interest neglected. Honest Stowe asserts, that" it would, in time, be incredible, were there not due mention made of it, what great increase there is, within these few years, of commerce and wealth throughout the kingdom; of the great building of royal and mercantile ships; of the repeopling of cities, towns, and villages; besides the sudden augmentation of fair and costly buildings.' The great measure of the reign of James was, the settlement of colonies beyond the Atlantic. An equally flattering picture is exhibited of the condition of England during the peaceful years of Charles I.

Previous to this reign, the people had but occasionally contributed to the necessities of the state. Before the end of the civil wars, however, the taxes which they had paid had amounted to the enormous sum of £95,512,095; the price of all things was accordingly raised, and the legal interest of money reduced. The resources of the country were now discovered, and the restoration of Charles II. induced the people to transfer the energy of which they had been found capable, to the profitable occupations of peace. The several manufactures and new productions of husbandry that were introduced from foreign countries, before the revolution, not only formed a new epoch, but evinced a vigorous application to the useful arts, in the intermediate period. Highwayз, turnpikes, rivers, navigation, foreign trade, all were regulated by law; while the change of manners led to marriages between the higher and middle ranks. The gentry, and even the younger branches of the nobility, by apprenticing their sons to merchants, invigorated traffic by their greater capitals, and extended its operations by their superior knowledge. Never, in any former age, did the commerce and riches of England increase so fast as in the busy period between the restoration and the revolution.

During the war of the revolution, England suffered great debility. The practice of hoarding in times of distrust prevents circulation, an evil which was greatly augmented by the disorders of the coin. The Government issued tallies of wood for the supplying of specie. To crown these disasters, if we may believe the ministers of William, "Nobody knew one day what a House of Commons would do the next." In this state of things, we need not wonder that our trade complained of want of protection. But when the pressure of war was removed, it rebounded with augmented energy. Meantime, internal traffic flourished. In 1689, the manufactures of copper and brass were revived rather than introduced. The Sword-blade Company, which settled in Yorkshire, "brought over foreign workmen." The French refugees improved the fabrics of paper and of silk, especially the lute-strings and a-la-modes; which were so much encouraged by Parliament that the weavers, being greatly increased in numbers as well as in insolence, before the year 1697, raised a tumult in London, against the wearers of East India manufactures. The establishment of the Bank of England, in 1694, by facilitating public and private circulation, produced all the salutary effects that were originally foretold. By giving encouragement to fisheries, in 1695, a hardy race must have been greatly multiplied; and by encouraging, in 1696, the making of linens, subsistence was given to the young and the old.

From the Peace of Ryswick to the accession of Queen Anne, the foreign traffie and navigation of England doubled. Public credit revived,

and the productive capital and annual gains of the people were greater at the commencement of her reign than they had been during the preceding or any former period, and continued still to increase, notwithstanding the greatness of our imposts and the magnitude of our debts.

The practice of borrowing, on behalf of the State, had commenced with the pressures of King William's reign. This policy was continued and extended during the wars of Anne. In this debt, though due by the nation in its collective capacity, individual creditors had acquired a large capital, which, besides yielding an annual profit, was commodious for all the uses of life, since it could be easily pledged or transferred. It enabled landowners to improve their estates; manufacturers to carry on their business; traders to extend their commerce; and the whole people to pay their taxes. The industrious classes, in particular, derived advantage from the active motion which it gave to the circulating value of all things. No greater proof of the general prosperity of English commerce, during the reigns of Anne and the first George, can be given than the great growth of its manufacturing towns-such as Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham.

The debt, which was left at the demise of Queen Anne, remained undiminished in its capital at that of George I., though the annuity payable on it had been lessened about a million. An additional debt had been, meanwhile, incurred. But the current of wealth which had flowed into the nation, during the obstructions of war, continued a still more rapid course, on the return of peace. The taxes produced abundantly, because an industrious people were able to consume liberally. The establishment of the corporation of the Free British Fishery, in 1750, must have promoted population; and the Voluntary Society, which was entered into, in 1754, for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce, must have animated the passion for experiment. The genius of English commerce prospered amidst the hostilities which succeeded a captious peace. The consumption of the great body of the people was not lessened in consequence of the war; but there was, on the contrary, an increase of revenue, without an addition of duties. Other countries suffered innumerable calamities. England cultivated, unmolested, her manufactories, her fisheries, and her commerce, to an amount which has been the wonder and admiration of the world. When, by the treaty of Paris, entire freedom was again restored to foreign commerce, the traders once more sent out adventures of a still greater amount, to every quarter of the world, though the nation was supposed to be strained by too great an exertion of her powers. So little reason is there to fear, even though apprehended equally by a Hume and a Blackstone, that the magnitude of our national incumbrances far exceeds all calculation of commercial benefit. Let it be granted that enormous taxes have been raised upon the necessaries of life, for the payment of the interest of the Debt. Hitherto, it has not been found that those taxes have weakened the internal strength of the State, by anticipating the resources, which should be reserved to defend it in time of need. While one class of subjects are fighting abroad, do not those classes which stay at home acquire more occupation for their industry; and those find work who would otherwise be without it? ENGLAND WITH AN INDUSTRIOUS POPULATION HAS NEVER REASON TO FEAR WAR at any time; only let the cause be

just. A truth this, expedient at the present day to be borne in mind. But to return.

Having carried conquest over the hostile powers of the earth by her arms, Great Britain next saved Europe from bankruptcy, by the superiority of her opulence, and the disinterestedness of her spirit. The failures, which happened at Berlin, at Hamburgh, and in Holland, during July, 1763, owing to the prevalence of depreciated coinage, communicated dismay and distrust to every commercial town on the European continent. It was at this crisis, that the British traders showed the greatness of their capitals, the extent of their credit, and their disregard of either loss or gain, while the mercantile world seemed to pass away like a winter's cloud. They trusted correspondents, whose situations were extremely unstable, to a greater amount than they had ever ventured to do in the most prosperous times; and made very large remittances to those commercial cities where the deepest distress was supposed to prevail, from the determination of the wealthiest bankers to suspend the payment of their own acceptances. The Bank of England, also, discounted bills to a great amount, when every bill was suspected; and the British government, with a wise policy, actuated and supported all.

The resources of Britain arise chiefly from the labour of Britain, and it might be easily shown that there never existed, in this island, so many industrious people as at the return of peace in 1763. The withdrawal by many of these, who neglected the possessions of their fathers for a portion of wilderness beyond the Atlantic, of millions of productive capital from the agriculture, and manufactures, and trade of Great Britain, to cultivate the ceded islands in the other hemisphere, must have enfeebled a less vigorous land. Fortunately, however, for Britain, there is a spirit in her industry, an increase in the accumulations of her industrious classes, and a prudence in the economy of her individual citizens, which have raised her to greatness, and sustained her power, notwithstanding the waste of wars, the blunders of treaties, and the tumults in peace. The people prospered at the commencement of the reign of George III. They prospered still more when our colonies revolted— nay, whatever may be said, or appear to the contrary, notwithstanding our wars and our debts, they prosper still. During every operation of finance and war, the gains of our enterprising people have been beyond calculation. Commerce has been enlarged-ships have accumulated— the surface of the island has been improved.

The resources of a nation which thus, in spite of the pressures of conflict, and the infelicities of seasons, possesses all the means of acquiring wealth, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, shipping, are almost inexhaustible. Its wealth has been obtained by industry amidst wars, taxes, and debts. Every war has left the people more industry-more manufactures—more commerce, and more wealth, than they enjoyed at the commencement. Besides, here the foe never sets his foot, never profanes our hearths, or our altars. Every one, during war itself, pursues his avocations, as if hostilities did not exist. Our agricultures, manufactures, and trade, run on in their several channels-public as well as private works, which, at any rate in the expense bestowed upon them, and sometimes in merit, emulate the Roman labours, are carried on, with as little interruption amidst "fierce alarms," as if "the European world lay hushed in peace."

War, too, calls forth appropriate energies, and unfolds mysterious powers. Like necessity, it is the mother of invention. Our present manufacturing system is the child of the conflict, which it enabled our nation to support. Only by the skill in machinery, which that system produced, were we enabled to send out every year myriads of brave men and millions of specie, to deliver Europe from the yoke of military despotism. Still war is an evil; and but for war, England might have been greater still. The discovery of steam, however, may, as the laureated Southey, in his Colloquies, predicts, "do more towards the prevention of war than any or all other causes. If, on the one hand, neither walls nor ramparts can withstand a continuous shower, or rather stream, of bullets impelled against them by steam, on the other, such modes of defence by the same great agent are to be devised, that the open city may be rendered more secure from assailants than the strongest fortresses are at this time. Minds like that of Archimedes will now have means at command equal to their capacity, and to their desires, And men will not be induced by any motives to face such engines as may be brought into the field. This will first be felt in maritime war, in which there is reason to apprehend, that a change as great and not so gradual, as that which the introduction of cannon occasioned, will soon be brought about. The empire of the seas will be to be fought for; but the same qualities whereby we have won it in the old mode of warfare, will again win it for us in the new. Bring into the battle what weapons you may, it is by the arm of flesh and the heart of proof that the victory must be decided. I fear nothing for England from foreign enemies! There is, however, an end to naval war, if it be made apparent that, whenever two ships engage, one, if not both, must inevitably be destroyed. And this is within the reach of our present science. The chemist and mechanist will succeed where moralists and divines have failed."

In the order of progression implied in these historical recitals, the population of England has become, it must be confessed, more and more worthy of being the recipients of political power. Only in such proportion can they have become a People. The distinction between a mere Population and a People must be borne strictly in mind. Wandering tribes are no people-neither a stationary population, until brought into a church-estate of existence. A body of irreligious men is not entitled to cannot sustain-the character. In Scripture terms, they who are not God's people are no people. The Matter is there out of which to constitute a people, but it is in a chaotic state. The Form is yet to be induced. It is Religion only which can give that Form, and its presence is required as an exponent of the Intelligence which, equally with Industry, is expected of him whose voice is demanded in the councils of the state.

This required exponent of intelligence may exist with very different degrees of knowledge; for it is the moral life which is thereby regarded rather than the amount of intellectual acquisition. This kind of intelligence is consistent with the severest degree of labour, and the exercise of the strictest duties of the social life. Indeed it is at one with them, and supposed by them in all their operations. Modern religionists have not sufficiently considered this view of the subject. It was, however,

well understood by the elder divines of the church of England. In harmony with this principle, the constitution of England never, previous to the Reform Act, required any other qualification for political privileges than that the candidate should have conformed to the ordinances of the church, and have proved that he had acquired the rights of one "whom the truth had made free," by having secured his own independence in the industrious acquisition of freehold property, or performed his relative social duties, as testified by his union with some public corporation recognised by the state. In these qualifications, by whomsoever possessed, or whatever his condition in life, it determined the required coincidence of intelligence and industry to reside. Such an one is of the People-all others are yet of the Population. Though admitted into the church, they have neglected to complete their connection either with it, or with the state, in the offices and duties of which only can the practical effect, and realisation of religious Faith be embodied and apprehended.

It must, however, be confessed that, in the course of time, other modes have arisen of manifesting the relation which every individual bears to the state. Since the time of Elizabeth and Charles I., that relation is especially marked by the share which a subject may directly contribute to the public burthens in the payment of the assessed taxes and the poor rates. By the payment of the latter, he is at once taken out of the class of the dependent. But, in the same progress of society, a stricter degree of intelligence has been required in the candidate for political privileges, than what is implied by a man's success in his business. A higher rate of intelligence is reasonably sought, than what is necessary to enable a man to fulfil the ordinary relations of life with so much religion as is implied in a prudential course of conduct; and truly, though the intellectual man is not necessarily a religious man, yet the standard of religious morality increases with the degree of intellectual acquisition. The religious man who is intellectual, is the more religious for being so; and," for the soul to be without knowledge is not good," even when piously disposed. Moreover, the man should be fitted for the duty he is expected to perform. The civil interests of mankind, in an advanced state of society, are of a very complex character; and they who are called upon to decide thereon, whether remotely or directly, should be of competent information. Not only moral intelligence is required, but the knowledge of good and evil; that they may eschew the one and adopt the other, in relation equally to the affairs of the public and their own.

Hence Burke has laid it down as a rule, that nothing is a due and adequate representation of a state, that does not represent its ability as well as its property. But we are inclined to think that he errs in divaricating between them so largely as he does. Ability, he says, is a vigorous and active principle, but property is sluggish, inert, and timid; therefore it can never be safe from the invasions of ability, unless it be, out of all proportion, predominant in the representation. It must be represented, too, he contends, in great masses of accumulation, or it is not rightly protected. Now we are ready to admit, that the characteristic essence of property, formed out of the combined principles of its acquisition and conservation is to be unequal, and that the great masses,