A Journey to London in 1840. 1G7 



Wilson's reply t<i me shewed that he had no case except what 

 ribaldry and vindictiveness could produce. 



It is difficult to predicate what is for one's best interests. 

 Had Mr M'CuUoch obtained the preferment in question it is likely 

 that he would have been settled in Edinburgh for life, and have 

 been quite happy and independent, but the Commercial Dic- 

 tionary and other \'ery large and expensixe works on which he 

 has already engaged could not, it is almost certain, have had an 

 existence. The truth is that an incomparably more brilliant 

 career has awaited him than if he had been thirled to the northern 

 capital by a professorship. On Mr Ricardo's invitation he paid 

 a visit to London in 1822. This distinguished writer and most 

 worthy man had carried on a friendly epistolary correspondence 

 ■with Mr M'Culloch since the appearance of the article in the 

 Edinburgh Review already referred to. L'nder the auspices 

 of this excellent person Mr M'Culloch was induced, in the year 

 .stated, to deliver simultaneously two courses of lectures in 

 London, one in the city the other in Westminster. They were 

 exceedingly successful both as to the estimate formed of the 

 abilities of the lecturer and as to die number of pupils. The 

 number was, if I remember well, about 200 at each course: ticket 

 £2 2s. Mr M'Culloch was quite delighted with the success of his 

 first \'isit to the great metropolis. He was not onlv well received 

 as a public instructor, and by Mr Ricardo i)ersonally, but he W'as 

 introduced to .some of the most eminent men of the dav — to Mr 

 Mill, Mr Poullet Thomson, etc., and met with Mr Malthus and 

 others whom he had seen before in Edinljurgh. I think it was at 

 this time also that he was introduced to Mr Brougham. Mr John 

 Smith, M.P., the l)anker, was, next to Mr Ricardo, his warmest 

 supporter. 



But the valuable life of Mr Ricardo was doomed to be cut 

 short though he was only in his prime. He died in September, 

 1824, at the early age of fifty-one. Some of his friends, at the 

 head of whom was Mr Smith, with the object of doing honour to 

 his memory, and of associating his name with the progress of the 

 science of which he had been a great master, resolved to institute 

 a lectureship of political economy in London, to be called the 

 " Ricardo Lectures on Political Economy." This institution was 

 founded accordingly, and Mr M'Culloch was appointed lecturer 

 without his knowledge or application. His first lecture in his 



