MODERN SCIENCE. 155 



Machault and Laverdy, He also advocated a system of 

 general education. 



1738 1794. Beccaria caused the institution of the Jury 

 to be introduced on the Continent ; caused the ABOLITION 

 OF TORTURE ; denounced the harshness of the penal code ; 

 advocated that punishments should be proportionate to the 

 offence so that he was a beneficent legislator, although his 

 work on Crimes and Punishments is only a philosophical 

 treatise. 



1747 1832. Bentham, inspired by Beccaria, introduced 

 the principle of IDEAL JUSTICE into legislation and juris- 

 prudence many reforms due to his action, but the softening 

 of the harsh penal code which existed until then (1830) was 

 the greatest one which he initiated. After him no man could 

 be hanged for forgery or sheep stealing. Practical sociology 

 is indebted to him for two maxims : " Men cannot be happy 

 by making the misfortune of others " ; " Legislation should 

 give the greatest happiness to the greatest number" His 

 theory of government, derived from Helvetius, was essentially 

 UTILITARIAN, and has guided legislators to a great extent 

 since the 1832 Reform. 



1753 1814, Rumford was the first to suppress MEN- 

 DICITY (in Munich, 1790) and to show this evil to be one of 

 the worst forms of social vice. 



1766 1834. Malthus was the first (1798) to draw the 

 attention of economists to the tendency of population to 

 multiply to the last limits of food supply, and to the irre- 

 sistible influence of competition and starvation in restraining 

 its further growth beyond those limits. It was obvious ta 

 many thinkers that although he dealt with the subject of 

 human communities only, numerous analogies could be found 

 in other domains of animal and vegetable life, and, as a 

 matter of fact, it was not long before the same principle was 

 seen to apply to all species. " Reproduction is everywhere 

 and in all species for ever outrunning means of subsistence ; 

 and starvation and competition are for ever keeping down the 

 number of the offspring to the level average or normal supply 

 of raw material. Animals are all perpetually battling with 

 one another for the food supply of the moment ; plants are 



