James and John Stuart Mill / Papers of the Centenary Conference ed. by John M. Robson, Michael Laine (review)

HUMANITIES 423 general derived some benefits from the censorship' (p 10). He refuses to include the usual glib, rhetorical set-piece on the unqualified evils of censorship, for, in spite of his predisposition, Conolly is not against all censorship. (For example, while he deplores the censorship of Holcroft, he applauds the censorship of Foote.) What disturbs him most about the office of the censor is not its enormous power, but the fact that its power was arbitrary and that it was subordinated to the ends of an elite social class. Although - or perhaps because - Conolly does not emphasize general issues or pursue his speculations very far, his cautious, scholarly approach to censorship through historical documentation provides an especially useful casebook for those interested in the larger, perennial issues of censorship. (BRIAN CORMAN) James and John Stuart Mill / Papers of the Centenary Conference. Edited by John M. Robson and Michael Laine. University of Toronto Press. ix, 162. $15.00 The theme of fathers and sons is of no little importance for the nineteenth century and nowhere is it more significant than in the relationship between james and John Stuart Mill. The opening of john Stuart Mill's Autobiography defines their intimate attachment: 'I was born in London, on the 20th of May, 1806, and was the eldest son oflames Mill, the author of the History of British India.' The mother is noticeably absent; the father alone seems responsible for the son's existence. Although the father/son relationship is evident in the Autobiography, the intellectual association of the two men is insufficiently explored in this newly published collection of essays dedicated to studying their reCiprocal influence. In '973, to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of james Mill and the centenary of john Stuart Mill, the University of Toronto gathered a diverse group of scholars to examine the connections between the two Mills. Five areas formed the principal subjects of the papers: history, politics, economics, social science, and the history of thought. The nine essays expertly study John Stuart but generally neglect james. An example of this concentration on the son is j.B. Schneewind's enlightening essay, 'Concerning Some Criticisms of Mill's Utilitarianism : which investigates the critical reception of the work. Schneewind shows the initial neglect but later attention paid to the book; his essay translates an intellectual myth - the impact of Utilitarianism - into historical fact through a careful look at Victorian criticisms of the text. He substantially adds to our understanding of the work and its role in nineteenth-century intellectual history. L.S. Feuer also contributes to a reinterpretation of john Stuart Mill by 424 LETIERS IN CANADA 1976 showing why he never wrote his proposed ethology, the science of the 'laws of human character.' Although Feuer believes Mill was 'more qualified to write the masterpiece of sociology than any other man in the nineteenth-century,' he could not complete the project because his 'inverse deductive method' prevented him from joining the contrary empirical laws he tried to affirm. Feuer also examines Mill's association with the 'revolutionary socialists' of Europe, noting how Mill 'looked for guidance to the moral principles of socialism.' His contribution to the development of sociological science, however, was 'as the conscience of science'; he alone sought to keep 'his sociology free from ideology.' He could not write a 'complete system of sociology because he alone would not confuse the subjective completeness of a narrowed mind with the objective completeness of sociological explanation.' Joseph Hamburger on Mill and Tocqueville on liberty is equally stimulating. Distinguishing their views of personal freedom, Hamburger asserts that Mill wished to establish a 'libertarian utopia' while Tocqueville hoped only to avoid the disaster of despotism. Mill and his unwritten history of the French Revolution is the topic Edward Alexander explores, while the meaning of 'human nature' for James and John Stuart Mill is the focus of John Robson's comments. 'Philosophical History in the Two Mills' is the concern of J.H. Burns, while a reinterpretation of Mill and Ricardian economics absorbs Samuel Hollander . George Stigler concentrates on biography and the problems in its scientific use, while Karl Britton examines the connections between Mill and religion . Despite the...