MILL, John Stuart (1806-1873). Philosopher and political economist.
Three Autograph Letters Signed, two to The Revd George Armstrong (1791-1857, Unitarian minister), one to Albany Fonblanque (1793-1872, political journalist and editor). In all 8½ pages 4to and 8vo with one address-leaf, Kensington and India House, 19 April 1836 and 13 August 1838, where dated.


The letters were written just prior to and during the period when Mill was proprieter of the London and Westminster Review and concern articles for that publication.

The earlier letter to Armstrong discusses how his paper Church and State Fallacies might be best adapted for inclusion in the Review, emphasizing the similarities between the article presented and that recently seen in the Examiner.

'... What struck me as objectionable in the paper for a Review is that the style was that of an occasional paper, & the abstract mode of treating the subject, that of a formal essay which suggested the idea of hooking it on more closely to some of the occasions of the day. ...
'There is only one thing which I venture to hope you will reconsider, & that is the answer to the first fallacy - & the doctrine contained in it, that there should be either no establishment or no toleration, because either the state is no judge of creeds, or ought to anticipate the wrong. Now is this true? & if true, might we not say, there ought to be either no public schools & universities or no private education? ...'

In his second letter to Armstrong, Mill apologises for having held his paper for so long due to having misplaced it, and offers to return it when he is sure of Armstrong's current location.

'... permit me to express my obligation ... for the excellent publication of which I have recently received a copy through Simpkin & Marshall & which I have read with the warmest sympathy. It will serve me on some occasion or other as a test from which to shew what men the present Constitution of the English Establishment drives to the necessity of separating themselves from it. ...'

Mill's letter to Fonblanque is in praise of Armstrong's piece with the caveat that it would be better served if it were to be'connected with something which may be exciting momentary attention at the time when it comes out'; much the same advise given to Armstrong in the above letter.

Fonblanque was at this time editor of the Examiner, a radical political journal to which Mill had contributed on many occasions.

'... I have written an article on temporary politics this time - in the form of the usual postscript.'

All the letters are apparently unpublished, not in The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1812-1848 ed. Francis E. Mineka, although part of the first letter is reproduced in A Memoir of the Late Rev. George Armstrong by Robert Henderson, where Armstrong cites a few words from the letter and indicates that the subject of his article was the evils of slavery.
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