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20.: ricardo to bentham 2 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815 [1810]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815.

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.


20.

ricardo to bentham 2

Dear Sir

I beg you to accept my thanks for your kind communication. I should have been most happy to have passed a few weeks in your neighbourhood, as besides the pleasure of Mr. Mill’s society it would have afforded me the opportunity which I have long desired of procuring the gratification of your acquaintance, but there are obstacles in the way of my wishes which cannot be surmounted. My family is large, and for Mrs. Ricardo’s comfort it would be necessary to have the whole of it with us. She would not be happy if one child were absent. At the present time this would be unattainable unless we were to withdraw the greatest part of our children from school, to which they have, after a long vacation but just returned. I regret that I have been the occasion of so much trouble to you. I trust that on your return to London, to compensate me for my present disappointment, you will give me your company at Mile end,—a pleasure which Mr. Mill has often flattered me with and to which your obliging letter appears to have given me a new claim.

I am Dear Sir with great esteem Your obedt. Servt.,

David Ricardo

J. Bentham, Esqr.

[2 ]Docketed by Bentham: ‘1811, Aug 14, Ricardo (David) Mile End to J.B. Q.S.P. [Queen Square Place] declines the house at Bletchingley.’ Bentham and Mill spent the late summer andthe autumn of this year at Barrow Green, a short way from Bletchingley, in Surrey.

MS in British Museum, Add. 33,544, fol. 549.—Letters to Trower, I.