The Bentham Brothers and Russia: The Imperial Russian Constitution and the St. Petersburg Panopticon by Roger Bartlett (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Bentham Brothers and Russia: The Imperial Russian Constitution and the St. Petersburg Panopticon by Roger Bartlett N. N. Roger Bartlett, The Bentham Brothers and Russia: The Imperial Russian Constitution and the St. Petersburg Panopticon (London: UCL Press, 2022). 302 pp., ill. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-1-80008-238-0. The intricate connections of the brothers Jeremy and Samuel Bentham with Alexander I's Russia are addressed in this book by Roger Bartlett, an emeritus professor at University College London. Consisting of four chapters that are highly disproportionate in length, an introduction, and an epilogue, the study lacks both a clear thesis and a unified narrative, such that the introduction and chapters could each serve as stand-alone articles. Bartlett does, however, present a unifying theme early in the book, which he emphasizes throughout – the pivotal role played by patronage for such ambitious careerists as the Benthams. Whereas Samuel managed to secure the patronage of Potemkin and the Vorontsovs early on, and later gained other supporters, Jeremy won moral encouragement and personal representation that nevertheless did not lead to financial benefits. The brothers shared a role, though, that Bartlett defines as a "projector": "'Projectors' might nowadays be called entrepreneurs or inventors," he writes, "and their 'project' probably a start-up enterprise" (P. 5). Despite Russia being influenced primarily by French culture during this period, Great Britain also exerted an influence, with St. Petersburg hosting British expatriates from its very beginnings and Anglophilia being in vogue since the late eighteenth century. The Benthams were therefore not unique in seeking careers and promoting projects in Russia. But their timing was fraught, as the Napoleonic era's shifting alliances and Alexander I's indecisiveness would subject their career pursuits to false leads, interruptions, and outright reversals. In his introduction, Bartlett limns well the international scene that the Benthams hoped to star in; but one curiosity of the book is that it shows they ended up playing only minor walk-on roles. Failure, not success, characterized the Benthams' activities vis-à-vis Alexandrine Russia, so this book is largely about missed cues, bungled opportunities, and disappointing outcomes. All the book's sections are numbered consecutively starting with the introduction, so the opening chapter is numbered "2." It spans almost a hundred pages and includes numerous digressions. Its main protagonist is Jeremy – a child prodigy, jurist by training and craft, and fountainhead of the philosophy of utilitarianism, [End Page 199] who tried to secure an authorial role in Alexander I's inchoate project to codify Russia's laws. To represent him, he relied on the Frenchman Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont, his collaborator, popularizer, and editor, as well as a habitué of Russian aristocratic society. Dumont dutifully sang Jeremy's praises to Nikolai Novosil'tsev and others in the government, including a Russian jurist and backstabbing courtier named Gustav Adolf von Rosenkampff. A diary entry from a bit player in the unfolding drama suggests that the estimable Mikhail Speransky, for one, admired Jeremy's expertise. But as both this obscure entry and Bartlett's reliance on Jeremy's letters to Dumont and his brother Samuel suggest, there seems no evidence to show that the Russian government ever took seriously Jeremy's offer to codify its laws. Following several rebuffs and having few Russian contacts to begin with, a resentful Jeremy lashed out when writing to the associates he did have, thus spoiling the possibility that any future proposals he made would be accepted. From the 1820s on, his letters barely mention Russia. Thus, upon finishing this gossipy chapter, the reader concludes that Jeremy and Speransky never corresponded with each other: Jeremy included the latter among addressees to whom he circulated a précis, but apparently never heard back from him. One also assumes that Jeremy had no role in Russia's legal codification: like other legalists, Speransky knew Jeremy's earlier treatises but, while serving under Nicholas I, it was Speransky alone who completed the codification. Moreover, up to his death in 1832, Jeremy increasingly disapproved of the direction taken by Russian jurisprudence. The rest of Bartlett's book deals with Samuel, an inventor and mechanical engineer. Having previously served in Russia during 1780–1791...