MILL, John Stuart, and Jánosi FERENCZ (translator).
A képviseleti kormány.
Pest, Emich Gusztáv Tulajdona, 1867.
8vo, pp. [4], 350, [2 (contents, blank)]; very occasional slight spotting; contemporary half purple cloth with marbled sides, spine lettered directly and ruled in gilt, edges speckled, sewn on 3 sunken cords; rubbed and bumped, spine sunned and discoloured, otherwise a very good copy; provenance: Nagy Béla (ownership inscription to title).
First Hungarian edition of Considerations on representative Government, Mill’s most important political work after On Liberty. In his major work on political institutions Mill ‘discusses to what extent forms of government are a matter of choice, the criterion of a “good form of government”, and explains his belief that representative government is the best form of government because it demands the most from its citizens and encourages their development. For this reason he commended the plan for proportional representation ... as “among the very greatest improvements yet made in the theory and practice of government”’ (Sabine, 667). ‘It is a wide-ranging book, and its interest lies as much in the discussion of general principles as in the particular recommendations regarding the ballot, proportional representation, and plural voting, not to mention the treatment of local government, federalism, and nationality’ (IESS).
‘The influence which Mill’s works exercised upon contemporary English thought can scarcely be overestimated. His own writings and those of his successors practically held the field during the third quarter of the 19th century and even later ... Many of Mill’s ideas are now the commonplaces of democracy. His arguments for freedom of every kind of thought or speech have never been improved on. He was the first to recognize the tendency of a democratically elected majority to tyrannize over a minority’ (PMM 345).
The Hungarian text was translated by Jánosi Ferencz (1819-1879), friend and follower of Károly Szász and subsequently Minister of Justice.
OCLC records only two copies world-wide (Szeged and Hungarian Academy of Sciences) and none could be traced at auction.
