Bentham

(Jeremy), writer on ethics, jurisprudence, and political economy, b. 15 Feb. 1748. A grand uncle named Woodward was the publisher of Tindal’s Christianity as Old as the Creation . Was educated at Westminster and Oxford, where he graduated M.A. 1767. Bentham is justly regarded as the father of the school of philosophical Radicalism. In philosophy he is the great teacher of Utilitarianism; as a jurist he did much to disclose the defects of and improve our system of law. Macaulay says he “found jurisprudence a gibberish and left it a science.” His most pronounced Free thought work was that written in conjunction with Grote, published as An Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion , by Philip Beauchamp, 1822. Among his numerous other works we can only mention Deontology, or the Science of Mortality , an exposition of utilitarianism; Church of England ism and its Catechism Examined; Not Paul, but Jesus , published under the pseudonym of Gamaliel Smith. Died 6 June, 1832, leaving his body for the purposes of science. Béranger (Jean Pierre de), celebrated French lyrical poet, b. Paris, 19 Aug. 1780. His satire on the Bourbons twice ensured for him imprisonment. He was elected to the Constituant A embly 1848. Béranger has been compared not inaptly to Burns. All his songs breathe the spirit of liberty, and several have been characterised as impious. He died 16 July, 1857.