10 OCTOBER 1891, Page 42

A Fragment on Government. By Jeremy Bentham. Edited, with an

Introduction, by F. . C. Montague, M.A. (Oxford.)—The Fragment on Government was published anonymously (with this title) in 1776, when Bentham was in his 29th year. It was a polemic against the views of Blackstone, whose political philosophy Bentham abhorred, while he admired his exposition of jurispru- dence. Mr. Montague republishes it in this volume, prefixing a brief memoir of the author, and a criticism which is not wanting in freedom, and even severity, on Bentham's mental, philosophical, and literary characteristics.