LECTURE XVII. BENTHAM-CLASSIFICATION OF OFFENSES CONTINUED. I HAVE been considering Mr Bentham's classification of offenses the primary classes of that arrangement, Private Offenses, Semi-Public, Public, and Self-regarding Offenses, with an Appendix for Offenses of Falsehood and Offenses against Trust and I have considered the Divisions of the First Class, according to his Heads, of Person, Property, Reputation and Condition. As I have already said, it appears to me that the Head of Condition, introduced by him, is not really very useful; being included in other relations, especially those of Family and Government; and that the Head of Contract, which he omits, is really necessary; and thus we were led to prefer, to this arrangement of Offenses, the one which we have given, of Offenses against Person, Property, Contract, Rights of Family, and Rights of Government. This disposes of Bentham's First Class, Private Offenses, or Offenses against Individuals. I have already said that his leading division, Private Offenses, Semi-Public, Public, and Self-regarding, is a good and convenient one. Each of these classes will undergo subdivision, according to the Heads already noted for Private Offenses; namely, Person, Property, &c. But not any very large number of these genera require separate treatment, or indeed are really exact. A few examples only need be noted. The scheme is given below*. I. Against Person. a. SEMI-PUBLIC OFFENSES. Through Calamity produced by imprudence or omission. 1 Pestilence or Contagion. (Value of Classification of Offenses.) Of the value of a complete systematic arrangement of Offenses in a natural 2 Simple Injurious 1 Offensive Trades. Poisoning springs, destroying fences, &c. as by threats for joining or forcing to join in illuminations, acclamations, undertakings, processions, restraint 3 Simple Injurious compulsion 4 Confinement by spoiling roads, bridges, ferries, pre-oc5 Banishment cupying carriages or inns, &c. 6 Menacement against particular denominations, as Jews, Catholics, Protestants. 7 Distressful, horrifying, obscene, blasphemous exposures. II. Against Property. III. 1 Wrongs against Property of a Corporate Body. Person and Reputation. IV. Person and Property. 1 Incendiarism. 2 Criminal Inundation. V. Condition in Marriage. Falsehoods or offenses against Classes of Marriages. I. Person. SELF-REGARDING OFFENSES. 1 Fasting. On Continence. Self-torture. 2 Gluttony, &c. 3 Suicide. II. Reputation. 1 Female Incontinency. 2 Incest. III. Person and Property. 1 Idleness. order, there can be no doubt. As Bentham himself says on this point, "The particular uses of method are various, but With regard to Public Offenses, Mr Bentham takes a wider range, and makes an independent arrangement (in a note to Par. LIV.) Offenses against the external security of the State. I. 2 Espionage in favour of foreigners. 3 Injuries to foreigners (Piracy). 4 Injuries to privileged foreigners (as ambassadors). II. Offenses against Justice. III. IV. 1 Against Judicial Trust, non-investment, interception, &c. (as before). Breach of Judicial Trust. But "the offences are too multifarious and too ill-provided with names to be examined here." Evils resulting from these offenses. Offenses against the Preventive Branch of the Police. 1 Against phthano-paranomic trust. 2 Against phthano-symphoric trust. Offenses against the Public Force. 1 Offenses against the military trust, desertion, &c. polemo-tamicutic trust. V. Offenses against the Positive Increase of the National Felicity 3 Against Noso-comial trust. 4 Against Moro comial trust. 5 Against Ptocho-comial trust. 6 Against Antembletic trust. VI. Offenses against the Public Wealth. 1 Non-payment of forfeitures. 2 Non-payment of taxes. the general one is, to enable men to understand the things that are the subject of it." And he mentions at the end of Chap. xviii. (¶ 57) the reason why he calls his a Natural Method, and the advantages which it procures :—namely, 1. That it assists the apprehension and memory. 2. That it makes general propositions possible. (It is curious that Bentham should have stumbled upon that which is given by the best natural historians, Cuvier for instance, as the condition and mark of a natural method.) 3. That the place of an offense 3 Evasion of taxes. 4 Offenses against fiscal trust. 5 Offenses against demosio-tamieutic trust. VII. Offenses against Population. 1 Emigration. 2 Suicide. 3 Procurement of impotence or barrenness. 5 Unprolific coition. 6 Celibacy. VIII. Offenses against the National Wealth. 1 Idleness. 2 Breach of the regulations made in the view of preventing the application of industry to purposes less profitable, &c. 3 Offenses against ethno-plutistic trust. IX. Offenses against the Sovereignty. 1 Offenses against Sovereign trust. X. Offenses against Religion. XI. 1 Offenses tending to weaken the force of the religious sanction. 2 Offenses tending to misapply the force of the religious sanction. 3 Offenses against religious trusts. Offenses against the National Interest. 1 Immoral Publications. 2 Offenses against the trust of an ambassador. 3 Offenses against the trust of a privy counsellor. 4 Prodigality on the part of persons who are about the sovereign. 5 Excessive gaming on the part of the same persons. 6 Taking presents from rival powers without leave. in the system suggests the reason of its being put there. 4. That this arrangment will serve for all nations. (¶ 60.) (General Propositions respecting Classes of Offenses). Bentham then proceeds to illustrate further his assertion that this natural method makes general propositions possible, by giving some of the leading distinctions of the Classes of Offenses. Thus the First Class (Private Offenses) when consummated, produce primary mischief (pain,) as well as secondary (alarm and danger;) they affect assignable individuals; they admit of compensation; of retaliation; they produce obvious mischief; are generally and constantly obnoxious to the censure of the world; are little able to require different descriptions in different countries and ages, &c. &c. The Second Class (Semi-public Offenses) produce no primary mischief; do not affect assignable individuals; do not admit of compensation or retaliation; the mischief produced is tolerably obvious, more so than that of Public Offenses; they require, in a greater degree than private offenses, different descriptions in different ages and countries; there may be grounds for punishing them when they do not occasion any mischief to any individual; satisfaction to an individual is not a ground for remitting punishment. And in like manner characters may be given of the other classes, Public Offenses, and Selfregarding Offenses. In all this, there is much that belongs to a true philosophical method. The main defect of Bentham's scheme is the anomaly which he has himself noticed, of making a class determined by the instrument of the offense, Falsehood, co-ordinate with other Classes determined by the persons hurt by the Offense ;-to which I add, as already stated, the further defect, connected in some degree with the former one, which arises from taking the term Condition so widely as he does; so widely, for instance, as to include Contracts of Hiring and Serving (Condition of Master and Servant): the only Con |