ing the same year
in a review of Samuel Bailey's _Formation of Opinions_, and gave a
general account of his political creed in an article (October) on the
'State of the Nation.' This was his last contribution to the
_Westminster_; but in 1827 he contributed to the _Parliamentary
History and Review_, started by James Marshall of Leeds, an article
upon recent debates on reform, which ended for a time his political
writings.

The Utilitarians had no great talent for cohesion. Their very
principles were indeed in favour of individual independence, and they
were perhaps more ready to diverge than to tolerate divergence. The
_Westminster Review_ had made a good start, and drew attention to the
rising 'group'--J. S. Mill declares that it never formed a
'school.'[26] From the very first the Mills distrusted Bowring and
disapproved of some articles; the elder Mill failed to carry his
disciples with him, partly because they were already in favour of
giving votes to women; and as the _Review_ soon showed itself unable
to pay its way, some new arrangement became necessary. It was finally
bought by Perronet Thompson, and ceased for a time to be the official
organ of Benthamism.

Another undertaking occupied much of Mill's attention in the following
years. The educational schemes of the Utilitarians had so far proved
abortive. In 1824, however, it had occurred to the poet, Thomas
Campbell, then editing the _New Monthly Magazine_, that London ought
to possess a university comparable to that of Berlin, and more on a
level with modern thought than the old universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, which were still in the closest connection with the church.
Campbell addressed a letter to Brougham, and the scheme was taken up
energetically on several sides. Place[27] wrote an article, which he
offered to Campbell for the _New Monthly_, who declined out of modesty
to publish it in his own organ. It was then offered to Bowring for the
_Westminster_, and ultimately suppressed by him, which may have been
one of the causes of his differences with the Mills. Brougham took a
leading part in the agitation; Joseph Hume promised to raise L100,000.
George Birkbeck, founder of the Mechanics' Institution, and Zachary
Macaulay, who saw in it a place of education for dissenting ministers,
joined the movement, and among the most active members of the new body
were James Mill and Grote. A council was formed at the end of 1825,
and after various difficulties