Convict Australia and Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham's 'Writings on Australia'

The history of convict transportation, and in particular the emergence of Australia as a political state, is a subject of mounting interest, both within academic circles and among the general public. The critical period was the very end of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, when the opening up of Australia, in the first place for transported felons, and in the next place for free settlers, gave rise to debates about crime and punishment, colonialism, and imperialism. One of the most important contributors to this debate was the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), whose writings on Australia were drawn upon by opponents of convict transportation in order to change the policy of the British government. There is, however, no authoritative and hence satisfactory edition of Bentham's writings on the subject. Hence, the centrepiece of this research is a critical edition of Bentham's 'Writings on Australia', which will form part of the Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, and will be published by the Clarendon Press. Open access versions of the texts will be made freely available online. The volume will contain 'Panopticon versus New South Wales', 'A Plea for the Constitution' (both written in 1802, and eventually published in 1812), and 'Colonization Society Proposal' (written in 1831, but never hitherto published). In the first two texts, Bentham argued that transportation did not fulfil the proper ends of punishment, namely deterrence and reform, and that the policy of transportation was unconstitutional. The printed texts of these two works will be supplemented by the original manuscripts in University College London Library, which contain early drafts and a substantial unpublished addition for 'Plea for the Constitution'. The drafts are particularly important in that they are more radical and confrontational than the printed texts, and show that Bentham may have moderated his views because of fears of prosecution for sedition. In the third text, influenced by Edward Gibbon Wakefield's systematic colonization system, Bentham argues in favour of establishing a free, democratic colony, a project that came to fruition in South Australia. The volume will contain full historical annotation, an editorial introduction, and name and subject indexes. Seminal texts in the history of transportation and colonization will be made available for the first time in an authoritative edition.
The researchers will produce original interpretive scholarship that will investigate (1) the relationship between Bentham's writings on Australia and his penal theory more generally, as well as their place in the development of his political radicalism; (2) the influence and impact of Bentham's ideas on the theory and practice of punishment in convict Australia; and (3) the influence and impact of Bentham's ideas on advocates and opponents of transportation and colonization in the first half of the nineteenth century, which have in turn shaped perceptions of Australian history ever since. A conference will be held with the aim of to assessing still further the significance of the new edition of Bentham's writings, and to stimulate new research on the intellectual history and theory of colonialism, liberalism, and imperialism, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, law, and history. The conference will in turn give rise to a collection of edited essays.
The project will engage the interest of the general public in its research through a regular series of blogs and tweets, a YouTube video highlighting the significance of Bentham's views on convict Australia, and the exploitation of our contacts with the media.

The research programme will aim to engage a potentially extensive non-academic audience consisting of the following groups:

1. Members of the general public interested in the histories of Australia, punishment and transportation, in the life and thought of Jeremy Bentham himself, as well as genealogists and family historians. This group will gain a better understanding of early Australian history, and in particular in relation to the provenance of some of the foundational myths about convict Australia, which were propagated by anti-transportationists influenced by Bentham. Bentham's ideas, in particular those put forward in 'Panopticon versus New South Wales', were greatly influential in the 1830s in undermining the rationale behind the convict colony. Bentham's work inspired those critics motivated by radical, utilitarian, and humanitarian ideals to argue that the convict system was unscientific, arbitrary, and unpredictable, a vastly expensive and corrosive failure, and that New South Wales was little more than a slave colony. The key anti-transportation text, the report of the Select Committee on Transportation of 1837-38 written by its Benthamite chairman Sir William Molesworth, is structured around the arguments made in 'Panopticon versus New South Wales' and is, essentially, an attempt to prove that Bentham had been right all along. This report has long shaped perceptions of convict Australia among the general public, and yet the evidence it used, like that for Bentham's polemic against New South Wales, has been contested. By fully assessing Bentham's case against the colony, the research will not only illuminate his methods and use of evidence, but the tactics adopted by later anti-transportationists.


2. Members of the general public interested in contributing to the generation of research and freely-available digital resources. This group will take advantage of the opportunity to transcribe historic handwriting and at the same time learn the mechanics of XML encoding through the provision of digitised primary sources, and thereby contribute to the production of a prominent online resource and scholarly edition. Many of Bentham's manuscripts have not been read since Bentham wrote them, and so volunteers will have a genuine opportunity to make new and exciting discoveries for themselves. Volunteer transcribers have already helped to identify the third, unpublished section of 'Panopticon versus New South Wales', as well as transcribing a manuscript in which Bentham offers a theoretical justification for the violent overthrow of the Governor of New South Wales.

3. Cultural institutions in Adelaide and South Australia. This group will take advantage of the provision of the authoritative editions of Bentham's 'Colonization Society Proposal', and of the associated interpretive scholarship, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the founding of the colony of South Australia, where Bentham's theories had a major influence. A public event at the State Library of South Australia will focus on Bentham's role as one of the main intellectual inspirations for the foundation of the colony, and an exhibition at UCL's campus in central Adelaide will examine Bentham's influence. We will offer our assistance to the committee for the Mount Lofty Ranges Agrarian Landscape in their application for UNESCO World Heritage status. By more closely linking the region to the utilitarian philosophical movement, we hope to strengthen their case and contribute to their success.