And why not?To answer that question,and to show how a government could be constructed which should desire it,became a main occupation of Bentham's life.Henceforward,therefore,instead of merely treating of penal codes and other special reforms,his attention is directed to the previous question of political organisation;while at times he diverges to illustrate incidentally the abuses of what he ironically calls the 'matchless constitution.'Bentham's principal occupation,in a word,was to provide political philosophy for radical reformers.(100)Bentham remained as much a recluse as ever.He seldom left Queen's Square Place except for certain summer outings.In 1807he took a house at Barrow Green,near Oxted,in Surrey,lying in a picturesque hollow at the foot of the chalk hills.(101)It was an old-fashioned house,standing in what had been a park,with a lake and a comfortable kitchen garden.Bentham pottered about in the grounds and under the old chestnut-trees,codifying,gardening,and talking to occasional disciples.He returned thither in following years;but in 1814,probably in consequence of his compensation for the Panopticon,took a larger place,Ford Abbey,near Chard in Somersetshire.It was a superb residence,(102)with chapel,cloisters,and corridors,a hall eighty feet long by thirty high,and a great dining parlour.Parts of the building dated from the twelfth century or the time of the Commonwealth,or had undergone alterations attributed to Inigo Jones.No Squire Western could have cared less for antiquarian associations,but Bentham made a very fair monk.The place,for which he paid ?315a year,was congenial.He rode his favourite hobby of gardening,and took his regular 'ante-jentacular,and 'post-prandial'walks,and played battledore and shuttlecock in the intervals of codification.
He liked it so well that he would have taken it for life,but for the loss of ?8000or ?10,000in a Devonshire marble-quarry.(103)In 1818he gave it up,and thenceforward rarely quitted Queen's Square Place.His life was varied by few incidents,although his influence upon public affairs was for the first time becoming important.The busier journalists and platform orators did not trouble themselves much about philosophy.But they were in communication with men of a higher stamp,Romilly,James Mill,and others,who formed Bentham's innermost council.Thus the movements in the outside world set up an agitation in Bentham's study;and the recluse was prompted to set himself to work upon elaborating his own theories in various directions,in order to supply the necessary substratum of philosophical doctrine.If he had not the power of gaining the public ear,his oracles were transmitted through the disciples who also converted some of his raw materials into coherent books.
The most important of Bentham's disciples for many years was James Mill,and I shall have to say what more is necessary in regard to the active agitation when I speak of Mill himself.For the present,it is enough to say that Mill first became Bentham's proselyte about 1808.Mill stayed with Bentham at Barrow Green and at Ford Abbey.Though some differences caused superficial disturbances of their harmony,no prophet could have had a more zealous,uncompromising,and vigorous disciple.Mill's force of character qualified him to become the leader of the school;but his doctrine was always essentially the doctrine of Bentham,and for the present he was content to be the transmitter of his master's message to mankind.He was at this period a contributor to the Edinburgh Review;and in October 1809he inserted some praises of Bentham in a review of a book upon legislation by S.Scipion Bexon.The article was cruelly mangled by Jeffrey,according to his custom,and Jeffrey's most powerful vassal,Brougham,thought that the praises which remained were excessive.(104)Obviously the orthodox Whigs were not prepared to swear allegiance to Bentham.He was drawing into closer connection with the Radicals.In 1809Cobbett was denouncing the duke of York in consequence of the Mrs Clarke scandal.Bentham wrote to him,but anonymously and cautiously,to obtain documents in regard to a previous libel case,(105)and proceeded to write a pamphlet on the Elements of the Art of Packing (as applied to Special Juries),so sharp that his faithful adviser,Romilly,procured its suppression for the time.(106)Copies,however,were printed and privately given to a few who could be trusted.Bentham next wrote (1809)a 'Catechism of Parliamentary Reform,'which he communicated to Cobbett (16th November 1810),with a request for its publication in the Register.(107)Cobbett was at this time in prison for his attack upon flogging militia men;and,though still more hostile to government,was bound to be more cautious in his line of assault.The plan was not published,whether because too daring or too dull;but it was apparently printed.Bentham's opinion of Cobbett was anything but flattering.