Box 121 contains a great deal of interesting material relating to Bentham's panopticon prison scheme, or rather its failure. This batch of manuscripts, composed mostly in 1802, illustrate Bentham's anger and sense of betrayal towards the British legislature who, despite having passed the 1794 Penitentiary for Convicts Act, had failed to build Bentham's prison. In Bentham's eyes, the panopticon had been thwarted by the failure to find a site, first at Battersea Rise, thanks to the opposition of George Spencer (the 2nd Earl Spencer), and then at Tothill Fields owing to the opposition of Richard Grosvenor (1st Earl Grosvenor). Thanks to the vested interests of landlords, Bentham ended up purchasing a small and boggy site at Millbank, and became aware that politicians had little real commitment to the panopticon.

In June 1803, after a campaign of many years, it became clear that the panopticon was to be abandoned. The scheme's failure was the greatest disappointment of Bentham's life: ‘They have murdered my best days’, he remarked. The experience left him incensed at the treachery of British politicians, and he turned his attention to detailing their perfidy. According to Bentham, the 1794 Penitentiary Act was for no ‘better or other intention than of serving as a bait for gulling me out of money'’, and in JB/115/145/001, he wrote:

‘My hairs, already grey, are pointing to the grave. It remains for me to try whether my country be as devoid of faith and feeling, as those whom the jumble of events has given to it for its rulers … It may then be said—simple neglect would have been sufficient: disappointment and ruin, at the end of five years of treachery and oppression, were too much’.

Box 121 contains some of Bentham's angry outpourings, in an unpublished text which Bentham entitled 'A Picture of the Treasury under the Administration of the Rt. Hon. W. Pitt and the Rt. Hon. H. Addington with a sketch of the Secretary of State's Office under the reign of the Duke of Portland'. Written in 1802 and 1803, this is a near-contemporary account of Bentham's dealings with men in high office, albeit one told only from Bentham's point of view. (From the other side, Charles Long, the junior secretary to the Treasury, came to hate the sight of Bentham hanging around the Treasury, waiting to attempt meetings with officials).

It was perhaps during this period that Bentham fully developed the idea of 'sinister interests' - that legislators did not necessarily act in the interests of the happiness of those they ruled, but rather to satisfy their own vested interests. By transcribing this set of manuscripts, you will be going some way to exploring this theory, and the timing of Bentham's conversion into a political radical, convinced of the need for a representative parliament with universal adult suffrage. It seems likely, as Prof. Philip Schofield contends, that it was 'the panopticon experience which began to convince him [Bentham] that nothing worthwhile could be achieved through the existing political structure in Britain'. (Schofield, Bentham: A Guide for the Perplexed, Bew York, 2009, pp.12-13).

The material is divided as follows:

• Folios 1 to 15: Panopticon - Picture of the Treasury, to Lord Pelham - marginal notes. [1802]
• Folios 16 to 35: Panopticon - Section 3 - 1A, Clandestine and perfidious assurances to Lord Belgrave [1802]
• Folios 36 to 88: Panopticon - Section 8F, Establishment increased [1802]
• Folios 89 to 101: Panopticon - Section 9G, Further intercourse forbidden by Mr Long [1802]
• Folios 102 to 134: Panopticon - to Lord Pelham - Armed memorial and its consequences [1802]
• Folios 135 to 161: Panopticon - Section 11, Disarmed memorial and its consequences [1802]
• Folios 162 to 189: Panopticon - Section 13, Anonymous report; Section 14, Change of Ministry; Section 17, Difference between suppression of documents and forgery; Conclusion [1802]
• Folios 190 to 252: Panopticon - secret minutes brought to light - grounds of relinquishment [1802]
• Folios 253 to 331: Panopticon - Official despotism - secret blabbed by Mr King; Picture; Narrative; Compensation; (fragmentary) [1802]
• Folios 332 to 345: Panopticon - J.B. meeting with Long and Addington, 9 July 1801; includes Panopticon v NSW material [1802]
• Folios 346 to 475: Panopticon - Dispensing power, Inessentialia (fragmentary) [1802]

Box 121 Progress: Transcription begun

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