

BENTIIAM. 



Tlie elaborate machinery for steam-print- 

 ing was, however, not materially injured, mid the 

 piintiMj,' ollice was soon rebuilt. But the cumbrous 

 murliine. on which so much had been expended, 

 wa- in a great measure superseded by later and sim- 

 pler inventions by .Mr Applcgaih and others; and 

 after a time .Mr Hensley parted with this printing 

 nllire in Holt Court, and retired from steam print- 

 ing ; and although lie afterwards connected himself 

 with a minor establishment in Crane Court, Fleet 

 Street, resided chiefly at Clapham Rise, where he 

 died on the llth Sept. 1835. 



15MNTHAM.Jnu.MY (n), was the eldest son of 

 Mr Jeremiah Bent ham, attorney; and was born at his 

 father's house, in Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, 

 adjacent to Aldgate church, February 15th (old 

 style) 1747-8. His grandfather, who had fol- 

 lowed the same profession, and had occupied the 

 same two houses in the city and at Barking, was 

 clerk to the company of scriveners. The name 

 of Jeremy was derived from an ancestor, Sir Jeremy 

 Snow, a banker in the reign of Charles II. 

 The late General Sir Samuel Bentham, of the 

 Russian service, who died April 30, 1831, was his 

 brother. His father married, secondly, Sarah, 

 widow of the Rev. John Abbot, D. D., Rector of 

 All Saints, Colchester, and mother of the late Lord 

 Colchester. She died September 27, 1809, and was 

 buried in Westminster Abbey. About the year 

 1765, Mr Jeremiah Bentham purchased the house 

 in Queen's Square Place, Westminster, where he 

 and his son both passed the remainder of their 

 lives. It had previously been the residence of the 

 notorious courtesan, Theresa Constantia Philips, 

 author of " Memoirs," in 3 vols. 1761. 



Mr Benthain's talents developed themselves early. 

 Soon after he was three years of age he read Ra- 

 pin's History of England as an amusement ; and at 

 seven he read Telemaque in French. At eight he 

 played the violin, an instrument on which, at a 

 subsequent period of his life, he became remark- 

 ably proficient. He was very distinguished at 

 Westminster School. During one of the vacations, 

 he read Helvetius's celebrated work on the Mind ; 

 from which he first obtained a glimpse of that prin- 

 ciple, which at a subsequent period he so power- 

 fully developed. At the age of thirteen he was 

 admitted a member of Queen's College, Oxford, 

 where he at once engaged in public disputations in 

 the common hall, and excited, by the acuteness of 

 his observations, the precision of his terms, and 

 the logical correctness of his inductions, the sur- 

 prise and admiration of all who heard him. At 

 the age of sixteen he took his degree of A. B., 

 and at the age of twenty that of A. M., being the 

 youngest graduate that had at that time been known 

 at either of the Universities. He afterwards 

 entered at Lincoln's Inn, of which society he be- 

 came a bencher in 1817. 



From early childhood, such was the contempla- 

 tive turn of his mind, and the clearness and accur- 

 acy with which he observed whatever came under 

 his notice, that at the age of five years he had al- 

 ready acquired the name of "the Philosopher," 

 being familiarly called so by the members of his 

 family; and such, even in his youth, were the in- 

 dications of that benevolence to which his manhood 

 and his old age were consecrated, that a celebrated 

 statesman, who at that period had conceived an 

 affection for him, and with whom he spent much 

 of his time after he was called to the bar, speaks 

 of him, in a letter to his father, in these remark- 



able words: "His disinterestedness, and his 

 originality of character, ntiesh me as much as the 

 country air <ioc> a London physician." 



.Many incidents of his t-arly life mark the extent 

 of his connection with the last, century. He was 

 accustomed to relate with great pleasure, that, 

 when he was a boy, he was taken to drink tea with 

 Hogarth, whose works he greatly admired. He 

 was one of the cla>-= who attended the lectures of 

 Sir William Blackstone, when they were delivered 

 at Oxford; and young as the mind of Bentham 

 was, it even then revolted at the reasoning of the 

 professor. As a law student, he took notes of 

 the speeches of Mansfield ; and he was a member 

 of the club ruled by Johnson, whom he never 

 liked, considering him to be a gloomy misanthro- 

 pist. 



Mr Bentham entered upon his profession with a 

 prospect amounting almost to a certainty of the 

 highest success. His father's practice and influence 

 as a solicitor were considerable, and his (the son's) 

 draughts of bills in equity were at once distin- 

 guished for their superior execution. In one of 

 his pamphlets (" Indications respecting Lord El- 

 don ") Mr Bentham thus notices the circumstances 

 which led to his retirement from the bar : 



" By the command of a father, I entered into 

 the profession, and, in the year 1772, or there- 

 abouts, was called to the bar. Not long after, 

 having drawn a bill in equity, I had to defend it 

 against exceptions before a master in chancery. 

 ' We shall have to attend on such a day,' said the 

 solicitor to me, naming a day a week or so distant ; 

 4 warrants for our attendance will be taken out 

 for two intervening days ; but it is not customary 

 to attend before the third.' What I learnt after- 

 ward was that though no attendance more than 

 one was ever bestowed, three were on every occa- 

 sion regularly charged for; for each of the two 

 falsely pretended attendances, the client being by 

 the solicitor charged with a fee for himself, as also 

 with a fee of 6s. 8d. paid by him to the master : 

 the consequence was that for every attendance, 

 the master, instead of 6s. 8d., received 1; and 

 that, even if inclined, no solicitor durst omit taking 

 out the three warrants instead of one, for fear of 

 the not-to be-hazarded displeasure of that subordi- 

 nate judge and his superiors. True it is, the soli- 

 citor is not under any obligation thus to charge his 

 client for work not done. He is however, sure of 

 indemnity in doing so : it is accordingly done of 

 course. * * * * These things, and others of the 

 same complexion, in such immense abundance, 

 determined me to quit the profession ; and, as soon 

 as I could obtain my father's permission, I did so : 

 I found it more to my taste to endeavour, as I have 

 been doing ever since, to put an end to them, than 

 to profit by them." 



Between Mr Bentham's coming of age, and the 

 commencement of the French Revolution a period 

 of nearly twenty years he was thrice on the con- 

 tinent, and every time resided chiefly in Paris. In 

 his second visit to the Gallic capital, he formed an 

 acquaintance with the celebrated but unfortunate 

 Brissot, then better known by the name of Wan- 

 ville. 



There were several strong points of resemblance 

 between Brissot and Bentham, which will account 

 for the warmth of their friendship ; added to which, 

 the aspect of the times gave occasion, first to a 

 correspondence, and afterwards to a residence with 

 each other, which tended much to strengthen their 



