mits indeed, that we have lately witnessed some striking instances in which governments have acted from passion rather than from policy; but he does not seem to be completely aware of the dangers, in this point of view, to which the elevated station and peculiar circumstances of this country expose it. The high claims of maritime right, for example, which we maintain a gainst all nations, have raised a pretty strong feeling of jealousy both in Europe and America; and if, according to the supposition of Mr Malthus, we should be indebted, in a season of general warfare, to foreign countries for the subsistence of two millions of our population, the dangers to which we might be reduced could hardly be compensated by any accession of wealth which we could expect by importing corn from the cheapest market for a century to come. He fairly admits, indeed, that nothing like an experiment has yet been made to ascertain the amount of the distress which we might then suffer; and it is to be hoped that the firmness and wisdom of the legislature will for ever save the country from the dangers of such an experiment.

With respect to the excess of manufacturing population, to which this country is visibly approaching, Mr Malthus makes the following observations:* It may be said, that an excessive proportion of manufacturing population does not seem favourable to national quiet and happiness. Independently of any difficulties respecting the import of corn, variations in the channels of manufacturing industry, and in the facilities of obtaining a vent for its produce, are perpetually recurring. Not only during the last four or five years, but during the whole course of the war, have the

wages of manufacturing labour been subject to great fluctuations. Sometimes they have been excessively high, and at other times proportionably low; and even during a peace they must always remain subject to the fluctuations which arise from the caprices of taste and fashion, and the competition of other countries. These fluctuations naturally tend to generate discontent and tumult, and the evils which accompany them; and if to this we add, that the situation and employment of a manufacturer and his family are, even in their best state, unfavourable to health and virtue, it cannot appear desirable that a very large proportion of the whole society should consist of manufacturing labourers. Wealth, population, and power are, after all, only valuable as they tend to improve, increase, and secure the mass of human virtue and happiness.--Yet though the condition of the individual employed in common manufacturing labour is not by any means desirable, most of the effects of manufactures and commerce, on the general state of society, are in the highest degree beneficial. They infuse fresh life and activity into all classes of the state; afford opportunities for the inferior orders to rise by personal merit and exertion, and stimulate the higher orders to depend for distinction upon other grounds than mere rank and riches. They excite invention, encourage science and the useful arts; spread intelligence and spirit; inspire a taste for conveniences and comforts among the labouring classes; and, above all, give a new and happier structure to society, by increasing the proportion of the middle classes, that body on which the liberty, public spirit, and good government of every country must mainly depend.

"If we compare such a state of society with a state merely agricultural, the general superiority of the former is incontestable; but it does not follow that the manufacturing system may not be carried to excess, and that beyond a certain point, the evils which accompany it may not increase farther than its advantages. The question, as applicable to this country, is not whether a manufacturing state is to be preferred to one merely agricultural, but whether a country, the most manufacturing of any ever recorded in history, with an agriculture, however, as yet nearly keeping pace with it, would be improved in its happiness, by a great relative increase to its manufacturing population and relative check to its agricultural population?

"Many of the questions both in morals and politics seem to be of the nature of the problems, de maximis et minimis, in fluxions; in which there is always a point where a certain effect is the greatest, while on either side of this point it gradually diminishes.

"With a view to the permanent happiness and security from great reverses of the lower classes of people in this country, I should have little hesi tation in thinking it desirable that its agriculture should keep pace with its manufactures, even at the expence of retarding, in some degree, the growth of manufactures; but it is a different question, whether it is wise to break through à general rule, and interrupt the natural course of things, in order to produce and maintain such an equalization."

It may be doubted, however, whether this picture, accurate and impartial as it may seem, is not on the whole too favourable to manufacturing industry. In the present state of the world security and power appear to be objects of a higher and wiser ambition than

the increase of that wealth in which England already so much abounds. But if no limitations are to be imposed on the importation of corn, the agriculture of this country must greatly and rapidly decline; and it is difficult to conceive a state of greater imbecillity than that which would be exhibited by a country, with a crowded population of mechanics and manu facturers, from whom even the means of subsistence may be withdrawn by the caprice of their enemies, or the events of an uncertain and precarious policy. Yet such is the state to which Great Britain must inevitably be reduced, if measures are not adopted to extend the cultivation of her soil, and ensure the stability of her agriculture.

To those who affect to lament over the condition and prospects of the British labourer, the following passage may be recommended :

*If the labourers in two countries were to earn the same quantity of corn, yet in one of them the nominal price of this corn were 25 per cent. higher than in the other, the condition of the labourers, where the price of corn was the highest, would be decidedly the best. In the purchase of all commodities. purely foreign; in the purchase of those commodities, the raw materials of which are wholly, or in part foreign, and therefore influenced in a great degree by foreign prices, and in the purchase of all home commodities which are taxed, and not taxed ad valorem, they would have an unquestionable advantage : and these articles altogether are not inconsiderable even in the expenditure of a cottager.

"As one of the evils, therefore, at tending the throwing open our ports, it may be stated, that if the stimulus to population, from the cheapness of grain, should in the course of 20 or 25 years, reduce the earnings of the

labourer to the same quantity of corn as at present, at the same price as in the rest of Europe, the condition of the lower classes of people in this country would be deteriorated. And if they should not be so reduced, it is quite clear that the encouragement to the growth of corn will not be fully restored, even after the lapse of so long a period."

Mr Malthus sums up the evils attending restrictions on the corn trade as follows:

I. "A certain waste of the national resources, by the employment of a greater quantity of capital than is necessary for procuring the quantity of corn required.

II. "A relative disadvantage in all foreign commercial transactions, occasioned by the high comparative price of corn and labour, and the low value of silver, as far as they affect exportable commodities.

III." Some check to population, occasioned by a check to that abundance of corn, and demand for manufacturing labour, which would be the result of a perfect freedom of importation.

IV. "The necessity of constant revision and interference, which belongs to almost every artificial system."

The first of these disadvantages has already been admitted; and as to the third and fourth, it is obvious that they can be of little importance. It is surprising that Mr Malthus, who has already so well illustrated the subject of population, should hazard the opinion, that a check to it must, in any circumstances, be a serious evil.-The necessity of frequent revision and interference, which Mr Malthus justly says belongs to every artificial system, cannot be an object of great dread, when the constitution of our government is duly considered, under which

the security of the people against capricious or arbitrary regulations is ample and undoubted.

The second in order, therefore, of the evils which he enumerates, is that which chiefly deserves attention, viz. the disadvantage to which we shall be exposed in all foreign commercial transactions, by the high comparative prices of corn and labour, and the low value of silver in this island, so far as these circumstances affect the price of exportable commodities. But our decided superiority in capital, industry, and machinery must be more than sufficient to compensate inconveniences of this kind at least for many years, after which the encouragement given to our agriculture may be expected to restore the price of British corn to an equality with that of other nations. As the question seems to be, which of the two is to be sacrificed to a certain extentour manufactures and commerce, which have already attained to such a height of prosperity--or our agriculture, which must for ever be the basis of our national greatness, there can be little room for hesitation.

The difficulties arising out of the present state of our currency cannot be considered as of much importance. The depreciation is already well ascertained; and when the currency shall again be raised to its proper value, an ordinary operation of figures will be sufficient to fix with accuracy the price at which importation is to be permitted.

Mr Malthus seems much afraid of the evils of a glut which the state of the European market may not enable the British grower to relieve by expor tation. But the inconvenience which he apprehends can never be entirely removed by any system of regulations; and must under any circumstances affect the state of the British market in

common with the general market of Europe. In seasons of unusual fertility, no particular nation can relieve itself by exporting.-There can be no objection, however, to the proposal of this author to continue the old bounty, with the view of affording partial relief in such circumstances, although the efficacy of such an expedient, seems extremely questionable. Neither does the proposal of Mr Malthus, to give to the restrictions the form of a constant duty upon foreign grain ("not to act as a prohibition but as a protecting, and at the same time profitable tax,") appear to be unreasonable. But as the tax must necessarily be such as, when added to the original price of foreign grain, to raise the whole to the limit ing price to be fixed by the proposed law, and as it will probably be found expedient when the price of British corn rises so high, to remove the duty altogether, there seems to be but little prospect of making the regulation in any way subservient to the in

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terests of the public revenue. if the expedient can do little good, neither can it do any harm; the great object of any law on the subject being protection to the British farmer, which will be equally secured by either plan.

The inferences deducible from the preceding reflections seem to be,

1st, That the expediency of a bounty on the exportation of corn, in circumstances which may be expected to recur at no very distant period, is apparent from general principles, and has been proved by experience. And,

2ndly, That in the relative circumstances of this country, and of Europe, unless some efficient restraint be immediately imposed on the importation of foreign grain, the agriculture of Great Britain must experience a rapid and alarming decay, which it may be impossible to counteract by any future interference of legislative wisdom.

ALTHOUGH the life of a modest and retiring man of letters affords, in general, scanty materials for the pen of a biographer, yet a rècord of the principal facts and events which constitute the chain of his history often forms a useful and curious commentary on his writings, and enables us to enter into those associations that guide his mind in the choice and em. bellishment of the subjects to which his attention is directed. It is an improving exercise to study the connection, in so far as its fugitive traces may be conjectured or ascertained, between the external situation and the intellectual and moral qualities which distinguish an individual, conspicuous for his talents and attainments, from the rest of his species. While such a study sometimes affords an explanation of, or an apology for, opinions and habits by which he is characterized, it enables us also to learn, from the experience of another, those lessons of practical wisdom from which we are but too apt to turn with indifference or aversion, when

they are presented to us under the stern aspect of precept or command.

But if long-cherished affection, mingled with recent emotions of unfeigned regret, blind not our eyes to the cold and accurate estimate of the merits of him, a sketch of whose life we now propose to offer to the public, we are inclined to think that he has a peculiar claim to be remembered and honoured; and that the public have a right to expect even a larger and fuller memorial of his mind and manners, than the limits prescribed for such compositions in a work like this permit us to attempt. In an age when the multitude of candidates for poetic fame renders origi nality, without eccentricity or affectation, an almost hopeless effort, he has had the merit of having discover. ed and pursued an untrodden path, and of having adorned it with the simplest graces of nature and fancy, which formerly lay in a great measure unobserved or neglected. him also belongs the higher praise of having rendered these graces subser

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