Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/398

 of his journeymen named Greig, and carried on the business. The father died in 1808, and the Greigs were for a long time very poor, although their two sons ultimately succeeding in establishing a business. Mrs. Greig died in 1837. Her family had an impression that James Mill had not been a good brother, and that the expenses of his education had caused an unjust diminution of his sister's means. They probably exaggerated the prosperity of the brother, who was rising to a good position in English society. Letters to his friends the Barclays, given by Professor Bain, show that Mill did in fact clear off the father's debts, and contributed to his support, besides offering to help the sister's family. Considering his own great difficulties, there seems to be no ground for complaint, and Greig probably made himself disagreeable from the first. Mill was not a man to neglect his duties, but neither was he a man to confer benefits gracefully. The contributions to periodicals, by which he must have supported himself at the time, cannot be identified. He is said to have written in the ‘British’ and ‘Monthly’ reviews, and especially in the ‘Eclectic,’ then an organ of evangelical dissent. Brougham, who may have known him at Edinburgh, helped him in obtaining admission to the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ for which he wrote some articles from 1808 to 1813. About the same time he formed an important connection with Bentham. The acquaintance had begun in 1808. Mill used to walk from Pentonville to dine with Bentham in Westminster. He soon became Bentham's warmest disciple. Dumont was already known as the promulgator of Benthamism abroad; but Mill was soon his trusted lieutenant for carrying on the propaganda in England. He revised Bentham's writings and took an active part in the radical agitation of which the Benthamites formed the philosophical core. Bentham desired to have his best disciple constantly at hand. In 1810 Mill occupied the house formerly belonging to Milton and afterwards to Hazlitt, which belonged to Bentham and looked upon his garden. It proved to be unhealthy, and was abandoned after a few months. Mill could not find a house nearer than Newington Green, whence he continued his regular pilgrimages to Westminster; but in 1814 Bentham let him another house, 1 Queen Square (changed to 40 Queen Anne's Gate), for 50l. a year, afterwards raised to 100l. when Mill was able to pay the full value. Here they were immediate neighbours, and met constantly for many years. In the summer of 1809 and later years Mill spent two or three months with his family at Barrow Green House, near Oxted, Surrey, which Bentham had taken for a time; and from 1814 to 1818 the Mills stayed with Bentham at Ford Abbey, near Chard, Somerset, spending there as much as nine or ten months together. The residence with Bentham was of great importance to Mill, and probably was of some pecuniary advantage. A remarkable letter written by Mill to Bentham in 1814 (given fully in BAIN, pp. 136–40) speaks of some difference arising from one of Bentham's fanciful humours. Mill says that he has been proud to receive obligations from Bentham, although it has been ‘one of the great purposes of his life to avoid pecuniary obligations,’ and he has consequently lived in ‘penury.’ He has been a gainer by Bentham's hospitality and by the low rent of his house, though not otherwise. He proposes, however, that they should hereafter avoid the danger of too close a connection. By thus preserving their friendship Bentham will have a disciple able and anxious to devote his whole life ‘to the propagation of the system.’ A reconciliation must have followed; and Mill amply fulfilled his promise to spread the true faith. According to J. S. Mill, James Mill during this period supported his family by writing, while at the same time pursuing the ‘History’ and being the sole teacher of his children. Some unpublished correspondence with Francis Place [q. v.], whose acquaintance Mill made in 1812, illustrates this period. Place was proposing in 1814 to raise 3,000l. for Mill's benefit without his knowledge. The scheme fell through, partly because it was felt that Mill's independence of spirit would prevent his acceptance of the offer. Mill was clearly in great need of money; and Place seems to have made some advances on the expected profits of the ‘History.’ In December 1814 he was working at it from 5 to 11, as he tells Place, a statement slightly exaggerated by Mrs. Mill (see , p. 162). His ordinary day's work at Ford Abbey lasted with few interruptions from 6 till 11 ; three hours, from 10 to 1, being devoted to teaching, and a couple of short walks his only relaxation. Mill's early religious opinions appear to have been finally abandoned after his acquaintance with Bentham. In previous writings he had occasionally used the language of at least a qualified belief in Christianity. He now abandoned all theology. According to J. S. Mill, the ‘turning-point of his mind was reading Butler's “Analogy”’ (Autobiog. p. 38). A report given by Professor Bain attributes the final change to his friendship