JB/116/565/001

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Letter 3

To be allowed before the

XXI. Improved prisons

26
Malefactors might as
well pretend their object
was to force improvements
in the penal colony.

Curse on all laws but those which love has made—I
So say the poet once—so once may might his Grace have said whatever he may say
now. There is a time for all things: there is a time when friendship takes
the place of love.

Who knows can say, My Lord A few at least, who shall say Who knows, but that, among
the robbers that infest our streets render walking unsafe and the burglars that
render our sleep unsafe unquiet there may be not be patriots in disguise be some patriot Machia
who uniting the self-devotion of a Curtius to the policy of a Machiavel
or Anti-Machiavel—I know not which
are all the while in their humble sphere, this brilliant
emanation of from the wisdom official wisdom— deep-laid plan of the Duke?
of Portland acted upon with or without thought of causes and consequences, by his noble successors
Lord Pelham
those deep-laid plans of the Duke, slept upon and thereby acted upon, with
of Portland pursued or not pursued by Your Lordship
or without dreams about causes and consequences, by his great noble successor.
Such (they may say to themselves)
So universally Such is "the spirit of improvement, which
"now so universally prevails" among his Majesty's Ministers
in the police department nor in respect not of Gaols
only but of instruments of all kinds at his for the prevention
of crimes—such is the energy with which the Duke
of Portland determined to "crowd the Country Gaols" for
fear of "their being neglected"—Such is the energy
with which Ld Pelham has forced upon into the
an additional a fifth hundred a year into the hands of the
Police Magistrates—Such is the energy with which, are determined that
at the price of £87:10 a peep, he has determined that
four peeps in a year should shall be taken at the Hulks
such is the "spirit of improvement" manifested by these congenial and successive but contrived exertions
congenial and combined exertions,that unless a few patriots like were to help
"crowd" the streets with robbers and the houses with burglars
this "spirit of improvement" might be "checked"
—and all those implements of improvement—super
Magistrates— Inspectors of Quarterly papers at Hulks
and even "crowded Gaols themselves" might come
to be "neglected"—To a plain understanding, could this ideal plan of these ideal
Machiavels have been more directly repugnant to the decrease of crimes, than the
mischiefs and of prisons? Are not support and appreciation—plain dealing and

+ Thus, whether or
no, would at any rate
have been frank and
open: but policy, the
very profundity of policy
was the order of the day
with his Grace. A
as Your Lordship
planned
plot like this
for getting prisons built
by stratagem
where shall a parallel
to it be found?
plot for helping
a thing on by stopping
it—where shall
a parallel to it be
found?—Let us
try, my Lord.

+ decent, truth and falshood,
right and wrong, merit
and guilt confounded, and
if possible rendered
indistinguishable by such plans?

To a plan
could the plan of this
imaginary
be more directly repugnant obstructive
to the denomination of the decrease of crimes
of
prisons than that the of
the or pretended plan ...
to the denomination of
the of prisons.

Identifier: | JB/116/565/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	26
Box	116	Main Headings	panopticon versus new south wales
Folio number	565	Info in main headings field	letter 3
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f25
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year
Notes public	letter was never sent; see note 8 to letter 1747, vol. 7	ID Number	38098
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