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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 469.: mill to ricardo2[Reply to 464.—Answered by 470] - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823

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469.: mill to ricardo2[Reply to 464.—Answered by 470] - 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.


469.

mill to ricardo2
[Reply to 464.—Answered by 470]

My dear Sir

I have at last been able to despatch for you a copy of my Elements,3 though you already know sufficiently what it contains; but I shall be anxious to know, when you have read the whole in print, to what degree you think it calculated to answer the end we design it for, and if any thing, without remaking, which I should hardly submit to, could be done to make it answer it better. We may possibly have in time a call for a second edition, (as 350 copies were subscribed, that is, sold to the booksellers, the first day) unless expectation should unfortunately be disappointed. In some respects I shall value the opinion of the unlearned more than yours. I wish you could make some of the ladies read it. At one time I intended to send, for this purpose, copies to my two friends Mrs. Osman and Miss Ricardo; but I hardly know enough of them to be sure that they would not have thought it imposing an obligation upon them, which they would have deemed a bore, and so I abstained; but if you give me a hint, it shall immediately be obeyed; and as I think they are both perfectly capable of learning the science, I should like very much to excite them to it.1

I have heard nothing of you for a long time, though I confess it is my own fault. I have for five or six weeks been by no means well, and every thing has been a burthen to me. I long adhered to the intention of getting down to you for a few days, but at last, as I shall now have the pleasure of seeing you in a little time in London, I must hope that I shall be able to make up next year for my disappointment in this. Had I sooner decided about my own matters I should have sent John; but now he is engaged with masters, &.c., and must postpone his pleasure, as I do mine.

About public affairs I need not send you my reflections, because you anticipate them. The ministers are chiefly puzzled about Canning. I have it from good authority, that when, since the Kings return from Hanover, Lord Liverpool obtained an audience for the express purpose of stating that his remaining in office must depend upon the admission of Canning into the cabinet, the King said he would speak to him candidly, and like an old friend; that he had indubitable proofs in his possession of an illicit intercourse having subsisted between Mr. Canning and his wife (the queen); he put it therefore to Lord Liverpool himself, whether he would submit to have Mr. Canning in his cabinet.—What think you of this?—For my part I am an unbeliever.—I doubt not it is a lie, made by the King, to save himself from importunity, and that he has no such evidence.

Place’s answer to Godwin is unfortunate. Murray kept it a shameful length of time, and at last returned it without any answer at all. It has since been proposed to both Longman and Baldwin, but neither will undertake to publish, at their own risk, and Place himself says he cannot afford to lose money by it.1 I am vexed, both that so much labour should be thrown away, and that the public should lose the benefit of the publication.

I have received from Mr. Caff2 an invitation to dine with the Gentlemen of the Polit. Econ. Club, on monday next. But I think there is a mistake. It seems to be distinctly in my recollection, that the first meeting was to be, not on the first, but the last monday of Decr.

Adieu. I wish you pleasant festivities at the approaching festive season. I shall be with you in spirit, though not in body. Unless I get rid of this dispepsia, I shall have heart for nothing. I have been refusing all invitations, and fit for nothing of an evening but my own fauteuil, with my wife and children, whom I can keep as long as they amuse me, and then send away.

I wish to be most kindly remembered to the Lady of Gatcomb. I have often thought of her in my present languor—she is an excellent Doctoress, and I have a notion that she and Mrs. Cleaver,3 are the first of nurses.

Let me hear from you soon, and believe

Most truly yours

J. Mill

I have heard what leads me to believe (heard since writing the above) that Canning will be Governor General of India. If you speak of this, do not mention me as your authority—though it was not given to me as a secret.1

[2 ]MS in R.P.

[3 ]Elements of Political Economy, London, Baldwin, 1821.

[1 ]A copy of Mill’s Elements, 1821, inscribed by him ‘To Mrs. Osman Ricardo from her sincere Friend the Author’ and much annotated by the recipient, was formerly in the library at Bromesberrow Place.

[1 ]It was published by Longman in 1822. See above, p. 49, n. 2.

[2 ]Mr Caff, or Cuff, presumably the innkeeper of the Freemasons’ Tavern, where the club used to dine. See Political Economy Club, Minutes of Proceedings, 1821–1882, p. 45; and for the meeting on Monday, 3 Dec. 1821, at which Mill was present, ib. p. 43.

[3 ]Mrs Ricardo’s servant.

[1 ]Canning was appointed Governor-General in 1822; but he did not take up the post, having returned to the Foreign Office on the death of Castlereagh.