| Description |
1 online resource (xv, 472 pages) |
| Physical Medium |
8vo. rdabf |
| Series |
Making of modern law.
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| Note |
Translation of: Traités de législation civile et pénale. |
| Contents |
Principles of legislation -- Principles of the civil code -- Principles of the penal code. |
| Note |
Reproduction of original from Harvard Law School Library. |
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Print version record. |
| Access |
Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL |
| Summary |
"Whatever may be thought of the Principle of Utility, when considered as the foundation of morals, no one now-a-days will undertake to deny that it is the only safe rule of legislation. To establish and illustrate this proposition, and to show how it ought to be, and might be carried into practice, was the aim and end of Bentham's life and writings. Bacon derives his fame from the fact that he was the first who fully appreciated and formally laid down the proposition, now familiar to everybody, that experiment and observation are the only solid bases of the physical sciences. In the moral sciences, and especially in legislation, the principle of utility is the only certain guide; and, in the estimation of an impartial posterity, Bentham will rank with Bacon, as an original genius of the first order. During a long life, devoted solely and assiduously to the study of jurisprudence, besides his occasional publications, he produced an immense mass of manuscripts, containing a fund of most valuable ideas, but unshaped, unarranged, and in a state quite unfit for publication. Fortunately for the cause of science, these materials were not left to perish; an interpreter, a compiler, a spokesman was found, every way worthy of the task he assumed. Dumont, a citizen of Geneva, whom political troubles had driven from his own country, after a residence of some years at St. Petersburg, where he gained a high reputation as a preacher of the Reformed Church, came to London under the patronage of the Lansdowne family, and there made Bentham's acquaintance. He became his friend and disciple, was permitted to examine and to study his manuscript treatises; and, having discovered the value of this hidden treasure, he solicited the task of arranging, condensing, filling out, compiling, and translating into the French language. As soon as Bentham had discovered the great divisions, the great classifications of laws, he embraced legislation as a whole, and formed the vast project of treating it in all its parts. He considered it not as composed of detached works, but as forming a single work. He had before his eyes the general chart of the science, and after that model he framed particular charts of all its departments. Hence it follows that the most striking peculiarity of his writings is their perfect correspondence. Among Dumont's first publications from the manuscripts of Bentham, was the treatise of which these volumes contain a translation. He afterwards brought out several other works compiled in the same way, and from the same sources; and it is only in these compilations that we find anything like a clear and complete development of the ideas of Bentham, or a full exposition of his system of legislation. Public attention in America is every day more and more attracted to the subject of Legal Reform; and the translator flatters himself that he will have performed a useful and acceptable service, in restoring to its native English tongue the following treatise. It includes a vast field, never before surveyed upon any regular plan, and least of all according to such principles as Bentham has laid down. In the application of those principles he has, doubtless, made some mistakes; for mistakes are of necessity incident to a first attempt. But he has himself furnished us with the means of detecting those mistakes and of correcting them. He asks us to receive nothing on his mere authority. He subjects everything to the test of General Utility." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved). |
| Reproduction |
Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011. MiAaHDL |
| System Details |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
| Processing Action |
digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Subject |
Law -- Philosophy.
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Utilitarianism.
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Criminal law.
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Civil law.
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Civil law. (OCoLC)fst00862544
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Criminal law. (OCoLC)fst00883328
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Law -- Philosophy.
(OCoLC)fst00993788
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Utilitarianism. (OCoLC)fst01163333
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Jurisprudence. (DNLM)D007603
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Ethicial Theory.
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Criminal Law. (DNLM)D003416
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| Indexed Term |
FAClaw Law |
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ER Internet Book Full text |
| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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| Added Author |
Dumont, Etienne, 1759-1829.
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Hildreth, Richard, 1807-1865.
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| Added Title |
Traités de législation civile et pénale. English
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| Other Form: |
Microform (OCoLC)15039485 |
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Print version: Bentham, Jeremy, 1748-1832. Traités de législation civile et pénale. English. Theory of legislation. London : Trübner, 1864 (DLC) 55051214 |
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