John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

I2 4 STANDING FOR WESTMINSTER. 1849-1872.
The two subjects taken up while the Hamilton was still in
hand John Austin and Comte deserve to be ranked among
the best of his minor compositions. The "Austin" article
took him back to his early days when he worked with Bentham
and attended the lectures of Austin at University College.
does not seem to contain much originality, but it is a logical
treat. The two "Comte" articles are still more valuable, as
being Mill s contribution to the elucidation of Comte s Philo
sophy. It will be long ere an equally searching and dispas
sionate estimate of Comte be given to the world ; indeed, no
one can again combine the same qualifications for the work.
The publication of the Hamilton in the spring of 1865 was
followed by a crowd of events. Mill had already embarked on
an article on Crete s Plato, which had lately appeared. He had
arranged with his publisher for cheap reprints of the Political
Economy, the Liberty, and the Representative Government.
Then came the requisition to stand for Westminster, by which
his name blazed out into a sudden notoriety, under which the
cheap volumes went off like wildfire, while there was an
increased demand for the Logic. His letter, announcing his
compliance with the requisition on certain conditions, was a
surprise. It was scarcely to be expected that he could feel
himself
"
"
honoured
by being elected to Parliament,
It
in the
maturity of his great reputation. Perhaps we must go farther
back to account for his ready compliance. He had felt it
acutely, as a disadvantage of his being placed
in the India
House, that he could not enter Parliament ; and again, in the
days when he was heading the philosophic radicals, he was
conscious of the weakness of his position in not being himself
in the House of Commons. He had not yet ceased to be a
practical politician, although he had become many things
besides ; and the long slumbering idea of being in Parliament
was suddenly wakened into life. His anticipation of success
in the election was not sanguine; but his supporters were