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163.: malthus to ricardo2[Reply to 162] - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 7 Letters 1816-1818 [1816]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 7 Letters 1816-1818.

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.


163.

malthus to ricardo2
[Reply to 162]

My dear Sir,

I could not write on friday, and the intervention of saturday has delayed my answer another day. I shall have great pleasure in being with you in Brook Street, the end of the week, but I fear it must be for a shorter, rather than a longer time than usual; and Mrs. Malthus is expecting her father, and will not be able to accept Mrs. Ricardo’s kind invitation. I shall be very happy to dine with Mr. Blake on friday if I can get to Town on that day, but it is not quite certain; and perhaps Mr. Blake will have the goodness to allow the engagement to remain in this state. I think it probable that I may be obliged to return on monday. I would not wish you therefore to ask a party on my account on that day; but I shall be very happy to meet Mr. Mill and Mr. Warburton on sunday. With a view to any discussion on subjects of Political Economy it is difficult to proceed with a party of more than three or four.

You say nothing of your daughter’s marriage.3 I understand they are gone to spend a short time abroad, which I think is a very agreeable plan. I hope they set off in good spirits, and that you have had favourable accounts from them since. You and Mrs. Ricardo must necessarily feel the vacancy in your family occasioned by the separation of your two amiable and accomplished eldest daughters, so soon after each other; but they will both be settled so near you, as to make up in the best manner possible for their loss from the domestic circle.

I hardly ever meet with the Sun, and have not therefore seen Torrens letters. I hope the third reading of the Restriction bill will not take place tomorrow, as it will be awkward for Horner’s motion to come on after the question of Restriction has been decided.1 I really think that if we don’t pay in Specie now, we shall never do it. In the present temper of the Country with regard to Currency, I should not wonder, if a fresh separation between gold and paper should take place, and the ministers should encourage it, as a preparation for an alteration in the coinage.

I have not been a bit more diligent than you. Having given up the idea of a new edition2 this season, I suppose I have thought myself privileged to be idle. At least I can give no other account of the matter.

I cannot help thinking that the reason why with your clear head, you find a difficulty in your progress is that you are got a little into a wrong track. On the subject of determining all prices by labour, and excluding capital from the operation of the great principle of supply and demand, I think you must have swerved a little from the right course. But on this point of course you differ from me.

Mrs. Malthus begs to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Ricardo.

Ever truly Yours

T R Malthus

[2 ]Addressed: ‘D. Ricardo Esqr / Upper Brook Street / Grosvenor Square’.—MS in R.P.

[3 ]See above, p. 13, n. 1.

[1 ]On 1 May Horner moved ‘that a select committee be appointed to enquire into the expediency of restoring the Cash Payments of the Bank of England’; the motion was defeated by 146 votes to 73. The third reading of the bill to continue the Bank Restriction for two years took place on 3 May.

[2 ]Of the Essay on Population.