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306.: sharp to ricardo2 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 8 Letters 1819-June 1821 [1819]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 8 Letters 1819-1821.

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.


306.

sharp to ricardo2

Dear Ricardo

I am this moment told by Sir Henry Parnell that the Writ left Dublin on the 22d, and of course must have arrived in London, at the Crown Office this morning—

Tomorrow is the day on which the Usury Law will be discussed—3

I advise you to send down in the morning to the Crown Office (near the Rolls) in Chancery Lane, to ascertain it’s arrival, but whether this be ascertained or not, you should go down to the House by ½ past 3 and find some Deputy to take your out of door oath and you must then give in your qualification in writing—Before 4. oClock you must take the oaths and your Seat in the House itself

Yours ever

R. Sharp

As soon as you have taken the Seat, I suppose I am to pay the 1050£—

I see that your dinner on the 6th. March1 is a disloyal opposition to his Majesty the King of Clubs—which always meets on the first Saturday in the month

Mr Grenfell wishes you to call on him in Charles Street at eleven oClock (11 oClock) tomorrow respecting your Seat

[2 ]MS in R.P.—Ricardo was returned as M.P. for Portarlington on 20 Feb. 1819, after Sharp, who had been returned for that borough at the General Election in July 1818, had accepted the Chiltern Hundreds; the date of the letter is inferred from this.

[3 ]On 26 February the report stage of Sergeant Onslow’s Usury Laws Repeal Bill was postponed till 26 April. (Report in The Times, 27 Feb. 1819.)

[1 ]‘6 March 1819.—Evening at Mr. Ricardo’s. Every one full of Mr. Baring’s evidence before the Lord’s Committee. Admirable as to principles; but letting out all sorts of difficulties as to the practicability of resuming Cash payments; and hinting that it cannot be done in less than four or five years. Every one agrees that it is knocking the thing on the head; and that such an extension of time is tantamount to doing nothing. Sharpe [i.e. Richard Sharp] declares that he intends having 2 hours conversation with Alex: Baring to morrow, and leaves you to understand that he will teach him better principles. But my good friend Mr Sharpe is not up to that—. Ricardo looks very blank—.’(J. L. Mallet’s MS Diary.)