15, DILLON: INFLUENCE OF BENTHAM 501 Romilly excepted, no persons in England of distinction or official influence acknowledged adhesion to Bentham's doc- trines until the early part of the present century. Among the most eminent of these was Mill, senior, the father of the still more eminent John Stuart Mill. Mill, the father, and his family were for years members of Bentham's house- hold ; and Mill was one of the ablest exponents and advocates of Bentham's doctrines. Afterwards came Bickersteth (sub- sequently Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls), who was the well-beloved disciple ; for not long before the master's death he received his benediction in these words : " Of all my " friends, Bickersteth was the most cordial to law reform " to its utmost extent." Then came Brougham and Sir James Mackintosh, and at a later period others. Romilly, Langdale, Brougham, and Mackintosh each held seats in Parliament; and their efforts for the reform of the laws, civil and criminal, and the slow, tedious, and piecemeal process by which such reforms were accomplished, are known to history, and need not be related here, even if time there mint. . . . Never was there a literary partnership so fortunate as that of Mr. Bentham and M. Dumont. The raw material which Mr. Ben- tham furnished was most precious; but it was unmarketable. He was, assuredly, at once a great logician and a great rhetorician. But the effect of his logic was injured by a vicious arrangement, and the effect of his rhetoric by a vicious style. His mind was vigorous, comprehen- sive, subtle, fertile of argument, fertile of illustrations. But he spoke in an unknown tongue; and, that the congregation might be edified, it was necessary that some brother having the gift of interpretation should expound the invaluable jargon. His oracles were of high import; but they were traced on leaves and flung loose to the wind. . . . M. Dumont was admirably qualified to supply what was wanting in Mr. Bentham. In the qualities in which the French writers surpass those of all other nations — neatness, clearness, precision, condensation — he surpassed all French writers. If M. Dumont had never been born, Mr. Bentham would still have been a very great man; but he would have been great to himself alone. The fertility of his mind would have resembled the fertility of those vast American wildernesses in which blossoms and de- cays a rich but unprofitable vegetation, ' wherewith the reaper fiUeth not his hand, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom,' . . . Many persons have attempted to interpret between this powerful mind and the public. But in our opinion M. Dumont alone has succeeded. It is re- markable that in foreign countries, where Mr. Bentham's works are known solely through the medium of the French version, his merit is almost universally acknowledged. Indeed, what was said of Bacon's philosophy may be said of Bentham's. It was in little repute among us till judgments came in its favor from beyond sea, and convinced us, to our shame, that we had been abusing and laughing at one of the greatest men of the age." Essay on Mirabeau, July, 1832.
