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521.: ricardo to goldsmid2 - 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.


521.

ricardo to goldsmid2

My Dear Sir

The approbation which you express of the sentiments which I endeavoured to deliver to the House, a few evenings ago, in favour of religious liberty,1 gives me great satisfaction. It appears to me a disgrace to the age we live in, that a part of the inhabitants of this country are still suffering under disabilities imposed upon them in a less enlightened time. The Jews have most reason to complain, for they are frequently reproached for the dishonesty, which is2 the natural effect of the political degradation in which they are kept. I cannot help thinking that the time is approaching when these ill-founded prejudices against men, on account of their religious opinions, will disappear, and I should be happy if I in any way should be a humble instrument in accelerating their fall.

I carry my principles of toleration very far;—I do not know how, or why any line should be drawn, and am prepared to maintain that we have no more justifiable ground for shutting the mouth of the Atheist than that of any other man. I am sure it will be shut, for no man will persevere in avowing opinions which bring on him the hatred and ill will of a great majority of his fellow men.

With best wishes I remain Very truly Yours

David Ricardo

[2 ]MS in the possession of Lt.-Col. O. E. d’Avigdor Goldsmid. I am indebted to Miss D. Jessel for a transcript.—A freely edited version was published in Memoir of Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid, London, Kegan Paul, 1879, pp. 91–2, but omitted from the 2nd ed., ‘revised and enlarged’, 1882; reprinted in Letters to Trower, LXI. A more accurate reprint from the MS in ‘Selections from Sir I. L. Goldsmid’s Correspondence and other Papers relating to the History of the Admission of the Jews of England to Parliament’, in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, vol. iii (1903), pp. 130–1.

The recipient of the letter was Isaac Lyon Goldsmid (1778–1859) the champion of the emancipation of the Jews, partner of Mocatta and Goldsmid, bullion brokers.

[1 ]On 26 March; above, V, 277 ff.

[2 ]In Memoir of Sir F. H. Goldsmid this is changed into ‘reproached with following callings which are’.