First edition. 8vo. viii, 340 pp. Nineteenth century half calf with marbled paper covered boards, spine with five single raised bands outlined in gilt, the second and fourth panels lettered in gilt on red and green morocco labels, the rest tooled in gilt, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. A fine copy. London, Parker, Son and Bourn, 1861.
An attractively bound copy of the most important of Mill’s political works following On Liberty (1859), and his most substantial work on political institutions, Considerations on Representative Government "discusses to what extent forms of government are a matter of choice, the criterion of a 'good form of government', and explains his belief that representative government is the best form of government because it demands the most from its citizens and encourages their development. For this reason he commended the plan for proportional representation ... as 'among the very greatest improvements yet made in the theory and practice of government' (Sabine, p. 667).
'It is a wide-ranging book, and its interest lies as much in the discussion of general principles as in the particular recommendations regarding the ballot, proportional representation, and plural voting, not to mention the treatment of local government, federalism, and nationality' (IESS). 'The influence which Mill’s works exercised upon contemporary English thought can scarcely be overestimated. His own writings and those of his successors practically held the field during the third quarter of the 19th century and even later... Many of Mill’s ideas are now the commonplaces of democracy. His arguments for freedom of every kind of thought or speech have never been improved on. He was the first to recognise the tendency of a democratically elected majority to tyrannise over a minority' (PMM 345).
Provenance: from the library of Charles B. Farwell (1823-1903), U.S. Representative and Senator from Illinois, with his engraved bookplate to the front pastedown.
MacMinn, Hainds & McCrimmon, p. 93.
