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MILL, JAMES (1773-1836)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 454 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MILL, See also:JAMES (1773-1836) , historian and philosopher, was See also:born on the 6th of See also:April 1773, at Northwater See also:Bridge, in the See also:parish of Logie-Pert, See also:Forfarshire, the son of James Mill, a See also:shoe-maker. His See also:mother, See also:Isabel See also:Fenton, of a See also:good See also:family which had suffered from connexion with the See also:Stuart rising of 1745, resolved that he should receive a first-See also:rate See also:education, and sent him first to the parish school and then to the See also:Montrose See also:Academy, where he remained till the unusual See also:age of seventeen and a See also:half. He then entered the university of See also:Edinburgh, where he distinguished himselt as a See also:Greek See also:scholar. In See also:October 1798 he was licensed as a preacher, but met with little success. From 1790 to 1802, in addition to holding various tutorships, he occupied himself with See also:historical and philosophical studies. Finding little prospect of a career in See also:Scotland, in 1802 he went to See also:London in See also:company with See also:Sir See also:John Stuart, then member of See also:parliament for See also:Kincardineshire, and devoted himself to See also:literary See also:work. From 1803 to 1806 he was editor of an ambitious periodical called the Literary See also:Journal, which professed to give a See also:summary view of all the leading departments of human knowledge. During this See also:time he also edited the St James's See also:Chronicle, belonging to the same proprietor. In 1804 he wrote a pamphlet on the See also:corn See also:trade, arguing against a See also:bounty on the exportation of See also:grain. In 1805 he published a See also:translation (with notes and quotations) of C. F. Villers's work on the See also:Reformation, an unsparing exposure of the alleged vices of the papal See also:system.

In 1805 he married Harriet Burrow, whose mother, a widow, kept an See also:

establishment for lunatics in Hoxton. He then took a See also:house in Pentonville, where his eldest son, John Stuart Mill (q.v.), was born in 1806. About the end of this See also:year he began his See also:History of See also:India, which he took twelve years to See also:complete, instead of three or four, as he had expected. In 1808 he became acquainted with See also:Jeremy See also:Bentham, and was for many years his See also:chief See also:companion and ally. He adopted Bentham's principles in their entirety, and determined to devote all his energies to bringing them before the See also:world. Between 1806 and 1818 he wrote for the See also:Anti-Jacobin See also:Review, the See also:British Review and the Electric Review; but there is no means of tracing his contributions. In 1808 he began to write for the Edinburgh Review, to which he contributed steadily till 1813, his first known See also:article being " See also:Money and See also:Exchange." He also wrote on See also:Spanish See also:America, See also:China, See also:General See also:Miranda, the See also:East India Company, and the See also:Liberty of the See also:Press. In the See also:Annual Review for 1808 two articles of his are traced—a " Review of See also:Fox's History," and an article on " Bentham's See also:Law Reforms," probably his first published See also:notice of Bentham. In 1811 he co-operated with See also:William See also:Allen (1770-1843), quaker and chemist, in a periodical called the Philanthropist. He contributed largely to every number—his See also:principal topics being Education, Freedom of the Press, and See also:Prison Discipline (under which he expounded Bentham's " Panopticon "). He made powerful onslaughts on the See also:Church in connexion with the See also:Bell and Lan-caster controversy, and took a prominent See also:part in the discussions which led to the See also:foundation of London University in 1825. In 1814 he wrote a number of articles, containing an exposition of See also:utilitarianism, for the supplement to the fifth edition of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica, the most important being those en " See also:Jurisprudence," " Prisons " and " See also:Government." In 1818 the History of India was published, and obtained a See also:great and immediate success.

It brought about a See also:

change in the author's position. The year following he was appointed an See also:official in the India House, in the important See also:department of the examiner of See also:Indian See also:correspondence. He gradually See also:rose in See also:rank till he was appointed, in 1830, See also:head of the See also:office, with a See also:salary of £1900, raised in 1836 to £2000. His great work, the Elements of See also:Political See also:Economy, appeared in 1821 (3rd and revised ed. 1826). From 1824 to 1826 Mill contributed to the See also:Westminster Review, started as the See also:organ of his party, a number of articles in which he attacked the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews and ecclesiastical establishments. In 1829 appeared the See also:Analysis of the Human Mind. From 1831 to 1833 Mill was largely occupied in the See also:defence of the East India Company, during the controversy attending the renewal of its See also:charter, he being in virtue of his office the spokesman of the See also:court of See also:directors. For the London Review, founded by Sir William See also:Molesworth in 1834, he wrote a notable article entitled " The Church and its Reform," which was much too sceptical for the time, and injured the Review. His last published See also:book was the Fragment on See also:Mackintosh (1835). He died on the 23rd of See also:June 1836. Mill had a thorough acquaintance with Greek and Latin literature, general history, political, See also:mental and moral See also:philosophy.

His See also:

intellect was logical in the highest degree; he was clear and precise, an enemy of loose reasoning, and See also:quick to refute prevailing fallacies. All his work is marked by See also:original constructive thought, except in a few sui jects, in which he confessedly expounded Bentham's views. At a time when social subjects were as a See also:rule treated empirically, he brought first principles to See also:bear at every point. His greatest literary See also:monument is the History of India. The materials for narrating the acquisition by See also:England of its Indian See also:Empire were put into shape for the first time; a vast See also:body of political theory was brought to bear on the delineation of the See also:Hindu See also:civilization; and the conduct of the actors in the successive stages of the See also:conquest and adnninistration of India was subjected to a severe See also:criticism. The work itself, and the author's official connexion with India for the last seventeen years of his See also:life, effected a complete change in the whole system of governing that See also:country. Mill played a great part also in See also:English politics, and was, more than any other See also:man, the founder of what was called " philosophic radicalism." His writings on government and his See also:personal See also:influence among the Liberal politicians of his time determined the change of view from the See also:French Revolution theories of the rights of man and the See also:absolute equality of men to the claiming of securities for good government through a wide See also:extension of the See also:franchise. Under this banner it was that. the Reform See also:Bill was fought and won. His Elements of Political Economy, which was intended only as a textbook of the subject, shows all the author's precision and lucidity. As Dr J. K. See also:Ingram said, it has the "See also:character of a work of See also:art." It followed up the views of See also:Ricardo, with whom Mill was always on terms of intimacy.

Its See also:

interest is mainly historical, as an accurate summary of views which are now largely discarded. Among the more important of its theses are: (1) that the chief problem of See also:practical reformers is to limit the increase of See also:population, on the See also:assumption that See also:capital does not naturally increase at the same rate as population (ii. § 2, art. 3); (2) that the value of a thing depends entirely on the quantity of labour put into it; and (3) that what is now known as the " unearned increment " of See also:land is a proper See also:object for See also:taxation. The work as a whole is a striking example of the weakness of treating economic problems from a purely a priori standpoint by the deductive method. By his Analysis of the Mind and his Fragment on Mackintosh Mill acquired a position in the history of See also:psychology and See also:ethics. He took up the problems of mind very much after the See also:fashion of the Scottish school, as then represented by See also:Reid, See also:Stewart and See also:Brown, but made a new start, due in part to See also:Hartley, and still more to his own See also:independent thinking. He carried out the principle of association into the analysis of the complex emotional states, as the affections, the aesthetic emotions and the moral sentiment, all which he endeavoured to resolve into pleasurable and painful sensations. But the salient merit of the Analysis is the See also:constant endeavour after precise See also:definition of terms and clear statement of doctrines. The Fragment on Mackintosh is a severe exposure of the flimsiness and misrepresentations of Sir James Mackintosh's famous Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy (183o), and discusses the See also:foundations of ethics from the author's utilitarian point of view.

End of Article: MILL, JAMES (1773-1836)

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