VI. than does any other expression-to an unshakeable Lecture faith in that form of utilitarianism which places the object of life in the promotion of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number." When about twenty years of age he found this formula in a pamphlet of Priestley's and accepted it as the guide of his life. "It was by that pamphlet and this phrase in it," writes Bentham, "that my principles on the subject "of morality, public and private, were determined. "It was from that pamphlet and that page of it that "I drew the phrase, the words and import of which "have been so widely diffused over the civilised world. "At the sight of it, I cried out as it were in an "inward ecstasy, like Archimedes on the discovery of the fundamental principle of hydrostatics, Eupnка. "Little did I think of the corrections which within a "few years on a closer scrutiny I found myself under the necessity of applying to it."1 With this combine the following expressions taken from Bentham's note-books. "Would you appear actuated by generous passion? "be so. You need then but show yourself as you "are." "I would have the dearest friend I have to know, "that his interests, if they come in competition with "those of the public, are as nothing to me. Thus I "will serve my friends-thus would I be served by "them." "important aspect, he greatly overrated human nature. 1 Montague, Bentham's Fragment on Government, p. 34. Lecture VI. "Has a man talents? he owes them to his country "in every way in which they can be serviceable." 1 This creed, however, which we should now term the enthusiasm of humanity, need not have impelled Bentham to labour at the reform of the law. That his passion for the furtherance of human happiness took this particular form, arose from his becoming possessed by the two convictions that legislation was the most important of human pursuits, and that Jeremy Bentham was born with a genius for legislation. "Have I," he asked, a genius for anything? "What can I produce?' That was the first inquiry "he made of himself. Then came another. "all earthly pursuits is the most important?' 'What of Legis lation,' was the answer Helvetius gave. 'Have I a genius for legislation?' "the question put to himself. Again and again was He turned it over in "his thoughts; he sought every symptom he could "discover in his natural disposition or acquired habits. 'And have I indeed a genius for legislaI gave myself the answer, fearfully and 66 6 tion ?' tremblingly, 'Yes.'" 2 Of these convictions the first was shared by the best thinkers of the eighteenth century, and contained an immense amount of relative truth; the need of the time was the reform of the institutions of Europe. The second was absolutely true, and its truth has been recognised by the wisest men of the generations 1 Bentham's Works, x. (“Extracts from Bentham's Commonplace Book "), p. 73. 2 Sir Roland Knyvet Wilson, Bart., History of Modern English Law (ed. 1875), p. 136. VI. which have followed Bentham; he was in very truth Lecture the first and greatest of legal philosophers. My object in this lecture is, first, to sketch in the merest outline the ideas of Benthamism or individualism, in so far as when applied by practical statesmen they have affected the growth of English law; next to explain and describe the general acceptance of Benthamism as the dominant legislative opinion of a particular era; and, lastly, to illustrate by examples the general trend of Benthamite or individualistic legislation. (A) Benthamite Ideas as to the Reform of the Law Bentham considered exclusively as a reformer of the law of England achieved two ends. He determined, in the first place, the principles on which reform should be based. He determined, in the second place, the method, i.e., the mode of legislation, by which, in England, reform should be carried out. 1 As to the Principles of Law Reform.-The ideas which underlie the Benthamite or individualistic scheme of reform may conveniently be summarised under three leading principles and two corollaries. I. Legislation is a Science. English law, as it existed at the end of the eighteenth century, had in truth developed almost 1 These principles, it should be remembered, are not so much the dogmas to be found in Bentham's Works as ideas due in the main to Bentham, which were ultimately, though often in a very modified form, accepted by the reformers or legislators who practically applied utilitarian conceptions to the amendment of the law of England. VI. Lecture hap-hazard, as the result of customs or modes of thought which had prevailed at different periods. The laws actually in existence had certainly not been enacted with a view to any one guiding principle. They had, indeed, for the most part never been "enacted" (in the strict sense of that word) at all. They were, as they still indeed to a great extent are, the result of judicial legislation built up in the course of deciding particular cases. English law had in fact grown, rather than been made, and the language used by Paley with regard to the constitution might, with the change of one word, be applied to the whole law of England. "The [law] of England, like that of most countries "in Europe, hath grown out of occasion and emer66 gency; from the fluctuating policy of different ages; from the contentions, successes, interests, and opportunities of different orders and parties of men in the community. It resembles one of those old "mansions, which, instead of being built all at once, "after a regular plan, and according to the rules of "architecture at present established, has been reared "in different ages of the art, has been altered from "time to time, and has been continually receiving "additions and repairs suited to the taste, fortune, or 66 conveniency of its successive proprietors. In such "a building we look in vain for the elegance and proportion, for the just order and correspondence of parts, which we expect in a modern edifice; and "which external symmetry, after all, contributes much more perhaps to the amusement of the beholder "than the accommodation of the inhabitant.”1 1 Paley ("Of the Constitution"), Moral Philosophy, ii. (12th ed. 1799), pp. 193, 194. VI. But Bentham saw clearly several facts which Paley Lecture failed to recognise. The revered mansion was not only antiquated, but in many respects so unsuited to the requirements of the times, that it was to its numerous inhabitants the cause not only of discomfort but even of misery. In order to amend the fabric of the law we must, he insisted, lay down a plan grounded on fixed principles; in many instances not amendment but reconstruction was a necessity; and even gradual improvements, if they were to attain their object, must be made in accordance with fixed rules of art. Legislation, in short, he proclaimed is a science based on the characteristics of human nature, and the art of law-making, if it is to be successful, must be the application of legislative principles. Of these ideas Bentham was not the discoverer but the teacher; he may be described as the prophet who forced the faith in scientific legislation upon the attention of a generation of Englishmen by whom its truth or importance was denied or forgotten. II. The right aim of legislation is the carrying out This principle, obtained as we have seen from Priestley, is the formula with which popular memory has most closely connected the name of Bentham. With the objections to which the principle of utility is open, either as a standard or as a source of morality, any person at all interested in ethical discussions is now well acquainted. In these lectures |