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 had to spend the hours from ten to four at his office, though, as business came irregularly, he had often time to spare for other employments. His son tells us, as may well be believed, that he had great influence with his superiors, and was able to get many of his opinions upon Indian policy adopted in practice. During the inquiries which preceded the renewal of the charter in 1833, Mill was examined at great length before committees of the House of Commons, his evidence upon the revenue system occupying eight days in August 1831, while in the beginning of 1832 he was examined upon the whole administrative and judicial systems. Mill also wrote the despatches in which the company stated its case in the final correspondence with the government. In spite of his dogmatic radicalism in home politics, Mill showed in this discussion that he was not prepared to apply his à priori method to India. His official experience had convinced him that the natives were totally unfit for self-government, and that even free trade would not produce a miraculous improvement. He showed remarkable knowledge and power in arguing the case. Mill's situation did not exclude him from continuing to take a very important though not a conspicuous share in political movements. His master, Bentham, was a recluse, difficult of access, growing old, and little acquainted with practical business. Mill therefore became the recognised head of the party. His dearest friend was David Ricardo, first known to him in 1811. Bentham said: ‘I was the spiritual father of Mill, and Mill the spiritual father of Ricardo.’ It was by Mill's encouragement that Ricardo was induced to publish his ‘Political Economy,’ and to enter parliament, and Ricardo's sudden death in 1823 affected Mill to a degree which astonished those who had only recognised his sternness. Brougham was also a warm friend of Mill; and though J. S. Mill, who regarded Brougham as a humbug, says that his father kept up the friendship on account of Brougham's powers of carrying out utilitarian principles in practice, it seems that Brougham was really able to fascinate the elder Mill. Mill certainly wrote to Brougham in terms of the warmest admiration, and declares in 1833 (, p. 371), ‘the progress of mankind would lose a century by the loss of you.’ The Political Economy Club, founded in 1820, arose from some meetings of Mill and others at Ricardo's house for economic discussions. Mill drafted the rules, and was conspicuous from the first in the debates. In the same year he published the ‘Elements of Political Economy,’ which was the substance of verbal instructions given to his son John. A younger generation was now rising, which looked up to Mill as a leader. Henry Bickersteth [q. v.], afterwards Lord Langdale, was already an intimate. George Grote, John Austin and his brother Charles, William Ellis (1800–1881) [q. v.], Walter Coulson [q. v.], and others were friends of the younger Mill, who sat at the feet of the father, and were sufficiently pugnacious and dogmatic expounders of utilitarian principles. John Black [q. v.], editor of the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ and Albany Fonblanque [q. v.] of the ‘Examiner’ represented the party in the press. The ‘Morning Chronicle’ was for some ten years after 1817 their recognised organ. Fonblanque contributed to it under Black, and afterwards gave a general support to the same side in the ‘Examiner.’ Mill had been invited by Macvey Napier in 1814 to contribute to the supplement to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ and between 1816 and 1823 wrote a number of articles which expounded utilitarianism in the most uncompromising fashion. The most remarkable of these articles, that upon ‘Government,’ appeared in 1820, and is substantially a terse statement of the radical creed of the time as based upon Benthamite principles. It was regarded, says John Mill (Autobiog. p. 104), as a ‘masterpiece of political wisdom’ by the so-called ‘philosophical radicals.’ The essays had been twice reprinted in 1825, when Mill says that they had ‘become text-books of the young men of the Union at Cambridge’ (, p. 292). They were reprinted again in 1828. In 1829 the essay upon ‘Government’ was attacked by Macaulay in the ‘Edinburgh Review.’ Mill took no part in the controversy which followed, although his line of reply is given in his ‘Fragment on Mackintosh’ (edit. 1870, pp. 275–94). He bore no grudge to Macaulay, whose appointment to the Indian council he supported, and they had friendly relations, which induced Macaulay not to reprint the articles during his life.

The starting of the ‘Westminster Review’ in the beginning of 1824 provided the party with an organ of their own. Mill had long discussed the plan of such a publication with Bentham, and it appears that Bentham was to have provided the funds at starting. Mill's official position prevented him from accepting the editorship, which was divided between Bowring and Southern. The first number contained an article upon the ‘Edinburgh Review’ by James Mill. It caused the Longmans to decline publishing the new periodical, which was undertaken by Baldwin, and it made a considerable sensation,