Essays Equality Law Education: Volume XXI

Of John Stuart Mill’s major commitments, none was more passionately pursued than equality; it marks his writings throughout his life, and serves as a uniting force in his comments on many subjects, especially lawand education. This volume presents, in scholarly form for the first time, writings that reveal his goals and methods in diverse circumstances. They begin with his precocious essay on the law of libel and include his influential Subjection of Women, his major essays on slavery, his Inaugural Address at St Andrews (a surprisingly succinct summary of his thought), and his contributionsin the struggle to being Governor Eyre of Jamaica to trial. A variety of shorter essays is also presented: such personal documents as his declaration just before amrriage renouncing all legal rights over his wife, and his and Harriett Taylor’s companion pieces on marriage, newly edited from manuscript. Also included is Mill’s evidence before parliamentary committees on education (1866) and the Contagious Diseases Acts (1870).

The appendices include ancillary texts (such as Harriett Taylor’s Emancipation of Women ) and a bibliographic index listing all works and persons mentioned or quoted in the essays. An analytic index gives easy access to the full range of Mill’s ideas in these important essays.