250
Petty’s Political arithmetic.
1815 Catalogue, page 102. no. 328, as above, 8vo.
PETTY,
Sir William.
Several essays in political arithmetick: The titles of which follow in the ensuing pages. By Sir William Petty, late Fellow of the Royal Society.
London: printed for
Robert Clavel, and
Henry Mortlock,
1699.
HB151 .P518
8vo. 158 leaves, separate title-pages for the different tracts, continuous signatures and pagination.
Lowndes IV, 1845.
McCulloch, page 210.
Palgrave III, 99.
STC P1937.
A book by Petty was purchased by Jefferson from
Lackington in 1787, price
1/.
Sir William Petty, 1623-1687, English political economist, was one of the founders of the Royal Society. This work originally appeared in 1682
and contained fewer essays than the later editions which were enlarged and improved. The Essay on the extent and value of
lands, people, buildings . . . first appeared posthumously in the edition of 1691.
[2937]
J. 251
Malthus on the principle of population.
2. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 100. no. 329, as above, reading
principles.
MALTHUS,
Thomas Robert.
An Essay on the principle of population; or, a view of its past and present effects on human happiness; with an inquiry into
our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions. By T. R. Malthus, A.M. late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. In
two volumes. Vol. I [-II]. The
third edition.
London: printed for
J. Johnson by
T. Bensley,
1806.
HB861 .E7 1806
2 vol. 8vo. 291 and 284 leaves, both volumes with half-titles.
This edition not in Lowndes, not in the
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit.
See McCulloch 259, Seligman X, 68, and Palgrave II, 668.
Original calf repaired and with new endpapers. A folded leaf from
Science
, vol. XIV, no. 341, August 16, 1889, has been pasted in vol. II. Initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T in both volumes
and with the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate preserved in the later endpapers.
Purchased by Jefferson from
Milligan on November 7, 1807, one copy in 2 vols. calf gilt, $
8.00.
Jefferson had previously ordered a copy, “
if an 8
vo. edition can be had
,” from Duane in a letter written on October 14, 1807, to which Duane replied on October 16: “. . . I have laid aside for you a copy of Jarrold’s animadversions by way of Answer to Malthus, in which
my side of the question is taken against Malthus with much ability, tho I think he has left a great deal unsaid . . .”
Jefferson first mentioned reading this work, in a borrowed copy, in a letter to Dr. Priestley, written from Washington on
January 29, 1804: “
. . . Have you seen the new work of Malthus on population? it is one of the ablest I have ever seen. altho’ his main object
is to delineate the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws of England & other palliations for that
evil, several important questions in political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are treated with a masterly hand.
it is a single 4
to. volume, and I have been only able to read a borrow’d copy, the only one I have yet heard of. probably your friends in England
will think of you & give you an opportunity of reading it . . .
”
A few days later, on February 1, in acknowledging the receipt of his work on Political Economy to J. B. Say, Jefferson wrote:
“
I have to acknolege the receipt of your obliging letter and with it of two very interesting volumes on Political economy.
these found me engaged in giving the leisure moments I rarely find to the perusal of Malthus’s work on population, a work
of sound logic, in which some of the opinions of Adam Smith, as well as of the economists, are ably examined . . .
”
