IV. ofN., Book IV, chap. vm: vol. II, p

125. C'est une morale d'affranchissement que Bentham enseigne lorsqu'il écrit Mss. Univ. Coll. n° 98j, sous le titre Introd. Additions Principles Adverse... : The object with the principle of utility is to work up to the highest pitch possible for every fvar. : eachi man the massof pleasure fvar.: measure of enjoymentj, consequently each pleasure in proportion to the addition it makes to that mass, of whieh lie and he only can be the judge. The object of a System of law built upon the principle of utility would consequently be the same. The object of the least irrational of the established Systems in this particular is to differ from this mass on every occasion and as rauch as possible. Prohibition and permission hâve been torn each from its bases and set down upon that of the other. Insteadof a gênerai permission, thé establishment of which requires no reason, with hère and there a prohibition taken ont of it, grounded on spécial reasons, they hâve substituted a gênerai prohibition, grounded on no reason, softened only by a single permission, granted only and in so far as déniai was impossible. Prohibition backed by enraged and sanguinary laws : permission cl and fettered as much as possible. — Mais v. d'autre part le passage caractéristique du Man. ofPol. Ee. (Bowring, vol. III, p. 34): « It would... be a gross error, and an extremely mischievous one, to refer to the défalcation thus resulting from the mass of liberty or free agency, as affordinL' a conclusive objection against the interposition of the law for this or any other purpose. Every law which does not consist in the repeal, total or partial, of a coercive law, is itself a coercive law. To reprobate as a mischief resulting from this or that law, a property which is of the very essence of ail law, is to belray a degree of blindness and ignorance one should think hardly possible on the part of a mind accustomed to the contemplation of any branch of the System of laws — a total unacquaintance with what may be called the logic of the laws. — Yet so imperfect is the state of légal knowledge, — marks of this perfectly surprising, as

(Pp. 219-224) notes. 349

it will one day be, as well as mucli to Le lamented ignorance, are to be found among tbe most experienced pens, not to mention the most loquacious tongues.

126. Bentbam, dans sa table des plaisirs, mentionne « the pleasures of skill, as exercised upon particular objects », à savoir « those which accompany the application ofsuch particular instruments of enjoyment to their uses, as cannot be so applied without a greater or less share of diBiculty or exertion », — et, dans sa table des peines, « the pain of exertion, whether bodily or mental : or the uneasy sensation which is apt to accompany any intense effort whether of mind or b »\y . (Introd., chap. V, § iv, 3; §xxi,9 : Bowring, vol. I, pp. 18-9 1. Mais il serait absurde de croire que, dans le travail considéré en général, les s plaisirs de l'adresse » puissent compenser la « peine de l'effort ».

DEMOCRATES ET UTILITAIRES

1. Essa/y XII, Of the Original Con tract (Essays, vol. I, pp. 446-7).

2. Lecky, Hist. of England in the XYIIIth œntury, vol. III, p. 338.

3. Discourses concerning Government, chap. II, sect. xvi : « As for democracy, ...I believe it can suit only with the convenience of a small town, accompanied with such circumstances as are seldom found. — Cf. Priestlcy, First Prineiples of Government, sect. II, éd. 1771, p. 15.

4. Essay XVI, Idea of a perfeet commonwealffi (Essays, ^ol. I, p. 492 .

5. Price, Observations on the nature of civil liberty, the prineiples of government, and the justice and policy of the war of America, etc. sect. II.

6. Il fait paraître, en 1774, des Proposa/s for recovering America, and saving great Britain., dédiés au roi, où déjà il demande la dissolution du parlement, et la convocation d'un parlement nouveau, différemment recruté, annuel, « the writs for that purpose directing that ail the members returnable within each county collectively shall be chosen in one gênerai county élection, by ail persons who now enjoy the privilège of voting, whether freeholders, citizens, or burghesses ».

7. Voici le titre de la seconde édition (1777), plus complet que celui de la première : le titre de la première édition est devenu un sous-titre. The Législative Rights of the Commonalty vindicated, or Take your Choice ! Représentation and Respect. — Imposition and Contempt; Annual Parliaments and Liberty — Long Parliaments and Slavery. Wlierein it is

330 NOTES. (Pp. 224-228)

cntended, upon the «inaltérable principles of Law and the Constitution, that an equal and complète représentation in Parliament, and annual élections, are, at this Day, the undoubted Rights of the Coinmonalty of this Realm ; notwithstanding the supposed validity of certain Acts of Parliament ; and wherein is also shown precisely how far (and it is to a most alarming Degreei the People an' àbsolutely enslaved already, notwithstanding they vainly imagine themselves free, 2 éd. 1777.

8. C'est grâce à cette succession d'incidents violents que la Constitution anglaise ne dégénère pas en une oligarchie étroite, en un « régime vénitien », selon l'expression que Disraeli a rendue fameuse. Mais Ben- Iham avait déjà trouvé la même expression pour caractériser le régime ( Essay on Political Tactics ; Bowring, vol. II, p. 316 : •• As to the conUnts of the debates and the names of the voters, there are numerous publications which give account of them. Thèse publications are crimes, but it is to thèse fortunate crimes that England is indebted for lier escape from an aristocratie government ressembling that of Yenice ».