Truly yours,
David Ricardo.
Note.—In the new Parliament of 1818 Portarlington was represented, as in the last Parliament, by Richard Sharp, who seems to have retired in the course of six or seven months, for we find Ricardo's name in a division list as early as March 2, 1819. (Hansard, sub dato, p. 846.) It was a pocket borough, and there is nothing to show that Ricardo ever visited his constituents; but this did not prevent him from strongly denouncing the system of election. The biographer of J. B. Say asserts (apparently on pure conjecture) that Ricardo had bought an estate at Portarlington, and with it the seat in Parliament as one of its appurtenances (Say, Œuvres Diverses, p. 406): 'Possesseur de vastes domaines, il s'en trouvait qui, par un abus déploré par lui-même, lui donnaient entrée au parlement.' In his Biography of James Mill, p. 172, Professor Bain speaks as if Ricardo had entered Parliament at the General Election in 1818.
LXVIII.[194]
[On outside of letter with the frank Minching Hampton (sic), Aug. 20, 1818.]
My dear Sir,
I am very much obliged to you for the kind manner in which you express yourself respecting the praise that has been so lavishly bestowed on me by the reviewer of my book, in the Edinburgh Review[195]. Immediately on reading it, I guessed that the writer of the article was Mr. M'Culloch[196], for from the publication of my book he appears sincerely to have embraced the views which I wished to impress on all my readers. I cannot but feel highly gratified at his praise, which I should not have been in anything like an equal degree if it had come from Mr. Mill, because, though I should not have doubted his sincerity, I should have imputed much to his friendship and good opinion. The praise indeed is far beyond my merits, and would perhaps have really told more if the writer had mixed with it an objection here and there.
I do not remember what the question was which I answered consistently with my general principles in my last letter, and not having your letter here I cannot refer to it. I admit that by improvements in agriculture an enormous quantity of wealth may be created, and that in the natural progress of society much of that wealth may ultimately go to landlords in the shape of rent, but that does not alter the fact of rent being always a transfer, and never a creation of wealth—for before it is paid to the landlords as rent it must have constituted the profits of stock, and a portion is made over to the landlord only because lands of a poorer quality are taken into cultivation....
... You must have found your excursion to the Isle of Wight very pleasant....
You will have seen by the newspapers that I have been through all the parade and expense, which my office of sheriff imposes on me, when the judges attend the Assizes, without any advantage. The judge came into the town after midnight, by which his commission became void, and, after sending to London, Jury, Witnesses, Counsel, and Sheriff were all dismissed to their respective homes. It is expected that we shall have a new commission in two or three weeks....