Public and Parliamentary Speeches

Mill’s experience in Parliament is reflected in his public political activities from 1865 through 1868: campaign speeches; support in the House of Commons for women’s and working-class suffrage and personal representation; involvement in pressing issues such as Ireland, Jamaica, extradition, metropolitan government, the prevention of electoral corruption, and much else; motion and amendments; interventions and rebuttals; and extra-parliamentary speeches. His performance is for the first time made accessible in these volumes, which allow us to place Mill firmly in a political landscape whose features were undergoing a bewilderingly swift metamorphosis, to capture the complexity and fluidity of the situation, and to evaluate his purposes and means.

In the historical introduction, Bruce L. Kinzer describes the political forces and personal aspirations that shaped Mill’s parliamentary career and illuminated its consistency and integrity. In the textual introduction, John M. Robson discusses the editorial problems raised by the texts, and explains the principles that have been applied to them.