Very truly yours,
DAVID RICARDO.
NOTE.--The MS. referred to in this letter was probably the pamphlet
on 'Economical and Secure Currency,' which internal evidence would
show to have been printed not earlier than Feb., 1816. Ricardo, as
appears from Letter XL, had already submitted the MS. to James Mill.
In the fragment of a letter to Mill (quoted in Bain's 'Life of
Mill,' p. 153, and dated Jan., 1816) he writes: 'Fill eight pages in
the Appendix, will that be too much?' Professor Bain thinks this
must refer to the 'Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'
(1817). But that work has no Appendix; and there seems no reason why
it should not refer to the 'Economical and Secure Currency' (1816),
which has one. The 'Resolutions proposed concerning the Bank of
England by Mr. Grenfell,' and those proposed by Mr. Mellish,
together, cover seven pages of that Appendix in the original
edition; and Ricardo in the fragment quoted had probably been
saying, that these Resolutions, if he printed them, would fill
nearly eight pages, etc.