Bentham attempted to persuade legislative authorities in the United States of America, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Greece, South and Central America, and elsewhere, to invite him to draft a code of law for them. The works presented in this volume record in detail Bentham's dealings with such eminent figures as James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Emperor Alexander I, Prince Adam Czartoryski, Alexander Mavrokordatos, Bernadino Rivadavia, and Jose del Valle.
Political Tactics, composed for the Estates General in the months just prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution, is one of Bentham's most original works. It contains the earliest and perhaps most important theoretical analysis of parliamentary procedure ever written. It was subsequently translated into many languages and has had a far-reaching influence — for instance, it provided the basis for the regulations adopted in the 1820s governing the procedures of the Buenos Aires assembly, and as recently as the early 1990s it was reprinted by the Spanish Cortes. With typical thoroughness and insight, Bentham discusses such central themes as the publicity of procedings, the rules of debate, the conduct of deputies, and the proper steps to be taken in composing, proposing, and voting on a motion. Even such relatively minor points as the size of the assembly-room and the costume of the deputies are not overlooked. All along Bentham illustrates his points by reference to the actual practice of both the British Houses of Parliament and the French provincial assemblies.
Discusses morals' functions and natures that affect the legislation in general. Bases the discussions on pain and pleasure as basic principle of law embodiment. Mentions of the circumstance influencing sensibility, general human actions, intentionality, conciousness, motives, human dispositions, consequencess of mischievous act, case of punishment, and offences' division.
Bentham's writings for the French Revolution were dominated by the themes of rights, representation, and reform. In 'Nonsense upon Stilts' (hitherto known as 'Anarchical Fallacies'), the most devastating attack on the theory of natural rights ever written, he argued that natural rights provided an unsuitable basis for stable legal and political arrangements. In discussing the nature of representation he produced the earliest utilitarian justification of political equality and representative democracy, even recommending women's suffrage.
Vol. 1: In the essays presented in this volume, Bentham lays down the theoretical principles from which he develops his proposals for reform of the English poor laws in response to the perceived crisis in poor relief in the mid-1790s. In "Essays on the Subject of the Poor Laws", Bentham seeks to justify the principles on which entitlement to relief should be grounded, while in "Pauper Systems Compared", he presents a sustained comparison between home relief and institutional relief. The polemical "Observations on the Poor Bill" is a lively critique of the Bill introduced into the House of Commons by William Pitt in 1796. The ideas advanced here by Bentham were a significant influence on Edwin Chadwick, and through his mediation, on the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. The essays are based almost entirely on manuscript sources
