Mill, John Stuart. Autograph letter signed

Mill, John Stuart. Autograph letter signed (“J.S. Mill”), 3 pages, (7 x 4.5 in.; 178 x 114 mm.), Blackheath Park, 6 July 1866, on embossed Blackheath Park stationery, to Charles J. Grece; with envelope.John Stuart Mill succintly explains: “the grant of the electoral franchise ought to be regarded as the imposition of a duty much more than as the concession of a right ...”He writes in part: I quite agree with you that the grant of the electoral franchise ought to be regarded as the imposition of a duty much more than as the concession of a right, and moreover that the duty is owed not to the existing generation alone or principally, but to the indefinite succession of future generations. No doubt, also, the family is of indefinite duration, while the life of the individual is severely limited. But the franchise is not and cannot be given to the permanent body, the family, as such; it can only be given to some passing individual or individuals as representing the family: and I do not admit that the fact of belonging to a family, or (in the present, that of our laws) having a family belonging to them, is necessary to identify a voter’s feelings with the permanent interest of his country, or even that it does so at all in the average of cases. The care of an ordinary father for his own descendants seldom extends beyond those who are already born when he dies; and the greater number of children men (or women) are personally interested in some individuals who will survive them. I may add that your principle would disfranchise not only unmarried people, but married men who have no children …Mill’s letter is accompanied by: Mill, John Stuart. Autograph letter signed in the third person, 1 page, (8.75 x 7.25 in.; 222 x 184 mm.), [London], undated (watermark 1829). As One of the Assistant Examiners to the East India Company, to the secretary of the Athenaeum in support of his candidacy to the club. Mill, James. Autograph letter signed, (“J. Mill”), 4 pages, (9 x 7.25 in.; 229 x 184 mm.), Mickleham, 4 September 1830, to Edward Strutt. The father of John Stuart Mill writes in full: Your letter was sent down to me here last night, where I am enjoying my holidays, & John is in Paris. I believe the reprints of the Ballot article are sold at the Office of the West[minste]r Review, but I will send to London, & take measures that your demand shall be supplied. Denman I like for a kind of sincerity; but he has not many ideas, & new ones do not very easily make their way into his head. Brougham will easily deter him from the ballot, which Brougham thinks he will recommend himself to the aristocracy by railing against. Did you ever read any thing poorer than what he was spouting against it in Yorkshire? ‘He could not bear that Englishmen should not manfully declare their sentiments. ‘Clear sighted gentleman! He would leave the sentiments of free men in the breasts of Englishmen; & for that purpose he would keep them slaves, by refusing the ballot, necessary to make them free. He would leave the Effort, taking special measures to prevent the Cause: and he would prevent the cause, for no other reason, but that he is violently in love with the effort! What drivel Insincerity is always in the long run reduced to; & how certain its discomfiture, whenever a man fit to expose the drivel makes his appearance? That task you are coming to. It is a glorious destiny; & I hope you are intensely devoting every hour in the necessary preparation.John has been in Paris for a month. He went just after the victory. I call it the, because there is none like it. The first battle for human nature has been fought by the citizens of Paris, & fought in such a manner, that the mastery now gained is for ever gained. The people are equal to their own protection. They know it, & their enemies know it; & we shall see the consequences. You will find them in the first session of parliament. You will have fewer attempts, by many, to brow-beat you, for the delivery of unpalateable sentiments, than you would have had if Charles X had prevailed. Shabby aristocracy! By necessity of nature, cowardly, & insolent by turns!I have had various letters from John, all highly satisfactory. He thinks the public mind in France far advanced, & proceeding rapidly; the young men instructed, sound minded, & full of virtue. The moderate changes with which they have contented themselves at first are generally he says approved; & I for one am most happy, that having reached a ground on which all improvements may go on without obstruction, they considered it their first business to make that secure. The rashness of a period of excitement was the source of danger: Where I am sure that there must be a succession of good events, I can have patience; I am not too anxious that the succession should be very quick. I shall be very glad to hear from you; to learn that you are proceeding prosperously, & well pleased with your own progress. If there are any points on which it would be satisfaction to you to exchange any ideas with me, I shall be here, with my time at my own disposal, for the next three weeks. I have had Bickersteth with me for a whole week & he is just gone to Paris; eager to behold the scene of such glorious events. That is a man you must fully know. He has but few equals. In his own walk, none at all. All his opinions good; & his virtue not to be shaken. I have not been very well; but I shall get down here. I mean to amuse myself making notes to Mackintosh’s attack upon Utility in his Dissertation to the Encycl[opaedia] Brit[annica] lately published. Have you seen it? Or his English History, in Lardners Encyc[lopaedia]? If you have seen them, tell me what you think of them.In July 1830, the monarchy of Charles X collapsed in Paris, and John Stuart Mill had rushed to France, along with his friends and fellow “philosophical radicals,” J.A. Roebuck and George John Graham, in order to witness the historic event. “So great was their ardour that they stayed for several weeks investigating eagerly the methods and intentions of the new regime. They met [Lafayette and some of the popular leaders as well as] the Saint-Simonian leaders, Enfantin and Bazard, who seemed to them to be all that they expected: but nowhere else did they find a trace of the selfless idealism that they themselves were inspired by [Packe, Life of John Stuart Mill].” The Dictionary of National Biography also notes that it was in 1829-30 that Mill became acquainted with the Saint­ Simonians, having become particularly taken by an early work of Auguste Comte, who was then an avowed follower of Saint-Simon. Mill “was thus led to widen and humanise his traditional utilitarianism, and he convinced himself that he could retain all that was ennobling in the ‘Freewill’ doctrine — the belief, namely, that we can mould our own characters — without abandoning the philosophical theory of determinism. He wrote much in newspapers after his visit to France in 1830, especially the Examiner, to which he contributed a series of papers on the ‘Spirit of the Age’ in 1831.”An important group trio of letters from John Stuart Mill and his father, James Mill, on the subject of his son.