Church-of-Englandism and its Catechism Examined, printed in 1817 and published in 1818, was part of Bentham's sustained attack on English political, legal, and ecclesiastical establishments. Bentham argues that the purpose of the Church's system of education, in particular the schools sponsored by the Church-dominated National Society for the Education of the Poor, was to instil habits of insincerity into the population at large, and thereby protect the abuses which were profitable both to the clergy and the ruling classes in general. Bentham recommends the 'euthanasia' of the Church, and argues that government sponsored proposals were in fact intended to propagate the system of abuse rather than reform it. An appendix based on original manuscripts, which deals with the relationship between Church and state, is published here for the first time. This authoritative version of the text is accompanied by an editorial introduction, comprehensive annotation, collations of several extracts published during Bentham's lifetime, and subject and name indexes.

Drawing upon original manuscripts and The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, this collection represents the latest scholarship on Bentham's late and mature thought on constitutional law. The contributions cover a diverse range of major topics, from official aptitude or competency to the interests of women, and explore Bentham's writings on courts, codification, and cosmopolitanism. Together, its chapters challenge the received notion, based on early jurisprudential writings, that Bentham's constitutional thought is authoritarian, and show that Bentham, as a constitutional theorist, offers a distinctive liberal perspective. Freeing Bentham's theories from their long sentences and unfamiliar terminology, these essays make accessible Bentham's subtle and important ideas on liberal democracy. By shining a light on Bentham's mature thought, this volume offers a refreshingly comprehensive, detailed, and authentic account of Bentham's theory of democracy.

A study of three centuries of radical ideas and activity in English political and social history.