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• Preface
• A Memoir of Ricardo With Addenda
• Note On the Authorship of the Memoir
• Addenda to the Memoir of Ricardo
• I.: Introductory
• II.: The Family of Abraham Ricardo
• III.: The Delvalle Family
• IV.: Ricardo’s Childhood and Education
• V.: Independence and Marriage
• VI.: The Wilkinsons
• A Family Who’s Who
• I.: David Ricardo’s Brothers and Sisters
• II.: Ricardo’s Children
• Ricardo In Business
• Ricardo In Business
• I.: As a Jobber On the Stock Exchange
• II.: As Loan Contractor
• III.: A Canard
• IV.: Investments and Estates
• V.: Ricardo’s Will
• A Selection of Family and Private Letters
• I: Early Letters to J. H. Wilkinson
• 1.: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 2.: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 3: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 4: Ricardo to Wilkinson2
• 5: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 6: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• Other Correspondence With J.h. Wilkinson
• II: ‘ricardo’s Letter to the Old Doctor’
• III: The Fraud of 5 May 1803
• IV: The Loan of 1807
• V: Jacob Ricardo
• VI: Two Sisters Decline a Present
• VII: A Visit to Cambridge
• VIII: A Letter to a Wine Merchant
• IX: The Cumberland Affair
• 1.: Sydney Cumberland to Ricardo3
• 2.: Sydney Cumberland to Ricardo1
• 3.: George Cumberland to Ricardo1
• 4.: Ricardo to George Cumberland 1
• 5.: George Cumberland to Ricardo1
• 6.: Ricardo to George Cumberland
• X: A Servant and Two Masters
• XI: Fanny’s Marriage
• Edward Austin Sen. to Ricardo 3
• Ricardo to Edward Austin Sen. 1
• XII: Ricardo to Miss Mary Ann
• From Maria Edgeworth’s Letters to Her Family
• 1.: To Her Stepmother Mrs Edgeworth From Gatcomb Park 9 Nov. 1821
• 2.: To the Same From Gatcomb Park 10 Nov. 1821
• 3.: To Her Sister Lucy Edgeworth From Gatcomb Park 12 Nov. 1821
• 4.: To Her Aunt Mrs Ruxton From London 9 March 1822
• Journal of a Tour On the Continent 1822
• Introductory Note to the Journal of a Tour On the Continent
• Appendices
• (a.) Bibliography of Ricardo’s Works
• (b.) a Survey of Ricardo Manuscripts
• (c.) Commonplace Books
• (d) Ricardo’s Library
• Supplement to Volume I New Evidence On the Subdivision of Chapter Viii of the ‘principles’ 1817
• Supplement to Volume Iv Notes On ‘a Reply to Mr. Say’s Letters to Mr. Malthus’
• Corrections to the First Printing of the Previous Volumes*

(C.) Commonplace Books

Ricardo’s ‘commonplace books’ amount to no more than some 80 pages of manuscript excerpts from books, periodicals and old Parliamentary speeches. Allusions in the Correspondence and the dates of some of the publications quoted show that these manuscripts belong to the period of intensive reading to which Ricardo applied himself, under Mill’s supervision, in the interval between publication of the Principles and his entry into Parliament. They can conveniently be divided into two groups according as they appear to belong to the year 1817 or to 1818.

Those of 1817 consist of a quarto-size writing-book, water-marked 1814, of which only 12 pages are filled (together with a separate sheet of foolscap paper, watermarked 1808, and containing further summaries of Garnier’s book); and of 8 pages of notepaper, of the same size and date as the writing-book, containing mostly extracts from Bayle. Those of 1818 consist of a quire of quarto paper, watermarked 1815, of which 40 pages are filled; and 16 pages torn from a pocket note-book.

In the following list the passages copied out by Ricardo are denoted by the first and last words, as well as by the page-references: this should enable those who wish to do so to trace the extracts without too much difficulty.

1817

(The first three groups of entries are from the writing-book, the Bayle quotations from the 8 pages of notepaper.)1

Mémoire sur la valeur des monnaies de compte des peuples de l’antiquité, by Germain Garnier, Paris, 1817 (four pages of quotations in French are in the writing-book and there are a further four foolscap pages of summary in English, with a few words of comment: all these have been printed in Ricardo’s Minor Papers, 1932, p. 121–8, and need not be described here).

Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, by Alexander von Humboldt, London, 1811 (the extracts consist of items of factual and statistical information from vol. i, pp. 100, 125, 214, 227, 229, 250, 252, 261, and vol. ii, pp. 421, 427, 477).

Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; in the Years 1789 and 1793, by Alexander Mackenzie, London, 1801(p. 151, ‘the canoe was put into the water’ to ‘hunters and interpreters’).

Pierre Bayle, Pensées diverses, 1682 (references are to the numbered paragraphs:1xlvi; lxix; lxxi; lxxxi; lxxxiv, ‘on ne voit pas’ to ‘le salut de l’ame’; lxxxviii; xci; xcix; c; cviii; cxix; cxx; cxxxiii; cxxxiv, ‘j’avoue que si l’on donnoit’ to the end; cxxxv; cxxxvi; cxxxvii; cxxxviii, ‘ce ne sont pas les opinions’ to the end; cxlvi, ‘Si le Payen n’a rien fait’ to ‘qu’il n’en ayent pas’, and ‘Je ne voudrois pas nier’ to ‘plus de profit’).

Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique (article ‘Anabaptistes’, note B, ‘Les Controversistes du parti Romain’ to ‘où ils purent’; article ‘Grégoire I’, note I, ‘Cela me fait souvenir’ to ‘de tout païs’).

There follow some quotations on Church and Government from Swift’s Sentiments of a Church of England Man.

1818

(All except those mentioned in the final paragraph of this section are from the quire of quarto paper.)2

An Apology for Christianity, in a Series of Letters, addressed to Edward Gibbon, Esq.; Author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by R. Watson, Bishop of Landaff, Cambridge, 1776(p. 86–7, ‘I think it just’ to ‘professional bias’; p. 92–6, ‘There was a time’ to ‘has preordained’).

An Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters, addressed to Thomas Paine, by R. Watson, London, 1796 (p. 29, ‘A philosopher’ to ‘argument’; p. 160–2, ‘But if you will’ to ‘where to find it?’; p. 367–9, ‘You are lavish’ to ‘from Christianity to Deism’).

The Second Part of Armata [by Lord Erskine], 4th ed., London, 1818 (p. 134–5, ‘Nothing indeed’ to ‘salutary fear ’; p. 137–9, ‘they are our own laws’ to ‘lost to ourselves’; p. 140, ‘Sometimes he found’ to ‘got through them’; p. 142, ‘the decisions themselves ’ to ‘suppress them’; p. 157, ‘Instead of the short’ to ‘counsellor to the King’; p. 163, ‘The Romans punished’ to ‘reaches the bottom’; p. 169, ‘But no revenue’ to ‘in the streets’).

The Natural History of Religion, in Essays and Treatises, by David Hume, New ed., Edinburgh, 1793 (p. 452, ‘We may observe’ to ‘than to the latter’; p. 464–5, ‘The duties’ to ‘he is haunted’).

The Reasonableness of Christianity, in Works of John Locke, 4th ed., London, 1740 (vol. 2, p. 575, ‘Next to the knowledge’ to ‘a strict and holy life’).

Journal of a Tour in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Poland, during the Years 1813 and 1814, by J. T. James, London, 1816 (p. 127–8, ‘when the Jemtland regiment’ to ‘entirely clear’; p. 244, ‘In England’ to ‘give a blow’).

Travels in Canada, and the United States, in 1816 and 1817, by Lieut. Francis Hall, London, 1818 (p. 493–4, ‘History tells us’ to ‘variously lodged’; p. 501–7, ‘Religious Freedom’ to ‘belongs to the Democratic Party’; p. 511–12, ‘The language of despotism’ to ‘one day to fill’; p. 513, ‘They set up’ to ‘lives and property’; p. 513–14, ‘The annals of the world’ to ‘thieves and cut throats’; p. 525–7, ‘If by Political Virtue’ to ‘bribe the People’; p. 535, ‘Governments create’ to ‘individual interests’;p. 536, ‘The American system’ to ‘forbear to create’; p. 162–3, ‘you emerge from a wood’ to ‘gros jeu of society’; p. 288–9, ‘In addition’ to ‘compelled to suffer’; p. 318–20, ‘The houses’ to ‘speaks volumes’; p. 329, ‘Such fancies’ to ‘smilingly’; p. 331, ‘for if in a free nation’ to ‘social enjoyment’; p. 430, ‘The human mind’ to ‘standard of humanity’).

J. J. Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloïse (Ricardo used the Amsterdam 1761 edition, vols. v -vi, but the references here are toD. Mornet’s edition, Paris, 1925, vol. iv: p. 108–10, ‘C’est ainsi’ to ‘silence éternel’; p. 110, ‘Quelle horreur’ to ‘mourir la première’; p. 112, ‘Il ne dogmatise jamais’ to ‘exiger d’un citoyen’; p. 115, ‘Ah! dit-elle’ to ‘qu’il est possible!’; p. 249–50, ‘Quelque respect’ to ‘fait ainsi?’; p. 268, ‘Le Dieu que je sers’ to ‘durant ma vie’; p. 272–4, ‘Je vous avoue’ to ‘sont les méchans’;p. 276, ‘Connoissez-vous quelqu’un’ to ‘il cherche à briller’).

[There follows a short extract from The Times, 18 Sept. 1818, on the qualifications to be an elector in France.]

The Parliamentary History, vol. xxxiii (published 1818):

Fox’s speech on the Repeal of the Treason and Sedition Bills, 19 May 1797 (p. 621–2, ‘Liberty is order’ to ‘invigorating alliance’; p. 637, ‘I want either’ to ‘the public money’).

Erskine’s speech on Grey’s Motion for a Reform of Parliament, 26 May 1797 (p. 655, ‘Whilst the people’ to ‘all political subjects’;p. 656, ‘The Crown’ to ‘centuries past’).

Fox’s speech on the same Motion (p. 701, ‘But if they under-stand’ to ‘being stranded’; p. 716–17, ‘Let us try’ to ‘now constituted?’; p. 728–9, ‘When gentlemen’ to ‘in this conduct?’;p. 729, ‘Let us see’ to ‘endure them?’)

Tierney’s speech on the Assessed Taxes Bill, 4 Jan. 1798(p. 1216, ‘By a radical reform’ to ‘creation of peers’).

Fox’s speech on the same Bill (p. 1229, ‘I do not pretend’ to ‘his majesty’s councils’; p. 1233, ‘Now, what’ to ‘corrected without it’; p. 1237, ‘But you stay’ to ‘any other way’, and ‘I believe’ to ‘House of Parliament’; p. 1238, ‘But you are speaking’ to ‘its very foundation’; p. 1245–6, ‘Quite sure’ to ‘injustice’; p. 1258, ‘What is the remedy?’ to ‘voice of the people’; p. 1259, ‘This is saying’ to ‘representation of the people’;p. 1260–1, ‘We must give’ to ‘protect your freedom’).

Lord Holland’s speech in the Lords on the Assessed Taxes Bill, 9 Jan. 1798 (p. 1280, ‘They will not assist’ to ‘that they do so’;p. 1299, ‘What he wanted’ to ‘perfect concurrence’).

The Parliamentary History, vol. xxx (published 1817):

Erskine’s speech on Grey’s Motion for a Reform in Parliament, 6 May 1793 (p. 834, ‘The principle of the remedy’ to ‘was practicable’).

Fox’s speech on the same Motion, 7 May 1793 (p. 915, ‘His objection’ to ‘resist universal suffrage’).

The Parliamentary History, vol. xxviii (published 1816):

Fox’s speech on his own Motion for the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 2 March 1790 (p. 389, ‘To suppose a man’ to ‘principle of persecution’; p. 392, ‘To judge of morals’ to ‘mode of reasoning’; p. 392, ‘They should judge’ to ‘their own conduct’;p. 397, ‘He ever should’ to ‘majority of the people’).

Works of Edmund Burke, vol. x (p. 41, ‘I never govern myself’ to ‘he may ruin his country for ever’).

Edinburgh Review, Sept. 1818, Art. I, on Madame de Staël’s ‘Considérations sur la Révolution françoise’ [by Jeffrey] (p. 283– 4, ‘All political power’ to ‘its interests and its powers’; p. 285, ‘In England there were’ to ‘the work before us’; p. 316, ‘She notices also’ to ‘virtue is consumed’).

[There follow the parallel quotations from Torrens’s article in the Edinburgh Magazine of Oct. 1818 and from his own Principles, printed above, IV, 315 ff.]

Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, Book xi, Chapter 14 (vol. i, p. 233, ‘The division into centuries’ to ‘the patricians were excluded’).

The Constitution of England, by J. L. De Lolme, London, 1775(p. 229, ‘To render ineffectual’ to ‘the multitude’).

An Historical View of the English Government, by John Millar, London, 1803 (vol. iv, p. 94–6, ‘From the time of the Revolution’ to ‘formerly reared’; the passage is quoted in Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1803, p. 174, and Ricardo gives a reference to both places. Cp. above, VII, 197, 382–3).

Edinburgh Review, July 1809, Art. I, on ‘The Plan of Reform proposed by Sir Francis Burdett’ [by Jeffrey] (p. 286–7, ‘The King, individually’ to ‘gain over or to retain’).

View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, by Henry Hallam, London, 1818 (vol. ii, p. 193, ‘Later times’ to ‘intolerable excess’).

Of the 16 pages from a pocket note-book, about half contain unidentified short quotations mainly on the subject of freedom of religious opinion. The rest is taken up by brief summaries of speeches from the Parliamentary History for the years 1790 to 1797, the same volumes as have just been mentioned. Also short quotations from Conyers Middleton’s An Examination of the Bishop of London’s Discourses concerning Prophecy, 1750 (p. 35, ‘He forgot surely’ to ‘speech and debate are free’; p. 197, ‘And happy’ to ‘which is to come’); Montesquieu’s Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire, Chapter 13; W. Robertson’s History of Scotland; and Sir James Mackintosh’s Vindiciae Gallicae, 1791 (p. 306, ‘It is not because’ to ‘usurped her name’).

[1 ]On Ricardo’s reading of Humboldt, Mackenzie and Bayle in September 1817, see above, VII, 189–90 and cp. 184 and 206.

[1 ]In the manuscript the references are either to the paragraphs, or to the pages of an unidentified edition, or to both, but here they have been standardised. When Ricardo copies only the title of the paragraph or gives a short summary in English, no words have been quoted.

[2 ]Ricardo had been reading Millar and Montesquieu in December 1818; see above, VII, 382–3. On the Nouvelle Héloïse, which was lent by Mill in 1818, see ib. 303 and 328.