Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/517

 15. DILLON: INFLUENCE OF BENTHAM 503 Bowring once remarked to Talleyrand, " Of all modern " writers, Bentham was the one from which most had been " stolen, and stolen without acknowledgement." *' True," re- plied Talleyrand ; " et pille de tout le monde, il est tou jours " riche" — " and robbed by everybody, he is always rich." I have thus sought to give a notion of Bentham's intel- lectual qualities, of his times, and of the general character of his writings respecting law and legislation. This has been necessarily an outline view only. It remains to attempt, Ly way of summing up, a critical estimate of the value of his labors, and the nature and extent of the actual influence upon our laws and jurisprudence of his doctrines and writ- ings. If we are to form a sound judgment on this subject, we must not mistake the point of view from which to look at him. To be truly appreciated, Bentham must, as I have already said, be regarded primarily and essentially as a law reformer generally, and specially as a reformer of the then existing law of England. He was bold, courageous, and original. He was the first to expose its defects and to sug- port of I know not what opinion, said to have been delivered before I was born, and looked up, as usual, for the purpose of being kept back or produced according as occasion served." Bentham's solitary habits made nim unfamiliar with practical life, and unable clearly to distinguish the attainable from the unattainable. Brougham, on the other hand, was a man of affairs, acquainted with the world of men, with the world of lawyers, with the temper of Parliament, and able to form a practical judgment concerning matters of legislation. Though a man of liberal views, and with the courage boldly to main- tain them, he had in the matter of law reform not a little of the usual conservatism of the lawyer and the prudence and tact of the legislator. Bowring records that in anticipation of Brougham's great speech on Law Reform, Bentham said; "Insincere as Brougham is, it is always worth my while to bestow a day on him. I shall try to subdue him and make something of him. I shall see whether he has any curiosity to assist in tearing the established system of procedure to rags and tat- ters." This was Bentham's notion of the heroic, the destructive nature of the remedy required. Brougham's heralded and famous speech on the Present State of the Law, and which he entitled " Law Reform," was delivered on the seventh day of February, 1828; but the remedy pro- posed by him was to preserve the garment and patch it up, instead of "tearing it to rags and tatters." Two days afterwards Bentham thus records his disgust and disappointment: "Mr. Brougham's mountain is delivered, and behold ! a mouse. The wisdom of the reformer could not overcome the craft of the lawyer. Mr. Brougham, after all, is not the man to set up a simple, natural, and rational administration of