246 Montgomery's Oxford.-On Pulmonary Consumption. [Sept. filed; but when we consider with what little success Mr. L. has attempted to improve our orthography heretofore, we think he might have spared us, to use a Shakspearian phrase, these strange dishes.' Oxford; a Poem. By Robert Montgomery. 2d Edition. WE have hitherto expressed our opinion of Mr. Montgomery in terms of high commendation, and we have purposely abstained from noticing his present volume, because we could neither join the hue and cry' which the critics with few exceptions have raised against him, nor conscientiously set up our own opinion to stem, or at least to attempt to stem, the torrent of invective by which he has been overborne. Though it would be no hard task to select the best lines of the present poem in vindication of a partial judgment, we are constrained to admit that the selection of the worst lines might almost justify the severity with which he has been handled. The truth is, 'Oxford' is a failure. We suspect that the subject was not the choice of Mr. Montgomery, but that he has reversed the relative positions of the poet and the artist, and lent himself to the illustration of the plates, which affect to do this office for the poem. Mr. M.'s reputation could not afford this; he has rashly, we think, ushered an immature and hasty production into the world, on the strength of his name and talents, forgetting that his best production was but the promise of good things to come,' the blossom and not the fruit of the tree of literary immortality. We will not pursue the subject further, than by protesting first against the merciless, we had almost said savage, ferocity with which Mr. M.'s 'Oxford' has in some instances been treated; and secondly, we would recommend Mr. Montgomery not to throw down these bones of contention' for the critics to snarl and quarrel over, but to remember what he has already done, and to fix his eye steadily on the goal of his ambition, on those immortal heights where the great Masters of the Divine Art are beyond the shafts of malice, and the storms of criticism, and enjoy the fame for which the pure spirits' toiled, and for which they were contented to endure the misfortune of having fallen on evil days and the neglect of contemporaries, and knowing the capricious nature of popularity, would with dignified patience commit their claims to posterity. We have the second edition of Mr. Montgomery's poem before us, not, we are persuaded, to contradict our opinions, but to convince him how much may be effected by a previous reputation, and to teach him not lightly to hazard it. On Diluted Chlorine in the early stages of Pulmonary Consumption. By M. Gannal, Translated by W. H. Potter, M.R.I. 8vo. On Pulmonary Consumption, its Prevention and Remedy. By John Murray, F.S.A. F.L.S. F.H.S. F.G.S. 12mo. MR. MURRAY'S and M. Gannal's popularly written little volumes may be read with considerable instruction, of which there is much need, especially among the higher classes, after the recent strange and humiliating exhibitions of public delusion and extravagant violations of common sense. The number of deaths from consumption has increased of late years from 40 to 60,000 annually in this island. One fourth part of the deaths in the bills of mortality are to be referred to it. It is almost invariably fatal, not one in many hundreds surviving. The following statements of Mr. Murray are deserving of attention : "Though cures have been boasted of, it is almost universally admitted by the most eminent physicians, that those cases are of a very doubtful character, and it is very questionable whether a case of pulmonary consumption has yet been cured."-p. 18. "Change of clime has been most relied on, but it is generally that of a forlorn hope." p. 19. The marshy country is now abandoned, and it is suspected that consumption is even more general there than elsewhere."-p. 20. "The less frequency of consumption on the Continent has been attributed to the greater prevalence of hæmorrhoidal discharges."-ib. "Warm baths have been resorted to. Patients in the Vallais, according to Dr. Tissot, pass the greater part of their time in the water. At Baden, Dr. Macard has seen invalids sit four or five hours in the bath; six hours at a time in the warm baths in Silesia, are deemed sufficient, and the patients sit up to the chiu."-p. 23. 1831.] REVIEW.-Gannal and Murray on Pulmonary Consumption. 247 "The most recent plans and proposals we have heard of, are those of Dr. Myddleton, of Exeter, who employs mixed powders in a box, the chief ingredients of which we . understood to be hemlock; a circular brush, having a rotatory motion, as in the blooming of cucumbers, &c. by turning a winch volatilizes or temporarily suspends these powders in the atmosphere; this is done with a view to encrust the lungs. We have heard of no instance of cure; on the contrary, we understood that one of his patients died while we were in that city, and were also told that he had lost his own daughter by pulmonary consumption."-p. 23. Females of the Society of Friends are less frequently, ceteris paribus, the victims of pulmonary disease than others." p. 44. [It is supposed on account of the uniformnity of their dress. Rev.] "The specific climate which may suit one individual, may not prove sanative to another."-p. 62. [A fact daily confirmed by observation. REV.] "Dr. Cottereau of Paris, has invented a machine for inhaling chlorine in pulmonary consumption, and one case after another has been submitted to the attention of the Institute." He has also published a small volume, which is translated into English. REV.] "It is now twelve years since we experienced the benefit of chlorine in our own person in pulmonic disease. We might easily adduce, from innumerable sources, conclusive proofs that the first idea of curing pulmonary disease by means of aerial chlorine, originated with us."-Introd. vii. viii. PP. Mr. M. has been "In the hope of finding some substitute for chlorine, that might be equally effective, and not so irritating to the lungs. In the vapour of nitric acid, or red fuming nitrous acid, we have discovered what we were in quest of."-p. x. Mr. M. also gives internally the chlorate of potassa in doses of four to eight grains, two or three times a day. (p. 138.) His remarks (pp. 24, 105,) plans of using these agents, and cases from p. 128, to 138, are very interesting, though withal we are men of little faith. These are all the newest fashions of treatment, except ONE, which is but too notorious, Mr. St. John Long's vegetable simples, applied to human simples,-God help ye, simple ones! "We know nothing of Mr. St. John Long's empirical practice, which has been severely criticised and ridiculed. The lobelia inflata is, however, said to be the remedy. This plant is stated in the Flora Americana," to be common among the woods on the continent of North America."-p. 24. It is now a fashionable remedy for spasmodic asthma. There is nothing extraordinary in Mr. Long's career, and his twelve thousand per annum out of the pockets of the GREAT DELUDED, to those who have seen much of the fashionable world, and breathed the flat and shallow atmosphere of intellect that surrounds it. There is nothing irrational in the principle of Mr. Long's inhaling and infricting plan. Certainly not. Only it has been tried by fifty others before him, and always failed. Myddelton, Murray, Cottereau, Scudamore, and others, have been trying it. But what is curious, if a number of scientific men start a project, and a quack adopt and imitate it, the quack is invariably run after in preference, because it is no advantage, we suppose, to try the same method under men of education and judgment. Dr. Saunders of Edinburgh discovered the Rev. Dr. Stewart's system of treating consumption, but the reverend physician was sent for 300 miles at the rate of 17. 18. per mile; Saunders was never heard of. Mr. White of Bath discovered stricture of the rectum, and wrote an excellent treatise on it, but instead of going to Mr. White, the great and rich went to a person who took up Mr. White's practice, and applied it to cases of every description, and who, after making an immense fortune, wrote upon the subject a heap of unintelligible, ungrammatical jargon and verbiage, which proved that he knew little or nothing at all about it. A man living in a village near Liverpool, about twelve years ago, discovered that all diseases were to be cured, by cutting out a piece of integument on the breast. The rich came to him from all quarters to be operated upon. The operator at last died, and the village from being a thriving place during his career, has sunk into poverty. So much for the GREAT Deluded, and their mighty enchanters, the surgeon - painters, surgeon - divines, and surgeon-rectum-doctors, of this brilliant age of the "march of humbug!" As to prejudices, we have none. After having examined the morbid anatomy of consumption in three museums, containing 2 to 3000 preparations each of all kinds, after having seen the disease in four or five of the largest hospitals in Europe, we look upon the speculation as something like alchemy, or the search for the philosopher's stone. 248 REVIEW.-Lynch's Law of Elections in Ireland. The Law of Election in the Ancient Cities avd Towns of Ireland, traced from Original Records. By William Lynch, Esq. F.S.A. &c. 8vo. pp. 90. MR. LYNCH has written this book with the intention of informing us, that the old constitution of this country has been repeatedly sent to the hospital to be physicked, bled and blistered, and has never yet been dismissed incurable; nay, that it possesses the property ascribed in mythology to the Heathen Deities, of perpetual juvenility. With regard to the Borough part, the veins of the constitution, he adds, that the transfusion of blood, not from young boroughs to old ones, but from old boroughs to young ones, is the Reform or Medean secret, which renovates the aged Eson. For our parts, we give no opinions concerning such changes, until we know how they work. The object of the book before us being thus stated, we allegate that records (and Mr. Lynch has given us a valuable selection) will certainly show formula, and to a certain extent the facts, relative to the places which returned members; but to ascertain the real bearing of a case, it is not sufficient to know the deeds relating to it, we should also know the depositions of the witnesses, and the conduct of the parties. We know that in the fifteenth century, there were sheriffs who were fined 1007. for making false returns, and that undersheriffs would not stipulate to make returns according to the number of votes, unless the high sheriff's permitted them so to do; that the members for cities and towns were mostly the recorders; and that at the Lancastrian Parliament of 1459, members were pointed out by the king, under privy seals, and therefore returned as such by the sheriff, without regard to the number of votes, and that an act of indemnity was afterwards passed in consequence. These facts show (and Mr. Lynch's is a party book) that there never was a period when great abuses did not obtain, but the contrary, which might even be assumed from the bare writs and returns. The fact is, that there never is, was, or can be a representation, purely indicative of the opinion of the people, unless there is previously a subdivision of property, which cannot be acted upon by influence; [Sept. but such a state of things is always subject to the violence of conflicting parties. However, we must come to certain points. Mr. Lynch contends (p. 65) that: "The writs of summons [in Ireland] bear internal evidence that the term "Coinmunitas,' in whatever acceptation some may be now willing to take it, was not restricted to any particular or select class of persons, within cities and towns. In these writs the officers are ordered to cause to be elected, with the assent of the community of the county, two knights, and with the assent of the community of the city or town, two citizens or burgesses." In short he contends that the right of voting was anciently in all the inhabitants at large of cities or towns. Now we know that copyholders is but a modern term for tenants in villenage, and we know that villains and serfs were inhabitants of various places, and that at this day they have no power of voting for counties, nor do we think, that (except in cases below stated) any other than free burgesses had any right of voting for towns. so, what becomes of Mr. Lynch's position concerning a vested right in all the inhabitants? If Dr. Brady, in his Glossary, says that communitas had no such acceptation as that given by Mr. Lynch. He says, that anciently the Barons only, and tenants in capite, or military men, were the community of the kingdom, and those only meant, taken and reputed as such in our most ancient historians and records. See Cowel, v. communitas. It is very true that Mr. Lynch vindicates, in p. 53, his position of universal suffrage, by a statute (of Ireland) of 33 Hen. VIII., wherein it is enacted, that citizens and burgesses should be returned to Parliament by the greater number of inhabitants of the said towns." But the question with us is, whether in several instances any persons were permitted to reside in these towns, who were not freemen; and his subsequent quotations concerning Galway, &c. bear us out, we think, in that suspicion. We are however not disposed to deny, that in towns not incorporated, the inhabitants at large (as potwallopers at Taunton) might return the members, or that they might do so by specific regulations, in certain corporate towns also, but we do not think, that even 1831.] REVIEW.-Mundell on the Corn Laws. with these admissions, his case of universal suffrage every where is satisfactorily established. The necessary Operation of the Corn Laws in driving Capital from the Cultivation of the Soil, &c. &c. By Alexander Mundell, Esq. 8vo. pp. 52. MR. MUNDELL says (p. 52), that the operation of the Corn Laws passed in and since 1815, has been to drive capital from the cultivation of the soil, &c. &c. Now as the year 1815 was that in which war prices terminated, and those of peace commenced, we are inclined to ascribe this alienation of capital from the land, not to any operation of the Corn Laws, but to the diminished profit of cultivation. Mr. Mundell, to use a proverb, "puts the saddle upon the wrong horse." Corn Laws have been in existence long before and during the whole period to which his inquiry extends; and taking the simple fact, that the withdrawal of the capital occasioned a larger importation of grain, we see in this not the operation of Corn Laws, but the diminution of home production. The very documents used by Mr. Mundell himself to vindicate his most extraordinary (as we think) sophism, are, we also think, conclusive on our side. During the ten years of 1805-1815, the war period, there passed 1466 enclosure bills. From 1820 to 1830, ten years of peace, only 387. Of course, there has not existed an equal inducement to break up new soil, because the demand and profit have been less.From 1805 to 1815, the total imports of all sorts of grain, even during the war-demand, were only 20,230,852 quarters. From hence we infer that the high war-prices occasioned an augmented domestic production, which enabled the quantum of imports stated to be sufficient. On the ten years of peace, 1820-1830, the total of imports amounts to 56,375,456, which vast increase of importation we conceive (except so far as the population is now greater) to have grown out of a diminished home production. We further find from Mr. Mundell (p. 45) that it is only since 1815, that the burthen arising from the Poor Rates has been so heavy. This we again ascribe to the decreased demand for GENT. MAG. September, 1831. 249 labour; for why otherwise should the burthen have commenced in a particular period, the first year of peace? There is a bearing in this question about Corn Laws, which we believe has not been hitherto considered. It is the difference in the value of money between this and the exporting country. They have on their side dearness of money, and cheapness of commodities; we the converse state of things. We cannot afford to give them an equal quantity of goods for theirs, because our cost of raising or manufacturing them is twice as much as theirs. But they will take the return in money. This is worth twice as much to them as it is to us. If we give them only 38. 6d. a bushel for wheat, it is of as much value to them as 78. to us. Whether we give them money or goods, they derive a cent. per cent. profit (and we possibly a cent. per cent. loss) through the inequality in the value of money and the cost of production. M. Chatenvieux, an experienced continental agriculturist, admits the absolute necessity of Corn Laws in England; and most certainly the landlord has as equitable a claim to demand such a protection, as the manufacturer has for prohibitory duties on foreign imports; for let us mark the possible, nay probable, mischief to both parties, under uninfluenced prices. The agriculturist has no machinery to make a capital of 500l. produce as much as 1000l. He can gain nothing but by absolute necessaries. His market, though certain, is limited (beer, the consumption of the vulgar, excepted) to eating only. In the house expenses, under a state of civilization, the bills of the butcher and baker and cheesemonger, are inconsiderable, compared with those of the grocer, or other luxury tradesmen. All who depend upon custom in the former vocations, must include the poor, because the poor must eat and drink. But the poor would require less wages, if provisions were cheaper. Admitted. But there is such a thing as being penny wise and pound foolish. A. gives 30,000l. for an estate of 1000l. per annum, at 30 years purchase. You reduce his rents from the 1000l. per annum to 500l. per annum. He is then able only to sell or leave by will 15,000l. capital, instead of 30,000l. and and of course the luxury consumption of him and his dependents is diminished accordingly. So many more customers fail; you at length find the error of your system, because you impoverish the consuming landlords and tenants, and substitute paupers, who have nothing to spend but as customers, at your cost, with your money. The landlords ultimately cannot support the poor. You have ruined the agricultural property one full half, in the value of capital, and thrown thousands of acres out of cultivation,-you cannot let your houses in country towns at all, and they fall into ruin,-the agricultural interest is not able to buy any thing of you,-civilization withers, -trade fails,—all sellers and no buy ers is a system which destroys itself; and for the sake of saving sixpence a week in bread, and a shilling in butcher's meat, you are a ruined man, surrounded with rebellious poor. The fact has actually occurred in certain manufacturing villages. The farms cannot be let; nor the poor rates be paid. It is not that manufactures do not greatly contribute to national benefit; they support civilization. They are, nevertheless, expensive indulgences; and to spend, we must get. Would it be possible, by pinching economy, to accumulate a larger national capital than by production? * Mr. Mundell (p. 51) recommends "a drawback upon exportation, commensurate with a duty upon importation." We entertain, concerning bounties and drawbacks, the same opinions as Adam Smith. But we willingly admit, that things worked best when England was an exporting country. We are perfectly aware of the pretended risk to which capital, vested in agriculture, is said by some political economists to be exposed through Corn Laws. Now this position is met by Chatenvieux with the following common sense : "The farmer who is bound to provide a given sum per annum for rent, &c. has no expectation of making his payment, but from sources which are necessarily contingent; since they depend on the rate of the markets and the goodness of the seasons. It may, therefore, be possible that an im In one the poor rates are 27s. in the pound.-REV. + See Essays on Political Economy. [Sept. moderate importation of corn may ruin the farmer, because he has to make up a fixed sum out of contingencies. In a country in every part open to commerce, and possessed, as in England, of immense capital, and the most extensive means of conveyance, it is clear that in speculating upon the importation of corn, it could command the price, and have such an influence on agriculture as to ruin the farmer. THE LAW WHICH FIXES THE PRICE, BELOW WHICH THE IMPORTATION OF CORN IS PROHIBITED, IS THEREFORE A JUDICIOUS LAW IN THE SITUATION OF ENGLAND. We shall conclude this article with the following paragraph from Mr. Jones's elaborate Essay on Rents, p. 312: "It is the evident interest of the nonplace in foreigu demand, the home market agriculturists, that whatever changes take should be prosperous, because it is their largest market; and that it should not vary, because such variation must affect their own prosperity. If the unchecked career of the farmers is essentially connected with the prosperous fortunes, both of the landed proprietors and of the non-agricultural classes, it must obviously be closely connected with the prosperous fortune of the nation; and no plan of legislation can be sound and wise, which does not cautiously avoid any measures likely to destroy either the means or the spirit of the agricultural capitalists. bound up in the results of wise and cautious Now considering how many interests are legislation, whenever the interests of the agricultural capitalists are concerned, it is singularly unlucky that such a question as that of the Corn Laws should exist; it being admitted that in the present financial situation of the country, Corn Laws of some description must exist.” In short, if the Corn trade be thrown open, landlords beyond number would reside abroad for cheapness' sake, and farmers sell their stock and emigrate to the United States. Immense capital would be transported to other countries, and what remained would be only half its present value. Poor rates and taxes could not be paid, &c. &c. &c. Specimens of Macaronic Poetry. 8vo. pp. 56. OF this clever Essay on Macaronic Poetry, and with most of the specimens contained in the present publication, our readers have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted, by their appearance in our vol. c. pt. ii. They are here reprinted with an appropriate introduction, |