JB/116/393/002

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No 13
N<hi rend="underline">o 7 Mr Bentham to Mr Vansittart.
(Copy)
Penitentiary Establishment

7th Septr 1801
Dear Sir,
I begin to be apprehensive, lest some how or other the
state of this business should have escaped your memory. When, at your
office, I asked you whether this was among the causes for which my
attendance had been called for; your answer was in the negative: there
had not as yet been time for looking into it. This was the 9th of July.
The present is (I should suppose) a season of comparative leisure; of as
much leisure as your office can expect.

I have made no application to Lord Pelham: regularly, I know
of no right I have to trouble the Secretary of State on the subject. The
business turns entirely upon the Act (34. G.3. c. 84) and the subsequent
Act in 1799 confirming the vote of money. The powers given by the Act
of the 34th are given exclusively to the Treasury: it is with the Treasury, not
with the Secretary of State, that my Contract (according to the Draught
perused and settled by the Crown Lawyers and printed in the 28th Finance Report)
is to be made.

Were I to apply to the Secretary of State, he would send me to the Treasury:
it is by the Treasury (he would say) & not by me — that every thing is to be done.

Whom it may be proper for the Treasury to consult with, is not a question for me
to presume to think about: the Law is all that is open to me, & under that Law
they are not bound to consult with any body, nor am I authorized to address myself any where else.

What I have to pray, is that things may proceed upon the same footing they
were placed upon by the late Secretary of State's first letter to the Treasury written
after six month's deliberation: & that what was done afterwards in contradiction
to it may be set aside for irregularities, which I should be very sorry to find is
necessary for me to enter into the proof of.
There

Identifier: | JB/116/393/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
Date_1	1801-07-06	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	116	Main Headings	panopticon versus new south wales
Folio number	393	Info in main headings field
Image	002	Titles
Category	collectanea	Number of Pages	3
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner		Watermarks	1800
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public	copies of letters 1638, 1661, and 1663, vol. 6	ID Number	37926
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