Conclusion

William Blackstone preceded Bentham by arguing that professional skills - here those of the lawyer and judge - must be grounded in the ‘cardinal virtues of the heart’.

But that a science, which distinguishes the criterions of right and wrong; which teaches to establish the one, and prevent, punish, or redress the

‘The tactics of political assemblies’ 141 other; which employs in it’s theory the noblest faculties of the soul, and exerts in it’s practice the cardinal virtues of the heart; a science, which is universal in it’s use and extent, accommodated to each individual, yet comprehending the whole community; that a science like this should have ever been deemed unnecessary to be studied in an university, is matter of astonishment and concern.⁹⁶

Bentham was fully vested in the spirit Blackstonian when he turned ‘the cardinal virtues of the heart’ inward and required parliamentary assemblies to measure what they were accomplishing for the benefit of political soci­ety.

The public compose a tribunal, which is more powerful than all the other tribunals together. An individual may pretend to disregard its decrees - to represent them as formed of fluctuating and opposite opinions, which destroy one another; but every one feels, that though this tribunal may err, it is incorruptible; that it continually tends to become enlightened; that it unites all the wisdom and all the justice of the nation; that it always decides the destiny of public men; and that the punishments which it pronounces are inevitable. Those who complain of its judgments, only appeal to itself; and the man of virtue, in resisting the opinion of to-day - in rising above general clamour, counts and weighs in secret the suffrages of those who resemble himself.⁹⁸

Bentham’s ‘man of virtue’ was reliant on Burke’s ‘power of the people [which must be] sufficient to protect every representative in the animated performance of his duty, or that duty cannot be performed’.⁹⁹ Bentham’s leg­islator ‘of virtue’ who ‘weighs in secret the suffrages of those who resemble himself’ also ‘discovers a reason for hope of future success’.¹⁰⁰

Bentham’s virtual member acquired enough energy in the arena to fuel his eagerness to return another day.

Whenever we find humanity in Bentham’s reasonings, his voice appeals to modern taste. ‘The ordinary affairs of life call us all to propose, to deliber­ate, to decide’. Bentham thereby made the connection from the willingness of legislators to engage each other in a ‘good discussion’ to the ambition of the body to model ‘better rules’.¹⁰²

Notes

1 Bentham, Essay, 301.

2 Ibid. Bentham uses ‘decree’ 15 times in the Essay for laws enacted by an assem­bly. More to modern taste he employs ‘projects’ for ‘bills’ 24 times.

3 The topic receives more discussion in the Appendix: Citing Bentham’s Essay on Political Tactics.

4 OED at 221.

5 Word count by author.

6 Bentham, Essay, 301.

7 Ibid, 352.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid., 332, 334.

10 Ibid., 302.

11 Ibid., 301.

12 Ibid., 302.

13 avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/fed.asp; last retrieved 30 January 2017.

14 See text at 156.

15 Bentham, Essay, 334.

16 Romilly, Reglemens. Author’s word count. Bentham acknowledged Romilly’s Reglemens, prefaced by Mirabeau: ‘His valuable paper was sent over in manu­script: a translation of it was not only made, but soon after published, by the procurement of the celebrated Frenchman above spoken of, whose name stands in the title-page’.

17 conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/la-constitution/les- constitutions-de-la-france; last retrieved 29 November 2016.

18 Through the end of this Chapter I adopt Bentham's practice and refer to all inventories of prescriptions as ‘codes’ even if, at 21, 22 and also at 151 in this study, I distinguish the shorter essays in this genre as mini-codes.

19 Bentham, Essay, 330 n. 1.

20 Documentary History 1:11-15. April 7, 1789. Word count by author.

21 Bentham, Essay, 332.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid., 305.

24 Ibid., 352.

25 Ibid., 354.

26 Ibid., 302.

27 Ibid., 303.

28 Ibid.

29 Bentham, Essay, 338.

30 Ibid., 332.

31 Ibid., 324.

32 Ibid., 343.

33 Bentham, [Preface to Essay], 1.

34 Bentham, Essay, 303.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibtd.

37 Ibtd., 365.

38 Ibtd., 303.

39 Ibtd.

40 Ibid., 345. Word count by author.

41 Word count by author.

42 Bentham, Essay, 345.

43 Ibtd., 330 n. 1.

44 Ibtd., 327.

45 Ibtd., 317-318.

46 Ibtd., 318.

47 Redlich, Procedure, 3:183.

48 Bentham, Essay, 318.

49 Ibtd., 313.

50 Ibtd., 302.

51 Ibtd.

52 Ibtd., 343.

53 Ibtd., 333.

54 Mason, Manual, 60; Sec. 50.

55 Bentham, Essay, 349.

56 Ibtd., 310.

57 Ibtd., 314.

58 Ibtd., 311.

59 Ibtd., 301.

60 Guidi, Devtl, 327-28.

61 Ibtd., 328.

62 Bentham, Essay, 303.

63 Hume, Treattse, 469; Book 1, Part 1, Section 1; Kant, Krttik, 569; A603, B631.

64 Hume, Treattse, 469, 463.

65 Blackstone, Commentartes (12th ed.), 1:126 n. 3. The passage quoted appears in his long running footnote at 127. The pagination here is that of Christian’s printer. For further discussion see text at 153.

66 Ibtd., 365.

67 Ibtd., 351.

68 Ibtd.

69 Smith, Wealth, 719.

70 Figures from word count by author.

71 Vitruvius, De Archttectura, 1:5.

72 Bentham, Essay, 308.

73 Ibtd., 309.

74 Ibtd.

75 Jefferson, Manual, 411.

76 Redlich, Procedure.

77 Ilbert, Methods.

78 Redlich, Procedure, 3:183.

79 Ibtd., 3:177.

80 Ibtd., 3:183.

81 Ibtd., 3:183-184.

82 Ibtd., 3:184.

83 Ibtd., 3:184-188.

84 Ibtd., 3:187.

85 Ibtd.

86 Ibtd.

87 Ibid.

88 Ibid., 3:188.

89 Ibid., 3:92.

90 Ibid.

91 Bentham, Essay, 319.

92 Ibid., 365.

93 Ibid., 314.

94 Redlich, Procedure, 3:40.

95 Ibid., 40; the Historical Note appears at 37-41.

96 Blackstone, Commentaries, 27.

97 See text at 70-71.

98 Bentham, Essay, 310.

99 Burke, Works, 1:435 at 502; Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770).

100 Bentham, Essay, 314.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid., 352, 365.