man have rows of trees leading to his dwelling, the auto-icons of his family might alternate with the trees; copal varnish would protect the face from the effects of rain — caoutchouc the habiliments.'
The books and pamphlets which have been mentioned are evidence of a singularly active and laborious life. Yet they are but a small part of his published works. The edition of hls works edited by Sir John Bowring is contained in nine volumes, and yet several works are omitted from this collection. His correspondence — much of which is unpublished — would run to many volumes, and a vast amount of manuscripts, chiefly drafts of the same work, each new draft composed without reference to the last, have never seen the light. Owing to the almost insuperable difficulties in deciphering Bentham's handwriting in later years, much of it has perhaps never been read. In the library of University College are preserved very many of his manuscripts. More than eighty small wooden boxes, neatly lettered, and many portfolios are full of manuscripts closely written in his handwriting or that of his amanuenses; there are laid away thousands of pages never printed. Many of them are unfinished drafts, the substance of which appears in his published works. A partial examination leads to the belief that no small part of it as much merits publication as that given to the world. A study of the manuscripts fills one with amazement at the laborious and exhaustive nature of his investigations. One box, for instance, contains a mass of manuscripts supplementary to the 'Reform Catechism,' and, among other manuscripts, an answer, dated 19 May 1817, to 'an intimation from Brougham through Mill that in his opinion democracy had a tendency to unjust war.' Another box is filled with elaborate materials as to escheat.
The subjects treated by Bentham are very varied. He sought to compass the whole field of ethics, jurisprudence, logic, and political economy, and to deal with points of detail as well as principles. To the last science his contributions are of small account. He did little more than apply, in his strictures on the usury laws, with courage and with happy illustrations, the principles of free trade which had been expounded by Adam Smith. His speculations on banking and currency illustrate the power these subjects have to lead astray even a singularly acute mind. To logic, though the subject of his inquiry for many years, he made no very valuable contributions; his ideas on that subject, which relate chiefly to exposition and method, will be found in his nephew's work on logic, 'Outlines of a New System of Logic' [see Bentham, George]. His 'Book on Fallacies' is a clever and brilliant refutation of popular political errors.
His great work was in the field of jurisprudence and ethics, and his influence on these sciences can scarcely be overestimated. His most original and most durable works relate to law. When he wrote his 'Fragment on Government,' all legal and political literature in England was leavened with the theory of the social contract. Jurisprudence was another name for platitudes, fallacious apologies for legal fictions, and an uncritical repetition of the commonplaces of Roman lawyers about the Jus Gentium. To take an illustration from the literature on the subject of the law of succession, it was customary to justify the English law by reference to vague analogies about the tendency of heavy bodies to fall; Bentham constructed the principles of a rational law on considerations of what human affection and the good of society demanded (Principles of the Civil Code, part ii. c. 3). The germs of all that Bentham subsequently did in this field lie in the 'Fragment.' He never ceased to follow out the train of thought there begun, to hunt down fictions, to carry on a war against vague phraseology, to apply to all institutions — to law, education, and morals — the test of utility. As a law reformer he was singularly successful. ' He found,' it has been said, 'the philosophy of law a chaos, he left it a science' (Mlll's Dissertations), And his services did not consist merely in introducing into jurisprudence methods which have yielded remarkable results in physical science. To him are due large practical reforms. The amendments made since his time in the administration of justice are, to a surprising extent, applications of the principles expounded in his 'Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.' In truth every law book, every statute, the course of every action bear testimony to his influence. With reference to Bentham's legal writings, Sir James Stephen says that they 'have had a degree of practical influence upon the legislation of his own and various other countries comparable only to those of Adam Smith and his successors upon commerce' (History of the Criminal Law of England, ii. 216). In an introduction to his works written in 1837, John Hill Burton gives a long list of reforms first advanced by Bentham and adopted by the legislature. Some of his favourite proposals, such as vote by ballot, have been approved by parliament since that year; and others, such as the establishment of a proper system of public prosecutors and
