298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



From whatever point of view we consider it, Bentham's proposi- 

 tion proves to be unthinkable. Government, he says, fulfills its ofiSce 

 "by creating rights." Two meanings may be given to the word 

 " creating." It may be supposed to mean the production of some- 

 thing out of nothing ; or it may be supposed to mean the giving form 

 and structure to something which already exists. There are many 

 who think the production of something out of nothing can not be con- 

 ceived as effected even by Omnipotence ; and probably none will 

 assert that the production of something out of nothing is within the 

 competence of a human government. The alternative conception is 

 that such human government creates only in the sense that it shapes 

 something pre-existing. In that case, the question arises, " What is 

 the something pre-existing which it shapes?" Clearly the word 

 " creating " begs the whole question — passes off an illusion upon the 

 unwary reader. Bentham was a stickler for definiteness of expression, 

 and in his " Book of Fallacies " has a chapter on " Impostor-terms." 

 It is curious that he should have furnished so striking an illustration 

 of the perverted belief which an impostor-term may generate. 



But now let us overlook these various impossibilities of thought, 

 and seek the most defensible interpretation of Bentham's view. 



It may be said that the totality of all possessions, powers, rights, 

 originally existed as an undivided whole in the sovereign people ; and 

 that this undivided whole is given in trust (as Austin would say) to 

 a ruling power, appointed by the sovereign people, for the purpose of 

 distribution. If, as we have seen, the proposition that rights are cre- 

 ated is simply a figure of speech, then the only intelligible construc- 

 tion of Bentham's view is that a multitude of individuals, who sever- 

 ally wish to satisfy their desires, and have, as an aggregate, possession 

 of all the sources of satisfaction, as well as power over all individual 

 actions, appoint a government, which declares the ways in which, and 

 the conditions under which, individual actions may be carried on and 

 the satisfactions obtained. Let us observe what are the implications. 

 Each man exists in two capacities. In his private capacity he is sub- 

 ject to the government. In his public capacity he is one of the sov- 

 ereign people who appoint the government. That is to say, in his 

 private capacity he is one of those to whom rights are given \ and in 

 his public capacity he is one of those who, through their agency, give 

 the rights. Turn this abstract statement into a concrete statement, 

 and see what it means. Let the community consist of a million men, 

 who, by the hypothesis, are not only joint possessors of the inhabited 

 region, but joint possessors of all liberties of action and appropriation : 

 the only right recognized being that of the aggregate to everything. 

 What follows? Each person, while not owning any product of his 

 own labor, has, as a unit in the sovereign body, a millionth part of 

 the ownership of the products of all others' labor. This is an unavoid- 

 able implication. No body of men can confer that which it has not 



