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MILL, JAMES.—.This talented
writer, who distinguished himself as a historian, philosopher, and political
economist, was born in the parish of Logie Pert, Forfarshire, on the 6th of
April, 1773. Like a great majority of his countrymen who have risen to
eminence, he was of humble origin, his father being a small farmer upon the
estate of Sir John Stuart, Bart., of Fettercairn. After a course of
preliminary education at the grammar-school of Montrose, young James, who
was originally destined for the church, was sent, through the patronage of
his father’s landlord, to the university of Edinburgh, where he underwent
the usual course of study prescribed to candidates for the ministry. His
progress in general literature, although unnoticed at the time, was
afterwards well attested by the character of his various writings. Of all
the ancient philosophers, Plato seems chiefly to have attracted his
attention—a proof, by the way, that his proficiency in the classical
languages was greater than that of the generality of our Scottish students;
and the impression produced upon his mind by the works of this most eloquent
and persuasive of all the philosophers of antiquity, he often afterwards
affectionately remembered.
After the usual course of
study, Mr. Mill was licensed as a preacher in the Church of Scotland, and
had fair hopes, both from patronage and his attainments, to occupy that most
comfortable of earthly situations—the situation of a Scottish country
minister. But somehow it happened that even this was insufficient to allure
him. It may be that his Platonism, and the peculiarity of some of his ideas
both in theology and ethics, may have disinclined him to Calvin’s
Institutes; or he may have felt that his intellectual aptitudes required a
different field of action than that of a secluded country minister. In his
capacity of tutor to the family of Sir John Stuart, he accompanied them to
London in 1800; but instead of returning with them to Scotland, he resolved
to devote himself to a literary life in the metropolis. London, therefore,
became, thenceforth, his home, where he betook himself to authorship as a
profession, and patiently endured all its precariousness, until his talents
had secured for him that honourable and independent position to which he was
so well entitled. The first writings of Mr. Mill, in this character, were
such as to obtain admittance among the most distinguished periodicals of the
day; and among these, the "Edinburgh Review," the "British, the Eclectic,
and Monthly Reviews," may particularly be mentioned. He also edited, for
some time, the "Literary Journal," and was a frequent contributor to a
periodical established by the Quakers, called the "Philanthropist."
All this labour, however, was
but means to an end, for, at an early period of his career, Mr. Mill had
devoted himself to the collection of materials for a history of British
India; and while his researches for this most difficult, but necessary
undertaking, were continued with unflinching perseverance, his other
literary occupations were conducted as the means of present subsistence. It
is amidst such pressure that intellectual activity is often best nerved for
its greatest and most important task; and amidst the many distinguished
productions by which the literature of every age is most impressed, the
common wonder is, that the author, amidst his other avocations, should have
found time to accomplish it. The history of British India was commenced in
1806, and published in the winter of 1817-18. At first it appeared in three
volumes quarto, and afterwards in five volumes octavo; and the narrative,
which is comprised in six books, commences with the first intercourse of our
nation with India, and terminates with the conclusion of the Mahratta war,
in 1805.
Among the literary
productions of the present day, we have histories of India in abundance,
while the labour of writing them, on account of the copious supply of
materials, has become a comparatively easy task. But far different was it
when Mill commenced his celebrated work, and opened up the way for his
talented successors. At that time, nothing could be more vague than the
commonly received ideas at home respecting our growing eastern empire, and
the nations of which it was composed. Every sultan or rajah was thought to
be a Xerxes or Giamshid, and every region was flooded with gold, which only
waited the lifting; while an Englishman had nothing to do but to enter, and
sit down as undisputed possessor, amidst a crowd of worshipping and
salaaming natives. To bring down these monarchs to their real dimensions,
and states to their native poverty—to show how starvation and taxes
prevailed more abundantly there than even among ourselves—and, above all, to
show how our East India Company, notwithstanding its crores and lacs of
rupees, was continually hampered upon the beggarly financial question of
"ways and means," with bankruptcy in perspective; all this was not only a
difficult, but a most ungracious task for the historian: he was the African
magician, who filched from us our Aladdin’s lamp, by giving us a mere common
one in exchange. When he passed from these popular delusions to the
authenticated records, in order to construct a veritable history instead of
an eastern romance, his materials were the most impracticable that can well
imagined—parliamentary speeches and documents, masses of examinations and
trials, pamphlets for and against every form of Indian administration, mixed
with political intrigues and warlike campaigns to which the general current
of history could afford no parallel. To wade through this seemingly
boundless ocean—to reduce this chaos into form and order—was an attempt at
which the most enthusiastic historian might well have paused. And then, too,
the usual aids that might have helped to counterbalance such a difficulty,
were wanting in the case of Mr. Mill. It is true, indeed, that in England
there were scores of adventurers who had spent years in India, and returned
enriched with its spoils; but, in most cases, they knew as little of Hindoo
character, and the formation of our Indian empire, as if they had remained
at home: all they could tell was that they had fought or traded under the
banner of British supremacy, and found cent, per cent. accumulating in the
enterprise. In the absence of better information than these, some personal
knowledge was necessary, especially to the first recorder of our wonderful
Anglo-Indian empire; but Mill had never been in India, and was little, if at
all, acquainted with the languages of the East.
All these obstacles it is
necessary to take into account, if we would understand the nature of that
Herculean task which he undertook and accomplished. Under these
difficulties, he proposed:—
1. To describe the
circumstances in which the intercourse of this nation with India commenced,
and the particulars of its early progress, till the era when it could first
be regarded as placed on a firm and durable basis.
2. To exhibit as
accurate a view as possible of the people with whom our countrymen had then
begun to transact; of their character, history, manners, religion, arts,
literature, and laws, as well as the physical circumstances of climate,
soil, and production, in which they were placed.
3. To deduce to the present
times a history of the British transactions in relation to India, &c.
The history of British India
which Mr. Mill produced, under these circumstances, and upon such a plan, in
spite of subsequent histories written under more favourable auspices, will
ever remain a distinguishing monument of his high talents, research, and
perseverance. Much, of course, had to be written that militated not only
against national prejudices but individual interests; and therefore the
work, at its first appearance, encountered no small amount of rancorous
criticism. It was also faulty in point of style, being frequently marked by
carelessness, and sometimes, though not often, disfigured by obscurity. But
the immense body of information he had collected, the skill of its
arrangement, and vigorous style in which it was embodied, made these defects
of little account. On the one hand, the nature and character of the British
proceedings in India, and especially the administrations of Hastings and
Lord Wellesley, were given with clearness and dispassionate fairness; while,
on the other, the account of the condition and character of the Hindoos, and
their state of civilization, was illustrated by an amount of learning and
depth of investigation such as history has very seldom exhibited. The
effects of his labours were soon apparent. Not only was a greater interest
excited at home upon Indian affairs, of which the public had hitherto
remained in contented ignorance, but more enlarged and practical views in
the legislation, government, and political economy of India, were suggested
to our countrymen there, by whom our eastern empire was extended and
consolidated.
While Mill had been thus
generously devoting himself for years to a labour from which no adequate
return, in the way of profit, could be expected, and while the expenses of a
growing family were increasing upon him, his literary by-labours appear
never to have yielded him above £300 per annum—a small amount for the
support of a respectable household in the British capital, and small
compared with what his talents and industry might have procured him, had he
consented to become a mere trader in literature. But his was a contentedness
of mind that could be satisfied with little, as well as a dignity and
independence that would not stoop to solicitation for either place or
patronage. But he who could not seek was now to be sought. His "History of
India" had well shown what he was worth; and the East India Company was not
long in discovering that one so well acquainted with their interests could
not be dispensed with. Accordingly, soon after the publication of his
history (in 1819) he was appointed, by the East India Court of Directors, to
the second situation in the examiner’s office; and, on the retirement of Mr.
William M’Culloch, he was raised to the place of chief examiner. His
important duties, for which he was so thoroughly qualified, consisted in
preparing the despatches and other state papers connected with our Indian
government, and to correspond with it in the management of the revenue; in
fact, he might be considered as chief minister for Indian affairs to that
most extensive and powerful of all senates, the East India Company.
Notwithstanding the onerous
duties with which he was now invested, Mr. Mill did not throw aside his pen,
or confine himself exclusively to his office. He wrote several valuable
articles in the "Edinburgh Review," upon Education and Jurisprudence, and
was a frequent and distinguished contributor to the Westminster and London
Reviews. Some of the best essays, also, which appeared in the Supplement of
the "Encyclopedia Britannica," and were afterwards published in a separate
form, were of his production, comprising the important subjects of
Government, Education, Jurisprudence, Law of Nations, Liberty of the Press,
Colonies, and Prison Discipline. In 1821-2, he published his "Elements of
Political Economy," which professed to be nothing more than a handbook of
that Science; and in 1829, his "Analysis of the Human Mind," a work on which
he had bestowed long and careful reflection. These productions gave him a
high standing both as a metaphysician and political economist, and added no
trivial contribution to these growing and improving sciences in which there
is still so much to be accomplished.
In this way, the years of Mr.
Mill were spent in a life of silent and unostentatious, but honourable and
useful industry; and while he enjoyed the intercourse of such leading minds
as Bentham, Brougham, Romilly, Ricardo, and others of a similar stamp, his
society was eagerly sought, and highly relished by young men preparing for a
public career in literature, who were enlightened by his experience, and
charmed with his enthusiasm, as well as directed in their subsequent course
by his watchful, affectionate superintendence. He thus lived, not only in
his own writings, which had a powerful influence upon the opinions of the
day, but in the minds which he thus trained for the guidance of a succeeding
generation. As the political opinions of such a man were of no trivial
importance, we may add that he belonged to the Radical party, and adhered to
its principles with uncompromising integrity, at a time when they were least
valued or regarded. It was a natural consequence of that love of Greek
literature and philosophy which he retained to the end of his life. His last
five years were spent at Kensington, where he died of consumption, on the
23d of June, 1838, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, leaving behind him a
widow and nine children, of whom five had attained to manhood.
James Mill
A Biography by Alexander Bain, LL.D., Professor of Logic in the University
of Aberdeen (1882) (pdf) |
