History of University College London pass the Commons. A third bill was introduced in the Lords in February 1898 and finally passed both houses, despite a number of blocking amendments, receiving Royal Assent on 12 August. The University of London was reformed under the University of London Act 1898 to become a federal teaching university for London while retaining its position as an examining body for colleges outside of the capital. UCL became a school of the University "in all faculties". The philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), advocate of Utilitarianism, is often credited with being one of the founders of the original 'University of
Jeremy Bentham came to expressing it was in the form "the good and happiness of the members, that is the majority of the members of any state, is the great standard by which every thing relating to that state must finally be determined". The "greatest happiness principle", or the principle of utility, forms the cornerstone of all Bentham's thought. By "happiness", he understood a predominance of "pleasure" over "pain". He wrote in "The Principles of Morals and Legislation": Bentham was a rare major figure in the history of philosophy to endorse psychological egoism. Bentham was a determined opponent of religion. Crimmins observes: