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PREFATORY NOTE - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence [1819]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence 1815-1823.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


plan of the edition

  • volumeI. Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
  • II. Notes on Malthus
  • III. Pamphlets and Papers, 1809–1811
  • IV. Pamphlets and Papers, 1815–1823
  • V. Speeches and Evidence
  • VI. Letters, 1810–1815
  • VII. Letters, 1816–1818
  • VIII. Letters, 1819–June 1821
  • IX. Letters, July 1821–1823
  • X. Biographical Miscellany
  • XI. General Index

LIST OF SPEECHES

  • speeches in the house of commons
  • Poor rates misapplication bill, 25 March 1819 page 1
  • First Report from the Bank of England committee—Cashpayments bill, 5 April 1819 2
  • Mr. Lyttelton’s motion respecting state lotteries, 4 May 1819 3
  • Sinking fund, 13 May 1819 4
  • Poor rates misapplication bill, 17 May 1819 6
  • Bank of England—Resumption of cash payments, 24 and 25 May 1819 7
  • Exchequer bills, 2 June 1819 18
  • The Budget, 9 June 1819 20
  • Bank advances bill, 16 June 1819 23
  • Excise duties bill, 18 June 1819 23
  • Seditious meetings prevention bill, 6 December 1819 28
  • Sir W. de Crespigny’s motion respecting Mr. Owen’s plan, 16 December 1819 30
  • Motion for papers respecting the Bank of England and Exchequer bills, 22 December 1819 35
  • Petition of the merchants of London respecting commercial distress, 24 December 1819 37
  • Commercial restrictions—Petition of the merchants of London, 8 May 1820 42
  • Agricultural distress, 12, 25 and 30 May 1820 47
  • Irish protecting duties, 2 and 8 June 1820 57
  • Loan—Ways and means, 9 June 1820 58
  • Bank of England accounts, 13 June 1820 62
  • The Budget, 19 June 1820 63
  • Committee of supply, 21 June 1820 67
  • Cotton weavers, 28 June 1820 68
  • The Coronation, 3 July 1820 69
  • Supply—Bank of Ireland, 2 February 1821 70
  • Trade of Birmingham—Petition of the merchants, 8 February 1821 71
  • Corn averages, 26 February 1821 78
  • State of the revenue—Repeal of the house and window duties, 6 March 1821 79
  • Mr. Gooch’s motion for a committee on agricultural distress, 7 March 1821 81
  • Bank cash payments bill, 19 March 1821 91M
  • Bank cash payments, 28 March 1821 98
  • Public accounts, 29 March 1821 100
  • Agricultural horses tax, 5 April 1821 101
  • Timber duties, 5 April 1821 102
  • Bank cash payments bill, 9 April 1821 105
  • Usury laws, 12 April 1821 109
  • Bank cash payments bill, 13 April 1821 110
  • Timber duties bill, 16 April 1821 110
  • Reform of Parliament, 18 April 1821 112
  • Poor relief bill, 8 May 1821 113
  • Ordnance estimates, 31 May 1821 114
  • The Budget, 1 June 1821 115
  • Ill-treatment of horses bill, 1 June 1821 122
  • Address on the King’s speech at the opening of the session, 5 February 1822 123
  • Mr. Brougham’s motion on the distressed state of the country, 11 February 1822 124
  • Savings banks, 18 February 1822 128
  • Motion for a committee on the agricultural distress,
  • 18 February 1822 129
  • Ways and means, 22 February 1822 138
  • Navy five per cents, 25 February 1822 140
  • Agricultural distress, 5 March 1822 141
  • Banks of England, and of Ireland, 8 March 1822 143
  • Distress in Canada, 13 March 1822 144
  • Motion respecting the simplifying and better arrangement of the public accounts, 14 March 1822 145
  • Mr. Curwen’s motion respecting the duties on tallow and candles 20 March 1822 146
  • Extra post—Petition of Mr. Burgess, 2 April 1822 148
  • Agricultural distress, 3 April 1822 148
  • Agricultural distress and the financial and other measures for its relief, 29 April 1822 155
  • Naval and military pensions, 1 and 3 May 1822 160
  • Agricultural distress report, 7, 9 and 13 May 1822 162
  • Absentees, 16 May 1822 186
  • Colonial trade bill, 17 May 1822 188
  • Navigation bill, 20 May 1822 190
  • Naval and military pensions, 24 May 1822 191
  • Bank charter, 31 May 1822 193
  • Naval and military pensions, 3 June 1822 193
  • Corn importation bill, 3 and 10 June 1822 195
  • Navigation bill, 4 June 1822 197
  • Mr. Western’s motion concerning the resumption of cash payments, 12 June 1822 198
  • Labourers’ wages, 17 June 1822 218
  • Irish butter trade, 20 June 1822 218
  • Warehousing bill, 21 June 1822 220
  • The Budget, 1 July 1822 220
  • Mr. Western’s motion respecting the altered state of the currency, 10 July 1822 223
  • Foreign trade of the country, 12 February 1823 246
  • Bank balances, 18 February 1823 247
  • Financial situation of the country, 21 February 1823 248
  • Agricultural distress—Surrey petition, 26 February 1823 251
  • Mr. Whitmore’s motion respecting the corn laws, 26 February 1823 256
  • Mr. Maberly’s motion for the reduction of taxation, 28 February 1823 259
  • National debt reduction bill, 6, 11 and 14 March 1823 266
  • Merchant vessels apprenticeship bill, 13 March 1823 273
  • Mutiny bill—Foreign relations, 18 March 1823 274
  • Coal duties, 21 March 1823 275
  • Warehousing bill, 21 March 1823 275
  • Merchant vessels apprenticeship bill, 24 March 1823 276
  • Petition from Mary Ann Carlile for release from imprisonment, 26 March 1823 277
  • Crown debtors—Contempt of court, 10 April 1823 281
  • Military and naval pensions bill, 18 April 1823 281
  • Merchant vessels apprenticeship bill, 18 April 1823 282
  • Lord John Russell’s motion for a reform of Parliament, 24 April 1823 283
  • Scotch linen laws, 7 May 1823 290
  • Tallow, 7 May 1823 291
  • Spitalfields silk manufacture acts—Petition for the repeal thereof, 9 May 1823 292
  • Law of principal and factor—Petition for an alteration there of, 12 May 1823 292
  • Importation of tallow—Petition for an additional duty on, 12 May 1823 294
  • Beer duties bill, 12 May 1823 294
  • Silk manufacture bill, 21 May 1823 295
  • East and West India sugars, 22 May 1823 297
  • Malt and beer tax, 28 May 1823 301
  • Wages of manufacturers—Use of machinery, 30 May 1823 302
  • Irish tithes composition bill, 30 May 1823 304
  • Reciprocity of duties, 6 June 1823 305
  • Silk manufacture bill, 9 and 11 June 1823 306
  • Mr. Western’s motion respecting the resumption of cash payments, 11 June 1823 309
  • Beer duties bill, 13 June 1823 322
  • Usury laws repeal bill, 17 June 1823 323
  • Religious opinions—Petition of ministers of the Christian religion for free discussion, 1 July 1823 324
  • Hume’s and Huskisson’s speeches in memory of Ricardo, 12 February 1824 332
  • speeches on various occasions
  • I. General court of proprietors of the Bank of England, 21 March 1811 461
  • II. General court of proprietors of the Bank of England, 21 December 1815 463
  • III. General court of proprietors of the Bank of England, 8 February 1816 465
  • IV. General court of proprietors of the Bank of England, 18 March 1819 466
  • V. Meeting on Mr. Owen’s plan, 26 June 1819 467
  • VI. Gloucester County meeting, 30 December 1820 469
  • VII. Meeting at Hereford in honour of Joseph Hume, 7 December 1821 471
  • VIII. Westminster reform dinner, 23 May 1822 474
  • IX. General court of the East India Company, 12 June 1822 475
  • X. General court of the East India Company, 19 March 1823 478
  • XI. Westminster reform dinner, 23 May 1823 484

PREFATORY NOTE

This volume of Ricardo’s Works is devoted to the spoken word: it contains his speeches in the House of Commons, his evidence before Parliamentary Committees and other speeches and addresses on various occasions. These have never before been collected, or indeed reprinted from the contemporary records. Yet McCulloch, who had experience of Ricardo’s ‘easy, fluent and agreeable’ style of speaking and conversing, held that in clearness and facility ‘his speeches were greatly superior to his publications.’

The volume, apart from the introduction to the Speeches, was to a large extent prepared before the war. Its making-up into page proof was interrupted by war-time restrictions in 1943, and was completed after the end of the war in 1946. The editorial introductions and notes, from the nature of the material, are rather more extensive than in other volumes. More frequent quotation has been made from the unpublished diaries of John Lewis Mallet, and special acknowledgement for permission to do so must be made to the late Sir Bernard Mallet. It has also seemed appropriate to include Lord Brougham’s sketch of Ricardo in Parliament, a first-hand though not unprejudiced view.

In the preparation of this volume much valuable assistance was given by Mrs Barbara Lowe.

p.s.

trinity college cambridgeAugust 1951