improvement in the mode of criminal punish- ment. His views on this subject were more fully expressed in a work written about this time, but not published in English till 1825, the Rationale of Punishment and Rewards. Bentham did more than any other writer of his time to rationalize the theory of punishments by consideration of their various kinds and effects, their true ob- jects, and the conditions of their efficacy. He published in 1789 Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation; in 1791, The Panopti- con, or the Inspection House; Manual of Politi- cal Economy was written in 1793; Poor Laws and Pauper Management was published in 1797; Introductory Views of the Rationale of Evidence was printed in part in 1812. The Rationale of Judicial Evidence (edited by J. S. Mill, London, 1827) was another and a fuller presentation of the same subject. Many works of various dates bear upon the subject of codification of the laws. His Constitutional Code, one of his most impor- tant works, was published in full in 1841, under the editorial supervision of R. Doane. The sub- ject of logic also interested Bentham, and he wrote a treatise on it. Deontoloyy, or the Sci- ence of Morality, was edited and published by Bowring in 1834. His works were collected and edited by Bowring, and published with life and correspondence in 11 volumes ( Edinburgh, 1843). A great mass of unpublished manuscript from Bentham's pen is to be found in the library of University College, London. Much of what came to light in Bentham's lifetime was edited by his friends, and some of it ap- peared first in French under the supervision of Bumont. Bentham had a habit of writing on various subjects at the same time; the result was an aggregation of manuscripts that required sifting, and he was fortunate in finding men of ability like Dumont to undertake this work. In his early works Bentham's style was clear, free, spirited, and often eloquent; but in his later works it became difficult, through being over- loaded and darkened with technical terms. In regard to these latter works more especially M. Dumont has most materially served his master by arranging and translating them into French, through the medium of which language Ben- tham's doctrines were propagated throughout Europe, till they became more popular abroad than at home. James Mill, himself an inde- pendent thinker, did much in his writings to extend the application in new directions of Ben- tham's principles, a work in which, apart from his original efforts, he has achieved a lasting monument of his own subtlety and vigor of mind. But the most valuable contribution in English to Bentham's reputation is perhaps Benthami- ana, by John Hill Burton (Edinburgh, 1843), containing a memoir, selections of the leading and important passages from his various writ- ings, and an appendix embracing an essay on his system and a brief, clear view of all his leading doctrines.
In all Bentham's ethical and political writings the doctrine of utility is the leading and per- vading principle, and his favorite vehicle for its expression in the phrase "the greatest happiness of the greatest number," which Bentham at- tributed to Priestley (q.v.), but which really dates back to Hutcheson's (q.v.) Enquiry Con- cerning the Original of Our Ideas of Virtues or Moral Good, which appeared in 1725. "In this ]ihrase," Bentham says, "I saw delineated for the first time a plain as well as a true standard for whatever is right or wrong, useful, useless, or mischievous in human conduct, whether in the field of morals or of politics." It need scarcely be remarked that the phrase affords no guidance as to how the benevolent end is to be attained, and is no more than a quasi-con- crete expression of the objects of true benevo- lence. In considering how to compass these ob- jects, Bentham arrived at various conclusions, which he advocated irrespective of the conditions of society in his day. He demanded nothing less than the immediate remodeling of the gov- ernment, and the codification and reconstruction of the laws; and insisted, among other changes, on those which came at a later day to be popu- larly demanded as the points of the 'charter' — viz., universal suffrage, annual parliaments, vote by ballot, and paid representatives. However im- possible some of these schemes then were, it can- not be denied that Bentham did more to rouse the spirit of modern reform and improvement in laws and politics than any other writer of his- day. Many of his ideals have been and many more are in the course of being slowly realized. The end and object of them all was the general welfare, and his chief error — apart from his over- estimate of the value of some changes which he proposed — lay in conceiving that organic changes are possible through any other process than that of growth and modification of the popular wants and sentiments. It was this error that led the philosopher, in his closet in London, to devise codes of laws for Russia (through which coun- try he made a tour in 1785), America, and India, the adoption of which would have been equiv- alent to revolutions in those countries, and then bitterly to bewail the folly of mankind when his schemes were rejected. In ethics, as in politics, he pressed his doctrines to extremes. See Utilitarianism; Hedonism.
By the death of his father in 1792 Bentham succeeded to property in London and to farms in Essex, yielding from £500 to £600 a year. By a life of temperance and industry, with great self-complacency, in the society of a few devoted friends, Bentham attained to the age of 84. Consult: C. B. R. Kent, The English Radicals (London, 1899); W. Graham, English Political Philosophy, from Hobbes to Maine (London, 1899); J. S. Mill, "Bentham," in London and Westminster Review (August, 1838); L. Stephen, English Utilitarians (London and New York, 1900); Albee, History of English Utilitarianism (London, 1902).
BEN'THOS (Gk. (Sevtos, benthos, the depth of
the sea ) . In botany, the fixed vegetation of the sea
or of great lakes, in contrast with the floating
vegetation or plankton (q.v.). Benthonic plants
are in large part attached to rocks, in which
case they are called lithophytes. The lithophytic
members of the benthos are chiefly algæ, and it
is here that the wonderful display of marine
plants of our ocean coasts is found. The benthos
may be subdivided into the regions above and
below the low-tide line. Above this line the
vegetation is relatively sparse, and is composed
of plants which are able to endure strong expo-
sure during the period of low tide. Along the
North Atlantic coast, the rockweed (Fucus) is
one of the most characteristic plants of this zone.
