[152b-414]

Poor Bill Preface

/About 19 years ago/ In the year 1778 a draught of a Bill, which after receiving some alterations /undergoing some modifications/, was introduced into Parliament in the course of the /[...?]/ next year, and having passed into an Act has since been known by some such names as the Penitentiary Act, or General Parliamentary Act, falling into any hands, I was led to give it a pretty attentive examination, the result of which was the publication /printing/ of a tract under the title, of A View of the Hard Labour, /bearing date &/ published by Payne in that same year 1778.

The communication of a copy of it to Sir William Blackstone who was regarded as one of the principal promoters of the Bill in question produced from that worthy Judge and distinguished writer, to whom I had never the honour of being personally known, a note of the following tenor which as a relick of an eminent man /character/ and a document /rendered carrying an extract along with it/ interesting on more accounts than one, I still preserve.

Mr Justice Blackstone presents his Compliments to Mr Bentham, with many thanks for his ingenious View of the Hard Labour Bill:- Some of the Observations in which had already occurred (he believes) to the Patrons of the intended Bill, and many more will deserve their attention.

30 Prefat.

Metaphysics unpopular

Poor metaphysics is sure always to be wounded by the hands, and through

the sides of all the disputants: and whatever other

lesson they teach they are to teach one another and the

world this constant lesson, to keep clear

of metaphysics. The truth is this antipathy against

metaphysics is by no means without

cause. Metaphysics, in at one time occasion or another as the enemy of the stubborn enemy of all of them.

Rhetoric cultivated.The talents of a rhetorical declamatory kind flourish among us in the most exquisite perfection. Of such foolishness

the present reign has

given both an abundant harvest either by its merits or by its real or supposed miscarriages. He If there be any one who having read Junius, Observations on the state of the Nation,

Thoughts on the causes of the present discontents, M r Burke's speeches in 07

and in 177 - Falkland Island - the Patriot The False Alarm Taxation no Tyranny, and the Answer to it 1775.

and Three Letters to D r Price, can [think it necessary to have recourse to Cicero or to Demosthenes for models of declaratory rhetorical argumentation, I pity him

for his prejudice.

NOTE

To the last mentioned of these writers let me

pray the justice that is due to him, in acknowledge the justice that he has done to the cause of metaphysics. A one of the great charge he brings

against his antagonist

is that he has not given

what the nature of the subject and his own professions required him to give metaphysical distinctions, but a very bad exchange metaphorical phrases in their stead.

31 Prefat.

Metaphysics excellence of

Metaphysics will be the empress of the sciences, so long as it is

of importance to man to be understood. I assert it without fear, Metaphysics &c.

Optimates ingrossed by party.

Lord . . . writes not but for party, &Lord never at all. M. does not work.

To teach the difference between slavery and that equally unconditional submission which is the necessary foundation of all Government, is the province of metaphysics.

Methinks it were worth trying if it were only as a new experiment whether the nation might not be served [by its most capable members] in a great and lasting way without reference to party considerations.

Lawyers interested contra.It is but too true — the interest of the state in this behalf is diametrically opposite to the interest of the profession. It never can be a secret. I certainly would not tell it them if I thought there was any chance of their not perceiving it.

If a secret I could keep it it is one of the last secrets I would reveal [Not that the loss to Lawyers will lose so much by the change as other men will gain.] Not that the loss to Lawyers by the [change] will be by any means as great, as the gain will be to other men. If it were, a friend to the community in general composed as it is Lawyers and Laymen [both together]

would be altogether without a motive for contributing to it. Lawyers are but a few: other men are many. The interest of Lawyers is the interest of only the present ones. The interest of other men is the interest of all

men for all ages. There is no Lawyer

who by any cause profits so much as those suffer who are made to pay him. There is no

6 C Prefat.

Definitions difficult To give exact definitions of crimes & other objects

of Law is much more difficult than to lay down

any of those rules which suppose the boundaries [nature]

& description of each object to be already ascertained

& known. Instance Common False.

No test for merit Standard of merit much less fixed in this sort

of work than in any other. In a Poem

or other work the end of which is to please if

the end be attained it is attained at once — It's

being attained is manifest beyond dispute — to

a History in as far as it pleases & with respect to accuracy

the original materials are manifest &

standing tests. In a Book of Natural Philosophy

the merit of it is triable by immediate

experiment

But in this there are no principles so fixed

as to ensure it approbation. After all that can be done

by reason a great deal must be left to sentiment and caprice

Longitude encouraged, why All the Sovereigns of Europe ought to make

it their business, as they have done the Longitude.

The Longitude belongs to another time. It is not

within the competency of Statesmen. Chesterfield: contempt

of Astronomers.

I have never let a general proposition pass without

examining the propriety of it with respect to every particular

contained under it. Thus &c.

Short Sentences Crit. Review for Aug. 1778. p.160. In so work I have met with a passage on this subject which recurs to be full judgement & good sense.

"In books of this kind" [for children]" the second article [shortness

of the sentences] is a circumstance of great importance.

Children should be taught to pronounce their sentences with smartness and spirit.

And this is practicable in sentences of 3 or 4 words, or

at most 5 or 6. A long sentence, extending through several lines,

is not to be composed by their feeble organs: for instead of supporting

their voice with smartness and energy, they are perplexed

by a multitude of words, & naturally sink into a whining

drawling monotony.

C 13 Prefat

They gave £...30,000 for this work why? because

it was the sort of work none of them liked themselves. No

man apprehended that anyone by executing such a

work will ever so much merit & success would be called

above himself.

The Emperor Claudius conferred on a man

[his freedman Pallas] the Praetorian dignity contres

quinquagies sesterlium for the invention of a single Law.

Tac. Num. XII, 53 & Plur. Nat. Hist. XXXV less penult

& Plur. VIII, 5 in , Antig. Vol. I. p.213

Lit Tut. 16 // 8.

The reward in the present case liberal & simple

for a private man to give. As a reward it never could

have served to engage any one in the design who

could be at all qualified to execute it. The case that it

is of is the ensuring him the attention of a certain set

of intelligent readers judges; & the celebrity of it may require if

recommended by their suffrage.

Prizes have not produced good poems: but a good poem is not the work of study alone. The King gives plates for the surefast Horse:

and by this means the kingdom is stocked with an excellent

breed of horses. No King has ever thought of

giving a Plate to be started for by Lawmakers.

Yet neither is the composition of a good code a work

of much less importance nor of less difficulty than this

trading of a good horse, nor are jurists & political speculators men of letters and education

less sensible to rewards & honours distinctions than horse jockies & -breeders.

When one thinks of an institution a manor that may be done with a word one imagines at the same time would be useful, one is apt to presume that the Empress of Rape a maid have embraced it. - & where upon enquiry in hand, that the law not embraced, one begins to doubt whether it could have been useful / I except these that could require more I

Wonder - that the Congress of Austria whose wisdom prudence

& activity extend to every thing whose Administration is

one scene of well-empoy'd munificence, should

not yet have embraced this measure. Long ago however He has taken a

step towards it: a step much beyond any that has ever

been taken by any other sovereign: a step that in some

countries might of itself have been sufficient to [ a produce

the effect desired] effective to the purpose.

C Prefat.

Roman Law not adopted here as elsewhere I have neither expressly nor tacitly [have I] engrafted incorporated referred to the Roman Law render'd any thing that is inserted here dependent on or to any established System of Law whatsoever.

It would be tacitly referring to a system to make use of words for the explanation of which that system must be recurred to. This would introduce the whole tribe of Glosses and Commentators.

Sole and self-sufficient rate of action compleat within itself The Justinian Code still refers to the Roman Law in several places under the name of the Common Law. + L.3.Tit.32.Art.42 It's latinical terms are many of them taken from the Roman Law, and not being explained in the Code, can only be understood by referring to the Rom. Law.

All common law should be cleared away. Whatever part [of the subject] be permitted to rest upon the basis [footing] of common Law there is as much reason for digesting that as any other.

Unless you draw a circle around the whole (field) extent of Jurisprudence you do nothing. While any the least part is left without the circle [the idea of immensity is still preserved.] the imagination is still distracted and confounded overwhelmed with the idea of immensity. Hide the ends of a pond fish you fancy it a river.

in seipso totus teres atque rotundus. No holes & corners, no unexplained recesses - no holes & corners for obscurity to bask inWhat then is to be done with the body of statutes now subsisting? what is to be done with the Roman Law? burn them. +into the fire with them at once committ them to the flames This is the unanimous advice of the soundest philosophers and politicians: of the Voltaire's the Helvetius's the Beccaria, the Pilates - burn them & think no more of them. Never suffer them to be quoted. Suffer nobody to read lectures on them. Spare your youth the loss of so much time. The Law of Nature, the principles of political

C 27

Prefat

political oeconomy, the principles of eloquence, might well supply the place of what would then be a most useless study. When the marrow is extracted, what use is there for the bone? If any man has a mind to read a summary of that Law in his closet, as a help to the understanding of Roman & modern history, it is well: there is nothing nobody to hinder him. But let men no longer be pensioned for reading teaching what it is of no use to know: learn let them [cease from] quit their work & let them content themselves with their pay. In proportion as their income was derived from the contributions of their auditors, let them be indemnified.

Reforming in France. In France a patriot Lawyer even in office is not an unexampled character: has it's Servant, Orleans has it's Le Frosne. In France, a man who is council for the King thinks it imagines it a point of duty to look to the welfare of the King's subjects. Those reputable Lawyers have stood forth boldly and said in the face of the public, the supreme authority your criminal Laws are bad, burn them and make others: new ones and supreme authority, the sovereign far from wishing to repress this boldness patriot zeal has adopted and applauded it. Let us hope that such exemplary dispositions will not rest stop in [wishes]: confine themselves It was but in 1777 that they were manifested: and legislation is a work of time.

32

C Prefat.

Provisions should be comprehensive In the English law there are numberless instances to be found of provisions which are very excellent where they stand in themselves, but and which could be equally so were they applied to a multitude of other subjects, instead of being confined to that which first suggested

them. In a Digest these imperfections would many of them find a remedy of course. At present

a system of indigested Laws is like a country where there are no roads: a great number

of an expedient which is found of practised with great success in one part of the country is unknown in another, merely for want of communication. This must be the case particularly whenever the law is undigested.

Sardinian Code un-ample. The Sardinian Code is not compleat with regard to Personal Injuries: it contains no provisions with regard to such injuries when done in the course of a quarrel.

Digest-Lawyers interested contra The forming of a Digest of the Law is to Lawyers what the making a translation of the Bible was to Church men

By opposing a digest on the ground of impracticability they save their credit in point of public spirit, and give themselves credit in point of sagacity and discernment

Laymen no right to interpret For a Proof of the notion that none but a Lawyer has any right to form a definitive positive opinion concerning the import of the Law, see the Remonstrance of the 10 Admiralty against the trial of Ad. Heppel Land. Chron Jan. 5, 1779

"Whether the Board of Admiralty hath by Law any such discretion, we who are not of the profession of the Law, cannot positively assent

C Prefat.

England has long been regarded (with envy) by the nations and not altogether without justice, as a pattern for good laws + the blessings that attend them of prosperity and good laws. Is it so? if it be, it is by what the people have intorted, not by what their rulers have conferred. It is by the constitutional branch, not by any other:

In.17. a respectable magistrate went so far as to propose that for the conveniencing of the subject, the Laws relative to the same head maybe here and there withstood changing the substance it then be put into one. He was as much attended to as if he had given in a for

His book has been read but it is because it has so many other merits

Even the has ventured to insinuate that if the subject lied a possibility of being apprised of there decisions by which he is to govern himself at the peril of his life and fortune it might not be amiss. But to those to whom it belongs to provide him with such information it has all along seemed other.

The reformation [of the Laws] is not a work This not a reforming age. for the people in this age. The man who shall execute this great work, the man who shall unite zeal of a Sully, the disinterestedness of a [ ] Vane, the probity of a Clarendon with the favour of a Buckingham, the legal knowledge of a , the eloquence and popularity of a Pit, the philosophy of a Bacon is yet to come.

England the fittest for giving birth to a good Code Digest the least likely to adopt its

Notwithstanding all this, if we may believe the compiler of an Institute of Scotch Law, "Self- murder is in it's own nature as highly criminal, as the putting our neighbour to death."

and it is from hence that he justifies his Law, in that like our's, unable to vent wreak its rage upon the it makes itself amend upon his relations.

For the sake of such an observation, it seems hardly worth a man's while, to deviate from the character of Reporter to that of Judge: but there is a sort of Knight-errantry that seems to be contagions in the Professors of the Law; no sooner do they spy out an absurdity, than they conceive it to be their duty to defend it.

For a defence of suicide vide a letter signed Zeno in the Morn. Chronicle Sept r 10. 1776 - Ledger Sept r 26 1776 — an answer to it too.

Legislators are governed by revenge like individuals. The weakness is inveterate. It will be a long time yet ere it is cured An individual punishes according as he is angry the same + A man is is angry He is always said to be angry on such an occasion, and is satisfied it is right — that it was the man himself who killed himself no matter — man is killed. The Legislators angry. If he could be brought to life again he'd kill him again to make himself amends

This cannot be — the mans life is gone — What has he left? There is his body — There is his estate — His Wife, his family, his friends — Tis a poor shift however, the business is to make the most of it had collated, beggar his wife and family distress his friends.

Achilles dragged Hector naked round the walls of Troy — Achilles was very angry — It was in nature — The man was dead+ The estate was out of the way — The Wife & Children not to be come at — What was there left for revenge to wreak itself upon? This body thought the Barbarian Hero — So thinks the Legislator.

+ The estate, Wife the Family, the estate were distant objects.

SUICIDE [BR][7]

A Juryman's path grows every day less respectable and the benefit proposed by this severity is in no degree attained.

If Custom be the applauded foundation of our Law, Custom is against it. — Custom not punishment — Customs gives impunity.

It is not the entertaining this or that opinion concerning the moral rectitude of this act that moves me; it is the Law's subjecting 12 men to this distressful alternative, ruin the , or violate your duty.

Things go on upon this footing tho' not well yet whereby — When A man is angry, in general it is not+ he feels supposes mischief done to him.

A Legislator in general will not be angry unless he supposes mischief aimed or done But the fact of the provocation may be mistaken He may be led away by appearances

+ without provocation - It is because

22 P t III.

C

Frauds relative to the Coin .

5.

Persons privy compellable to inform &c. Also all persons who appear likely to know any thing

concerning such instruments filings clippings or washings

as above mentioned may be compelled to make themselves

known and if necessary compelled forthwith to appear in

evidence before the constable or the Judge. See the Law concerning

the appearance of persons on Evidence.

6.

When any instruments of Coining have been seized and taken

to the judge he shall cause them to be forthwith destroyed

as soon as they can no longer be wanted to be produced in evidence.

Concerning the arresting of persons suspected of offences

against the Coin, See Tit. [Arrests]

II. Provisions for increasing the Difficulty of Imitation. (a)

1. Let a reward be offered for the invention of that sort of Coin

which it would be most difficult to imitate

In this view it may be of use to consider

1. Multiplying Strokes. That the greater number of strokes there are upon a piece of Coin

(a) Note.

Any man who has power may hang Coiners. There is more honour as well as

more humanity in foiling them at their own weapons. + + See Lord Mahon's Observations on the Coin 4 to. 1775. London .

Place and Time

Note employed

I copy this suggestion without acceding subscribing to it. Which

the animosity of party party spleen ascribes

candour suggests another interpretation as more [natural

and more] probable, though somewhat more

excuseable. Indolence in more fully occupied The love of ease,

of the fear of prosecution

and diffidence in more exposed to so many just and so many unjust attacks

are motives more natural than a deliberate desin of

sacrificing the happiness of a nation to the interests of a

profession. The exquisite talents of the official

penner of the statute +

+ En. who Att. "Go in 1776"

were not wasted [upon] in the composition of this important statute.

They were wanted for the more important employment to by

which the best clerical talents of this country are

naturally

Cooks 2 d Voyage

Resolution 112

Whereof gentlemen officers 21

Discovery 80

Whereof officers 16

Weighed from 25

1776

Inclined Sh }1780

Men} Aug.

}22

Years Months Days

4 2 22

Resitution list 5

Whereof into}

pecunious state} 3

at sailing}

Discovery - Home

Corkscrew Staircases

- Steps

2 foot wide

turning round

a Pillar

Pillar hollow

may serve for a

Water-pipe -to

communicate

with the Wheels

To gain the

wheels, a branch

which may be

flanking must

cross the Sunken

Drain - the

main preserving

the perpendicular

direction - & being

for lightness &

cheapness hollow

except a thickness

of about

6 or 8 inches

to support the

incumbent

column of water

But if the

Water-pipes are

to be in that the Dead

part, how are

the Wheels to be

subjected to Inspection?

Or else Ladder

Staircases - hiding

only part of a

Cell - that is diminishing

polant

the width

of the Cells in

that part

As the 6 th Story

of the Cells must

have its Staircase

what is to become

of the infirmary

in those two

of Cells?

The Garret Story

must answer the

purpose - You

may lower the

floor of it 2 1/2

foot. This will

make it more

commodious &

bring it within

sufficient inspection

of the Inspection

Gallery.

Half-Cells

As some of

the Cells are

to have but two

Prisoners, make

some but half

the size of the

others

Balcony before

Inspect. Gallery

2 foot wide only-

-the doors opening

inwards.

3} 354

118

A number not

much less than

118 might be

contained in

1/2 cells 2 to a

cell

Surrounding

Wall triangular

especially if not

Airing apart from

the marching

Parade is wanted

- or in a Town -

where Ground is

scarce -

The apex at

the Approach.

2 d Panopticon

N o of Cells in a}

story the same} 144

as if there were}

no Dead Part}

Average N o in}3

a Cell}

N o in 6 Houses 432

Add 2 stories}

viz: 1/2 more}144

Total 576

N o in 1 st}

Panopticon} 354

at 3 to a}

cell —

930.

Make the Dead

Part (which need

not go all the way

up) and the

Staircases by

cribbing 1/2 the

width from so

many Cells - Allot

these 1/2 Cells

to receive 2 prisoners each

Take 9 stories

out of the height

of 6 - and put

3 stories of Cells

to one of Lodge.+

That is give

back 7 foot of height

of Ceiling in the char

instead of 8.

+ No - 3 stories

will not do very well

- See the figure

Enlarge the Well

at the expence of the

Ledge - This will

give more light &

Air & facilitate

Inspection

To make the

mos of a single

radialYard, put a school

on each side the

wrist, with one or

two betwixt the

2 & 3 fingers

Conversation

-tubes, not fixed ones, one to

every cell, but moveable

ones, one to

each Inspection Gallery -

Might not the

Pole, by means of

a small perforation

answer the purpose?

Pole by a male

screw at the end to

open the lock by a

corresponding female

screw, or vice versa.

Asending

Machine

Two Elbow-chairs

like buckets into which

with a rope desending

from each

So if one only

the bullnose weight

hanging above.

Walls Materials

for Forts

Brick or Stone

wall glazed by

fire - like the Old

Scotch as described

by Anderson -

Quere by a Solar

lens or Speculory?

Cast-iron of

2-ton cast iron

bricks - as for

Fordyce

Walls of ron

compounded of

rough stone &

iron , cast

on the spot.

or rather a quadrangular

prismatent tube embracing

a prismaheal

Dict 1/2 sheet

omitted

Sounding-Tubes.

1.Between Lodge

& Governor's ordinary

sitting-room

or any others of his

rooms - A cover within plug,

to stop the sound

ad libitum: to lock

up and be to keep

the key of it, thus his

servants &c may not

use it without his

consent & knowledge

So between the

Organ loft, & his

Dining room & Drawing

rooms.

So between his

Music-Drawing -

Room & Dinner

Room.

One of his drawing

rooms a music-room

with an organ masked

or unmasked

Potatoes

Price in Ireland

from 20 d a 100 lb

to 4 d - 2 d the common

price.

A bushel weighs

about 1/2 a 100 lb

349

CRIT. JUR. CRIM. Account of the working Convicts (1

1. Hours of work

2. Kind of Work.

3 Method of Coercion

4. Cloathing

5. Diet.

6. Lodging by Night

7. Time - how filled up

on ordinary days

8 — on Sundays.

9. Firing?

10 Assistance Medical?

11 — Spiritual?

12 Fund for cloathing &c.

13. Occasional Regulations

by whom made: 1778 Jan:

Number

About 300 Convicts on board the two Ships - room

for 50 more. Many boys some of them under 12.

Work

About 150 employed on shore in making a Wharf

a terrace for the Cannon & a proof hut all to be surrounded

with a wide wet ditch.

they are enclosed on one

side by the ditch on the

other by chevaux de

no body allowed to enter without

an order.

The ditch as far as it

is planted with live willow - stakes a tall and a short one

alternately. Part of the terrace is preparing to receive cabbages for the use of the

convicts.

The rest employed in raising ballast or in the hospital

In winter dine late - & do not quit the ship afterwards —

always go on board for meals.

How secured

A heavy chain round each ancle fixed to another

Which is fastened round the middle — some instead of

this last have only a rope, and the sick have a

chain only on one leg — some of them none at all

They were formerly chained two & two & chained to their

beds at night — now neither of these done.

The chains at first very light & made heavier in

consequence of escapes — the escapes contrived connived at on purpose

that the necessity of heavy chains might be

apparent & the clamour against them lessened — The