The Online Library of Liberty

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• Prefatory Note
• Additional Letters
• 3a.: Ricardo to His Superior Officer, S. Beckett1
• 137a.: Ricardo to Joseph Hume2
• 197a.: Malthus to Ricardo1[reply to Letter 197.—ANSWERED By 199]
• 259a.: Ricardo to Torrens1
• 418a.: Ricardo to Miss Bayley1
• 492a.: Ricardo to Thomas Booth3
• 516a.: Ricardo to Wilmot Horton1
• 517a.: Mallet to Ricardo1[answered By 517b]
• 517b.: Ricardo to Mallet1[reply to 517a]
• 531a.: Townsend to Ricardo1[answered By 531b]
• 531b.: Ricardo to Townsend1[reply to 531a]
• Ricardo to Wright1
• Thomas Tooke to John Murray1
• Additional Notes
• Corrections to the First Printing of Volumes I-x*(additional to the List In Vol. X, P. 411)

Additional Notes

volume i

[p. vii] David Hume’s supposed notes on the ‘Wealth of Nations’. An allusion by Professor Foxwell to the destruction of Hume’s notes on the Wealth of Nations was quoted in the General Preface (I, vii). It should be made clear that the lost notes which Foxwell assumed to be by David Hume, the philosopher, were in fact by his nephew and namesake, a Scottish judge. See Letters of Eminent Persons addressed to David Hume, ed. by Hill Burton, 1849, pp. 315–17.

volume vi

Maria Edgeworth’s Papers (above, VI, xxxii-xxxiii, X, 387–8 & n.). At Mrs Harriet J. Butler’s death, these papers passed to her son, the late Professor Harold Edgeworth Butler. In his will he expressed the hope that the MSS would be given to the British Museum, without, however, making it binding on his executors.

Francis Horner’s Papers (above, VI, xxxv). The bulk of these papers, lately in the possession of Lady Langman, have been deposited in the Library of the London School of Economics. Others, including the letters of Ricardo used for this edition, were retained by the family.

Richard Sharp’s Papers (above, VI, xxxvii). At the death of the Hon. Mrs Eustace Hills (Nina Kay-Shuttleworth), the MS of her biography of Richard Sharp was deposited in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The papers of Sharp were dispersed, some being bought by Miss Myers, autograph dealer, of Dover Street, London.

volume viii

[p. 198 n.] J. S. Mill’s Letter on his studies, first publication. J. S. Mill’s boyhood letter to Sir Samuel Bentham was said (above, VIII, 198 n.) to have been published ‘apparently for the first time’ in A. Bain’s biography of J. S. Mill, 1882. It has now been found that the letter was first printed in The Sheffield Telegraph of 13 Feb. 1877, and reprinted in The Times two days later.

volume ix

Of Richard Puller little else is known. He is mentioned in the will (dated 2 October 1789) of his grandfather, Christopher Puller (1707–89), a director of the Bank of England; on 7 February 1827 he was given the administration of the estate of his father, Richard Puller (1746–1826), of Painswick Court, Glos., a director of the South Sea Company. His signature and his address, Park Street, Grosvenor Square, appear on an affidavit, dated 10 October 1831, in connection with the will of his sister, Charlotte Louisa Puller, of Painswick Court.

[p. 270n.] Authorship of the Life of Huskisson. The author of the biography of William Huskisson prefixed to his Speeches isE. Leeves, and not, as stated above, IX, 270 n., John Wright, who only edited these speeches. See British Museum Catalogue of Add. MSS 1911–15, p. 230.

volume x

[p. 19] Marriage of Ricardo’s grandfather. Joseph Israel Ricardo was not married twice, as said above, X, 19, but only once, to Hannah Abaz. There were, however, two marriage ceremonies, the civil, in which his wife’s name is recorded as Hannah Abaz, and the Synagogue, in which it appears as Hannah Israel. (Information from the Amsterdam records supplied by Professor A. Heertje.)

[p. 367] Pirated Edition of ‘Plan for a National Bank’,1824. An unrecorded printing, no doubt pirated, of this pamphlet has turned up. The pagination is [i]-iv, [5]-31 with a blank page at the end; as opposed to that of the original, which is [i]-vi, [1]-32 with two unnumbered pages of advertisements at the end. The only ‘signatures’ shown in the pirated edition are ‘2’ on p. 9 and ‘3’ onp. 17, whereas the original has the regular signatures, ‘A’ on p. [v], ‘A2’ on p. [1], ‘B’ on p. 15, ‘B2’ on p. 17, and ‘C’ on p. 31. Although the lay-out of the title-page is the same in both editions, the depth of the type area is 6⅜″ in the ‘pirate’, as against 5⅜″ in the original. The copy in question was supplied by Mr Ambaras, antiquarian bookseller of New York, and it seems likely that this pirated edition is American.

[p. 376] French Translation of the ‘Principles’. A build-up of mistakes in successive French editions of Ricardo’s Principles resulted in a total travesty of his original statement on the effects of machinery. He had written: ‘the opinion entertained by the labouring class, that the employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interests, is not founded on prejudice and error, but is conformable to the correct principles of political economy.’ (I, 392.)

This travesty held the field for half a century. The correct version was first given in C. Debyser’s translation of the Principles, Paris, Costes, 1933–4, p. 217.

[p. 394, line 21] The ‘work in English’ referred to is Swift’s Sentiments of a Church of England Man.

[p. 403] A second freak copy of Ricardo’s Principles, 1817, containing pp. 219–22 in both the original state and the ‘cancel’ state (as described above, X, 403 ff.), has been found by Professor Heertje of Amsterdam, and is now in his possession.

[p. 405] The author of the anonymous pamphlet, A Reply to Mr. Say’s Letters to Mr. Malthus (annotated by Ricardo) is John Cazenove, who has been mentioned as the author of another anonymous pamphlet above, III, 428 n. 1. See Halkett and Laing’s Dictionary of Anonyms.