Principles of Morals and

Principles of Morals and Legislation/165
tion of the public wealth. Thirdly, with regard to the sources or funds
from whence these instruments, howsoever applied, must be derived,
such of them as come under the denomination of persons must be taken
out of the whole number of persons that are in the community, that is,
out of the total population of the state: so that the greater the popula-
tion, the greater may cæteris paribus be this branch of the public wealth;
and the less, the less. In like manner, such as come under the denomina-
tion of things may be, and most of them commonly are, taken out of the
sum total of those things which are the separate properties of the several
members of the community: the sum of which properties may be termed
the the national wealth so that the greater the national wealth, the greater
cæteris paribus may be this remaining branch of the public wealth; and
the less, the less. It is here to be observed, that if the influence exerted on
any occasion by any individual over the operations of the government
be pernicious, it must be in one or other of two ways: 1. By causing, or
tending to cause, operations not to be performed which ought to be
performed; in other words, by impeding the operations of government.
Or, 2. By causing operations to be performed which ought not to be
performed; in other words, by misdirecting them. Lastly, to the total
assemblage of the persons by whom the several political operations above
mentioned come to be performed, we set out with applying the collective
appellation of the government. Among these persons there commonly is
some one person, or body of persons whose office it is to assign and
distribute to the rest their several departments, to determine the conduct
to be pursued by each in the performance of the particular set of opera-
tions that belongs to him, and even upon occasion to exercise his func-
tion in his stead. Where there is any such person, or body of persons, he
or  it may, according as the turn of the phrase requires, be termed the
sovereign, or the sovereignty. Now it is evident, that to impede or mis-
direct the operations of the sovereign, as here described, may be to im-
pede or misdirect the operations of the several departments of govern-
ment as described above.
From this analysis, by which the connection between the several
above-mentioned heads of offences is exhibited, we may now collect a
definition for each article. By offences against external security, we
may understand such offences whereof the tendency is to bring upon the
public a mischief resulting from the hostilities of foreign adversaries.
By offences against justice, such offences whereof the tendency is to
impede or misdirect the operations of that power which is employed in

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166/Jeremy Bentham
the business of guarding the public against the mischiefs resulting from
the delinquency of internal adversaries, as far as it is to be done by
expedients, which do not come to be applied in any case till after the
discovery of some particular design of the sort of those which they are
calculated to prevent. By offences against the preventive branch of the
police, such offences whereof the tendency is to impede or misdirect the
operations of that power which is employed in guarding against mis-
chiefs resulting from the delinquency of internal adversaries, by expedi-
ents that come to be applied beforehand; or of that which is employed in
guarding against the mischiefs that might be occasioned by physical
calamities. By offences against the public force, such offences whereof
the tendency is to impede or misdirect the operations of that power which.
destined to guard the public from the mischiefs which may result from
the hostility of foreign adversaries, and, in case of necessity, in the ca-
pacity of ministers of justice, from mischiefs of the number of those
which result from the delinquency of internal adversaries.
By  offences against the increase of the national felicity, such of-
fences whereof the tendency is to impede or misapply the operations of
those powers that are employed in the conducting of various establish-
ments, which are calculated to make, in so many different ways, a posi-
tive addition to the stock of public happiness. By offences against the
public wealth, such offences whereof the tendency is to diminish the
amount or misdirect the application of the money, and other articles of
wealth, which the government reserves as a fund, out of which the stock
of instruments employed in the service above mentioned may be kept
up. By offences against population, such offences whereof the tendency
is to diminish the numbers or impair the political value of the sum total
of the members of the community. By offences against the national
wealth, such offences whereof the tendency is to diminish the quantity,
or impair the value, of the things which compose the separate properties
or estates of the several members of the community.
XVIII. In this deduction, it may be asked, what place is left for
religion. This we shall see presently. For combating the various kinds of
offences above enumerated, that is, for combating all the offences (those
not excepted which we are now about considering) which it is in man’s
nature to commit, the state has two great engines, punishment and re-
ward: punishment, to be applied to all, and upon all ordinary occasions:
reward, to be applied to a few, for particular purposes, and upon ex-
traordinary occasions. But whether or no a man has done the act which

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