BENTHAM. 



293 



mutual attachment. It is well known that some 

 few years before the French Revolution, Brissot 

 tixed his abode in London, in prosecution of a 

 design of conducting a periodical, entitled " A 

 Universal Correspondence on Points interesting to 

 the Welfare of Man and of Society." London was 

 chosen as the centre, where information was to be 

 collected from all points, and from which he could 

 diffuse it in all directions through the medium 

 of his publication. In this way, Brissot thought 

 it possible to evade the restriction upon the press 

 in France, and to illuminate that country by 

 means of the more elastic press of England. The 

 design, however, failed ; and the cost of the ex- 

 periment subjected Brissot to an arrest in Lon- 

 don, from which he was freed by the generosity of 

 a friend, generally supposed to be Mr Bentham. 

 When Brissot returned to Paris, and rose into popu- 

 larity, he testified his gratitude to Mr Bentham, by 

 nominating him, without his consent or know- 

 ledge, a member of the second national assembly. 



Between the years 1784 and 1788, Mr Bentham 

 took an extensive European tour. Leaving Fiance 

 by vvay of Montpellier, Marseilles, and Antibes, he 

 sailed to Genoa, and thence to Leghorn. From 

 Leghorn he passed with letters of introduction to 

 Florence, and spent several days in the hospitable 

 mansion of the late Sir Horace Mann, who had 

 been for some years the British envoy in that city. 

 From Leghorn he resolved upon a passage to Smyrna, 

 in a vessel owned and commanded by a captain with 

 whom he had previously formed an intimate friend- 

 ship in London. In the voyage, a storm drove the 

 ship into a narrow strait, near the island of Mite- 

 lene, where she passed the night, and where, in the 

 morning, he obtained a full view of the beautiful 

 but ill-fated isle of Scio. Mr Bentham stayed 

 three weeks at Smyrna, and thence proceeded in a 

 Turkish ship to Constantinople, where he remained 

 about double that time. His ultimate destination 

 was Crechoff. in Russia, where his brother, Sir 

 Samuel Bentham, was quartered as commandant of 

 an independent battalion of a thousand men, and in 

 which neighbourhood was the estate of the prime 

 minister of Russia, Prince Potemkin. Mr Ben- 

 tham reached his brother's house in the beginning 

 of the year 1786 ; but, unfortunately, the latter 

 was on an excursion to Cherson, where he was 

 detained for the defence of the country against the 

 threatened invasion of the Capitan Pacha. With 

 characteristic industry, Mr Bentham sat down in 

 his absent brother's study, and wrote his " Letters 

 on the Usury Laws." There, also, he wrote the 

 first portion of his "-Panopticon." After above 

 three years' absence he returned home, through 

 Poland, Germany, and the United Provinces, in 

 February, 1788. 



The death of his father, in 1792, left Mr Ben- 

 tham with a moderate fortune, and the free choice 

 of his course of life ; when he wholly abandoned 

 all prospect of professional emoluments and hon- 

 ours, and devoted himself entirely to the composi- 

 tion of his laborious and valuable works. 



Availing himself of the truce of Amiens, Mr 

 Bentham again visited Paris, in 1802, accompanied 

 by Sir Samuel Romilly. At that very time M. 

 Dumont was publishing Mr Bentham's works in 

 French. This circumstance considerably aided the 

 purpose of his Parisian friends in electing him a 

 member of the French institute, to which he was 

 eligible in consequence of the citizenship of France 

 having previously been conferred upon him. When 



it is remembered that only three vacancies existed, 

 and that one was reserved for the nomination of 

 Bonaparte, then first consul of France, Mr Ben- 

 tham's election must be considered as no slight 

 proof of the estimation in which he was held by 

 the savans of Paris. Nor were the circumstances 

 which attended his last visit to the French capital, 

 in 1825, when he went for the benefit of his health, 

 less flattering. He was received with the greatest 

 enthusiasm ; and on casually visiting one of the 

 supreme courts, the whole body of the advocates 

 rose and paid him the highest marks of respect, 

 and the court invited him to the seat of honour. 



The qualities which, in youth, formed the charm 

 of Mr Bentham's character, and which grew with 

 his growth and strengthened with his strength, 

 were truth and simplicity. Truth was deeply 

 founded in his nature as a principle ; it was de- 

 votedly pursued in his life as an object ; it exer- 

 cised, as we have seen, even in early life, an extra- 

 ordinary influence over the operations of his mind 

 and the affections of his heart; and it was the 

 source of that moral boldness, energy, and consis- 

 tency, for which, from the period of manhood to 

 the close of life, he was so distinguished. There 

 was nothing in the entire range of physical, moral, 

 or legislative science ; nothing whatever relating to 

 any class of subjects that could be presented to his 

 understanding; nothing, however difficult other 

 men thought it, or pretended to think it, or with 

 whatever superstitious, political, or religious reve- 

 rence and awe they regarded, or affecteff to regard 

 it ; which he did not approach without fear ; to 

 the very bottom of which he did not endeavour to 

 penetrate ; the mystery regarding which he did not 

 strive to clear away ; the real, the whole truth of 

 which, he did not aim to bring to light. Nor 

 was there any consideration, whether of a personal 

 nature or not, that could induce him to conceal any 

 conclusion at which he had arrived, and of the cor- 

 rectness of which he was satisfied: even though, 

 by the desertion of friends and the clamour of foes, 

 the very cause he advocated might to some have 

 appeared to be endangered by his so doing. It 

 was not possible to apply his principle to all the 

 points and bearings of all the subjects included in 

 the difficult and contested field of legislation, go- 

 vernment, and morals ; to apply it as he applied 

 it, acutely, searchingly, profoundly, unflinchingly, 

 without consequences at first view startling, if not 

 appalling, even to strong minds and stout hearts. 

 They startled not, they appalled not him, mind or 

 heart. He had confidence in his guide ; he was 

 satisfied that he might go with unfaltering step 

 wherever it led ; and with unfaltering step he did gc 

 wherever it led. Hence his singleness of purpose ; 

 hence, in all his voluminous writings, in all the 

 multiplicity of subjects which have come under his 

 investigation, as well those which he has ex- 

 hausted, as those which he has merely touched ; 

 as well those which are uncomplicated hy sinister 

 interests and the prejudices which grow out of 

 them, as those which are associated with innume- 

 rable false judgments and wrong affections: hence, 

 in regard to not one of them does a single case 

 occur in which he has swerved from his principle, 

 or faltered, or so much as shown the slightest indi- 

 cation of faltering, in the application of it. 



He was capable of great severity and continuity 

 of mental labour. For upwards of half a century 

 he devoted seldom less than eight, often ten, and 

 occasionally twelve hours of every day, to intense 



