



Produced by Thierry Alberto, Paul Dring, Henry Craig and
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THE ENGLISH UTILITARIANS

_By_

LESLIE STEPHEN


[Illustration]


LONDON

_DUCKWORTH and CO._

3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.

1900




PREFACE


This book is a sequel to my _History of English Thought in the
Eighteenth Century_. The title which I then ventured to use was more
comprehensive than the work itself deserved: I felt my inability to
write a continuation which should at all correspond to a similar title
for the nineteenth century. I thought, however, that by writing an
account of the compact and energetic school of English Utilitarians I
could throw some light both upon them and their contemporaries. I had
the advantage for this purpose of having been myself a disciple of the
school during its last period. Many accidents have delayed my completion
of the task; and delayed also its publication after it was written. Two
books have been published since that time, which partly cover the same
ground; and I must be content with referring my readers to them for
further information. They are _The English Radicals_, by Mr. C. B.
Roylance Kent; and _English Political Philosophy from Hobbes to Maine_,
by Professor Graham.




CONTENTS


                                     PAGE
  INTRODUCTORY                          1


  CHAPTER I

  POLITICAL CONDITIONS

    I. The British Constitution        12

   II. The Ruling Class                18

  III. Legislation and Administration  22

   IV. The Army and Navy               30

    V. The Church                      35

   VI. The Universities                43

  VII. Theory                          51


  CHAPTER II

  THE INDUSTRIAL SPIRIT

    I. The Manufacturers               57

   II. The Agriculturists              69


  CHAPTER III

  SOCIAL PROBLEMS

    I. Pauperism                       87

   II. The Police                      99

  III. Education                      108

   IV. The Slave-Trade                113

    V. The French Revolution          121

   VI. Individualism                  130


  CHAPTER IV

  PHILOSOPHY

    I. John Horne Tooke               137

   II. Dugald Stewart                 142


  CHAPTER V

  BENTHAM'S LIFE

    I. Early Life                     169

   II. First Writings                 175

  III. The Panopticon                 193

   IV. Utilitarian Propaganda         206

    V. Codification                   222


  CHAPTER VI

  BENTHAM'S DOCTRINE

    I. First Principles               235

   II. Springs of Action              249

  III. The Sanctions                  255

   IV. Criminal Law                   263

    V. English Law                    271

   VI. Radicalism                     282

  VII. Individualism                  307


  NOTE ON BENTHAM'S WRITINGS          319




INTRODUCTORY


The English Utilitarians of whom I am about to give some account were a
group of men who for three generations had a conspicuous influence upon
English thought and political action. Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and
John Stuart Mill were successively their leaders; and I shall speak of
each in turn. It may be well to premise a brief indication of the method
which I have adopted. I have devoted a much greater proportion of my
work to biography and to consideration of political and social
conditions than would be appropriate to the history of a philosophy. The
reasons for such a course are very obvious in this case, inasmuch as the
Utilitarian doctrines were worked out with a constant reference to
practical applications. I think, indeed, that such a reference is often
equally present, though not equally conspicuous, in other philosophical
schools. But in any case I wish to show how I conceive the relation of
my scheme to the scheme more generally adopted by historians of abstract
speculation.

I am primarily concerned with the history of a school or sect, not with
the history of the arguments by which it justifies itself in the court
of pure reason. I must therefore consider the creed as it was actually
embodied in the dominant beliefs of the adherents of the school, not as
it was expounded in lecture-rooms or treatises on first principles. I
deal not with philosophers meditating upon Being and not-Being, but with
men actively engaged in framing political platforms and carrying on
popular agitations. The great majority even of intelligent partisans are
either indifferent to the philosophic creed of their leaders or take it
for granted. Its postulates are more or less implied in the doctrines
which guide them in practice, but are not explicitly stated or
deliberately reasoned out. Not the less the doctrines of a sect,
political or religious, may be dependent upon theories which for the
greater number remain latent