John
Gisborne, and the friend of Shelley. Thence he travelled by land to
Kritchev, and settled with his brother at the neighbouring estate of
Zadobras. Bentham here passed a secluded life, interested in his
brother's occupations and mechanical inventions, and at the same time
keeping up his own intellectual labours. The most remarkable result was
the _Defence of Usury_, written in the beginning of 1787. Bentham
appends to it a respectful letter to Adam Smith, who had supported the
laws against usury inconsistently with his own general principles. The
disciple was simply carrying out those principles to the logical
application from which the master had shrunk. The manuscript was sent to
Wilson, who wished to suppress it.[252] The elder Bentham obtained it,
and sent it to the press. The book met Bentham as he was returning. It
was highly praised by Thomas Reid,[253] and by the _Monthly Review_; it
was translated into various languages, and became one of the sacred
books of the Economists. Wilson is described as 'cold and cautious,' and
he suppressed another pamphlet upon prison discipline.[254] In a letter
to Bentham, dated 26th February 1787, however, Wilson disavows any
responsibility for the delay in the publication of the great book. 'The
cause,' he says, 'lies in your constitution. With one-tenth part of your
genius, and a common degree of steadiness, both Sam and you would long
since have risen to great eminence. But your history, since I have known
you, has been to be always running from a good scheme to a better. In
the meantime life passes away and nothing is completed.' He entreated
Bentham to return, and his entreaties were seconded by Trail, who
pointed out various schemes of reform, especially of the poor-laws, in
which Bentham might be useful. Wilson had mentioned already another
inducement to publication. 'There is,' he says, on 24th September 1786,
'a Mr. Paley, a parson and archdeacon of Carlisle, who has written a
book called _Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy_, in quarto,
and it has gone through two editions with prodigious applause.' He fears
that Bentham will be charged with stealing from Paley, and exhorts him
to come home and 'establish a great literary reputation in your own
language, and in this country which you despise.'[255] Bentham at last
started homewards. He travelled through Poland, Germany, and Holland,
and reached London at the beginning of February 1788. He settled at a
littl