"I have just finished your chapter in the Fortnightly and I put down my observations while my mind is full of its contents. In execution I think it excellent and of good augury for the success of the book... I expect that the subsequent chapters will be equally well executed and that I shall come to agree with all or most of your practical conclusions. But in its principles the chapter does not carry me with it. I find in it what I always find where a standard is assumed of so-called justice distinct from general utility... not only do I not admit of any standard of right which does not derive its sole authority from utility, but I remark that in such cases an adversary could always find some other maxim of justice equal in authority but leading to opposite conclusions... I have stated strongly the fault I find with your chapter. It would take me a considerable space to set out all the good I find in it. To mention only one thing, the will be very serviceable in carrying on what may be called the emancipation of political economy--its liberation from the kind of doctrines of the old school (now taken up by well to do people) which treat what they call economical laws, supply and demand for instance, as if they were laws of inanimate matter, not amendable to the will of the human beings from whose feelings, interests, and principles of action they proceed. This is one of the queer mental confusions which will be wondered at by and by and you are helping very much in the good work of cleaning it up."
