water, land and rocks, good and bad in America, as well as at home, they returned; but they rust have old saws, and sage sentences, and shrewd nods, to please the rabble, who are determined to be pleased with any thing

that is new.

"Il success having so red their temper, actuated by malice, or envy, or some vicious motive, they extol the advantages of America, an lexcite dissatisiaction, uneasiness, and turbulence. Bridled by the restraints of law, or fear of punishment, they dare not agitate seditons and commotions; they therefore wreak their rancour and spleen upon their innocent country in another way, and represent America as the land of liberty and pleasure. Those who listen to them, and are silly enough to be hoodwinked, may be said to deserve any punishment."

In the next section the author begins to calculate what number of Highlanders emigrate annually. He apprehends they amount to five thousand, which is an insignificant number. He imagines that if these five thousand had staid at home, and their childrens' children, Scotland would have been more populous than at present. The reverse is the case. Dr. Franklin, in his paper on the Increase of Mankind, and Mr. Malthus in his Essay on Population, have completely and irreversibly de

monstrated, that men multiply every where with a rapidity proportioned to the that, where the ways of maintenance are permanent and habitual demand; and pre-occupied, a further increment does not easily take place; marriage is postponed, promiscuous and barren intercourse sets in, protracted celibacy, with all its concomitant habits, become general, and thus a voluntary accommodation of the number generated and reared to the number in habitual requisition takes place from natural causes. A cranimed population always produces the habits of life usual in large cities, which habits keep down an increase that would there be inconvenient. But by exporting the supernumeraries to unsettled districts of the earth, they multiply rapidly, and create a demand among their descendants for the luxuries remembered in their mothercountry, and thus furnish employment for an additional resident population there. Scotland will find new resources of domestic maintenance to result from the emigration of her sons. In our third volume (p. 310) this topic has already been discussed at sufficient length.

ONE of the grievances of Ireland here discussed is a want of small metallic change, in consequence of which paper representatives of minute values have been issued, called silver-notes. The wear and tear, and loss of these petty notes, is considerable among the poor, and is become a popular topic of complaint. The only remedy seems to be an increased coinage of sixpences, shillings, and half-crowns, sufficiently impure to escape melting, or exportation.

Another of the grievances here discussed is the state of the exchange. The Irish treasury draws on London at 11 above par; whereas the merchants, lord Lauderdale thinks (p. 92), would else draw at 16 above par. This interference with the natural course of things is a great grievance; commerce cannot speculate rationally or confidently where a minister has the impertinence to fancy he understands the interests of tradesmen better than they do themselves, and has the mischievous power of employing the vast capitals of the state to derange that natural course of things. To whom does it sig

nify whether the exchange is high or low? If 100l. sterling is paid high in Ireland, at 116. the moment is favourable for the purchase of linens there; by the advance of one hundred pounds in London, one hundred and sixteen pounds worth of goods can be obtained. Of course the London merchants buy, and the Irish manufacturers are full of work. But the Irish absentee has to buy at a high rate the money he wants to expend in London, or Bath; and this same state of exchange, which benefits the most important branch of commerce, encroaches on the luxury of the non-resident land-owners and placemen. This encroachment is exactly the proper tax on absentees. But government, indifferent to the manufactures, and criminally accommodating to the placemen and noblemen of Ireland, have set about reversing this wholesome state of things; and instead of drawing in pounds sterling on London, and selling their drafts by a broker at the current rate of exchange, have drawn at the specific exchange of 111. Thus five per cent. is struck off the profit of the English

buyer of linens, who of course buys less or not at all; and five per cent. is added to the revenue of the non-resident Irish, by which means more persons can afford to quit the country. Thus the prosperity of vast manufacturing districts is nipped in the bud, and agriculture is retarded by offering a premium for the non-residence of proprietors. Such is the mischief of meddlesome politicasters.

A third grievance here discussed is the excessive issue of bank-paper. The remedy is simple. Withdraw the restriction, as it is hypocritically called, on the conversion of notes into cash. The privilege conceded to the banks of England and Ireland, of not paying in specie, diminishes the value of every man's capital throughout both countries, by all the effect of the additional capital thus thrown into circulation. The bank of Ireland ought to have no other limitation imposed on its issues than would result from this simple act of justice. Private banks would perhaps discount somewhat more at six per cent. and the monopoly bank some what less at five per cent.; but the sum issued in discounting would not be very different. Discounting can be performed cheaper by great institutions than by individuals, whose capitals have a distinct habitual destination; but it will always be accomplished at one premium or other in the degree in which it is necessary to the wants of commerce. It is a mistake to suppose, that the issue of bank-paper can ever diminish the scarcity of money, as has already been explained (vol. iii. p.298): it does not create a new property, it only renders a pre-existent fixed property circulable. According to lord Lauderdale (p. 101), the Irish bank-notes are at present really at a discount of ten per cent. : we do not assent to his method of calculation.

In 1796, Mr. Montagu, then chancellor of the exchequer, being called on in the house of commons to defend his conduct relative to recoining the clipt money, said, "It is better to do wrong than to do nothing." This vile deference for the wishes and claims of an agitated vulgar has found successive imitators. We have still ministers of osier, who bend to every wind of popular clamour from whatever quarter it may blow. Unequal to the effort of thinking out what is right, they leave that to the public, and endeavour to obey the ave rage instructions of the louder advisers. This is called governing by public opinion, and has been the characteristic feature of British government these twenty years. It is in fact a sacrifice of ultimate approbation to present applause. It is the art of governing down to the people, and of throwing away, at every opportunity, the whole advantage of forwarder information and intellect.

Rather let us consecrate the inverse maxim: "it is better to do nothing than to do wrong" we have more cause to be afraid of an awake than of an asleep administration. The rage for interference, regulation, and enactment, whether it respects scarcity of corn, or scarcity of money, is sure to increase the evil it professes to remedy. Repeal the impediments on circulation, the restrictions on issuing cash, the arbitration of exchange, the limita tions on interest, the untransportableness of specie, deliver us, ministers, from the shackles of your predecessors, and prospe rity will soon return.

Of the late publications of lord Lauderdale, this appears to us considerably the best. It is written clearly and well ar gued. It implies all his usual informa tion, and displays the habitual anxiety of his patriotism.

admirable diplomatic politics of the protectorate, had the merit of perceiving early the importance of cultivating a political friendship, and a commercial intercourse with Russia. In his brief history of Muscovy, he endeavoured the familiarizing of those leading facts which were best adapted to prepare the statesman and the people for adopting an interest in the transactions, and an accommodation to the manners of the Russians. Since Mi

ton, Tooke is the most distinguished of our writers who have scattered important information concerning the history of the Russian empire.

It is well to call in the aid of the German labourers in this department of investigation. To Schloetzer, to Storch, distinct praise is due to the one for his profoundly learned historical researches concerning the national annals; to the other for his comprehensive and instructing account of the northern metropolis. Nor will this less extensive, but not less amusing, work of the state-counsellor Clausen, be without its share of popularity and circulation. By selecting the more peculiar anecdotes of the Russian princes, he plucks, as it were, the flowers of character, and preserves the beauties of history.

We cannot better enable the reader to appretiate this performance than by culling, in our turn, half-a-dozen anecdotes from his anthology.

"Precepts of Toleration.

"History, says the celebrated Bolingbroke, is philosophy taught by example. On tracing the annals of all nations, on looking round and reflecting upon the occurrences of every age, we may be led to believe, that so many lessons have been lost to society. The same errors, the same species of frenzy, are renewed without interruption. We find a people in the thirteenth century, who, although deprived of philosophical institutions, preached peace and toleration to their prince, while all Europe armed to embark in the crusades, and while military expeditions were undertaken in France, in the name of God, against the Albigenses, twenty-thousand of whom perished, because they professed other dogmas of religion!

"Jaroslaf, prince of Novogorod, demanded assistance from the inhabitants of Pleskof against the city of Riga, lately built, which he wished to attack and destroy. Having some alliance with the menaced people, they answered the prince who endeavoured to persuade them to join him:

"Thou art prudent; thou knowest that all men are brothers; christians and infidels, we are all of the same family. It is not necessary to make war upon those who do not participate in our creed, nor to assume to ourselves the punishment of their errors; it is much wiser to live in peace with them. Then they will cherish our mildness and our virtues; they will be affected by them; and from the friendship they will conceive, will pass to the love of our religion."

"Noble Freedom appreciated by Iwan. "Jerome Bowes was sent by Elizabeth, queen of England, in quality of minister to the Tzar of Russia. To conform to the eti

quette of the times, and the prerogatives of his place, he remained covered at the first audience. Some one represented to him the danger of such a conduct, and the evils he might bring on himself by it."I am not unacquainted with them," said he, "but I am the ambassador of a queen who will revenge any affront offered to her in the person of her minister." The prince, far from being offended at such a declaration, presented him to the assembly, and recommended the boyars “Behold,” said he to imitate his example. to them, "a brave man, who has the courage to uphold the honour of his sovereign with dignity. for me?" Who among you would do as much

"Simplicity of Manners in the Time of Alexis.

"A Russian author relates in his Notices, a work which he compiled abroad, that during the reign of this prince, gold was as scarce as silver was common, and that consequently a large sum could not be carried without inconvenience it was therefore the custom to pay visits without money to stake at play; but such was the courtesy and simplicity of mancow the masters gave the servant bags with ners, that in the respectable houses of Mosthousands of rubles, to distribute to those who played. The company being met, each of them demanded money during the evening of the confidential man, so that, in some mea ture, they played at the expence of the host; but the next morning they did not fail to return him the value of what they had taken and

lost.

"These societies, continues the same writer, were free from pomp and ceremony: every one was at his ease, and loss or gain did not dissipate the general good-humour."

"Unexpected Mediation.

"Major-General Golitsin having gained a victory as much by his valour as by his presence of mind and military knowledge, the emperor gave him permission to choose his own reward. He requested the pardon of Repnin, who had been disgraced a short time before. "How!" replied the monarch," are you ignorant that Repnin is your mortal enemy?" "I know it," replied Golitsin, "and that is precisely the reason why I suphis pardon." Peter the Great then caused it plicate your imperial majesty to grant him to be announced to Repnin, that yielding to the earnest solicitations of Golitsin, he had restored him to his favour; but thinking it, at the same time, his duty to give an eminent mark of his esteem for such generosity, he conferred the order of St. Andrew on the

victor."

"Public Spirit of Peter I.

"After the conquest of Estonia, and the capture of the city of Revel, the emperor ordered the inclosures and fortifications of the port to be repaired, opposite to which he

erected a palace in the Italian taste, and planted a large pleasure garden. The Tzar named this charming spot the valley of Catharine (Catherinen Thal) in honour of his wife. He knew that neither himself nor his family could derive much advantage from it, as he was unable to remain long there; but his intention was to provide a place of recreation, where the public might meet. Some years after, when the whole was completed, he returned with the empress to Revel, and went to reside at the castle. Surprised at not seeing any person walking in the park, he asked a senti nel the reason. The sentinel said, "because no one of any description was permitted to come in." How!" replied the emperor sharply, "what blockhead gave that order?" "Our officers." "What stupidity! did the fools imagine that I had caused these extensive walks to be made for myself!"

"Next morning it was proclaimed through the city by beat of drum, that all the inhabitants were allowed admission into Catherinen Thal, and that every one might go there for amusement, the guards being only stationed to prevent tumult, and to protect the trees and other objects from being injured."

"Instance of Courage and Humanity. "A young officer of the police, who, at the setting in of the winter, was stationed on the quay at the Neva, to prevent any one from attempting the passage of the river till it was sufficiently frozen, discovered a person on the ice who had escaped the notice of the guard on the opposite side. Apprehensive of his dan

gør, he called to him to return. The other, heedless of his intreaties and his threats, kept advancing, until, suddenly, the ice gave way under his feet, and he sunk. The guard called for assistance; but perceiving that none of the spectators attempted to succour the unhappy man, he threw off his coat and plunged in, regardless of his own danger, and by his strength and courage, brought the man to the shore, who, two minutes later, must have lost. his life. The emperor Alexander, who was riding, arrived on the spot at this interesting moment. He addressed the officer in the most flattering terms, and, giving him a ring from his finger, promoted him to a station greatly superior to the one he filled."

Not all the anecdotes here related are quite trustworthy: some speeches are ascribed to Peter I. which repose on no better authority than Voltaire and Leveque; and some actions are ascribed to romantic and heroic motives, which may more probably be accounted for on coarser principles.

This translation is not made directly from the original, but through a French medium: it misbecomes us thus to await the approbation of Paris before we import a foreign work this may be ascribed to a perverse habit in our reviewers, of crying down every thing German, a practice which has much interfered with our national popularity on the continent.

NATURE seems to have intended man for an eternal circle of conditions. From the anarchy of savagism regular causes every where draw him to the cohesion of barbarism. In this state the bonds of religious and political discipline are drawn tighter and tighter, until at length restraint generates industry, domesticity, and the elementary qualities of civilization. During the period of wealth and refinement which succeeds, religious and political coercion relaxes, education is diffused to all, and confined to those exercises, military and civil, which are required by all. With the equality and military habits of savagism soon returns its turbulence and ferocity; warfare levels the cities, and banishes the arts of trade; a community of women supervenes, each of whom lives unmarried, and rears an offspring by various fathers; education is more and more neglected, and the seats of culture resume the rudest condition, in which any part of the old world has yet been observed.

Much of this retrogradation has occurred in France during our own times, and will probably extend alternately to the other European nations.

There are always certain minds in unison with the coming age; an indistinct foresight of what must be, glimmers upon the intelligent; some of whoin invite, assist, and welcome the new order of society. Thus Rousseau, among the French, undertook a systematic apology for the svage state, which he represented as the most desirable side of the social wheel: and the great popularity of his work, Against the Inequality of Conditions, is a strong proof, how sensibly the French felt they were sliding back to that stage of society, whence their ancestors began to emerge under Charlemagne.

Mr. Hall has undertaken, in English, a similar apology for savagism; and has endeavoured to show, that toiling for wealth is labour in vain; that as much comfort is possessed by the savage as by

the civilized; that happiness is more equally distributed, and less precariously held in the ruder communities; and that it is high time to begin marching back to the manners and morals of the middle ages. It is improbable that his book will be popular, like that of Rousseau; because we have not yet attained the acme or summit of civilization, and are therefore not yet ready to listen to those who are for leading us down the hill on the other side: yet the time, no doubt, will come, when the Halls and the Northmores shall be hailed as the meteorous harbingers of that boreal dawn, which, in some equinox of anarchy, is to supersede the polar summer of our prosperity, and to illumine the benumbing level of equality during the wintry midnight of a new dark age.

This treatise is written with talent: of its spirit an idea may be formed by the author's own recapitulation of his argu

ment.

“Having given, under different heads, the effects of civilization on the mass of the people in most European states; it may not be amiss to draw the most material of them more closely together, so as to bring them under

one view.

"We have seen that a small number of people in these states have first got possession of the land, the stock on it, and every thing that it produces; and then, by the means of these, have obtained the command of the labour of the people.

"This comparatively small part of the people being thus in possession of those things, and the power connected with them, are naturally desirous of securing those their great advantages over the rest of the people; and to put it out of the reach of those people to recover them.

"The power they are in the possession of furnishes them with the means of securing itself, as well as the wealth which is the foundation of it. To avail themselves of this power, the first step is to take the right of making laws, exclusively of the people, but which shall bind the whole people into their own hands, i. e. to assume the legislative power, This they do by means of their wealth.

Having gained this important point, the next step was to make use of, and exercise this legislative power, by enacting such laws as would effectually secure to them the objects in view, i. e. to enact laws to secure property. The things of which the people are destitute, namely, the land and its produce, being such things as are in a high degree necessary to the comfort and very existence of the people to enable the rich to retain these, must require strong and severe laws. This we find was done. The laws securing property in most civilized nations are of the most

severe kind; severe in the penalties and punishments inflicted; severe in their long duration; severe by their pain and torture; horrid by the terrors and agonies by which the mind of the unhappy sufferers are agitated and distracted, for many months, under their dreadful sentences.

"These few, i. e. the aristocracy, being possessed of the property of the whole people, and having power of claiming almost the whole labour of them; and having also, by the means above mentioned, secured it firmly to themselves; their next consideration is to make use of and apply this labour in such a manner as that it shall produce such things as will most gratify their desires and inclinatious, and administer to their ease and pleasure. This is done by the manufactures of various kinds. These therefore are introduced, and forced on the people by all the means that artifice and power can furnish; notwithstanding the employments are such as include every thing that human nature, till by long habit it is broke to it, feels irksome, nauseous, painful: and notwithstanding they are unwholesome, debasing, and destructive of mind and body, to such employments nineteen-twentieths of the men, their wives and infants, are condemned, during all the years, months, and days of their lives; enjoying a very small part of what their labour yields. These employments, together with their poverty and want, occasion the miseries and mortality before stated.

"Most of the civilized states of Europe, not content with bringing miseries on their own people, extend their baneful influence to nations, inhabitants of the remotest parts of the earth. How many millions of the most harmless and innocent race of people to be found have been by a few avaricious traders reduced to misery and famine! How many from Africa have been brought to a worse condition than our cattle, by other sets of traders!

"The sum therefore of the effects of civilization, in most civilized states, is to enable a few of mankind to attain all possible enjoyments both of mind and body that their nature is susceptible of; but at the expence, and by depriving the bulk of mankind of the necessaries and comforts of life, by which a great proportion of them is destroyed, and the remainder reduced both corporally and mentally far below the most savage and barbarous state of man. All these things being brought about in a regular, orderly, silent manner; under specious forms, with the external appearance of liberty, and even of charity; greater deprivations are submitted to by the poor, and more oppression exercised over them, by this cool, deliberate, systematic junction of art and force, than force alone was ever known to accomplish.

This, as we have said, is the actual state of things in most civilized countries: but I by no means assert that this state was brought about by the express design or the contrivance of any set of people in these communities.