A Letter from Harriet Taylor-Mill to Dr Alexander Bain
Details
Harriet Taylor-Mill had been immersed in the ideas of Radicalism for her whole life, her friendship with her future husband John Stuart-Mill blossoming out of their shared passions for women’s rights, alongside other social reform interests. Despite not having a publication year, this particular letter was written sometime between 1851 and 1858, since she addresses herself as ‘Harriet T. Mill’ (thus signifying her marriage to John Stuart-Mill), with her death being in 1858.
Although the letter itself does not have Radicalism as its subject, it certainly relates to the Radical movement in various ways. Firstly, the addressee of the letter, Dr Alexander Bain, was a deeply close friend to John Stuart-Mill through their mutual interests in Philosophy and reform. Bain himself wrote for the Westminster Review, a newspaper formed in 1823 by the ‘Philosophical Radicals’ (which included both John Stuart-Mill and his father James Mill). As two-time Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, he was also greatly involved in student rights and related reform movements, overseeing the formation of the Aberdeen University Students’ Association.
Taylor-Mill’s letter also references the recent death of her father, Thomas Hardy. Taylor-Mill records the reaction to his death, with many political and social figures such as essayist and East India Company official Thomas Love Peacock, and Radical Politician William Molesworth, being deeply affected by it . Both Peacock and Molesworth wrote for the Westminster Review and therefore had, connections to Radicalism (although both the fealty that Molesworth swore to his Radical beliefs , as well as the extent of the impact that his Radicalism had on the political landscape , has been questioned). Their aggrievement is an interesting detail since Hardy was a surgeon, and not immersed within political reformist movements, although Peacock met Stuart-Mill in 1836, around the same time that Molesworth became acquainted with James Mill, so it is likely that they were close with Hardy by the time of his death despite Stuart-Mill not actually marrying Taylor-Mill till 1855.
Although the letter itself does not have Radicalism as its subject, it certainly relates to the Radical movement in various ways. Firstly, the addressee of the letter, Dr Alexander Bain, was a deeply close friend to John Stuart-Mill through their mutual interests in Philosophy and reform. Bain himself wrote for the Westminster Review, a newspaper formed in 1823 by the ‘Philosophical Radicals’ (which included both John Stuart-Mill and his father James Mill). As two-time Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, he was also greatly involved in student rights and related reform movements, overseeing the formation of the Aberdeen University Students’ Association.
Taylor-Mill’s letter also references the recent death of her father, Thomas Hardy. Taylor-Mill records the reaction to his death, with many political and social figures such as essayist and East India Company official Thomas Love Peacock, and Radical Politician William Molesworth, being deeply affected by it . Both Peacock and Molesworth wrote for the Westminster Review and therefore had, connections to Radicalism (although both the fealty that Molesworth swore to his Radical beliefs , as well as the extent of the impact that his Radicalism had on the political landscape , has been questioned). Their aggrievement is an interesting detail since Hardy was a surgeon, and not immersed within political reformist movements, although Peacock met Stuart-Mill in 1836, around the same time that Molesworth became acquainted with James Mill, so it is likely that they were close with Hardy by the time of his death despite Stuart-Mill not actually marrying Taylor-Mill till 1855.