JB/119/141/002

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2

Preamble

Panopticon Bill.

to on account of the magnitude of the expence, a reduced Estimate was given in on or about the
15th of March 1784 to the amount of £165,287 for the said number of 900 Prisoners:
(being at the rate of £183,652 and upwards for the said number of 1000, making,
for Land Buildings and other Ground charges alone, upwards of £190,000, exclusive of
the charges of furnishing and stocking as aforesaid, of which no estimate was made:) but,
on account of the doubts which still remained respecting the propriety of subjecting the Public
to so heavy a charge in the first instance, no money hath yet been issued for the erection
of such intended Buildings or for the purchase of the said Ground.

4
Offer by Jeremy Bentham —
Art. 4. And Whereas Samuel Bentham of Queen Square Place
Westminster Knight of the Military Order of St George of Russia, and Brigadier General
in the Service of her Imperial Majesty of all the Russias, hath after much study and
expence invented a new species of Building stiled a Panopticon or Inspection House,
by means of which the behavior and condition of all persons therein without exception, & thence
the conduct of the Inspector and his Subordinates in the management thereof, may to all
proper persons and at all proper times be rendered apparent at one view: And Whereas
Jeremy Bentham of Lincoln's Inn Barrister at Law having with the allowance and assistance
of his Brother the said Samuel Bentham, applied the principle of the said Panopticon to
the special purpose of an Edifice for the reception of Prisoners, and having by means thereof
devised a plan or management calculated for the carrying into execution in a superior degree
the good purposes by the Act aforesaid intended in respect of Safe custody, Employment,
Instruction, Reformation, and subsequent maintenance after discharge, hath offered at his own
charge to purchase and pay for the said Ground, and thereon also at his own charge to erect
fit up, furnish and stock a Building or assemblage of Buildings on the said plan sufficient
for the confinement & employment of 1000 Prisoners or more in consideration of an allowance
not greater for the first year than the allowance of late made and for every other year little
more than half the allowance at present made for the maintenance of the same number of
Prisoners for the same time on board the Hulks; so also for the benefit of such Prisoners to
subject himself to divers other expensive obligations and strict duties herein after mentioned, on the
conditions herein also mentioned.

For the accomplishment of the said good purposes, May it therefore please your
Majesty that it be enacted, and by the King's Majesty with the advice and consent of the Lords
Spiritual & Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled Be it enacted as follows:
viz:

Sect

Identifier: | JB/119/141/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 119.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	1-4, 1-8, 1
Box	119	Main Headings	panopticon
Folio number	141	Info in main headings field	panopticon bill
Image	002	Titles	[[titles::chap [ ] general panopticon penitentiary act: or an act for the punishment and reformation of felons, by means of a penitentiary house of new invention, to be stiled the general panopticon penitentiary house]]
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d1 / d2 / d3 / d4
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	39652
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