stics. Some facts require imagination and sympathy to be
appreciated, and there Mill was deficient. He could not give an
adequate picture of Hindoo beliefs and customs, though he fully
appreciated the importance of such questions. Whatever its
shortcomings, the book produced a remarkable change in Mill's
position. He applied for a vacant office in the India House. His
friends, Joseph Hume and Ricardo, made interest for him in the city.
Place co-operated energetically.[20] Canning, then president of the
Board of Control, is said to have supported him; and the general
impression of his ability appears to have caused his election, in
spite of some Tory opposition. He became Assistant to the Examiner of
India Correspondence, with a salary of L800 on 12th May 1819. On 10th
April 1821 he became Second Assistant, with L1000 a year; on 9th April
1823 he was made Assistant Examiner, with L1200 a year; and on 1st
December 1830 Examiner, with L1900, which on 17th February 1836 was
raised to L2000. The official work came in later years to absorb the
greatest part of Mill's energy, and his position excluded him from any
active participation in politics, had he ever been inclined for it.
Mill, however, set free from bondage, was able to exert himself very
effectually with his pen; and his writings became in a great degree
the text-books of his sect.

During 1818 he had again co-operated with Place in a political matter.
The dissolution of parliament in 1818 produced another contest at
Westminster. Place and Mill were leaders in the Radical committee,
which called a public meeting, where Burdett and Kinnaird were chosen
as candidates. They were opposed to Romilly, the old friend of Bentham
and of Mill himself. Both Mill and Bentham regarded him as not
sufficiently orthodox. Romilly, however, was throughout at the head of
the poll, and the Radical committee were obliged to withdraw their
second candidate, Kinnaird, in order to secure the election of Burdett
against the government candidate Maxwell. Romilly soon afterwards
dined at Bentham's house, and met Mill, with Dumont, Brougham, and
Rush, on friendly terms. On Romilly's sad death on 2nd November
following, Mill went to Worthing to offer his sympathy to the family,
and declared that the 'gloom' had 'affected his health.' He took no
part in the consequent election, in which Hobhouse stood
unsuccessfully as the Radical candidate.

III. LEADER OF THE UTILITARIANS

Politics were