Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: ‘a manufacturer making tools to work with’ 1

1 ‘Orders indispensably necessary’ 9

2 ‘This John Milton deserves hanging’ 31

3 ‘The eternal rules of justice and reason ought to be a law’ 51

4 ‘I have begun a sketch’ 77

5 ‘The average price of peace and war’ 95

6 ‘The tactics of political assemblies form the science’ 121

7 ‘This beautiful political order’ 147

Appendix A: citing Bentham’s Essay on Political Tactics 169

Appendix B: the Parliamentary Model and the Standard

Model (excerpts) 171

Index 175