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V: MEETING ON MR. OWEN’S PLAN226 June 1819 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence [1819]

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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.)

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V

MEETING ON MR. OWEN’S PLAN2
26 June 1819

‘A very respectable and numerous meeting of both sexes was held in Freemasons-hall, for the purpose of taking into consideration the plan of Mr. Owen.’ The chair was taken by the Duke of Kent. After a speech of Mr. Owen, who explained his plan for the employment and improvement of the poor, the names of those who were willing to be members of the committee to investigate the plan were announced.3

Mr. Ricardo begged to trouble the Meeting with a few observations. As his name was placed upon the Committee, he should state shortly those circumstances in which he agreed and in which he differed from the preceding speaker. He completely concurred with him in the commendations bestowed upon the illustrious personage who presided at the meeting. It was an example of zeal for the public good, and of benevolent intention, worthy of the highest praise. In a limited degree he thought the scheme likely to succeed, and to produce, where it did succeed, considerable happiness, comfort, and morality, by giving employment and instruction to the lower classes. No person could admire more than he did, or appreciate more highly, the benevolence of his friend (Mr. Owen) to prosecute his plan with so much zeal, and at the expense of so much time and trouble. He could not, however, go along with him in the hope of ameliorating the condition of the lower classes to such a degree as he seemed to expect: nor should he wish it to go forth to the public that he thought that the plan would produce all the good anticipated from it by his sanguine friend. As a member of the Committee, he should do every thing in his power to forward the objects for which it was appointed.

At a subsequent meeting, held at the City of London Tavern on 26 July 1819, the Committee was finally appointed, Ricardo being a member. In August the Committee appealed for the subscription of £100,000 for the establishment of an agricultural and manufacturing community as an experiment on the lines of that at New Lanark. On 1 Dec. 1819, as the subscriptions amounted to less than £8,000, the Committee resigned and in a final resolution urged that the Government should facilitate the experiment by granting a portion of the Crown lands and using the funds raised for the relief of the poor.1

[2 ]Report in The Times, 28 June1819.

[3 ]In a letter to Trower of 8 July 1819 (below, VIII, 45–6), Ricardo explains that he was very reluctant to let his name be on the Committee, as he dissented from all of Owen’s conclusions; he was only persuaded by the entreaties of the Duke of Kent, who assured him that he was ‘not bound to approve, only to examine.’ See also his speech in the House of Commons on 16 Dec. 1819, above, p. 30.

[1 ]See The Life of Robert Owen, written by himself, London, 1858, vol. Ia, pp. 237–50.