10 BENTHAM. 



well as he could, he fitted them with as heavy artillery as they 

 could possibly bear, and when all was finished, took the command 

 of the flotilla himself, and had the satisfaction of engaging the 

 Turks on three separate days, in all of which actions he was equally 

 victorious, notwithstanding the enemy's flotilla were doubly as 

 numerous and powerful. For these three victories Bentham re- 

 ceived from the empress a like number of honourable rewards 

 rank in the army, a gold-hilted sword, and the Cross of the Order 

 of St. George. 



Sir Samuel Bentham now returned to the army, and by his own 

 choice was appointed to the protection of the eastern frontier of 

 Siberia, his command extending from the northern part of the Ural 

 Mountains to the confines of Russia in the Chinese dominions. 

 After holding this appointment for a couple of years, during which 

 period he established schools for his troops, and introduced other 

 improvements into their condition, Bentham obtained leave of ab- 

 sence to visit England. 



Here commences another epoch in Sir Samuel's life. Arrived in 

 England, he found his brother Jeremy absorbed in investigations 

 relative to jurisprudence. Jeremy, however, had not forgotten his 

 brother's Panoptican, but had proposed its adoption for the County 

 Gaol of Middlesex. This led to some explanations with the minis- 

 ters, who ultimately entrusted Jeremy Bentham with a thousand 

 convicts, of whose labour he was to make the best use he could. 

 In the meanwhile Samuel went to visit the principal manufactories 

 in England ; he found that steam-engines were used for giving 

 motion to machinery for spinning cotton, but in no case were they 

 applied to machinery for the working of wood, metal, &c.; nor, in 

 fact, were there any mechanical apparatuses for saving labour, with 

 the exception of turning-lathes, and some boring tools worked by 

 horses, for making ships' blocks. Bentham therefore patented, in 

 1791, his machinery for planing and making mouldings, specifying 

 the improvements which he had made on the machine constructed 

 ten years before for Count Demidoff. His brother's arrangements 

 for the industrial employment of convicts having been concluded, 

 Sir Samuel considered that the most profitable means of employing 

 them would be the working of machines for saving manual labour, 

 which at the same time ensured accuracy of work ; he therefore 

 exerted his mechanical genius to perfect several engines he had 

 previously contrived in Russia, and patented his inventions in the 

 specification (No. 1951). This specification includes machines for 

 sawing, boring, and many other operations necessary for the work- 

 ing of wood or metal. 



Nor did the general confine himself to mere verbal descriptions 

 of his machines ; many of them were constructed and erected under 

 his own eye, in Queen's Square Place, amongst which may be men- 

 tioned an apparatus for making wheels, and another for making all 



