The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-09 00:00:00

THOMAS TOOKE, F.R.S.

We have the painful talc of recording the death of
Mr. Tooke, the venerable author ti f the " His ory of
Prices," and in many respects for a long period the chief
of living economists. Mr. Tooke died at his residence,
31, Spring-gardens, early on.the morning of Friday, the
26th nit., and hie remains were interred at Kensal-green
Cemetery on Thursday last, in a vault which already
contains one or two members of his family. Mr. Tooke s
age was within a few days of the completion of hie 85th
year, but it was not until within the l:t few ino.ihs that
he manfested very sensibly the decay of powers to be
naturally expected at so advanced a to-rind of life. The
death of his second son, Mr. Thos Tooke, jun. (one of
the directors of the Bank of England), after a very short
illness, at the close of December, may be regarded as the
more immediate cause of the sad event we now record.
The suddenness and weight of the shock occasioned by
so severe a bereavement as the loss of his son, exhausted
a strength already impaired and failing, and for the last
two months Mr. Tooke hsc been gradually sinking: But
there ha been no interval, even up to the latest moment,
during which the clearness and serei.ity of mind for
which Mr. Tooke was so remarkable was interrupted.
The long career of Mr. Tooke has been one which in-
vites and will repay scrutiny. He has united in an emi-
nent degree the sagacity and penetration of mind which
enabled him to be a guide and discoverer in new paths,
and the practical wisdom and soundness of judgment
which qualified him to occupy a conspicuous place in
the active business of life. In Mr. Tooke's case the com-
bination of the speculative with the practical faculty was
exceedingly remarkable. Few men could be found more
ardent in their pursuit of new truths, or more ready to
adopt and maintain them when he had once satisfied.
himself that the discovery was a real one ; but at the
same time he may be classed among that small num-
ber of persons whose judgment is so clear and unbiassed,
that the cases are exceedingly rare in which their deli-
berate advice is not fully justified by the event.
For a long period, in the early part of his life, Mr.
Tooke was the leading partner in one of the largest
houses engaged in the Russian trade; and it was while
so occupied that he acquired that remarkable command
of facts which enabled him to raise upon so wide and
solid a basis the economical doctrines and discoveries
which will ever bear his name.
The work which preceded the "History of Prices"
was entitled "Thoughts and Details on High and Low
Prices," and appeared in 1823. A. second edition was
published in the following year. The first two volumes
of the " History of Prices"—the work upon which Mr.
Tooke's fame principally rests—appeared in 1838.
Two further volumes appeared in 1840 and 1847; and it
was only in the spring of last year that the sth and 6th
volumes, embracing the important period from 1848 to
1857, and extending, in many respects, the scope of the
earlier vflutnem, were Published. In these two volumes,
IS is well known, Mr. Tooke relied to a great extent upon
his coadjutor, and friend, and pupil, Mr. Newmarch,
a coadjutor be justly said to be, in some im-
portantdeg w
degree, the
representative of the school of which
Mr. Tooke is the founder.

But the active sphere filled by Mr. Tooke was of scarcely
less interest than his pursuits as a philosopher. He was
governor, by re-election, for several su. cessive terms of
the Royal Exchange Corporation—he was chairman
under similar circumstances of the St. Katharine's Dock
Company—and he was one of the earliest promoters of
the London and Birmingham Railway. He contributed
largely to the establishment of the Statistical Society,
and to the latest period of his lite he never lost an op-
pertnnity of forwarding the objects of that association.
He was a Factory Commissioner in the early days of th 6
great and difficult controversy out of which that com-
mission arose, and he was the chairman of the subseque-nt
commission relative to the employment of children.
Among the last honoure he received was the distinction
of being elected a corresponding member of the French
Academy.
It is well known that Mr. Tooke was the author f the
Merchants' Petition of 1820 in favour of free trade, and
that, in point of fact, the free-trade movement then com-
menced was in a large measure originated by him. The
petition itself is a noble document, and every principle
it sets forth has since made the ground-work of legis-
lation.

He has now passed away full of years and honours ;
and so long as patience and intrepidity in the support of
truth—a rare sagacity in separating real from spurious
science—and the promotion, by his own active examPief
of every useful work, can constitute a claim to gratitudis
and respect, so long will the name of Thomas Tooke fil
a distinguished place in the history of the time in Wblcls
he lived.—Economist, March 6.