ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of Jeremy Bentham's fundamental thinking with regard to the relief of indigence. It addresses the connection between the conditions attached by Bentham to the relief of indigence and the moral reformation of those relieved. The notion of relieving poverty was for Bentham a self-evident absurdity, the relevant question related to responsibility of government for the relief of indigence, for the provision of subsistence to those who without such provision would starve to death. Bentham was only too well aware of the basic weakness of common humanity in supplying a reliable motive for relief, and a solid justification for the public provision for the relief of indigence. The public provision for the relief of indigence secures those in society with something to lose, against the attacks and depredations of those who, facing starvation, have nothing to lose. Bentham was by no means alone in viewing the public relief of indigence as a bulwark against revolution.
