The English Utilitarians, Volume 2 (of 3) James Mill

E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, and the
Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)



THE ENGLISH UTILITARIANS

by

LESLIE STEPHEN

In Three Volumes

VOL. II

JAMES MILL







London
Duckworth And Co.
3 Henrietta Street, W.C.
1900




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I

JAMES MILL

                                      PAGE

  I. Early Life,                         1

 II. Bentham's Lieutenant,               7

III. Leader of the Utilitarians,        25


CHAPTER II

REFORM MOVEMENTS

  I. Political Change,                  41

 II. Law Reform,                        47

III. Economic Reform,                   51

 IV. Church Reform,                     57

  V. Sinister Interests,                62


CHAPTER III

POLITICAL THEORY

  I. Mill on Government,                74

 II. Whiggism,                          98

III. Conservatism,                     109

 IV. Socialism,                        119


CHAPTER IV

MALTHUS

  I. Malthus's Starting-point,         137

 II. The Ratios,                       147

III. Moral Restraint,                  156

 IV. Social Remedies,                  165

  V. Political Application,            174

 VI. Rent,                             181


CHAPTER V

RICARDO

  I. Ricardo's Starting-point,         186

 II. The Distribution Problem,         195

III. Value and Labour,                 204

 IV. The Classical Political Economy,  216

  V. The Ricardians,                   226


CHAPTER VI

ECONOMIC HERETICS

  I. The Malthusian Controversy,       238

 II. Socialism,                        259


CHAPTER VII

PSYCHOLOGY

  I. Thomas Brown,                     267

 II. James Mill's _Analysis_,          287

III. James Mill's Ethics,              312


CHAPTER VIII

RELIGION

  I. Philip Beauchamp,                 338

 II. Contemporary Thought,             361




CHAPTER I

JAMES MILL


I. EARLY LIFE

Bentham's mantle fell upon James Mill.[1] Mill expounded in the
tersest form the doctrines which in Bentham's hands spread into
endless ramifications and lost themselves in minute details. Mill
became the leader of Bentham's bodyguard; or, rather, the mediator
between the prophet in his 'hermitage' and the missionaries who were
actively engaged on the hustings and in committee-rooms. The special
characteristics of English Utilitarianism in the period of its
greatest activity were thus more affected by Mill than by any other
leader of opinion.

James Mill was one of the countless Scots who, having been trained at
home in strict frugality and stern Puritanic principles, have fought
their way to success in England. He was born 6th April 1773 in the
parish of Logie Pert, Forfarshire. His father, also named James Mill,
was a village shoemaker, employing two or three journeymen when at
the height of his prosperity. His mother, Isabel Fenton, daughter of a
farmer, had been a servant in Edinburgh. Her family had some claims to
superior gentility; she was fastidious, delicate in frame, and accused
of pride by her neighbours. She resolved to bring up James, her eldest
son, to be a gentleman, which practically meant to be a minister. He
probably showed early promise of intellectual superiority. He received
the usual training at the parish school, and was then sent to the
Montrose Academy, where he was the school-fellow and friend of a
younger lad, Joseph Hume (1777-1855), afterwards his political ally.
He boarded with a Montrose shopkeeper for 2s. 6d. a week, and remained
at the Academy till he was seventeen. He was never put to work in his
father's shop, and devoted himself entirely to study. The usual age
for beginning to attend a Scottish university was thirteen or
fourteen; and it would have been the normal course for a lad in Mill's
position to be sent at that age to Aberdeen. Mill's education was
prolonged by a connection which was of great service to him. Sir John
Stuart (previously Belches), of Fettercairn House, in Mill's
neighbourhood, had married Lady Jane Leslie, and was by her father of
an only child, Wilhelmina. Lady Jane was given to charity, and had set
up a fund to educate promising lads for the ministry. Mill was
probably recommended to her by the parish minister, as likely to do
credit to her patronage. He also acted as tutor to Wilhelmina, who
afterwards became the object of Scott's early passion. Mill spent much
time at Fettercairn House, and appears to have won the warm regards
both of the Stuarts and of their daughter, who spoke of him
affectionately 'with almost her last breath.'[2] The Stuarts passed
their winters at Edinburgh, whither Mill accompanied them. He entered
the university in 1790, and seems to have applied himself chiefly to
Greek and to philosophy. He became so good a Greek scholar that long
afterwards (1818) he had some thoughts of standing for the Greek chair
at Glasgow.[3] He was always a keen student of Plato.