MILL, James.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Autograph letter signed, to Josiah Conder, discussing individual resistance to abusive government. A seemingly unpublished letter by the philosopher-historian, reaffirming the British birthright to criticise improper government and to call for its reform. Josiah Conder (1789-1855), an abolitionist and popular writer, became the editor of the Nonconformist magazine The Eclectic Review in 1814: Mill had previously contributed several articles himself. In one of the Eclectic Review's many disputes with the Christian Observer, Conder appears to have outlined a critique of the Anglican establishment which brought allegations of sedition against his magazine. Writing from Ford Abbey, Jeremy Bentham's country residence, Mill advises Conder to maintain a bullish attitude, with a particular horror of passive obedience. He identifies the right to criticise unjust government as underpinned by the British constitution: "the very principles of the British constitution imply the right which every man possesses to point out wherein the practice of government departs from the proper path". If this right were removed, "if we must not speak of such a power under its true name, & express our desire that it should be taken away, we are in the foul embrace assuredly of passive obedience & non-resistance".

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