第22章 Reform Movements(10)

I must now deal more in detail with the Utilitarian theories.I will only observe in general terms that their triumph was not likely to be accepted without a struggle.Large classes regarded them with absolute abhorrence.Their success,if they did succeed,would mean the destruction of religious belief,of sound philosophy,of the great important ecclesiastical and political institutions,and probably general confiscation of property and the ruin of the foundations of society.

And,meanwhile,in spite of the progress upon which I have dwelt,there were two problems,at least,of enormous importance,upon which it could scarcely be said that any progress had been made.The church,in the first place,was still where it had been.No change had been made in its constitution;it was still the typical example of corrupt patronage;and the object of the hatred of all thoroughgoing Radicals.And,in the second place,pauperism had grown to appalling dimensions during the war;and no effectual attempt had been made to deal with it.Behind pauperism there were great social questions,the discontent and misery of great masses of the labouring population.

Whatever reforms might be made in other parts of the natural order,here were difficulties enough to task the wisdom of legislators and speculators upon legislative principles.

NOTES:

1.Life of Macaulay ,p.114(Popular Edition)

2.Canning's Political Correspondence ,i.71-76.

3.12th December 1826.

4.Bentham's Works ,v.p.370.

5.Romilly's attempts to improve the criminal law began in 1808.For various notices of his efforts,see his Life (3vols.1860:especially vol.ii.243-54,309,321,331,369,371,389-91.Romilly was deeply interested in Dumont's Théorie des Peines Légales (1811),which he read in MS.and tried to get reviewed in the Quarterly (ii.258,391;iii.136).The remarks (ii.2-3)on the 'stupid dread of innovation'and the savage spirit infused into Englishmen by the horrors of the French revolution and worth notice in this connection.

6.Bentham's Works ,x,p.574.

7.Brougham's Speeches (1838),ii.287-486.

8.An interesting summary of the progress of law reforms and of Bentham's share in them is given in Sir R.K.Wilson's History of Modern English Law (1875).

9.Bentham's Works ,x,571.

10.In Cambridge Pryme was the first professor in 1828,but had only the title without endowment.

The professorship as only salaried in 1863.

11.Ricardo's Works (1888),p.407.

12.Printed in Porter's Progress of the Nation and elsewhere.

13.See sixth volume of History of Prices by Tooke and Newmarch,and privately printed Minutes of Political Economy Club (1882).

14.Speeches ,3vols.8vo,1831.

15.Ibid.ii,465-530.

16.Ibid.ii,477.

17.Bentham's Works ,ii,459.We may remember how J.S.Mill in his boyhood was abashed because he could not explain to his father the force of the distinction.

18.Speeches ,ii,246,332.

19.Ibid.i,102-108(Currency-Pamphlet of 1810).

20.Ibid.ii,397.

21.Speeches ,iii,257.

22.Ricardo indeed made a reservation as to the necessity of counterbalancing by a moderate duty the special burthens upon agriculture.

23.In the History of Trades-Unionism by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1894),pp.88-98.The history of Place's agitation is fully given in Mr Graham Wallas's Life ,chap.viii.

24.Wallas's Francis Place ,p.217.

25.First published in 1807-8.

26.Letter iii.

27.Ibid.vi.

28.Sydney Smith put very ingeniously the advantages of what he called the 'lottery'system:of giving,that is,a few great prizes,instead of equalising the incomes of the clergy.

Things look so different from opposite points of views.

29.Church of Englandism ,ii,199.

30.See especially his review of Southey's Book of the Church .

31.Romilly's Memoirs ,iii,33.

32.57George III,caps.60-67.

33.Edition of 1828,p.24.

34.Ibid.p.10.

35.A Mr Gray proposed at a county meeting in 1816that the cry of 'retrenchment and reform'should be raised in every corner of the island (Henry Jephson'Platform ,p.378).I do not know whether this was the first appearance of the formula.

36.Hume had been introduced to Place by James Mill,who thought him worth 'nursing'.Place found him at first 'dull and selfish',but 'nursed him'so well by 1836he had become the 'man of men.'--Wallas's Francis Place ,p.181,182.

37.Torren's Life of Graham ,i,250-72,where his great speech of 14th May 1830is given.

38.2and 3William IV,cap.111(passed 15August 1832).

39.4and 5William IV,cap.15.

40.The Platform,its Origin and Progress ,by Henry Jephson (1892),gives a very interesting historical account of the process.

41.57George III,cap.19and 60George III,cap.6.

42.See Jephson's Platform ,pp.167-70.

43.See Jephson's Platform ,i,348,455,517.

44.See Ibid.ii,129-40for some interesting passages as to this.

45.Official Correspondence (1887),308.

46.Greville's George IV,and William IV,iii,155,167-69,171.

47.Bentham's Works ,x,571.

48.Romilly's Memoirs ,ii,67,222.