The utilitarian theory of Jeremy Bentham, an English jurist (1748-1832), who taught that happiness (pleasure) is the object of life and that the highest morality consists in securing the greatest happiness of the greatest number, a formula taken from Priestly. According to this test he found wanting the Established Churches, the New Testament, and religion generally. Though not a practical man, his theories frequently influenced legislation m England and in the United States, and, strange to say, helped to bring about Catholic Emancipation in 1829.