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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 468.: ricardo to malthus1[Reply to 467] - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823

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468.: ricardo to malthus1[Reply to 467] - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823 [1821]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823.

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.


468.

ricardo to malthus1
[Reply to 467]

My Dear Malthus

Your excuse for not going on with the discussion which you commenced is ingenious, and I ought to be satisfied with it, as it is accompanied with a pretty compliment to me—indeed as pretty an one as could well be paid to a person who is so uniformly your adversary. I however agree with you;—we know each other’s sentiments so well that we are not likely to do each other much good by private discussion.—If I could manage my pen as well as you do yours, I think we might do some good to the public by a public discussion.

I am sorry that I shall be obliged to miss 2 of the Political Economy meetings, as I shall not be in London till towards the latter end of the month of January.

On the 7th. of Decr. I am to dine at Hereford, by invitation, with Hume, at a public dinner, which is to be given to him for the purpose of presenting him a silver tankard, and a hogshead of Cider, in token of the respect and gratitude of the inhabitants of Hereford for his public services. Hume comes from town on the occasion, and is to be met at Ross at 11 oClock in the forenoon, and escorted with due honor into Hereford. I hope every thing will be conducted in an orderly and peacable manner—I have a great aversion to a row.2

I have not yet seen Torrens book, nor shall I see it in all probability till I get to London. Torrens has some concern in the Champion1 in which there is a paper weekly on Polit. Economy. I think these essays are well done, but you probably would not agree with me in that opinion

Ever Yrs.

D Ricardo

[1 ]Addressed: ‘The Rev T. R. Malthus / East India College / Hertford’. Franked by Ricardo ‘November Twenty eight 1821’. MS at Albury.—Letters to Malthus, LXXXI.

[2 ]Ricardo’s speech on this occasion is given above, V, 471 ff.

[1 ]A periodical which, from Sunday, 30 Sept. 1821, had adopted the subtitle ‘Weekly Review of Politics and Political Economy’ and the motto ‘The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number’: at the same time it had begun the publication of a series of articles, numbered progressively, under the general title ‘The Economist’, in which the Ricardian doctrines of Foreign Trade, Rent, Profits, etc., were popularly expounded. These articles were signed at first ‘S. E.’, and later in the year ‘F.’