being obliged to quit his post. A contractor was to undertake the keep of the prisoners at a certain sum per head, reserving to himself all profits derived from their labour. The manager was to be bound to insure the lives of all who were entrusted to him; that is, he was to be obliged to pay a sum for every one beyond a certain average; lost to the prison by death or by escaping. The scheme met with considerable favour. The 34 of George III c. 84 provided for the acquiring of sites of penitentiary houses; and land at Millbank was conveyed to Bentham as trustee for the purposes of the act. 2,000l. were granted to him to enable him to make the necessary preparations for taking charge of a large number of convicts. The scheme did not in the main prosper, and its failure was a source of bitter disappointment to him. It failed, as Bentham believed, mainly by reason of the king's dislike to him. The contract with Bentham was broken off, and in 1813 23,000l. were awarded to Bentham as compensation for expenses which he had incurred (52 Geo. III, c. 44). In defence of his scheme Bentham wrote a volume, only part of which has been printed, entitled 'History of the War between Jeremy Bentham and George the Third, by one of the belligerents.' Though the panopticon never realised Bentham's hopes, he must always be regarded as one of the great reformers of prisons, and an eminent successor to Howard.
In 1792 his father died, and he came into a considerable fortune. In that year wrote 'Truth v. Ashhurst,' an incisive criticism of the constitutional doctrines which Mr. Justice Ashhurst had laid down to the grand jury of Middlesex, and which were intended to set them on their guard against the French revolution. The pamphlet was, for reasons of prudence, not published at a time when it was dangerous to speak of reforms; and it did not see the light until 1822. In 1795 were published two remarkable pamphlets: 'A Protest against Law Taxes,' showing the peculiar mischievousness of all imposts which aggravate the expense of appeals to justice; and 'Supply without Burden, or Escheat vice Taxation, being a proposal for a saving of taxes by an extension of the law of escheat, including strictures on the taxes on collateral succession comprised in the budget of 7 Dec. 1795.' No better example of the thoroughness of Bentham's mode of discussing political problems, of his ingenuity and his clearness, could be named than the latter pamphlet. Though extending to only a few pages, the two pamphlets were the results of much labour and thought. In the Bentham MSS., preserved at University College, id a vast mass of unpublished materials, including a draft letter to Mirabeau with respect to escheat and the best mode of collecting this new source of supply,
Bentham was at one time desirous of entering parliament, and Dr. Bowring publishes extracts from sketches of imaginary addresses to electors which the former, with his usual forethought, had prepared. There is also extant a curious letter, written in August 1790, in which Bentham, with much ingenuity and at enormous length, takes Lord Shelburne to task for not fulfilling expectations which he had raised of nominating Bentham for a pocket borough, Calne or Wycombe. Lord Shelburne answered Bentham with much good temper, and told him that he had never made such an offer nor intended to make it. Few men would have written in the querulous, haughty strain of Bentham's first letter; still fewer would have written his reply. His anger had died out; he saw the absurdity of his conduct, and he began his apology, written almost in a tone of buffoonery, in these words: 'My dear, dear lord, since you will neither be subdued nor terrified, will you be embraced? It was using me very ill, that it was, to get upon stilts as you did, and resolve not to get angry with me after all the pains I had taken to make you so. You have been angry, let me tell you, with people as little worth it before now.' Availing himself of his privileges as a French citizen, a title conferred upon him on the motion of his friend Bissot in 1792 by the National Assembly, he addressed in 1793 to the National Convention a pamphlet entitled 'Emancipate your Colonies' (iv. 407). This expressed one of Bentham's deepest convictions. He was persuaded that colonies were of little or no utility to their mother country (see Manual of Political Economy and Panopticon of New South Wales).
It is difficult to follow in exact chronological order Bentham's labours, owing to his habit of carrying on at the same time several undertakings, and of not publishing his works until long after they were written. It is, however, clear, that from 1790 to 1800 was one of the most fruitful periods of his life; between these dates were composed many of the works by which he is best known. In 1797-8 he turned his attention to the defects of the poor laws, which were then in so lamentable a condition that they seemed likely to involve the country in ruin. Foolish, ill-advised schemes were in favour; even responsible statesmen proposed to mend matters by leavening the existing law with fresh absurdities. In a bill submitted to parliament
