Bentham à Dumont, 22 mars 1804 ; Bowring, vol. X, p

3. MacCulloch, Life and writings of Mr. Ricardo, p. XXL. — Stuart Mill, Political Economy, vol. IT, chap. x1v, $ 54, sub finem.— Le 11 mai 1811, Mill et Ricardo assistent à une réunion philanthropique (Bain, p. 74). — Selon Bain, Ricardo aurait connu Bentham avant Mill, mais Ricardo écrit à Bentham, le 13 août 1811 : « I should have been most happy to have passed a few weeks in your neighbourhood, as besides the pleasure of Mr. Mills society it would have afforded me the opportunity which I have long desired of procuring the gratification of your acquaintance, but there are obstacles in the way of my wishes which cannot be surmounted.. I trust that on your return to London, to compensate me for my present disappointment, you will give me your company at Mile End, — à pleasure which Mr. Mill has often flattered me with and to which your obliging letter appears to have given me a new claim (Letters to Trower, pp. 1-2.).— Ricardo est déjà en relations avec Dumont de Genève, en 1810 (Lelters to Malthus, p. 2, 22 mars 1810). IL appelle, dans une autre lettre, Dumont son « vieil ami » (Letters to Trower, p. 194). — Sur les relations de James Mill avec Ricardo, Stuart Mill, Auwtobiography, p. 27, et Bain, pp. 74-75. À partir du moment (1818) où il est nommé à l’India House, Mill va tous les ans passer deux ou trois semaines chez Ricardo (v. Letlers to Trower, 18 sept. 1818, 15 sept. 1820, 31 août 1823 ; Lelters to Malthus, 20 août 1818). — Cf. Bain, p. 105 : James Mill to Mac- Culloch, 19 sept. 1823 : « With an estimate of his (Ricardo’s) value in the cause of mankind, which to most men would appear to be mere extravagance, I have the recollection of a dozen years of the most delightful intercourse, during the greater of which time he had hardly a thought or purpose. respecting either public or his private affairs, in which [was not his confidant and adviser. »

4. Ricardo à Malthus, 17 oct. 1815 et 25 déc. 1815 ; et Bain, p. 153. Mais Bain interprète mal la lettre qu'il cite ; son interprétation est rectifiée par Bonar (Letters to Malthus, p. 109).