Autograph Letter Signed from Jeremy Bentham's amanuensis Richard Doane to the French revolutionary Marc-Antoine Jullien at Paris, conveying information about Bentham, the Earl of Shelburne and E. Dumont; with list of works sent to Jullien by Bentham.
2pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip from mount adhering to margin of verso of second leaf, which is addressed to 'Mr. M. A. Jullien de Paris.' Printed slip from nineteenth-centrury catalogue describing the item laid down on first leaf. Doane begins 'My dear Sir, | Through the medium of M. George (whom I have had the pleasure of seeing since I wrote you last) I send de la part de M. Bentham the following works'. A list of thirteen items follows, from 'Christomathia 2 vols' to 'European Magazine for April 1823'. 'Those which are marked thus * Mr. B. wd. be obliged to you if you wd. transmit them to M. Felix Bodin [(1795-1837), French historian and politician]. According to Doane, the issue of the 'European Magazine' contains 'the best information respecting the life of Bentham, as it was obtained thro' my means: owing to circumstances it never was continued.' Doane ends by describing the circumstances in which Bentham befriended the Earl of Shelburne (later Marquess of Lansdowne): 'It was at Bowood that Bentham first became acquainted with M. E. Dumont, which led subsequently to the appearance of the most admired works of Bentham in french'. For biographical details of Doane see A. A. Doane, 'The Doane Family' (1902). Bentham bequeathed to his 'dear friend and quondam amanuensis and pupil, Richard Doane, barrister-at-law, all his books on English law, and also his organ'. See also 'Notes and Queries', 18 December 1869, in which a friend of Doane's ('An Inner Templar') describes him as, 'when a youth, an inmate of Bentham's house', assisting in the preparation of his works.