nd [wm 1818]

Bentham’s Radical

Prelim

II. Necessity

4

2

Look at that man who sits upon that bench. Suppose him to have committed a crime in any shape, and me to charge him with it, being at the same time able to prove it. Who in that case will be punished: he for having committed it? No: but I for having charged him with it.

How so? on what ground is it that such a dispensation[?] of what is called justice can be defended? On this ground: that what in the way of supposition I have been speaking of as actual was impossible. No[?] impossible? Why, because being a Judge he is Member of Utopia of the Upper region of the State. By my supposition he has been guilty of /committed/ a crime but by the only authoritative and legitimate supposition this is impossible. In that practice it is no more possible for man to committ a crime than for God to committ one. By his doing it, that which if by an inhabitant of the lower region /Cacotopia/ would be a crime, is converted into a right /proper/ and laudable act, by the very circumstance of his doing it of its being he that did it.