This is the eighth volume of the Correspondence produced in the new edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. Nearly three-quarters of the letters included in this eighth volume of Correspondence have not been previously published. During the years covered by this volume, Bentham's Panopticon penitentiary scheme was finally rejected by the government; and his efforts to secure its implementation, and then to gain adequate compensation,
form a major and recurring theme. But the letters do much more than complete the Panopticon saga. They give an insight into Bentham's relations with his editors and followers Etienne Dumont and James
Mill, and provide information on the writing, editing, and in some cases, printing and publishing of works on law, politics, religion, and education. Just as important is the clear impression the correspondence gives of his contacts, especially with the legal and political reformers of the day. Prior to these new volumes, the only edition of Bentham's works was a poorly edited and incomplete one brought out within a decade or so of his death.