Bentham’s objection to such attempts to bind posterity applies not only to the union that created the UK, but also the one that formed the US: Why should the current generation consider itself bound by what was decided hundreds of years earlier? Unlike the framers of the US Constitution, we have had centuries of experience to judge whether it does or does not “promote the general welfare.”
边沁对这些约束子孙后代的措施的反对不但适用于构成英国的联合，也适用于形成美国的联合：为何当代人应该认为自己要受到几百年前所做的决定的约束？与美国宪法的缔造者不同，我们拥有几百年的经验来判断它是否“促进了总体福利”。