of its laws. If the government is based upon false or vicious principles, his conduct, in the aggregate, will be vicious-modified, however, in some degree, by each individual's peculiar organization. And, on the contrary, if the laws of a government are based upon Truth, and in accordance with the rights of Humanity, then the conduct of the people, in the aggregate, will be good and virtuous in proportion. Whoever learns this truth clearly, will, on making the discovery, find himself delivered of much of the gall and bitterness he had previously harbored towards his fellow men. It is stated in the June number of "The People's Journal," published in London, by John Saunders, and of the progressive reform character, that the mechanical power of the labor-saving machinery of Great Britain is estimated at eight hundred millions of adults! nearly equal to the whole population of the globe. It is also stated in the same paper, that "the labor of one man is equal to the maintainance of three persons." Now, if these statements be true, Great Britain is competent to create a sufficiency of wealth for the maintainance of nearly three times the present population of the world! and yet, with the possession of this astonishing power to produce wealth, the great majority of the working classes are in a state of utter destitution, and many in a state of starvation. Verily, these things bring forcibly to mind "Ned Lacy's paradox," and is a problem for "National Reformers" to solve practically, which they certainly will do. The following is also from an English paper, and will be of some importance to the cause of "National, Reform": "EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENT.-A comparison of the registers o mortality, says an English paper, will convince us that a hero placed in the trenches of a beleagured fortress, where he is exposed for weeks to a continual shower of cannon shot, or placed on a field of battle, before the bravest and most resolute of his enemies, has a much better chance of life, runs less risk of a premature death, than if he worked in an undrained street, and slept in a crowded room in Bristol or Liverpool. The chance of life was, at the Siege of Flushing, 450 to 1 63 to 1 54 to 1 The following letter from Dr. Denton is of too important a character to be lost. It is worthy of a much more conspicuous place than the pages of this work. It deserves to be kept before the people continually, and ought to be promulgated by every possible means. It is under these considerations that I take the liberty of inserting it here, as being one of the means of keeping the subject before the people. 1 here express my obligations to the gentleman who sent me the copy, just in time for insertion. The announcement contained in the letter is startling. Is it possible that those who create, by their physical energies, all the wealth of the country, should only be enabled to preserve, for their own use, two-clevenths of the whole? But the most astonishing part of the announcement is, that the remaining nine-elevenths should fall into the hands of those that produce nothing! Now, if this announcement be true, surely no one would vindicate, or attempt to justify and continue in existence, a system of laws and usages as produce such unequal re sults. Surely, no man in the least disposed to be just towards his fellow men, could countenance the thing one moment: the injustice is too glaring. Let every producer reflect, that every time he receives from the hands of the capitalist two dollars, as a reward for his labor, so every time do our laws and customs keep out of his hands, and put beyond his control, nine more dollars (which, in justice, is equally his,) into the hands of the idle capitalist, and for which he (the capitalist,) gives no consideration or equivalent whatever. By this we see that idleness is four and a half times better rewarded than hon est industry! Thus do our "paradoxical and unnatural institutions" discourage and condemn honest industry, while a high premium is given for the encouragement of useless idleness. This is a subject worthy of deep reflection, and the understanding of which is of the utmost consequence to the honest producer. However, every one must perceive the folly of blaming or stigmatizing the individuals engaged in those practices. The fault is not in them, but in our "paradoxical and unnatural institutions." There fore, let all who wish to see a better state of things, examine and critically scrutinize the remedy proposed in this work, and if found competent to produce the desired result, lose no time nor opportunity in promulgating the principles herein developed. But if, on the contrary, they do not appear competent, and something better can or has been discovered, let that have the preference, and let no time be lost in giving the information to suffering Humanity; and in either case I shall be equally happy. No matter from where comes truth, so we do but have it. "From the Michigan Expositer. "LETTER FROM DR. DENTON TO THE FARMERS' MEETING. "ANN ARBOR, December, 1843. MESSRS. JOHN HOWLAND, JOHN CAVENDER, LEWIS KEMP, AND OTHERS— "Observing your names to a call for a meeting of the Farmers of Lenawee, to further the farming interests of the county, &c., I, with a slight hope of being some service to you and the community in general, have felt impelled to address you a letter, stating some facts and observations at which I have arrived after much reflection, believing them somewhat applicable to the object you seem to have in view. "That wealth is but the accumulated creations of labor, is a cardinal and obvious truth, which none will pretend to deny. But how is it, that those who create it all, are enabled to retain so little for their own share, is a phenomenon which requires explanation. "What sum in dollars will represent the value of the annual products of the United States in all branches of production? "Different answers have been given to this interesting question, by various statisticians, some estimating them as high as 1,300, and others as high as 15 or 1,600 millions of dollars. "But in these estimates, I have found that several large items have been twice, and others thrice reckoned. For instance, our wool is first estimated, and then it is again reckoned in our manufactured woolens, and just so of our cotton and cotton goods. "Our grain is first estimated, and then reckoned over again in the products of our flouring mills. The annual value of our lumber, bricks, and lime, is first put down, and then it is all re-estimated in the value of the buildings annually erected. The lumber, metals, cordage, &c., are first estimated, and then reckoned over again, in the annual value of ships built; and the cordage, sails, &c.. had been estimated once previously, in the value of the flax and hemp crops; and thus we might go on through a very large catalogue. It will readily be perceived, that this mode of analysis will reduce the estimates of some economists very much. "We have deducted one item more from our estimates, viz: the necessary subsistence of the laborers. Food, clothing, and lodging, are indispensable, even for slaves; and all that is absolutely necessary for that object, we have excluded in our calculations, and thus make the aggregate annual products of industry, of all the laboring classes of the United States, over and above so much food and clothing, as a master, in the pursuit of his own interest, would allow his slaves, amount to $1,046,186,000. 66 Now, it is obvious that all the wealth which any man, or any class of men in the United States, obtains in any way, is derived directly or indirectly from this original sum. "Now, if we can arrive at the sum which each class of nonproducers annually receives, the remainder will be the amount left for distribution among those who create it all. 66 For this purpose, we have gone into a very thorough and minute examination, to ascertain the amount annually distributed to each of the non-producing classes in the United States, viz: "THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED TO THE LAWYERS, AND ALL OTHERS ENGAGED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAW; “THE AMOUNT distributed to the bankers and brokers, &c; "THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED FOR TOWNSHIP, COUNTY, STATE, VILLAGE, TOWN, CITY, AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT PURPOSES; THE AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED TO OUR MERCHANTS; "THE AMOUNT ADDED TO THE PUBLIC BURDENS, CONSEQUENT UPON THE PRESENT MODE OF COLLECTING THE UNITED States revenue, &c. "These aggregate sums amount to $889,087,409, leaving for distribution among the laborers, $157,097,591. This is the laborers' portion, over and above such necessaries as a prudent master would provide for a slave, when acting in conformity to his own interests. "But for the sake of being on the safe side in these calculations, and for the purpose of reducing the figures to round numbers, I will call the latter sum 200 millions, and the former sum 900 millions of dollars, making 1100 millions of dollars in all. "This, you will perceive, distributes about nine-elevenths of the aggregate products of the industry of the country to the non-producing classes, leaving but two-elevenths for those whose labor produces it all. "Of course, you cannot feel any great confidence in these bare statements, unaccompanied by the statistics and other data by which I have arrived at these results; but the limits which must be prescribed for this epistle, will not admit of my giving them in this place; yet I would here observe, that I found much greater fa cility in proceeding with these intricate estimates and calculations. than I had anticipated; as, in most instances, I have been able to arrive at the same general result, by two or more different modes of calculations, each based upon a different set of facts, thus proving one another. You will not, therefore, think strange, if I place great confidence in them. "The laborers, then, of this country, already yield up to the non-producing classes nine-elevenths of all the wealth which their toil creates, and the tendency is still onward; the non-producing classes are constantly increasing in numbers, and growing more exorbitant in their demands, till soon another eleventh will be taken from you, and ere long another, when a bare subsistence will be all that is left to the laboring man. 66 England arrived at this stage several years ago, to which we are now looking forward; and one would suppose, when a nation had arrived at this crisis, it could go no farther; but not so with England; for the ponderous machinery still moved on, until labor would barely procure two meals of victuals per day, and raiment and lodging in proportion; and, at this very moment, a struggle is going on, if the period has not already arrived, when the demands of the non-producing classes sponge up all but one meal per day for the laborer, and a few rags for raiment; and the same causes are in operation here, working out the same appalling results. Increase but slightly the expenses of our complicated forms of government, and our cumbersome system of jurisprudence-afford more facilities for the increase of bankers and brokers, and let a few more enter into mercantile pursuits, &c.—and these non-producers will be so numerous, as to consume the products of your industry, leaving but a beggarly subsistence for the laboring classes. "And who cannot perceive a steady growth in the numbers and demands of non-producers in this country? They are gradually becoming more corpulent and more numerous, and thus steadily trenching upon the earnings of the laborers. "The great interest of the laboring classes, then, is to dispense with as many non-producers as possible, and reduce the emoluments of such as are indispensable, as low as the case admits; for the more these get in the way, the less wealth there is for those who create it all. The labor of the country produces but a given amount, and the question is, who shall have it? The more there is bestowed upon the non-producers, the less there can be left for the laborers. "For the purpose of illustrating the mode in which your substance passes into the hands of non-producers, and making some estimates of the enormity of its amount, let us select, for the sake of illustration, one class, viz: |