. 

 WrfrtkoMM b-ai.l.uon. no< f-wer than 80,000 volumn h.v Wn told in 

 Kun>ptu4 America. In the French, Spaoiih, lioliu and DOW of late in Iho 

 Cenrnao o4 PuUth Uaiufet. 



of writing. For, though we doubt whether Mr. Bentham 

 could ever have acquired first-rate powers of metaphysical 

 analysis, we are of opinion, however paradoxical that opi- 

 nion may appear to some, that he was fitted by the graces 

 of a style as easy and clear as Hume's and far more vigor- 

 ous, pure, and Idiomatic, to have become one of the most 

 popular prose writers that England has ever produced. But 

 the momentous and noble object which was the aim and end 

 of all Bentham's labours was probably quite incompatible 

 with present popularity. He appears himself to have fully 

 felt this, and he has forcibly and aptly expressed it in the 

 following passage, speaking of one of his most complete 

 and valuable works, the Rationale of Judicial Evidence. 

 ' The species of readers for whose use it was really designed, 

 and whose thanks will not be wanting to the author's 

 ashes, is the legislator ; the species of legislator who as yet 

 remains to be formed ; the legislator, who neither is under 

 the dominion of an interest hostile to that of the public, 

 nor is in league with those who are.' Rationale of Judicial 

 Evidence, vol. i. p. 23. 



Mr. Bcntham's lot in life may on the whole be pro- 

 nounced to have been a peculiarly happy one ; even though 

 unattended with a very widely diffused reputation in his 

 native country ; and even though, instead of that, exposed 

 to the attacks of contemporary writers. His easy circum- 

 stances and his excellent health enabled him to devote his 

 whole time and energies to those pursuits which exercised 

 his highest faculties, and were to him a rich and unfailing 

 source of the most delightful excitement. On the other 

 hand, his retired habits preserved him from personal contact 

 with any but those who valued his acquaintance ; and, as 

 for the writers who spoke of him with ridicule and con- 

 tempt, he never read them, and therefore ihey never dis- 

 turbed the serenity of his mind, or ruffled the tranquil 

 surface of his contemplative and happy life. 



Mr. Bentham's principal works are the 'Introduction to 

 the Principles of Morals and Legislation,' the ' Fragment 

 on Government,' the 'Rationale of Judicial Evidence,' in 

 five volumes, including a very full examination of the pro- 

 cedure of the English courts : the ' Book of Fallacies,' the 

 ' Plan of a Judicial Establishment,' one of his most 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 \>\ M. 

 Dumont. from the above works and various unpublished 

 manuscripts, which contain all his most important doc- 

 trines. 



BENTHEIM, an earldom, lying to the west of the Ems. 

 and situated between the Prussian province of Westphalia, 

 and the Dutch province of Overijssel : it extends from 

 52 16' to 52 40' N. lat., and from fi 28' to 7 1 7' E. long., 

 and is comprehended in the Hanoverian province of Osna- 

 briick. Its name is derived from the castle and fumily ot 

 the Bcntheim-Bentheims. It is a compact territory, about 

 399 square miles in superficial extent; the surface is in ge- 

 neral a uniform level, and the soil, though sandy, is in uu^t 

 parts productive. It is watered by the Vechte and its tri- 

 butaries, the Aa and Dinkel : the Vechte is used along 

 its whole line for floating timber, and is navigable from 

 Nordhorn to Zwoll. Benthcim contains a number of mo- 

 rasses and moors, which yield excellent peat, is partially 

 wooded, produces abundance of grain, rape-seed, flax, and 

 potatoes, rears considerable quantities of horses, horned 

 cattle, sheep, and geese, and its woods and streams are 

 well-stocked with game and fish. Sand-stone, mill-stones, 

 and free-stone are raised along the hills, near Benthcim and 

 Gildehaus, and exported to Holland : potter's-clay and coals 

 arc also among its mineral products, and sulphurous springs 

 exist in the forest of Benthcim. It has no inamifacti 

 any importance, except the spinning of flax-yarns and linen- 

 weaving. The climate, though not free from fogs, is healthy 

 and temperate. The earldom contains four towns (Benthcim 

 with 1800 inhabitants, Schiittdorf with 1400, Nordhorn with 

 1200, and Neuenhaus with 14 00), one market-village, sixty- 

 two villages and hamlets, and about 4400 houses ; the popu- 

 lation, which amounted to 24,364 souls in 1812, and 29,569 

 in 1828, is at present estimated at about 26,100. In 1812, 

 the number of houses was 3793 ; and in 1828, 4375. The. 

 inhabitants arc of German descent, and use the Westpha- 

 lian dialect ; but in manners they assimilate to their neigh- 

 bours, the Dutch, and Dutch is also spoken in sorm, leu- 

 places. The majority of the inhabitants are of the reformed 



