THE aspect of the political world, at the commencement of the present year, was, in several respects, dark and painful. Never, perhaps, had there been more splendid hopes, followed by a gloomier disappointment, than at the close of the great war, which Britain brought to so glorious an issue. The era of peace, so much longed and scarcely hoped for, coming now under such triumphant circumstances, was expected to usher in a happier era, and to heal all the wounds under which the nation had groaned. Instead of this expected felicity, peace was followed by a distress much more widely and inly felt, than any which had arisen from the most extended warfare. A general stagnation pervaded every branch of industry. The loom stood still; the merchant was involved in difficulty or bankruptcy; the produce of the earth sunk to a price ruinous to the farmer, while it afforded

little benefit to the consumer, who had not wherewithal to pay even its reduced rate. The payment, by the rich, of an income tax of ten per cent., was an evil of very different magnitude from the fall of the labourer's wages from fifteen to five shillings a-week. The suffering, most serious in itself, was greatly aggravated by ignorance of the cause, and by total unconsciousness of that ignorance. When men suffer, they look eagerly for a remediable origin; they are ready to do and to hazard much in efforts to shake it off. A bad harvest raises insurrection even in China; much more may the distress of the lower orders be supposed to operate, among a people so much less trained to habits of subordination. It is, accordingly, too true, that national poverty, and the ebullitions of discontent excited or fanned by it, have formed much the most prominent feature in the history of this and the following

years. These observations have led us to consider seriously the causes and grounds, both of this suffering and this discontent; and a few remarks, such as our reflections have suggested, may, perhaps, form no unappropriate preface to the history of this period.

Strange as it seems, that peace, usually hailed as the harbinger of prosperity and abundance, should have been the direct means of plunging the nation into such a depth of distress, a little consideration will shew it to have been the necessary immediate consequence. The extraordinary expence of this war, as of every one in which Britain has long been engaged, was chiefly defrayed by loans. We do not here discuss the political expediency, that is necessity, either of the war, or of this mode of supporting it; these questions are gone by, and have no longer any practical bearing. We are viewing the subject merely economically; and, in this light, the nation has long been acting the part of a spendthrift, who maintains an establishment greatly beyond his income. By so doing, he is plainly acting a most imprudent part, and placing him. self on the high road to ruin. Still, while this extravagance lasts, plenty reigns in his household; he keeps more servants, pays higher wages, and affords more employment to all the neighbourhood than he could other wise have done. Suppose now, that his eyes are opened; that he sees the gulf into which he was plunging, and begins a new establishment, in which his expences and income are placed on a level,-nothing can be more laudable;-at the same time, it is certain, that a general poverty will be felt through his establishment; abundance and comfort will no longer reign there; the wages of his servants will be reduced, and some must be dismissed; nor can the same employment be afforded to the neighbouring tradesmen

and artizans. Britain, at the peace, was a reformed spendthrift. That large portion of her capital, which she had been in the annual habit of taking up and spending, had maintained throughout her population a fevered and artificial plenty. The loans paid a large body of soldiers, yielded a market to extensive manufactures, and took off a large proportion of the landed produce. If we average their amount at thirty millions a-year, and allow 201. to each individual, (which, admitting the natural majority of women and children, seems very ample,) we shall find them providing subsistence for a million and a half of British subjects. All these, by the peace, were thrown out of employment, became superfluous hands, and ought indeed to have been sent away, if there had been any place to which we could send them. There being none, at least on a requisite scale, they had no resource but to thrust themselves into the already overstocked employments at home, and, by their competition, reduce the wages of labour to a rate which scarcely afforded a bare subsistence. The evil is rendered much heavier by the great length of time during which the system had been persevered in, extending over a whole generation, and probably giving occasion to the rearing of a consider. able new population, dependant on these forced and temporary funds. This body, when the great machine of society sunk into its natural state, be came quite a surplus population, and a burden upon the community. Another aggravation arose from the habits generated among the mercantile classes, by the feverish prosperity of war and monopolized trade. There had been so many instances of fortunes raised from nothing, and by one happy spe culation, that universal hopes of similar success were excited. To earn a competence by a life of industry, was now regarded as a mean and paltry aim;

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all were in chase of something rapid and brilliant. Under the influence of this spirit, every new opening which the continual shifting of the political scene afforded, was filled to treble its extent; and all the markets of the world were glutted with British goods selling at half their prime cost. The same immoral avidity of making a fortune, displayed itself by the manner in which competitors in trade sought to run down each other, by selling their commodity at a losing price, and thus obliging their rivals to do the same, till, one party being ruined, the other was enabled to establish a monopoly against the public. By such processes, commercial capital was destroyed throughout the kingdom to a great extent, particularly in the hands of those whose knowledge would have best fitted them to conduct the concerns in which it was embarked. From the very grounds upon which we have endeavoured to prove the existing pressure to have arisen from the cessation of the profuse war expenditure, it must be evident that we would be the last to advise seeking a remedy by the renewal of that profusion. This would procure present relief indeed, but at the expense of final ruin, of which the system had led us perhaps not far from the very brink. Some plausible arguments might have been urged for making the transition a gradual one, and for not throwing at once out of employment so vast a body of persons. We should hesitate very much, however, to give any such advice, or to recommend a plan, which, falling in perhaps with the inclinations of many concerned, would be so liable to be extended beyond its proper limits and period. We should be sorry even to see any intermission in those efforts to enforce public economy, which form one of the main legitimate objects of a British opposition. At

the same time, we cannot help remarking the total mistake under which the mass of the nation has laboured, in ascribing their sufferings to the degree of expenditure which remains, and in furiously demanding further reduction, as the means of immediate relief. Reduction is no doubt an excellent thing in the main; but its further adoption could have no effect but to increase that existing and urgent pressure under which we labour. Its benefits would be certain and important indeed, but they would be future and even somewhat remote.

If it be now asked, what remedy may be hoped for these narrow and distressed circumstances in which the nation is involved, we are obliged to answer that we know of no immediate one, except patience. This is, indeed, the main result, with a view to which the present discussion was undertaken. It would be a great good, if the nation should be weaned from delusive hopes, and should cease to expect relief from any violent and desperate efforts it could make. Certain measures, particularly those connected with an extension of the freedom of trade, may be calculated to produce some degree of improvement; but it would be chimerical to expect from any new opening, such sudden profits, as could in any degree fill up the great blank left by the cessation of the war expenditure. This can only be effected by the gradual operation of those causes which lead to the increase of national wealth; the most powerful of which consists in the constant exertion of every individual to better his outward circumstances, provided equal laws assure him of reaping the fruit of his labours. Britain, indeed, is not susceptible of that rapid growth, observable in some infant societies; still the natural advantages of the three kingdoms, joined to the skill, capital, and enter