James Mill writes a number of articles, containing an exposition of utilitarianism, for the supplement to the fifth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1814, the most important being those on "Jurisprudence," "Prisons" and "Government."
Mill was born at Northwater Bridge, in the parish of Logie Pert, Angus, Scotland, the son of James Mill, a shoemaker.
His mother, Isabel Fenton, of a family that had suffered from connection with the Stuart rising, had resolved that he should receive a first-rate education, and sent him first to the parish school and then to the Montrose Academy, where he remained until the unusual age of seventeen and a half.
He then entered the University of Edinburgh, where he had distinguished himself as a Greek scholar.
In October 1798, he was ordained as a minister of the Church of Scotland, but met with little success.
From 1790 to 1802, in addition to holding various tutorships, he occupied himself with historical and philosophical studies.
Finding little prospect of a career in Scotland, in 1802 he went to London, in company with Sir John Stuart, then member of parliament for Kincardineshire, and had devoted himself to literary work.
From 1803 to 1806, he edited an ambitious periodical called the Literary Journal, which professed to give a summary view of all the leading departments of human knowledge.
During this time he also edited the St. James's Chronicle, belonging to the same proprietor.
In 1804, he wrote a pamphlet on the corn trade, arguing against a bounty on the exportation of grain.
In 1805, he published a translation (with notes and quotations) of An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation of Luther, a C.F.
Villers's work on the Reformation, an attack on the alleged vices of the papal system.
About the end of this year, he began his The History of British India, which he will take twelve years to complete, instead of three or four, as had been expected.
In that year he had also married Harriet Burrow, whose mother, a widow, kept what was then known as an establishment for lunatics in Hoxton.
He then took a house in Pentonville, where his eldest son, John Stuart Mill, was born in 1806.
In 1808, he had become acquainted with Jeremy Bentham, and will for many years be his chief companion and ally.
He has adopted Bentham's principles in their entirety, and has determined to devote all his energies to bringing them before the world.
Between 1806 and 1818, he writes for the Anti-Jacobin Review, the British Review and The Eclectic Review; but there is no means of tracing his contributions.
In 1808, he had begun to write for the Edinburgh Review, to which he had contributed steadily until 1813, his first known article being "Money and Exchange."
He also wrote on Spanish America, China, Francisco de Miranda, the East India Company, and the Liberty of the Press.
In the Annual Review for 1808, two articles of his are traced—a "Review of Fox's History," and an article on "Bentham's Law Reforms," probably his first published notice of Bentham.
In 1811, he had cooperated with William Allen (1770–1843), a Quaker and chemist, in a periodical called the Philanthropist.
He contributed largely to every issue—his principal topics being Education, Freedom of the Press, and Prison Discipline (under which he expounded Bentham's Panopticon).
He has made powerful onslaughts on the Church in connection with the Bell vs. Lancasterian school system debate, and has taken a part in the discussions that will lead to the foundation of the University of London in 1825.
