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382.: mill to ricardo1[Answered by 383] - 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.


382.

mill to ricardo1
[Answered by 383]

My Dear Sir

The enclosed, along with the vol. of the Supp.,2 I found on my arrival here. The best thing to do was, I thought, to send you the letter, and beg you to hint to me what I should say. As I think it very likely if I were with you, that you would ask me for my opinion, I will take the liberty, to mention it unasked. I think you should accept payment, and say that it is a money which you have pride in receiving; but that you will not accept any thing beyond their common rate of remuneration, whatever it may be. It is I think 10 gs. per sheet. At least, I have received according to that scale, except for the article Govt, for which he has sent me more. I need not waste your time in giving my reasons for this opinion, because you will easily conceive them. If they are not satisfactory to you, it only remains that you tell me your opinion as frankly as I have mentioned mine.

I beg to be most kindly remembered to all mes cheres amies. I make use of a French scrap, for the sake of the feminine gender, because the ladies were principally in my recollection, from whom I have received during the last month so many marks of partiality, and from whose society I have derived so great a degree of pleasure. In using, however, this feminine gender I am far from forgetting Mr. David, of whom I would be bound to make a great deal of all that is good; and to whom I would send my best compts. if I did not know that he will be absent.

Here I found all in good health, and every thing as it should be.

I hear that the procession of the sailors, when they went to address the queen, wore a very imposing aspect—that such a number of that particular kind of men, taking a part, which they never did before, in political matters—men never afraid of the most desperate sort of fighting, and ready to begin a struggle at any time—has excited unusual fears. Lord Wellesley who passed through them going to his bankers, said, if this happens often, the game is at an end.

A letter which came here on thursday from Mc.Culloch1 (I suppose about his dinner) Mrs. M. who thought it might be of importance, has I understand troubled you by enclosing.

A meeting is in preparation for framing an address to the queen, upon the present state of her prosecution, to be presented by the inhabitants of the Metropolis generally, by a procession of coaches. It is expected that every coach in London will be in requisition. The Marybone procession they say was such as to warrant such an expectation.

Mr. Bentham, whom I have not yet seen, is well.

Most truly yours

J. Mill

[1 ]MS in R.P.

[2 ]Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. iv, part ii, containing the articles ‘Funding System’, by Ricardo, and ‘Government’, by Mill. The enclosure (a letter from Napier) is wanting.

[1 ]No doubt William McCulloch (see below, p. 251, n. 1). On Thursday, 14 September, Mill was still at Gatcomb.