Item 253 - William Whewell to Richard Jones

3 pp.

Cliff Cottage, Lowestoft - WW has been reading Twiss's Lectures on the History of Political Economy [Travers Twiss, 'View of the Progress of Political Economy in Europe Since the Sixteenth Century', 1847] and hoping RJ would write a review of it for Empson [William Empson, editor of the Edinburgh Review]: 'You might find in that way, an easy opportunity of giving your opinion on the leading points of the subject...he has, so far as I can judge, taken hold of the main points of the history very well; - though I think in some cases he has let the points slip too easily. For instance, he appears to me to have muddled away Adam Smith's great distinction of productive and unproductive labour, and to have given his assent too easily to some of Say's extreme opinions'. WW gives his opinion on the difficulties of deciding what mans desires are.