Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The successes and failures of British foreign policy from the end of the American war of independence until the outbreak of the conflict with revolutionary France will be familiar, at least in outline, to many students of late-eighteenth-century history. In 1783 Britain was widely regarded as having been reduced to the status of a second-rank power. British ministers, and especially Pitt the Younger and his first foreign secretary, the marquess of Carmarthen, sought a European alliance to end their country's isolation and vulnerability. The Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1786, the product of French rather than British pressure, was of little help in this respect, as it never developed beyond a limited trade agreement. Negotiations for similar reciprocal commercial concessions with other powers all proved fruitless. In 1787 and 1788, however, political and military arrangements were concluded with the Dutch and the Prussians after Prussian troops – with British encouragement and support – had intervened in the United Provinces to secure the position of the house of Orange and to crush the pro-French ‘Patriot’ party. Fortified by this new British – Prussian – Dutch connexion, or Triple Alliance as it was called, Pitt's government was able to exert considerable influence in Europe and farther afield. In 1788, when the Swedes attacked Russia, which was already at war with the Turks, Denmark, in accordance with its treaty obligations to Russia, invaded Sweden. The British and Prussians threatened the Danes and forced them to withdraw. A few months later, in April 1789, renewed Anglo-Prussian pressure compelled Denmark to maintain a strict neutrality in the continuing Russo-Swedish conflict. In 1790 the British were just as successful in a confrontation with Spain over the Nootka Sound in North America. Only when the government backed down during the dispute with Russia over possession of the Turkish fortress of Ochakov on the Black Sea coast, were the limits of British power fully exposed.
1 Bentham's attack on Pitt has been noticed by several Bentham specialists. See particularly, Schwarzenberger, Georg, ‘Bentham's contribution to international law and organization’, Keeton, George W. and Schwarzenberger, Georg (eds.), Jeremy Bentham and the law: a symposium (London, 1948), pp. 173–4Google Scholar; Stark, Werner (ed.), Jeremy Bentham's economic writings (3 vols., London, 1952–1954), I, 38–48Google Scholar; Mack, Mary, Jeremy Bentham: an odyssey of ideas 1748–1792 (London, 1962), pp. 398–400Google Scholar; Burns, J. H., ‘Bentham and the French Revolution’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series xvi (1966), 101Google Scholar.
2 ‘Protest International’, marginals, Bentham MSS UC xxv. no, University College London. Bentham's marginal notes were written on paper divided into columns and contain either summaries of text that he had already written or indications of what he intended to write.
3 British Library shelf no. CT 57(2). A fragmentary draft for the first Anti-Machiavel, dating from early June 1789 (Bentham MSS UC clxix. 163) mentions the ‘harmless reveries of Sir John Dalrymple’. By this Bentham almost certainly meant Dalrymple's Queries, which had been published by April 1789 (see the contributions on the Prussian Alliance in The Public Advertiser in April 1789 – apparently by Dalrymple himself-announcing the appearance of the Queries). Bentham had therefore probably read the Queries by early June 1789. But his annotations seem to be of a later date. On page 49 of his copy he made reference to his own ‘Plan for perpetual peace’, which, as I shall try to show, grew out of his criticism of Pitt's foreign policy.
4 An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation, ed. Burns, J. H. and Hart, H. L. A. (The collected works of Jeremy Bentham (London, 1970), p. 296Google Scholar.
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6 The correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, vol. III, ed. Christie, Ian R. (London, 1971), p. 126Google Scholar (henceforth Correspondence, III).
7 ‘Projet forme entre-gens’, Bentham MSS UC xxxiii. 81–2; ‘Vue général d'un corps complet de Législation’, Traités de législation civile et pénale, ed. Dumont, P. E. L. (2 vols., Paris, 1802), I, 328–31Google Scholar.
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11 ‘Prefat’, Bentham MSS UC xxvii. 141. Frederick's work was originally published as Examen du prince de Machiavel, avec des notes historiques et politiques (The Hague, 1740)Google Scholar. It appeared shortly before Frederick's troops marched into Austrian Silesia; a piece of Realpolitik worthy of Machiavelli himself.
12 Bentham MSS UC XXVII 106, 114 See also his draft of an unsent letter, probably dating from late 1776, The correspondence ofJeremy Bentham, vol I, ed Spngge, T L S (London, 1968), p 366Google Scholar (henceforth Correspondence, 1), and further drafts at Bentham MSS UC clxix 27–35
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17 Ibid. p. 76. Lansdowne's own intervention was a long time coming. On 13 Dec. 1790 he reviewed foreign policy in the Lords and condemned the abandonment of a pacific approach since the death of Frederick the Great. See Parliamentary History, xxviii, 941–2.
18 Correspondence, iv, 74.
19 Bentham to Lansdowne, 17 June 1789, ibid. p. 73.
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21 Indeed, his attitude always remained somewhat ambivalent. Later indications of Bentham's desire to gain social acceptance at the highest levels are scattered throughout his letters to his secretary John Herbert Koe. In Sept. 1817, for instance, he was most concerned that Ford Abbey (his country seat, then in Devon, now in Dorset) should be well stocked with silver cutlery in preparation for a visit by Sir Samuel and Lady Romilly. ‘Whe n the quality are gone’, Bentham wrote, ‘the silver shall be honestly returned’. Bentham to Koe, 6 Sept. 1817, Koe MSS, in the possession of Mrs B. Hyde-Smith, Wilbraham Temple, Great Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire.
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29 See the notes by Pitt on foreign affairs, n.d. (1791?), Chatham papers, P.R.O. 30/8/195, fos. 49–53.
30 I hope on another occasion to be able to examine the influence that Bentham's writings on international matters might have exerted on nineteenth-century liberal opinion.
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33 Bowring, , The works of Jeremy Bentham, x, 207–11Google Scholar, where it is incorrectly described as the third Anti-Machiavel.
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35 Bowring, , The works of Jeremy Bentham, X, 201–5Google Scholar, incorrectly described as the first.
36 Ibid. 205–6, where it is called the second.
37 British Library shelf no. CT 57(2), p. 9.
38 Ibid. p. 10.
39 Ibid. pp. 37, 49.
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55 Ibid. p. 109.
56 Ibid. p. 106.
57 Ibid. p. 109.
58 The changes in the title of the proposed pamphlet give some impression of the development of his ideas. At various times it was to be called: ‘A protest against Machiavelism or considerations on the conduct of the British cabinet toward foreign states’ (Bentham MSS UC xxv. 123); ‘International principles and measures’, ‘New principles and measures respecting distant dependencies and foreign politics’ (ibid. p. 134); ‘Mischief of foreign dependencies and alliances plan for peace and economy’ (ibid. p. 106).
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