[1] A disciple of Helvetius,[2] who saw all society as based on the wants and desires of the individual,[3] Bentham began with a belief in reform through enlightened despotism, before becoming a philosophical radical and supporter of universal suffrage.
In his article in the opening number of the Westminster Review, James Mill dissected the aristocratic nature of the British Constitution, the House of Commons largely nominated by some hundred borough-managers, the landlord culture propped up by the Law and the Church.
[7] His son veered in many respects from his views, but never ceased (in his own words) to consider “the predominance of the aristocratic classes, the noble and the rich, in the English Constitution, an evil worth any struggle to get rid of”.
[8] Some of their remedies – universal suffrage and the ballot – would a century later have become taken-for-granted realities of British life; others – abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, disestablishment of the Church of England[9] – have not yet materialised.
[12] Setting out “to free philosophical radicalism from the reproach of sectarian Benthamism”,[13] J. S. Mill introduced new themes – the dangers of excessive centralisation; of the tyranny of the majority – which laid the broader foundations of British liberalism.