Preventive Police
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WRITINGS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY VOLUME III PREVENTIVE POLICE JEREMY BENTHAM edited by MICHAEL QUINN The Bentham Project 2018 This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non- derivative 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution are clearly stated. Attribution should include the following information: Jeremy Bentham, Writings on Political Economy, Volume III: Preventive Police, ed. M. Quinn, pre-publication version, The Bentham Project, 2018. Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommoms.org/licenses/ The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham The new critical edition of the works and correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) is being prepared and published under the supervision of the Bentham Committee of University College London. Eight volumes of the new Collected Works, five of correspondence, and three of writings on jurisprudence, appeared between 1968 and 1981, published by Athlone Press. Further volumes in the series since then are published by Oxford University Press. In spite of his importance as a jurist, philosopher, and social scientist, and leader of the utilitarian reformers, the only previous edition of his works was a poorly edited and incomplete one brought out within a decade or so of his death. The overall plan and principles of this edition are set out in the General Preface to The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 1 (Athlone Press), which was the first volume of the Collected Works to be published. ii CONTENTS EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION vi A NOTE ON THE PRESENTATION OF THE TEXT ix SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS xi PART I. WRITINGS ON MARINE POLICE A Bill To explain and amend an Act intituled An Act to prevent the committing of Thefts and Frauds by Persons navigating Bum-boats and other Boats, upon the River of Thames 2 Contents of a Bill to be intitled An Act to explain and to amend an Act passed in [the] 2d Year of the Reign of his present Majesty intitled an Act to prevent the committing of Thefts and Frauds by persons Navigating Bum-Boats and other Boats upon the River of Thames 15 Short Heads of a Bill for the more Effectual prevention of depredations on the River Thames 24 Summary View of a Bill for the more effectual prevention of Depredations on the Thames 30 Elucidations relative to the Thames Police Bill General Elucidations 39 Particular Elucidations 41 Mode of disposing of Old Stores 44 iii PART II. WRITINGS ON THE POLICE BILL Heads of the Draught of a Bill to be intituled A Bill for the granting to his Majesty certain duties on Licences, for the establishment of a Board of Police Revenue, for the suppression of divers Offices, and for the more effectual prevention of Larcenies and other Offences, by the regulation of divers trades and occupations, and the establishment of a system of prompt and all-comprehensive Correspondence for Police purposes I. Classes Licenced 54 II. Board 64 III. Licencing 65 IV. Regulations 68 V. Procedure &c. 73 VI. Miscellanea 78 Elucidations relative to the Police Revenue Bill I. General or Preliminary Observations 87 Introductory Observations relative to the Board-of-Police Bill 124 Appendix to ‘Introductory Observations relative to the Board-of-Police Bill’. COIN POLICE 141 A Bill for the establishment of a Board of Police, and for the suppression of divers Offices:—or else, A Bill for the establishment of a Board of Police, for the suppression of iv divers Offices, and for the more effectual prevention of predatory and other offences, by the licencing and regulation of divers trades and occupations General Preamble 149 Part I. Licentiandi 150 Part II. Board 160 Part III. Licencing 167 Part IV. Regulations 174 Part V. Penalties and Procedure 183 Part VI. Gazette and Calendar 194 APPENDIX to ‘A Bill for the establishment of a Board of Police, and for the suppression of divers Offices’. TABLE OF PRECEDENTS (TO ACCOMPANY PART II. BOARD) SHEWING THE PROVISION MADE BY STATUTE LAW RESPECTING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SEVERAL BOARDS OF REVENUE See the companion PDF file Notes to the Police Bill: containing Reasons, Precedents, and other Elucidations Part I. Licence-Duties 217 Part II. Board 238 Part III. Licencing 261 Part IV. Regulations 276 Part V. Procedure 292 Part VI. Gazette and Calendar 319 APPENDIX to ‘Notes to the Police Bill’. ANONYMOUS INFORMATION 364 v EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION The preventive police writings are unusual in Bentham’s corpus in that he was, in a sense, writing to order. Central elements of the proposals advanced in the present volume, for reform both in the policing of the River Thames and by the establishment of a Board of Police in London to administer a licensing system for dealers in second-hand goods respectively, had been contained in Patrick Colquhoun’s Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis.1 Bentham met Colquhoun in December 1796, and the latter became an enthusiastic supporter of Bentham’s panopticon prison scheme. In January 1798 Colquhoun began his campaign to recruit government support for the establishment of a Board of Police in London, a campaign which gathered momentum when both Colquhoun and Bentham gave evidence to the Select Committee on Finance, whose 28th report, ‘Police, including Convict Establishments’, the first proofs of which were printed in July 1798, endorsed both Colquhoun’s plan for the reform of police and Bentham’s panopticon. In the spring of 1798 Colquhoun sought Bentham’s assistance as a parliamentary draftsman, and over the next fourteen months Bentham drafted two Bills—a Thames Police Bill and a generic Police Bill—together with a series of précis of, and explanatory and justificatory comments on, the Bills, in addition to the further related discussions reproduced below. The present volume is divided into two parts, reflecting the two Bills which Bentham drafted. Part I. Writings on Marine Police contains the following three sets of material: Bentham’s first draft of the ‘Thames Police Bill’ and a partial ‘Contents’ thereof, both drafted in the early summer of 1798; two précis of his revised version of the Bill and an incomplete set of ‘Elucidations’ of its provisions, probably drafted in the spring of 1799; and a discussion of the best means of disposing of unserviceable naval stores, which is of uncertain date and lacks any direct connection with the ‘Thames Police Bill’, but is of intrinsic interest and has a strong thematic connection with Marine Police. Part II. Writings on the Police Bill, contains five works written in connection with what Bentham referred to indiscriminately as ‘Police Bill’ and ‘Police Revenue Bill’. The first, and also the earliest drafted, is a précis of the Bill, probably dating from late 1798; the 1 A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis, Explaining the various Crimes and Misdemeanours which at present are felt as a Pressure upon the Community; and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention, (first published in 1796) 4th edn., London, 1797. Unless otherwise indicated, references to the work are to this edition. vi second, on which Bentham was working in the spring of 1799, is a set ‘Elucidations’ of the Bill, for which Bentham used the short title ‘Preliminary Observations’; the third, and latest drafted, is a set of ‘Introductory Observations’, which is followed by an Appendix containing an partial discussion of coin police which was at one time envisaged as part of this work; the fourth is the text of the Police Bill, as revised and completed by early 1799, which is followed in an Appendix by a ‘Table of Precedents’; the fifth is a set of ‘Notes to the Police Bill’, which is followed in an Appendix by a discussion of anonymous information drafted for ‘Notes to the Police Bill’, but in the event omitted from it. Bentham’s drafting of the two Bills and their rationales proceeded in parallel, and as late as the autumn of 1799 Colquhoun was confident that both Bills would shortly become law. In the event, only one of the two Bills, the Thames Police Bill, was enacted, albeit in a modified form, as the Thames Police Act of 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. III, c. 87). Fearing that his open association with either Bill would scupper its chances of acceptance, Bentham insisted that Colquhoun kept his contribution secret. Bentham himself published none of the works contained in the present volume, though a single one of them was published, ostensibly as Colquhoun’s work, in 1799 and again in 1800.2 After Bentham’s death, the same work was reproduced in the edition of Bentham’s works overseen by John Bowring.3 The Bentham Committee wishes to thank the Leverhulme Trust whose grant made possible the preparation of this third volume of Bentham’s writings on political economy. The Bentham Committee is grateful to University College London and to the British Academy for their continuing support. I would like to thank University College London Library for permission to reproduce transcripts of manuscripts in their possession. 2 ‘Summary View of a Bill for the more effectual prevention of Depredations on the Thames’ first appeared as ‘Appendix Number I’ in P. Colquhoun, General View of the Depredations committed on West-India and other property in the port of London, the partial remedies which have been successfully applied in suppressing these evils, and the measures proposed for rendering them permanent and effectual, London, 1799, pp. 37–45. The ‘Advertisement’ following the title page is dated 10 October 1799. The work appeared again as ‘Appendix VIII’ in Colquhoun, A Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames: containing an historical view of the trade of the Port of London; And suggesting Means for preventing the Depredations thereon, by a Legislative System of River Police, London, 1800, pp.