Editing Jeremy Bentham (section)

=== Correspondence and contemporary influences ===
[[File:Jeremy Bentham c.1790.jpg|thumb|Bentham by an unknown artist, {{circa|1790}}.]]
Bentham was in correspondence with many influential people. In the 1780s, for example, Bentham maintained a correspondence with the ageing [[Adam Smith]], in an unsuccessful attempt to convince Smith that interest rates should be allowed to freely float.{{sfn|Persky|2007|p=228}} As a result of his correspondence with [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]] and other leaders of the [[French Revolution]], Bentham was declared an honorary citizen of France.<ref name="ODNB"/> He was an outspoken critic of the revolutionary discourse of [[natural rights]] and of the violence that arose after the [[Jacobin]]s took power (1792). Between 1808 and 1810, he held a personal friendship with [[Spanish American wars of independence|Latin American]] revolutionary [[Francisco de Miranda]] and paid visits to Miranda's Grafton Way house in London. He also developed links with [[José Cecilio del Valle]].<ref name="RubénDarío-1887">{{cite journal|last1=Darío|first1=Rubén|title=La Literatura en Centro-América|journal=Revista de artes y letras|date=1887|volume=XI|page=591|url=http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-86857.html|access-date=25 March 2019|publisher=Biblioteca Nacional de Chile|language=es|id=MC0060418|quote=In Guatemala there was Valle, a man of vast intellect, friend of Jeremías Bentham, with whom he corresponded frequently.  Bentham sent him shortly before dying a lock of his hair and a golden ring, shiny as José Cecilio's style.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Laura Geggel |title=Oddball Philosopher Had His Mummified Body Put on Display … and Now His Rings Are Missing |url=https://www.livescience.com/63551-philosopher-jeremy-bentham-missing-rings.html |access-date=26 March 2019 |work=[[Live Science]] |date=11 September 2018 |quote="We can safely assume that [Guatemalan philosopher and politician] José del Valle received one, as he is featured wearing it in a portrait", Causer said. "Interestingly, on the bookshelf of that portrait is one of Bentham's works, as well as a Spanish translation of Say's 'Traité d'économie politique.' It's a neat, tangible link between Bentham, Say and del Valle."}}</ref>

In 1821, [[John Cartwright (political reformer)|John Cartwright]] proposed to Bentham that they serve as "Guardians of Constitutional Reform", seven "wise men" whose reports and observations would "concern the entire Democracy or Commons of the United Kingdom". Describing himself, among the names mentioned which also included [[Francis Burdett|Sir Francis Burdett]], [[George Ensor]], and Sir [[Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet|Matthew Wood]], and as a "nonentity", Bentham declined the offer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bentham |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01UWAQAAIAAJ |title=The Works of Jeremy Bentham: Memoirs of Bentham |date=1843 |publisher=W. Tait |location=London |pages=522–523 |language=en}}</ref>