Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/516

 502 IV. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY were. Lord Brougham thus excellently states the grounds of Bentham's title to distinction and to our regard: " The age of law reform and the age of Jeremy Benthara " are one and the same. No one before him had ever " seriously thought of exposing the defects in our English " system of jurisprudence. He it was who first made the " mighty step of trying the whole provisions of our juris- " prudence by the test of expediency, fearlessly examining " how far each part was connected with the rest, and " with a yet more undaunted courage inquiring how far " even its most consistent and symmetrical arrangements " were framed according to the principles which should " pervade a code of laws, their adaptation to the circum- " tion of human happiness. Not only was he pre-eminently " original among the lawyers and legal philosophers of his " own country ; he might be said to be the first legal phil- " osopher who had appeared in the world. None of the great " men before him had attempted to reduce the whole system " of jurisprudence under the dominion of fixed and general " rules ; none ever before Mr. Bentham took in the whole " departments of legislation ; none before him can be said " to have treated it as a science, and by so treating made " it one. This is his pre-eminent distinction. To this praise " he is justly entitled ; and it is as proud a title to fame as " any philosopher ever possessed." ^ ' Lord Brougham's Speeches, Edinburgh, 1838, vol. ii., p. 988, Black's Edition. Brougham and Bentham were well acquainted. In a sense Brougham was one of Bentham's disciples. Both aspired to be law re- formers. Indeed, Brougham's most useful labors in Parliament were directed towards law reform. There were, however, radical diflFerences of opinion between Bentham and Brougham as to the best method of effecting the desired improvement. These differences naturally arose out of the difference in the situation and surroundings of the two men. Bentham, though he was regularly bred to the law and called to the bar, never pursued the profession. Bentham thus summarized his own career as a practising lawyer : " I never pleaded in public. On my be- ing called to the bar, I found a cause or two at nurse for me. My first thought was how to put them to death; and the endeavors were not, I believe, altogether without success. Not long after a case was brought to me for my opinion. I ransacked all the codes. My opinion was right according to the codes; but it was wrong according to a manuscript unseen by me and inaccessible to me, — a manuscript containing the re-
 * ' stances of society, to the wants of men, and to the promo-