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Letter 3
2 Jany 1802
XVI. Improved prisons
certify to him, that private favours, conferred coupled by public buthens
measures of this sort are disposed of, moment after moment, sometimes upon one principle, sometimes as the convenience
of each moment presents them to great minds: explain
to him that why prisons are approved private places of, and the purpose of the moment calls for is to be
served, it is just as easy to there is no more difficulty in acting through Parliament than against Parliament,
it, it is as easy nor in tossing a burthen from the counties
upon the public, than from the public upon the counties;
satisfy him that where neither laws engagements nor
even laws can bind, much less can mere professions give
any sort of trouble: and that where common honesty is not
so much as an impediment to accommodation, much less
can consistency be a bar: to it preach/make known unknown to him in short, that
though nothing is possible to be done for them for those whose sole trust is in
law, good faith, and considered recognized utility, all things are
possible for those him, whose charity is for knows how to choose
a proper object,
so long at least as their their hopes are humble, and steer clear of flattery.
If after all this consolation, it should still occurr to him
that the £4000 is the one thing needful, and that this one
thing needful is still wanting, whisper again into his ear,
my Lord, or say aloud to him—no matter what— it is no matter (for
at certain heights from whence shame as well as fear is looked for
when fear and shame are looked down upon, concealment
is without a motive) gives him to understand then: my then any how,
Lord, in either way, in whatever tone any tone that presents itself,
in short in any way,
that there are other expedients—that there are shorter
and cheaper modes of disposing of prisoners, than for
by suffering them their existence to remain as a load either
here or elsewhere, upon a Government, or upon the Counties: that those modes more convenient/preferable and preferred expedients are
in with Noble Lords and not disapproved of by great
persons not none of your not speculative, theoretical, flighty
utopian, proj ideal "projects", but practical, long-practiced,
well-considered
Identifier: | JB/116/580/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
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1803-01-02 |
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116 |
panopticon versus new south wales |
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580 |
letter 3 |
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001 |
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correspondence |
1 |
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recto |
f38 |
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jeremy bentham |
1800 |
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1800 |
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letter was never sent; see note 8 to letter 1747, vol. 7 |
38113 |
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