JB/116/566/001

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Letter 3 XVI. Improved prisons

Had any of the professional men just spoken of professed that
object just mentioned to be their object, would they have been less
sincere in such their profession, than the Duke of Portland would have
been, had he done what he has not done— condescended so much as to profess any such disposition as
that of preventing the object of the Act? I mean my Lord, the
Act which was calling upon him as it calling upon Your Lordship not for obstruction but for obedience—the Act his Grace
had so well "examined and understood the object of"—the Act for the
establishment of that Penitentiary House, which it was the object of this
letter of his to uncrowd of all as many inhabitants as had been deigned for it by that Act.

It is in pursuance of this plan, my Lord, that a little
more than five months after viz: on the 25th of March 1800 the Treasury, on the ground
of a preparatory of another with than just received and referred to therein spoken of as received
of a contemporary the letter they offer to from his Grace, write to me+ calling
upon me to make preparations for a building prepare for 2000 prisoners preparations
of an nature, the nature and object of which
had been made fully known to them by an humble address
of mine.

+ to acquaint me that
my the proposed building
of a Panopticon was to be calculated
"to accommodate 2000
persons". This, by way
of answer to an humble
address of mine, written
on the 17th of
August more than seven
months before, in
the declared view of
my making expensive
preparations of an
expensive nature, and
begging to know for
what number they were
to be made.

Faithful to this same plan, while I was amusing
myself with these preparations, together with other
occupations which the same policy had provided for me,
the Noble and Right Honourable and Honourable conspirators,
(if by a mere figure of speech a consultation amongst potentates
about confessing words may be thus characterized)
were, from that time to the 18th March 1801 conversing on the subject,
were bristling in confidential whispers from between floor and floor:+
that persevering fondness for "improved prisons["] as well as "improved
"Colonies", the expressions of which was so unexpectedly
brought to light, by the new resolution of that fortunate gale that that wafted Your
Lordship into his Grace's seat. Your Lordship and his
Grace knows how.

+2 with one
another by what words
they should make Parliament
believe that
I had insisted upon
an encrease of terms
spite of as pointed
a declaration
on my part to the
contrary as written
words could from
and when they know
it was no such thing
spite of all I could say
to the contrary.

Are not vice and virtues, merit and guilt right and wrong, truth and falshood, plain dealing and deceit, support and
obstruction assistance and opposition confounded and if possible rendered
indistinguishable by such pretences plans?

Identifier: | JB/116/566/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	27
Box	116	Main Headings	panopticon versus new south wales
Folio number	566	Info in main headings field	letter 3
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f26
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	1800
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public	letter was never sent; see note 8 to letter 1747, vol. 7	ID Number	38099
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