JB/121/070/001

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F. 12 Establishment enlarged [12. Doc] (45 §8 F. 12. [+] [+] The part in brackets,
not Note sent )a) Mr Bentham to Mr Nepean — text 10 Mar. 1800

Extracts sent from the Acts sent to shew the Duke's pretended construction to be a
fabrication. What he aims at would annull the law — & render it impossible for
his Successors to obey it.

It is a lamentable thing, that Gentlemen should be imagining
Acts of Parliament, or clauses of Acts of Parliament, out of their own
heads , without the smallest Ground for it. —

In the letter in question, the imagination is —added text that the Penitentiary
Houses in question, spoken of in the Acts of the 199 3. c.76 and 34 G.3.c.84)
were intended by those Acts "principally as receptacles, for such transportable
"Convicts, as the several Gaols of the respective Counties cannot contain, from
"the time of their receiving sentence, till the time of their being transported."
The restriction here put is mere imagination: without a single syllable in
either Act, to warrant it. If any such syllable can be shewn, let it be shewn,
but it never will be, because it never can be. —

What does "principally" mean? — To answer this question will be
impossible. If the above be the principal object of the Acts, — then the Acts
have at least one other object, which is a secondary one. — What is the
secondary object? — It is not to be found. — Suppose this, which is stated as the
"principal" object, were the only object really proposed by these Acts, as it is
the only object specified as proposed by them — what would be the consequence?
that, if the Prisons were capable of containing the whole number of transportable
Convicts, till the opportunities for carrying the sentence of transportation into
execution upon them presented themselves, in that case there would be none at all for the
Penitentiary House, and the intention, of the very Act passed for the erection of
it, would be — that, when erected, it should be kept empty. —

In the Act of 34.G3 c.84. two classes of persons are expressly
marked out as the persons meant to be consigned to the Penitentiary House.
One, consists of "transportable" Convicts: that is, since there is no restriction, all
Such

Identifier: | JB/121/070/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 121.
Date_1	1800-03-10	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	121	Main Headings	Panopticon
Folio number	070	Info in main headings field	Establishment Enlarged
Image	001	Titles	Mr Bentham to Mr Nepean
Category	Correspondence	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	"Recto" is not in the list (recto, verso) of allowed values for the "Rectoverso" property.	Page Numbering	D18 F45 / D19 F46 / D20 F47 / D20 F48
Penner		Watermarks	1798 AM
Marginals		Paper Producer	Frances Wright
Corrections	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1798
Notes public	See note to letter 1514, vol. 6	ID Number	001
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