LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. JAMES MILL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—At this time, when public attention is again called to the work and character of James Mill, it may not be too much to ask that a few words should be heard from the survivors of his family. A critic, writing in the Times of May 2nd on Dr. Bain's biography of James Mill, quotes the reported saying of Bentham that "Mr. Mill's creed of politics results less from the love of the many, than from interest of the few ;" he also states that "for years Bentham paid house-rent for Mr. Mill," and adds," this episode—and it is not the only one of the same character—leaves an impression that Mr. Mill was not too nice in regard to money dealings, and that he was too prone to lay his friends under contribution." These very statements were authori- tatively contradicted by Mr. Mill's son, John Stuart Mill, in the Edinburgh, Review of January, 1841., on the occasion of a review of Dr. Bowring's "Life of Bentham," which had appeared in that periodical. With reference to Bentham's reputed saying, John Stuart Mill then wrote, "What is here promulgated as Bentham's deliberate judgment was never, I will venture to affirm, believed by any human being who had the smallest knowledge of Mr. Mill. It would be easy to show that the reports of Ben- tham's conversations contained in the biography abound in the inaccuracies which are to be expected, when things carelessly stated by one person are afterwards noted down from memory by another. But whatever Bentham may really have said when a statement so injurious to another is made on his authority, justice to that other imposes the necessity of declaring what the 'Memoir' amply confirms,—that among Mr. Bentham's in- tellectual endowments, capacity of judging character was not one."
Then, with reference to the legend of James Mill's pecuniary obligations to Bentham, J. S. Mill wrote, "If this means that he occupied any house of Bentham's free of rent, the assertion is contrary to fact. He paid Bentham between 250 and 260 a year rent, which was as high rent as he had been accustomed to pay." (The present writer can add, in confirmation of these words of her brother, that at the time when they written, Bentham's formal receipts for the rent of the house in Queen Square were still in the possession of the family. She knows this for certain, from having personally assisted in the search for them among her father's papers.)
Another charge has been brought against him in your own paper, as to the conduct of James Mill towards Edward Strachey, at a time when both were in the service of the India Company. James Mill having been dead many years, and there being no son, now alive, to protect his memory, it is difficult for me and my sisters, at once, to refute this charge ; but we believe that evidence will be shortly forthcoming to disprove it, although, after a lapse of some sixty years, there are not many surviving of the old friends of India-House days ; and we do not desire to offer to the public only the recollections of our grandmothers and aunts. I am sure I may rely upon your justice to insert any reply we may be able to give.—I am, Sir, &c., Thkaarzx J.. MILL.
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