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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 187.: mill to ricardo1[Reply to 185.—Answered by 188] - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 7 Letters 1816-1818

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187.: mill to ricardo1[Reply to 185.—Answered by 188] - 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.


187.

mill to ricardo1
[Reply to 185.—Answered by 188]

My dear Sir

My impatience has put you to the expence of two letters, which I regret, as I do all useless expence. The parcel is here, at last, safe. It had remained, as I imagined at Taunton. I shall fall to its contents tomorrow morning, with great avidity. You may count upon my telling you exactly what I think of it. In the mean time, however, it is your business, to work as hard as you can; till you have completely accomplished what you tell me in your letter is your first object—namely, to get down upon paper a complete system of ideas upon the subject. That is right. This is exactly the proper mode of proceeding. This you are more competent to do than any body; and when this is done, it will be easy to make you see, how all the rest is to be done. I am happy to hear you are upon taxation; and shall be curious to see what comes forth, as soon as it is done. That is a point closely connected with some of the most abstruse principles of the science.

We have here had two most dreadful days—or at least we have had all yesterday and this morning very dreadful. I hardly ever saw rain fall in such torrents; and blown at the same time with great violence. This day all our rivulets are rivers; and the roads overflown. We had previously a fortnight of good harvest weather—and the corn here is mostly got in. For want of sun to ripen it, a great deal of it however will not be productive—and prices will be high. Is there much suffering about you? I do not mean of the farmers, at present, whose suffering is only that of comparative poverty —but of the people who live by the daily work of their hands; and whose suffering means, starvation and death. Here the quantity is great—and our clergyman, who is also a magistrate and a good man, tells me that the decisions which as a magistrate he is obliged to make, in the case of applications for parochial aid, render his life a burthen to him—as it is giving to a man who is starving, by taking from others, the mass of the parishioners, who are but one degree removed from the starving condition.

You will now, I suppose, be partly free from visitations and from interruption. And you have two good months for exertion before the time when you will think of returning to London. I have no doubt that good fruits will be derived from them.

Believe always truly Yours

J. Mill

[1 ]Addressed: ‘David Ricardo Esq. / Gatcomb Park / Minchinhampton / Gloucester Shire’.—MS in R.P.