additional enlightenment, which through providence it is doing every day, so much more will be understood the vast advantages of peace abroad, and economy at home. All that the expanding trade of our fellow-countrymen requires, is to be let alone in its vocations on the one hand, and to have fair calculable profits secured for it on the other. The last, at least, can never be the case, whilst it is in the power of half-a-dozen gentlemen, in any country or market town, from Cumberland to Cornwall, to add at their pleasure ten or a hundred thousand pounds to the circulating medium of the country. When we are told of the amazing 'amount of credit thus afforded to industry,' our answer is, that a credit of this kind is precisely the delusion which turns honest traders into gambling speculators. Fair credit, resting upon substantial property, and acknowledged uprightness in commercial transactions, is like a wholesome atmosphere, in which industry flourishes and expatiates; whilst that sort of credit, which depends more or less upon provincial paper, reminds us of the laughing-gas, the source of unnatural spirits, and leading to convulsions as its catastrophe. Neither would we demand aught else of Mr. Eisdell himself, with regard to the working of a national paper system, than to act upon what he has truly observed in another page: In the case of the Bank of England 'paper, during the time it was inconvertible into cash, there 'was not in fact a certain belief that it would be paid in coin, but no one feared that the value which it represented, and for which it was taken, would not ultimately be paid, or would ever be refused to be given for it: hence its continued currency. paper currency sets free a portion of capital from investment in "the precious metals, and it acts as capital in abridging labour, the same as any tool or machine.'-Vol. i. p. 488. Indeed, we altogether agree with him in his section on the value of money, and the causes and effects of a change in that value.

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So also in his admirable, though short chapter on the division of property, it affords us sincere gratification to find him demonstrating, that with respect to the distribution either of land, houses, money, or any other species of wealth or possession, in which industry is concerned, all right views of national economy are opposed to legislative interference. In truth, our laws of entail and primogeniture, with the various aristocratic associations which they involve, do their utmost to prevent, restrain, or paralyze production. They are the remnants of feudalism, with all its absurdities, which will ever be towards commerce, with all its blessings, precisely what the lean and hungry kine, or the thin blasted ears of Pharaoh, were to the seven fat-fleshed and wellfavoured cattle, or the seven bountiful ears on one stalk, emblematic of the plenty of Egypt. Mr. Eisdell closes his first volume with the subject of Population. He alludes to the two opposite

VOL. VI.

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opinions held on the nature and tendency of the reproductive faculty in man: the one, that it exists in excess, tending to multiply human beings faster than provision can be made for their support; the other, that it is so regulated, as naturally to conduce to human happiness:

'The modern exhibition of the former and distressing view of the question, with its complete development and application, has been given by the late Professor Malthus and his followers. The overthrow of that view, and the substitution in its place of the latter and cheering one, is due to the labours of Mr. Weyland, and the late Mr. Sadler. These contrary views, whether individually or nationally entertained, point to maxims and conduct diametrically opposite to each other. The former leads to discourage, in a measure, the marriage union, or its postponement to a somewhat advanced period of life, especially amongst the poor, who are unable to make an adequate provision for their offspring; and this with the view of lessening their number, assuming that the condition of the people is better in proportion as they are fewer in number, and worse as they multiply. The latter denies the position that their condition suffers as they increase, asserting, on the contrary, that it improves with every addition; and denounces such discouragement as repugnant to nature, contrary to the laws of God, ineffectual to its intended purpose, and fraught with an immeasurable load of vice, suffering, and degradation. Analogy with the other operations of nature strongly points to the presumption, that no natural tendency should be found in population to outrun the provision which nature has made for its support.'-Vol. i. pp. 533,-4.

We should concur with our author in his last assertion, were it not, that the original command given to mankind to increase and multiply was given previous to the fall. Sin marred the whole arrangement; and as transgressors, living in a state of probation, we must take things as we find them. Not that we intend going into the subject, which would supply matter for volumes, rather than for an article; and we hasten forward, therefore, to glance at his ideas upon Distribution.

This constitutes his second grand topic of discussion, under which he treats of the rent of land, the profits of stock and capital, and the rewards of labour. His theory on the first of these is, that our present agricultural rents consist merely of surplus profits, which cultivation affords to the labour and capital expended on the land, over what would be acquired by the same labor and capital otherwise employed. The rent of land, according to him, resembles that of a shop or house of business, and must be determined on the same principles. He deems it indispensable to its existence, that the quality of the cultivated soils, or the efficiency of the powers of labour in relation to that quality, should be such as to yield a larger quantity of the necessaries of life, than is required for the maintenance of the persons employed

upon the land. As much as this produce is more than sufficient 'for the maintenance of these persons, a power exists of paying "rent, if it be necessary.' He maintains that the causes of its rising or falling must be sought for amongst such as affect the quantity and efficiency of the labour and capital which can be advantageously employed in husbandry; as also amongst such as affect the profit accruing from that employment; yet not the absolute or gross profit, but the excess of profit over what is usually acquired in other occupations.

The origin, the occasion, and the progress of rent may be thus stated. The insufficient supply of the productive agency of the soil, and the consequent increasing difficulty, as population and productive power advance, of raising an adequate quantity of food, cause the prices of provisions, and of every other kind of the produce of land, to be continually advancing. The effect of every successive increase in these prices is to allow of the cultivation of inferior land, and yet to derive from it the customary remuneration of labour and capital. In which case, the larger returns upon the old enclosures of superior quality render their cultivation highly profitable; and as this proceeds not from superior skill in the farmer, but from the superior advantages of the land, the landlords, who grant permission to occupy these lands, are enabled to demand an advance of rents; while the competition of persons who are desirous of occupying land compels them to offer its full value. In each of these successive advances, that last enclosed land, which paid no rent, becomes charged with a rent equal to the advance, or the excess of profit which the land affords over the fresh and more inferior land; leaving only the new portion rent-free; while the other lands, which had formerly paid rent, become severally charged with an addition to their previous rents, by the amount of the advance; or, which comes to the same thing, with a rent equal to the surplus profit their cultivation affords, above what could be acquired by employing the same capital in other occupations. In these advances, the gradation of rents remains unchanged; for the rent of land of the best quality must always be higher than that of the second best; the second higher than the third; the third higher than the fourth; and so on.'-Vol. ii. pp. 22,-3,

He does not, however, imagine, as some have done, that the unequal fertility, and cultivation of poor soils, can be the cause either of the origin or progress of rent; the latter being the consequence, and not the cause; since it is to escape the payment of rent that inferior grounds are resorted to. He further con

ceives that high profits, which prevent the tillage of poorer lands, must always occasion lower rents; whilst on the other hand, low profits, with their usual accompaniment of large capitals devoted to agriculture, spreading thereby cultivation over such lands, usually cause rents to advance. He shows, also, how rent enters into the composition of prices, after a different manner from that which occurs with regard to either wages or profits. High or low wages and profits are the causes of high or low prices. But

as regards the monopoly of land, high prices occasion high rents, and not high rents high prices. Hence the interest of our overgrown aristocracy, in maintaining the corn-laws, becomes as clear as day. The staff of life, which might be procured in the Baltic ports for thirty or forty per cent less than it costs here, can only be obtained, through the operation of protective duties, at that enormous artificial price which the landed leviathans have contrived to impose, in order that their present oppressive rentals may be upheld. That the farmer gains nothing by the corn-laws is abundantly evident. The high price of produce yields him no benefit in the long run, because, on renewing his lease, the landlord will demand as rent, whatever surplus profit that high price may afford above the profits of other occupations. Proprietors indeed gull their uninformed cultivators with glozing speeches, and after-dinner toasts, about the corn-laws being the essence and core of agricultural prosperity; but the whole juggle is just such a process as we hear of in the voyages of Sinbad the sailor, when he describes the diamond-merchants. These people threw down pieces of meat into a dangerous and inaccessible valley, strewed with precious stones, which of course adhered to the morsels falling upon them. Eagles from the neighbouring cliffs then pounced upon the flesh, and carried it off to their nests for their young ones; but the merchants, watching their opportunity, drove away the birds, rifled every airie they could reach, and appropriated the jewels for their pains. No doubt, could the eagles have remonstrated, they would have been assured that their robbers were their very best friends! Protection has always struck us as being a gilded name, covering more processes of plunder and iniquity than almost any other word with which we are acquainted. Yet if the farmer gains nothing by the monopoly, so neither does the labourer. Both are neither more nor less than the geese maintained and deluded for the special benefit of an oligarchy, whose heart is still feudal, whatever its professions may be; whose real political creed is, that the eggs and feathers of all other bipeds belong to their lordships and laird'ships' by divine right; that, in fact,

The little villains must submit to fate,

That great ones may enjoy the world in state!'

It can be demonstrated, that wages do not rise and fall in due proportion to the price of corn. Labourers were frightened, indeed, on a recent occasion, into an opposite belief, through want of knowing better. The truth, nevertheless, flows out at last, that their condition has become worse, instead of having improved, since the enactment of the corn-laws. Landlords are the solitary gainers; and they only in the sense of grasping an immediate benefit, at the expense of present wastefulness and ultimate ruin. Could prodigals ever be taught practical wisdom,

they would soon see that selfishness is the permanent enemy to self, as the bargain gets older; that all its compacts are made upon satanic principles; that the victim surrenders substance for a shadow, just as the dairymaid gives her shilling to a fortuneteller, or as the sinner sells his soul to the devil. Landed proprietors are in the same boat, together with their tenantry who hold the farms; with their serfs, who water the soil with the sweat of their brow; with their great customers, our manufacturing millions; as well as with all the wives and children in the three kingdoms. By a juggle of long standing, they have contrived to appropriate an undue share of the provisions; or (which comes to the same point) they have been able to impose an unfair price upon the greatest necessary of life. Let them, therefore, come to a proper adjustment, before the company of those who sail with them shall have lost altogether their temper, and so resolve in some evil hour to throw them overboard. The best arbitrators between them and the community at large will be the political economists.

With regard to the Profits of Stock, our author considers that their rate depends on the relation of the supply of capital to the known profitable uses, to which there are the means of applying it; and that the consequent degree of productiveness of the last created, and least advantageously occupied portion, has not been hitherto recognized as it should have been, except in the lectures of Doctor Longfield. The criterion of national prosperity must be sought for in the gross production, which the capital and labour of a country together present; which production is entirely distinct from that share of the produce which goes to the capitalist, and constitutes the rate of his profit. In proceeding to analyze the rewards of labour, he first glances at them in the aggregate, showing that they depend on the productiveness of industry; on the relative magnitude of the shares which, in the distribution of the gross produce, fall under the heads of rent and profits; and on the adjustment of labour being more or less favorably arranged, so as that there may be a supply of commodities in precise proportion to the demand for them. He then touches upon inequality in the rewards of different kinds of labor; on those of learned and scientific exertion; on those derived or received by masters and adventurers; and, lastly, on those of our operative classes. He truly observes,—

The opinions that are held on the circumstances which determine wages, whether right or wrong, are never inoperative. The mighty interests involved cause them to be always in action, either for good or evil. These opinions exercise a powerful influence on the prosperity, as well as on the peace and happiness of society. If just, they may lead to the introduction of such measures, as may contribute in a high degree to advance public wealth, and the interest of the poor; at the same time that they may tend to the satisfaction of the masters, and