| PAGE | |
| 1. Preface | vii |
| 2. Outline of Subjects | xix |
| 3. Letters I to LXXXVIII | 1-240 |
| 4. Chronicle | 241 |
| 5. Index | 245 |
The following Letters are printed for the first time fromthe original manuscripts, kindly lent for the purpose byColonel Malthus, C.B. The representatives of Ricardo havebeen good enough to make search for the correspondingletters of Malthus, but without success.
The Collection covers the whole period of the friendshipof the two men. What is of purely private interest (a verysmall portion) has, as a rule, been omitted. There is seldomany obscurity in the text; the handwriting of Ricardo isclear and good. The earlier letters have no envelopes.The breaking of the seal has frequently torn a page, anddestroyed a word or two. In two cases we have nothingbut the fragment of a letter. But fortunately the bulk ofthe series has reached us in a complete state.
These Letters were evidently known to Empson andMacCulloch, whose references to them are quoted in theirproper place. Other letters of Ricardo, as well as hisspeeches in Parliament, are quoted here and there whenthey illustrate the text or fill up a gap. The Correspondencewith J. B. Say is given at some length, as it is probablylittle known to English readers.
The Outline of Subjects will be found to contain onlya bare sketch of the main positions taken up by Ricardoagainst Malthus in these Letters. It could not fairly beexpanded into an account of both sides of the argument,for, when we are within hearing of only one of the disputants,we cannot with fairness believe ourselves to havethe whole case before us. We cannot accept his statementof the terms of the discussion, for, though he had everydesire to be just to his opponent, his cast of mind wasso different that he can hardly be thought to have enteredinto his opponent's views with perfect sympathy[1].
[Pg viii]TheseLetters indeed show on almost every page