BENTHAM.

LETTER III.

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE SPECTATOR.

Stn—The " Benthainic theory of government" is the last object of ettack the critic of the London and Westminster. The great questions in govern. ment are stated to be these—" First, to what authority is it for the good of the people that they ahutrid be subject ? Secondly, how are they to be induced ; obey that authority?" Thirdly, "by what means are the abuses of this Co. tbority to he checked ?"

To the first, Brx-rira at's answer would be, that it was for the good of th people :hat they should be guided by the will of the nunterical majority, collectel and expressed through the application of the representative system. To the se- cond, that the great inducement to them to obey such an authority, resides it the belief that it is advantageoua so to do. To the thisd, Responsibility.

"But is this fundamental doctrine of BENTHAM'S political philosophy 3 universal truth? Is it, at all times and places, good for mankind to be under the absolute authority of a majority of themselves?" In this there is probably a lurking desire to refer to the extreme case of some Mango Capac descending front the sun to enlighten a race of savages, or the more homely instance of missionaries in Paraguay or Otaheite. this it would be a sufficient answer, that BENTHAM was writing neither for Mango Cepacs ror for miesionsries, but for ordinary lay governments; though there might still be added the query, whether the governments either of Mango Cepaca or of missionaries, do reaily establish anything so very desirable iu the end. They merge into bigoted theo- cracies; and bigoted theocracies are among the warst possible governments for all but the conductors of the machine.

But listen to the argument brought against the government of the majority. "The numerical majority of any society whatever, must consist of persons all standing in the same social position, aud having, in the main, the same pursuits—. namely, unskilled nuptial labourers. Where there is identity of position nL

piersuite, there ale.o will be identity of partialities, passions, and prejudices; and t give any one set of pat tialities, paseione, and prejudice', absolute power, with. net counterbalauce from partialities, pas•ions, and prejudices of a different sort, A wey to render the correction of any of these imperfections hopeless; to make one n.trow, mean type of human nature universal and perpetual, and to arit4, esety mfluenee which terds to the further improvement of 111311'9 intellec- tu i and !renal nature. There must, we know, be noire pm-amount power in ateeety ; and thee the niijority should be dem power, is on the whole right, not a. beteg just in iteelf, len :re berg lese unjust than 2ny other footing on which ti•; wetter cell be placed."— The fallacy depends on a play between the terms naeeeaeeet and ahsointe. It is admitted there muet be a paramount power bet it must not be in the majority, because then it would be at so abeelute than in the bands of a niinceity ? and why dove ;meet heeeine anything hut paramount, because in the hands of a majority ? Wien power is exercised hy a majority, it ie to be nicknamed ateotete; when .1.. se'f,■:1,1C ACtS of power proceed from a niima'ity, the phrase of pan:mount to be applh th A se hipeing by order of the majority, would be an infliction oe (dote el ; to make it tolerable it must be olden d by a minority, and n is ell right, hecau e. a pare:mould power roust be somewhere. The ;4, ll!A aperreewee: power is not an di bzolyte one, either in the hands of ! mejerity or 1 minotity. A paramount power is one which has received the • leces Lich eau be given by the exieteuce of no opposing party, and pron. eel etee eller a. And the Feint to be shown by the critic on BENTHAM, if he can, is. how the same verdict which is to be rejected it the hands of a majority, V. eilti heconie innocent and paranionut if it had the good fen tune to be pe-

e d by a miantity.

is an evident desire to intimate, that the government ought not to be in mittr wolf's, that it onatItt to be in euniething that is not the . i:!e, or to nice!: mere distinctly still, in a ; though the declaration .tI :skid. And there is an anxilialy confueiou 'kept up, between the , ei • r fetal decisien being taken from the niajetity or their reprceenratives somewhete else, and the opinions ot the minority being allowol full ,• geining encl, attention ae they may be able. Ile:Nert Am directed him-

, to the practical question at item in the existing civilized communities uf

aye and Aunt:ea ; !UPI his object must not be get rid of by inquii ing what at he gore] in abliontotapa. 1i.ke, far crimple, the Feited Stetes of Ame- s where the iderm if the prejteliciel operation of the wid of a majority a. are to hive been given hy the reviewee's 1110eareeim: ta DE 1.011112E.. !! ; rd tike thete the 'esteem:4 of the two most eagelly contested question., e eel. and Slavery. Is there really auy verity in the assertion, that the h.i•elar side on either ef these gueetiune— if anybody can kit which side that a, in a state of depression requiririg a change in the ieetitetions of A merice, • !■:r of power frem the teejerity to some kind of a minority, in order to

.chance of being ? Or if this was done tomotrow, would there

• e fee the same entcry from the side that Lichee! the beam,—or .!e. Mi. a n uch venter outcry, in consequence of the manitiel ultreaeon- ' • Le tranefer if the seat of power? , fur an ultimate decision being lodged EOM& where., It

' e reejority, or with a minority of tome kind. Bed a

a(er, hee the defect of being absolute ; therefore lodge the , ear aa• v. which shad be teheolute too, and be his trial to every- '•. aee, front the nienifest tinrea,onable»ees of taking the decision stir Lumber to eiVC it to the lees. The faierul of pm-eminent . it y Give to each of us the power of expieeeing a will, as we

■ .e.a, rte. gift of Leeds and artns ; and if the more numerous wills, like

ore reimereus lemele and tame, are strongest, we inapow no exclusion, but eouet the peeponeterarce of wills. Give the power to UR the feweet, says tieerel if geverement by the minority ; and that we may keep it, exclude - wee's:vie. eke front expreesing a will at all. There is no difficulty in sayieg

iveit of these two scharnee presents the fairest chance for willing acceptance rea•oning community. the argument that a government by a majority must "make one narrow,

• . ai type of human nature neivosal and perpetual," because the numeric:el .1, 6(111ty must consist of " unskilled manual labourers," has two inherent weak.

ntear. First, it omits the consideration of the fact, that the " unskilled ai email labourers" ate by ne means above the influences of other portions e f so, hay ; on the contrary, they are subjected to them to a degree which makes

tt:e daabt, not whether those other portions of society will be sacrificed to the

ee killed labourers," but whetker the " unekilled hiliourers" will have egli for selfelefence efrer all. l'he practical evils of teciety have not sprung " unskilled maidiel labourers." but from *killed notglabetwers determined te week neither with their hands nor iu any other way. The result of govern- ..nent by minorities, has been everywhere that the majority was robbed. Prince

• ieettNictr, opted Mee. TROLLOPE, is made to say, " I believe that the -,•••a e of government might be reduced to principles as certain as those of clue- y. if men, ineteall of theorizing, would only take the trouble patiently to : ve the uniewm result of simPar combinations of circumstances." If the • e.r. ere it !elided was to the uniform ill-treatment of majorities by governing eea 'dies, the conclusion would he undeniable. Ilistoi y pesetas no instance uzittiiiiell" majority enterieg into any, general eolith:nation against tv. Six hundted men cannot be elected to be repre•entativo, but they . at considerirg where they can confiscate the property of other people to C the ir own.

e :Le critic's anxiety is to secure a fair hearing to whatever may be the vita mieority, not the smallest step towards this is 'mule by taking the pied'. ••.1, aace out of the Lamle of the majerity and giving it to a minority. There is eareseity (perhaps more) for t .king nwil.,enes to secure a hearing t:a weedier party, in this ease as in the other ; witness the Tot ice in then efpooer, et ho were a minority as proved by their anxiety to limit the privi. it legielation, and ageinet whom to peep or mutter, was at the risk of un- ...tetsil imprisonment without trial at the very test. The scheme therefore is A 71'2, e bewilderment, like that of the man who being reproved for the cruelty of ae.g a live goose dewy a chimney as the mean.; of sweeping it, proposed

• .1.1aaing a couple of ducks instead. It is only shifting the appreheisled .eg from a minority to a majority. If a hearing is to be seemed to the

eher patty, it must be done in all cases by the same IllaNtag,....alaMtly, by Um ei ....snag on the public re large the importance of moderatien in this espect,— a: cultivating, in short, the same feelings which, prevent deliberative pseenffilies

eral born commencing with the ejection of the minotitv. Bift there is eiecee in this peculiar to the case where the virtual predominance is with the .ey. The attempt. therefore, to represent it so, if not n crime is a blunder.

The diseatseion of the subject will not base been in vain, if it impresses on any portion of that " unskilled " majority who are rising up with very °mi- nima appearances of resolution to claim their share in governing, that in BEM IIA m's principle they have the key to their ultimate success. They can endeee2ernst it ; and they will hardly understand the opposing critic when he tells them, that " Every human action has three aspects: its moral aspect, or that of its right and wrong; its (esthetic aepect, (what "caviare," and not "to the milltitude! ") or that of its beauty; its sympathetic aspect, or that of Re loteahkness." These are the discoveries with which " minorities" amuse themselves, and call it knowledge. BENTIIAM made a peat inroad into the reelm of words, by eubstituting the intelligible. We seem to be verging on some danger ot that "worst of all revolutions it Restoration."

Your obcdieut servant, T.