JB/118/431/001

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8 Sept. 1812
To Ld Sidmouth

After years during which it remained undiscoverable
1. One objection was taken from the amplitude of the power.
To one man the power of working so many hundreds
of persons, and all for his own benefit – it was too much
power for any one mortal man – Spurious or not in
form, in substance this is will be found much less than nothing.
This prodigious power what is it ? No other than what every
man has over his apprentice.

But the number of persons subject to it so vast.
True: and by this very circumstance so far from being amplified,
the power is limited. Of a private master
the power exercised by him over his apprentice is exercised
in what secrecy he pleases. In contradistinction to
all other receptacles it is the peculiar characteristic
of one Panopticon here in question to render all secrecy impossible.
For his protection an each apprentice has no more than his own
For occasional protection for constant enquiries after his
welfare, the apprentice has no other than his own personal
friends and connections. In a receptacle such as
this, the inhabitants having one common cause, each has
for his guardians not only his own personal friends, but
those of every other all his fellows: add to which those
in whom a sense of the solicitude of humanity, the obligation of duty
the solicitude of humanity, or the spirit of curiosity
will be on the same errand.

On board the Hulks all inspection except the occasional
infliction of the official and declared inspection at
stated times is by the very nature of the receptacle
rendered impossible except when working in the open abroad in forming the: the prisoners are kept crowded by the multitudes
in inscrutable wooden dungeons. To the power exercised
over men thus circumstanced the objection is not applied.
The Hulks were the last spots to which the eye of the Honble
Gentleman chose to direct itself. The situation it had
pitched upon for itself was not the superintendantiless of the
Hulks

Identifier: | JB/118/431/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 118.
Date_1	1812-09-08	Marginal Summary Numbering	5
Box	118	Main Headings	panopticon
Folio number	431	Info in main headings field	to ld sidmouth
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	b6 / c1 / e6
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	th 1806
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer	andre morellet
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1806
Notes public	draft; not included in letter 2190, vol. 8	ID Number	39485
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