Editor’s NoteEditor’s Note912To Earl Spencer13 August 1793 (Aet 45)

• 13 Aug 1793
• Queen's Square Place Westmr Aug 13th 1793.

My Lord,

It may perhaps be in the recollection of your Lordship, that in the month of Sept:r 1782, in virtue of the Statute 19th Geo: 3. pg 446ch. 74, commonly called the Penitentiary Act, a piece of land at Battersea-Rise, wherein the late Earl your father and the Archbishop of York in right of his See were jointly interested, was, after great consideration pitched upon as the fittest possible to be purchased for the site of the then intended Penitentiary-Houses, the value assessed by a Jury at £6,600, and everything done towards the completion of the purchase, and the paying of the money, which was to have been issued out of the Treasury. The documents, communicated to me by the Sollicitor of the Treasury, lie before me. The Penitentiary system was a subject to which I had turned my thoughts as early as Howard, or, I believe, any body whom he has left behind, and at length some new ideas in Architecture have enabled me to form a plan for carrying into execution the spirit of that system, with some alterations and additions, which in the eyes of his Majesty's Ministers, as well as of the gentlemen to whom the execution of it was at that time to have been committed, have appeared in the light of improvements: and the plan, after having been mentioned in Parliament by Sir. C. Bunbury, has been honoured by the acceptance of Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas. The cost of building which when added to that of fitting up and stocking, could not on the former plan, have been set at less than £250,000, is upon the present plan struck off at a stroke, together with almost half the present annual disbursement for maintenance. The Prisoners are to be maintained, the Buildings erected and the Land paid for, on my account, though the purchase money is to be advanced by Government in the first instance. The intention was accordingly to have issued the money immediately out of the Treasury, and to have taken possession of the Land as a matter of course, under that Act, and in execution of the Inquest of the Jury. It occurred to me however, that considering the increase of national prosperity, and consequent diminution in the value of ready money, what was an adequate price then, could scarcely, notwithstanding the present depression, be deemed so now. I accordingly declared to Administration my readiness to make up what supplemental compensation might be deemed equitable, at my own charge, and for that purpose requested that a proportionable sum might eventually be added to the advances to be made to me. The request, (together with a similar one for the benefit of the occupying Tenants, for whose interests I could find no provision made in the Act) was acceded to as soon as made: and the answer given was, that to save time the price originally fixed by the Jury should be paid, and possession taken pg 447instanter, but that, for the benefit of the Proprietors, a new valuation should be made at any time, if they desired it.

When everything was agreed upon, and Articles in form on the point of being signed, doubts suggested themselves to Administration, how far they could be warranted in this part of the design, by the letter of that Act: and it was accordingly determined to avoid if possible the grounding any proceeding upon it, and instead of doing so, to bring in a special Bill for the occasion: a measure which they have been pleased to intimate to me their determination of taking at the very commencement of the next Session, regretting that it was not taken in the last. Mr. Nepean accordingly in announcing to me that determination expressed his intention of waiting immediately upon your Lordship (as well as the Archbishop) with a view of stating how much the public service was interested in the immediate acquisition of the Ground, before the forms of Parliament could be gone through with, and in requesting accordingly your Lordship's concurrence for that purpose. Upon my expressing my suspicion that your Lordships present residence might not be within the limits of any excursion which it would be possible for him to make, he then desired that as the business must be done by writing, and the circumstances were more present to my mind then they could be to his (not to mention his own situation, overwhelmed as was but too visible, with business) I would take that charge upon myself. It is to this circumstance that your Lordship owes the being addressed on this public occasion by a private hand, which has not the honour to be known to you.

Under this disadvantage, though it was impossible for me to decline a business which is so much my own, I could not but feel no small degree of embarrassment. The compliance I am thus reduced to the necessity of requesting is a favour, a very essential and valuable favour, but to which in my personal capacity I cannot make the smallest title. With regard indeed to the passing of a Bill so supported and so much in course, a Bill which subjects the Proprietors to no obligation, to which they have not already been subjected under the former Act, and of which the effect is confined to the alteration of a circumstance altogether foreign to their interests, it would be affectation in me to express any doubts of what would be done by Parliament, or to pretend to suppose that any concurrence on the part of individuals could be looked upon as necessary. But with respect to the immediate possession, which is the object of the liberty I have presumed to take, we are altogether in the hands of your Lordship and his Grace. Even here, were the pg 448public alone concerned, it would be injustice to your Lordship's personal character, not less than to your public and exalted station, to presume anything like hesitation on your part. But, the fact is, and it would be equally disingenuous and fruitless for me to attempt to dissemble it, that between the interest of the public and my own personal interest, there is on the present occasion (what it has been my study to effect throughout) an inseparable connection insomuch that to avoid the prejudice that would result from the delay, and to obtain the advantages that would accrue from the gaining so much time, I may be well called upon and am perfectly well content, to pay—for example to the amount of four hundred pound—provided I could have possession before the week were at an end: which sum, being added to the originally-assessed price of £6,600, would make ££7,000: and this to be paid on taking possession over and above whatever sum may be awarded in the nature of a supplemental compensation, the estimate to be made, either by a Jury or by private reference in the usual mode, at the option of the Proprietors, and in either case to be dispatched with every degree of expedition that depended upon me.

About a month ago, one day when Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas were honouring me with a call at my house, I happened to let drop in conversation, that by means of some mechanical assistances, similar to some to the use of which they had been witnesses, I would not absolutely despair of being in readiness to receive my Prisoners by the meeting of Parliament:—in consequence they desired me to begin my arrangements immediately, though at that time nothing was signed nor so much as specifically settled: and now I am urged to have the buildings in readiness in six months, under a penalty of five thousand pounds. Five years was the shortest time looked to under the former plan: nine hundred, the number of the Prisoners:—I am to receive a thousand. This will help your Lordship to conceive, how material, at a season which will soon be precarious, a single day may be.

The putting the matter upon the footing of a fresh valuation, a mode of considering it, which supersedes the necessity of recurring to the present rent, or to any other particular circumstances that may have an influence upon the value, will I should humbly presume, supersede thereby the necessity on the part of your Lordship of any previous reference to any Steward or Law-Agent, a measure scarcely compatible with the degree of dispatch I am obliged to sue for: and it is this consideration that with-holds me from making the offer of any specific sum a liberty I might other-pg 449wise have hazarded, though under the ignorance I am in with respect to the rental and other circumstances, it could not have been other than a very random cost.

Whether the estate be in settlement or no makes no sort of difference. In either case your Lordship is equally competent to give present possession, which is all that is at present wanted: for in short a simple acquiescence until the Act can be passed would answer every purpose: and in either case an Act of Parliament will be equally necessary, both on account of the interest of the Archbishop, and to take the Land out of the hands of the subsisting Act.

I wrote by a former post to his Grace, as being at the greatest distance: more copiously as to some points, less so as to others, as having the honour to be not absolutely unknown to him. To him I inclosed some papers expressive of the concurrence of the originally appointed Supervisors: a concurrence which, as far as Sir C. Bunbury was concerned, had indeed already been expressed in the House of Commons. My original Proposal, if I can get a copy ready time enough, shall wait upon your Lordship by the next post, if not by the present, together with a printed but unpublished book in which the principles whereon the plan is grounded are developped at large. I have the honour to be, with all respect,

• My Lord,                               
• Your Lordships most obedient        
• and humble Servant         
• Jeremy Bentham.         

P.S. Any commands your Lordship may have for me in relation to this business may be addressed either to me as above, or to Mr Nepean alone, or to me, sealed or open under cover to Mr Nepean.

I send a copy to the Archbishop.

Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer.