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27 April 1811.
Penitentiary Committee. Reasons against the rendering recommending under the notion of improvements
for the benefit of the public service, and aga without the free consent of the individual
party, any change in the Panopticon Plan as expressed in the Draught of ContractThis copy delivered to Sir S. Romilly Sunday 28th
having been
thrown out of a disposition
to recommend
amendments in the
Panopticon plan
considerations proposed to be
urged in opposition
to any such attempt.
1. What seems agreed
upon and settled is
that the Panopticon
plan as exhibited
in the "Draught of Contract"
wanting nothing
but the formation
of signature, and
having been in part
executed by both parties
is to be considered
as binding upon Government
– no less effectually
than if it had been actually
signed.
2. But if binding on
Government, the binding
form of it must be to
be considered as commencing
at that time
say on the day on
which by having been
perused and settled by
the Atty & Sollr General
and the very instrument intended
the brought consequence
for signature
proposed by order of
the Treasury by their
Sollicitor,
was transmitted
by him to the
Treasury for the purpose
of it being signed. This was in July or August 1795.
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3. This being admitted
it follows that in and by every
day which without
signature and without
effectual execution on
the part of the Treasury
has from between
that day and the
present, the public
faith has, to the injury
of the individual at
least been violated.
So also, that in
and by every day which
shall elapse between
the present day and
the time of such effectual
execution, in
so fa as such stages
as are capable of being
taken towards execution
– null have failed of being
taken, public faith
will in like manner
continue to be violated.
5. This being the case admitted,
the business given in
charge to the Committee
considered, in and by
every day during which
the Committee purposely
omitts to inform
by its recommendation
the to the
Treasury through the
medium of the House,
the taking the in
hand for the purpose
of execution the acknowledged
Contract in question
& it renders itself
a party to that
breach of public faith
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6. Much morePlan as expressed
itself a party
as above to subsisting
breach of public
faith, it committs
of its own motion a
fresh breach of public
faith, if instead of
recommending to the
Treasury the execution
of that contract, in so
far as, allowance
made for the necessary
changes produced by lapse
of time it is capable
of being executed.
and in taking care in particular that
by no such changes
as have been produced
without blame or default
on the part of the
individual, his condition
shall not designedly
be made worse,
it should take upon
itself to recommend
such or such a change
under any such notice
as that of making improvements
in the plan,
to make without his
free consent such or
such a change. For
7. It is only by from the
voluntary delay which
on the part of the Treasury
has taken had
place in respect of the
execution of the Contracy,
in other words by that
which can not but be
confessed to have been
and to continue to be
a breach of faith that
the Committee have
obtained the physical
capacity of recommending
so much as
any such change.
---page break---
8. Supposing any
such change to be
now proposed by the
Treasury, it is only
by committing wrong,
and by taking advantage
of such their own wrong,
that the Treasury has
given themselves so much as the
physical possibility
of proposing any such
change.
9. Supposing then that
Committee any such
change to be now proposed
by the Committee,
it is only by taking
advantage of wrong,
of the wrong so committed
by the Treasury –
by taking advantage of another's
wrong, and thereby
making themselves
parties to that wrong
that the Committee
can take upon themselves
to recommend
or propose any such
change. To make any such
change as would be in effect
to rescind the existing Contract,
and to compel the blameless and injured individual to submitt to enter into a different one.
10. True it is that
for any of those causes
by which contracts
in general are liable
to be rescinded –
fraud for example
or serious and imminent and obnoxious
inevitable mischief,
this Contract, like any
other might justly
and properly be rescinded;
and therefore
by the Committee the rescinding
of it justly
and properly recommended.
But in the present case, nothing of
that sort has ever been so much as surmized.
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Identifier: | JB/118/234/003 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 118.
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1-12 |
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118 |
panopticon |
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234 |
penitentiary committee - topics proposed to be touched upon in a first report to be confined to the subject of the panopticon plan or the engaging in any ulterior enquiries |
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003 |
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marginal summary sheet |
2 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
th 1806 |
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andre morellet |
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1806 |
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