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Disarmed Memorial and its consequences

I.6 Mr Bentham to Mr Arthur Young – proposing a question 14 June 1800
relative to the Rise of Prices With Question on Rise of prices, with a view to the Penitentiary Contract:
With Question on rise of prices – Anxiety to conceal the occasion that the answer may not be unduly favourable.

This is a literal and compleat copy of the whole of the letter
one paragraph excepted which bears no relation to the present business.
J.B.
Queen Square Place Westminster 14th June 1800
Dear Sir

Underneath is a question, which I have just been calling in Sackville Street,
to beg the power of your answer to, for my own information: it is in contemplation, to make the
purport of it the subject of a reference to the Board of Agriculture, from the Treasury. The occasion
seemed to be of a nature particularly favourable to the enabling the public to avail itself
of the services of the Board, and may perhaps have the effect of placing the utility of the
institution in a new and additional point of view: while the dignity of its Members and the
manner in which it is composed, will give such a title to public confidence, in respect of the
grant point of superiority to all personal considerations, as would in vain be looked for, in any
other quarter, capable of being applied to for such a purpose. In tis light I have just been
mentioning the matter to Mr Nepean, who entered so thoroughly into it, as to say he would
himself propose it to the Treasury to make such reference. On enquiring, I had the mortification
of learning, that the Board had adjourned to some day in November: but would there be
no such thing as the calling an extra meeting, if not of the Board at large, of a Committee, for
the purpose of receiving a reference from such a quarter, and making a Report? If not, possibly
the opinion of the Secretary might be accepted of as the only obtainable succedaneum to the
opinion of the Board: – for where else could any other equally competent opinion be obtained?
But howsoever the matter may stand with regard to the Board and Mr Secretary, I hope
Mr Young will not refuse an old correspondent the favour of an answer for his own guidance,
and that as speedily as possible: for it is for this answer I wait to enable me to fill up a
blank with figures, the propriety of which is what is proposed, as above, to be made the subject
of reference to the Board. If you are unable to guess any reason for interfering in the business,
so much the better: but if you have your conjectures, all I can do is to beg (which I do with the
utmost sincerity) that you would forbear letting them find their way, directly or indirectly, to
any person, to whose lot it may fall, to concurr in making the Report. – It was at Mr.
Nepean's

Identifier: | JB/121/150/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 121.
Date_1	1800-06-18	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	121	Main Headings	Panopticon
Folio number	150	Info in main headings field	Disarmed Memorial & its consequences
Image	001	Titles	Mr Bentham to Mr Long through Mr Nepean
Category	Correspondence	Number of Pages	2
Recto/Verso	"Recto" is not in the list (recto, verso) of allowed values for the "Rectoverso" property.	Page Numbering	D8 / F18
Penner		Watermarks	1798 AM
Marginals		Paper Producer	Frances Wright
Corrections	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1798
Notes public	Copy of letter 1563, vol. 6	ID Number	001
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