for granted
on the one side and your philosophy for granted on the other, and then
to prove their necessary connection. But it is, at any rate, important
to see what was the nature of the philosophical assumptions implicitly
taken for granted by Bentham.

The 'rights of man' doctrine confounds a primary logical canon with a
statement of fact. Every political theory must be based upon facts as
well as upon logic. Any reasonable theory about politics must no doubt
give a reason for inequality and a reason, too, for equality. The maxim
that all men were, or ought to be, 'equal' asserts correctly that there
must not be arbitrary differences. Every inequality should have its
justification in a reasonable system. But when this undeniable logical
canon is taken to prove that men actually are equal, there is an obvious
begging of the question. In point of fact, the theorists immediately
proceeded to disfranchise half the race on account of sex, and a third
of the remainder on account of infancy. They could only amend the
argument by saying that all men were equal in so far as they possessed
certain attributes. But those attributes could only be determined by
experience, or, as Bentham would have put it, by an appeal to 'utility.'
It is illogical, said the anti-slavery advocate, to treat men
differently on account of the colour of their skins. No doubt it is
illogical if, in fact, the difference of colour does not imply a
difference of the powers which fit a man for the enjoyment of certain
rights. We may at least grant that the burden of proof should be upon
those who would disfranchise all red-haired men. But this is because
experience shows that the difference of colour does not mark a relevant
difference. We cannot say, _a priori_, whether the difference between a
negro and a white man may not be so great as to imply incapacity for
enjoyment of equal rights. The black skin might--for anything a mere
logician can say--indicate the mind of a chimpanzee. The case against
slavery does not rest on the bare fact that negroes and whites both
belong to the class 'man,' but on the fact that the negro has powers and
sensibilities which fit him to hold property, to form marriages, to
learn his letters, and so forth. But that fact is undeniably to be
proved, not from the bare logic, but from observation of the particular
case.

Bentham saw with perfect clearness that sound political theory requires
a basis of solid fact. The main pur