372 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



about ten huge vellum-bound volumes, foolscap size, and five or six 

 inches thick, and that of these volumes two a year, for more than 

 than twenty years running, were exclusively of Mill's composition ; 

 this, too, at times when he was engaged upon such voluntary work 

 in addition as his "Logic" and "Political Economy." 



In 1857 broke out the Sepoy war, and in the following year the 

 East India Company was extinguished in all but the name, its govern- 

 mental functions being transferred to the crown. That most illustri- 

 ous of corporations died hard, and with what affectionate loyalty Mill 

 struggled to avert its fate is evidenced by the famous petition to Par- 

 liament which he drew up for his old masters, and which opens with 

 the following effective antithesis : " Your petitioners, at their own ex- 

 pense, and by the agency of their own civil and military servants, 

 originally acquired for this country its magnificent empire in the East. 

 The foundations of this empire were laid by your petitioners at that 

 time, neither aided nor controlled by Parliament, at the same period 

 at which a succession of administrations under the control of Parlia- 

 ment, were losing by their incapacity and rashness, another great em- 

 pire on the opposite side of the Atlantic." 



I am fortunate enough to be the possessor of the original MS. of 

 this admirable state paper, which I mention, because I once heard its 

 real authorship denied in that quarter of all others in which it might 

 have been supposed to be least likely to be questioned. On one of the 

 last occasions of the gathering together of the proprietors of East 

 India stock, I could scarcely believe my ears, when one of the direct- 

 tors, alluding to the petition, spoke of it as having been written by a 

 certain other official who was sitting by his side, adding after a mo- 

 ment's pause, " with the assistance as he understood, of Mr. Mill," 

 likewise present. As soon as the court broke up, I burst into Mill's 

 room, boiling over with indignation, and exclaiming, " What an in- 

 famous shame! " and no doubt adding a good deal more than followed 

 in natural sequence on such an exordium. " What's the matter ? " re- 

 plied Mill, as soon as he could get a word in, " M (the director) 



was quite right. The petition was the joint work of and my- 

 self." " How can you be so perverse ? " I retorted. " You know that 

 I know you wrote every word of it." "No," rejoined Mill, " you are 

 mistaken ; one whole line on the second page was put in by ." 



The nearest approach made, throughout our intercourse, to any 

 thing of an unpleasant character, was about the time of his retirement 

 from the India House. Talking over that one day, with two or three 

 of my colleagues, I said it would not do to let Mill go without receiv- 

 ing some permanently visible token of our regard. The motion was 

 no sooner made than it was carried by acclamation. Every member 

 of the Examiner's office for we jealously insisted on confining the 

 affair to ourselves came tendering his subscription, scarcely waiting 

 to be asked ; in half an hour's time some 50 or 60 I forget the ex- 



