24 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK
previously (1833) joined with all the talents to found the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, which still remem-
bers you in its Biological and Economic sections. You were no
ardent politician, but you must have triumphed with the rest
of the Whigs when the Reform Bill passed in 1832. You will
hardly care to know that in your own country reform has gone
farther since then, and we are a democracy in everything but
the name.”
SHADE: “There was certainly comfort in these last years. But
surgit amart aliquid; there were some signs of the times that
made me uncomfortable. Though it hurts my own feelings I
must mention that my checks on population were often redefined
for me by people who used my name and authority unadvisedly,
including some of the politicians to whom you have referred.
As you know, I do not love to dwell on this subject; my check
was always moral restraint, and deferment of marriage; with
them it is something different.”
Y. E.: “Your own successor, sir, Richard Jones, declared that
the adjective should be dropped or altered into ‘voluntary.’ ”
SHADE: “I was always a little afraid of what would happen
if it were dropped, as indeed it was by my friends Place and
James Mill and his precocious son. James Mill, like me, was in
John Company’s service. You will admit that, like him, I fought
valiantly for the company and my college, not without frank
criticism. I may venture to say, I was a good friend to my
young men in that same college, and though boisterous they were
rarely bad, and I think we respected one another.”
Y. E.: “Everybody respected you, sir. But the college is gone
or rather it is transformed into a public school, and a very good
one. It produced some famous men, but after certain disturb-
ances in India and changes of policy and plans of selection at
home it was doomed to go. As a matter of fact it went before
the Company, 1855, largely because of a Report from your friend
and champion Macaulay. Professor Monier Williams * speaks
from tradition of the delightful evening parties your wife gave
to the college, and of your own great amiability and charm of
character. You need have no fear on that head. Miss Martineau,
Miss Edgeworth, Mackintosh, Sydney Smith, all sang your
praises. The banter of the last is not to be mistaken for dislike.”
Lt Old Haileybury (Constable, 1894), pp. 198-9.