price has fallen, and he is ruined. The farmers and planters, throughout the world, find their commodities rising and falling in price from day to day, and from year to year, exactly in accordance with the more or less motion at the centre, on which they are so much dependent. Wheat being dear in London, it is dear everywhere. Cotton and tobacco, sugar and coffee, being cheap there, they are cheap everywhere. If dear, the producers are enriched if cheap, the sheriff sells them out. Under such circumstances, there can be none of that steadiness of motion required for the conversion of movable into fixed property-the highest evidence of civilization. Therefore it is, that, in all the countries dependent on the chances and changes of the British market, the value of land is little more than nominal-nearly all the existing property consisting of raw materials on their road to market, or finished commodities on their way to the consumer, to be so nearly absorbed on their passage, that the man who raises food can obtain little clothing, while he who raises cotton perishes for want of food.

The past half century presents a series of financial crises -all originating in England. In 1815, the wheel moved rapidly, and farmers and planters were prosperous. Three years after, it moved slowly, and all were ruined. Five years later, motion was increased, and all again prospered. Four years later the wheel having almost stopped-ruin and desolation were spread throughout the earth. The following fifteen years exhibit a succession of changes of motion-ending, at length, in 1841, with the almost total ruin of the agricultural nations of the world. What, however, was the condition of those who, standing at the centre, controlled the movement? They were enriched their money commanding large interest, while property and commodities were cheap. The trader profits by change-variations of price enabling him to buy cheaply and sell dearly. Trading centralization giving him this power, throughout the earth, the more perfect it becomes, the more imperious is the necessity imposed upon the agricultural world for abstaining from the conversion of movable into fixed capital -the greater is the necessity for ships-the larger the amount of exports and imports-and the less the value of land and labor throughout the countries subject to it.

7. "The history of the colonies," said an eminent British statesman, "is that of a series of losses, and of the destruction of capital; and if, to the many millions of private capital which have been thus wasted, were added some hundred millions that have been raised by British taxes, and spent on account of the colonies, the total loss to the British public of wealth which the colonies have occasioned, would appear to be quite enormous."'*

That this is, and must be, true, will be obvious to all who reflect on the object had in view, in the maintenance of so many costly establishments. Gibraltar facilitates the smuggling of cloth, and thus prevents the people of Spain from combining for the establishment of mills for making cloth at home. The dependence on foreign mills and ships is, thereby, much increased; but what is the profit that thence results to England? None whatsoever-the whole of the merchandise sent to Spain being, in amount, far less than the cost of maintaining the soldiers. and sailors required for doing the work. Malta and the Ionian Islands do the same for Southern Europe, and with the same result the cost being thrice greater than all the profits realized. Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, have annihilated the manufactures and commerce of India. Hong Kong and Singapore are maintained as dépôts whence to smuggle opium, and thus destroy the Chinese people. Quebec and Montreal facilitate the violation of American laws; and thus are almost all the British colonies used for the single and simple purpose of destroying the power of association throughout the world.

Look where we may, throughout the countries following in the lead of England, we obtain the same results-a daily increasing difficulty of developing the resources of the earth, consequent upon increased dependence on the will of those who control the movements of the one great market. Land and men, therefore, decline in value-slavery taking the place of freedom; and with every step in that direction, recovery becomes more difficult.† *PARNELL: On Financial Reform.

"Let me tell you," said Law to the Marquis d'Argenson, "that the kingdom of France is governed by thirty intendants. You have," he continued, "neither Parliament, nor estates, nor governors-nothing but thirty masters of requests, on whom, so far as the provinces are concerned, welfare or misery, plenty or want, entirely depend." Trading centralization tends to make of the world a single kingdom, plundered by a multitude of intendants.

§ 8. In the growth of the United States, we have the nearest approach to the natural system first described. From the days of the Puritans, to the present time, we find the few and widely scattered people of the early settlements gradually coming together, to form counties, towns, and States-the whole ultimately resolving themselves into an Union, based upon the theory of leaving to local institutions the exclusive management of local affairs, and confining the general administration to those without the limits of the States.

In Massachusetts, this approach is most complete - local action being there more perfect than in any other country of the world. Passing south and west, we find a gradually diminishing tendency towards concentration, accompanied by growing centralization, until, on arriving at the extreme south, we find communities wholly composed of slaves and traders the former being obliged to bring to the latter all the produce of their labors, to be by them distributed. North and East, we find much fixed and little movable property. South and Westland having little value-the proportion of fixed property is small, while that of the movable is large.

Based upon the idea of local action, or concentration, the Federal Constitution, or act of union, was intended for its promotion. More or less, such was the general idea of those charged with the administration of the government, during the first half century that followed its establishment. Since then, however the policy of the country, as finally settled in 1846, having tended exclusively to the promotion of trade, and to the establishment of indirect taxation as the permanent means of raising revenue-"the diminished importation of highly protected articles, and the progressive substitution of domestic rivals," has come to be regarded as a grievance-requiring to be remedied. So rapidly, at that date, was the substitution going on, and so rapidly was commerce relieving the people from the necessity for trade, that import duties were, as they were assured, "becoming dead letters, except for purposes of prohibition"threatening, "if not reduced, to compel their advocates to resort to direct taxation to support the government."*

* Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1845. Of all the documents published by the U. S. Government, since its first establishment, there is

Freedom and peace come with the growing power of a govern ment to rely upon direct and honest application to the people, for the means required for its support. Declining freedom among the people, and war among the nations, are the companions of growing centralization and indirect taxation. How far the truth of this is proved by American experience, is seen in the facts, that, thirty years since, when the policy of the country tended towards the creation of domestic markets for the farmertowards increasing the value of labor and land-towards entire freedom of intercourse, abroad and at home, as a consequence of protection and towards the ultimate substitution of direct for indirect taxation-the public expenditures but little exceeded $10,000,000. Fleets and armies then required only $6,000,000

peace with all nations, as a consequence of respect for the rights of all, being then the habitual condition of the country. Ten years later-trade having, meantime, been adopted as the policy of the country- the expenditures for fleets and armies had been, already, tripled. Five years later, the policy of peace and commerce having, for the moment, been re-adopted, the expenditure for military purposes fell to $12,000,000. Since then trade having been, to all appearance, finally adopted as the policy of the country-the cost of army and navy has risen to $30,000,000; and the results are seen in a perpetual succession of foreign and domestic wars. The sister republic of Mexico has been invaded and dismembered. Cuba has been attempted. Greytown has been destroyed. Japan has been visited and threatened. Chinese forts have been destroyed. Indian tribes have been annihilated. Civil war has raged in Kansas, and vigilance committees have governed California. Preparatory to further wars, expeditions have been fitted out for the exploration of African and South American rivers, while expensive missions have been sent to Persia, China, and other countries.

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Concentration would, at an expense of less than two millions of dollars, render the Ohio and Mississippi navigable throughout the year thus relieving the country of an annual tax of none so much abounding in rash and unfounded assertions, as those which emanated from the author of this Report-none displaying a more thorough incapacity for comprehending the importance, to the farmer, of being relieved from the grinding and oppressive tax of transportation.

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twenty millions. Centralization neglects the rivers at home, that it may open up those abroad. Trade becomes, from year to year, more and more master of the country's fortunes; and hence it is, that while the highest judicial authority of the country decides that freedom is sectional and slavery national, the private trader employs his ships in the transportation of coolies, and the planter seeks the re-opening of the trade in negro men. Look where we may, the people become less free, as the trader grows in power.

§ 9. Concentration tending, as it does, towards the ultimate freedom of commerce, and the substitution of direct for indirect taxation, brings with it that application of the public revenues which looks to the general development of the potential energies of man and matter- thus placing those who are weak of arm on a level with the strong. Centralization, on the contrary, looking to obtaining indirectly the means of supplying fleets and armies, tends towards strengthening the already strong, at the expense of those who are weak. Massachusetts relies almost wholly on direct taxation; and therefore it is, that, while she expends little on her governor, she raises millions for the support of common schools. The Federal Government, on the contrary, having now adopted a system looking to the perpetual maintenance of indirect taxation, doubles the salaries of secretaries and ministers, at a time when the artisan finds a daily increasing difficulty of obtaining food and clothing for his children; and trading cities treble their expenditures, while pauperism advances with giant strides.*

Prussia pays her ministers of State 10,000 rix-dollars=$7500, and educates her people; but her policy tends towards commerce and direct taxation. England rewards chancellors and bishops by salaries of ten and twenty thousand pounds; but her policy tends towards trade and indirection. Generals are rewarded with estates whose cost is counted by hundreds of thousands, while the mass of the people can neither read nor write. India is required to pay her officials at a higher rate than almost any

The expenditures of New York city have risen, in seven years, from three to nine millions of dollars, and the fees of the city attorney have advanced, from the moderate amount at which they stood a few years since, to $71,296 for a single year!