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269.: ricardo to sharp1 - 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.


269.

ricardo to sharp1

Dear Sharp

When I yesterday saw your name on the outside of your letter,2 I hoped that its contents would inform me that you designed soon to pay me a visit, instead of which I was sorry to see that there was little probability of your being in Wiltshire, or Gloucestershire, this year. I am concerned to find that Mr. Boddington3 is still suffering from the effects of his accident. From what I had heard I hoped that he had entirely recovered. Should any favourable circumstance occur to render your presence in, or near, London unnecessary, pray let me see you here:— if you would come I am not without hopes that Lord Lansdown would meet you.

I am obliged to you for the interest you take in my fame, and for the pleasure you express on the occasion of the favourable review which my book has received in the Edinburgh Review.4 —I have certainly been much gratified by it, both on account of the clear manner in which the Reviewer has explained my doctrines, and the approbation which he expresses of them. It is satisfactory to know that an able man has so completely understood me. You probably know that the writer of the article on which we are now commenting is Mr. McCulloch, the reputed editor of the Scotsman newspaper.

From what you say, I fear that you have some reason to think, that the Bank will not place themselves in a situation to resume cash payments next year. What possible excuse can now be offered, either by the Bank, or by ministers, for not fulfilling the engagement which they have so solemnly contracted?1

Mr. Mill has been passing a few days with me at Gatcomb, and is very much pleased with our country, although we are not able to shew her in her best dress. Even in the valleys we cannot meet with a field that is green, and in many places the springs are dry, and the cattle are driven miles in search of water.

I hope that you will encounter no other difficulties in your studies but such as will give an agreeable stimulus to exertion, —and make your success more gratifying.

Mrs. Ricardo begs to be kindly remembered. My young ladies are all absent from home.

To-morrow I leave Gatcomb for Gloucester, and shall not return till after our third Assizes, which will commence on monday next.

Ever truly Yrs.

David Ricardo

[1 ]Addressed: ‘Richard Sharp Esqre. M.P. / Mansion House Place / London’.

MS in the possession of the Hon. Mrs Eustace Hills.

[2 ]Sharp’s letter is missing.

[3 ]Samuel Boddington, Sharp’s partner in business and a member of the King of Clubs. (See ThePopeof Holland House, p. 335.)

[4 ]See above, p. 280, n. 2.

[1 ]The ‘excuse’ of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for continuing the suspension of cash payments for another year had been the magnitude of the loans to France which were being negotiated by Baring. (Vansittart’s speech, 9 April 1818, Hansard, XXXVII, 1229 ff.)