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solemnly protest against the sneers and sarcasins of those who do, because it is not for them I write, nor is it their approbation that I care any thing about. I write for the instruction of plain honest country folks (who, by the way, constitute no inconsiderable portion of your readers), and if I can assist one old lady in judging when it is most advantageous to invest in, or sell out, of the funds, or save one young gentleman from blushing, when he is requested to read and explain the newspaper report of the stocks, I shall not consider my own trouble lost, or the paper of your Magazine wasted. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 5th Oct. 1818.

T. N.

RICARDO AND THE EDINBURGH

REVIEW.

IN page 81, Edinburgh Review, No 59, on Ricardo's Political Economy, are these words: "It follows from these principles, that the interest of Landlords is always opposed to that of every other class of the community." What are these principles may be seen by those who shall study the book and the review of it. This is the conclusion drawn from them, and sanctioned by the authority of the Reviewer, and of this I shall treat. Were a very long and intricate chain of reasoning to conclude with the inference, that perjury and fraud were lawful in the common transactions of life, I suppose it would not be necessary to follow the chain. Such a conclusion would be considered as equivalent to what mathematicians call Reductio ad absurdum, or a Coroners Inquest, Felo de se. If any man, or class of men, be of such a nature, or in such a state, that their interest is always opposed to that of every other class of the community, then that man, or class of men, are the natural and necessary enemies of mankind; for the disposition will follow the interest, and the conduct the disposition; and it would be for the interest of mankind that such a class did not exist; in other words, that landlords did not exist, and that there was no such thing as landed property. Yet it is from the land or soil that all the necessaries, conveniences, and material comforts of life are obtained. How these would be produced, in such a case, or what inducement there would be to produce them, or under what new form of so

ciety they would be produced, or what previous steps would be necessary to bring matters to this happy consummation, it is for Mr Ricardo and his Reviewer to explain. As matters now stand, the case is hopeless, for (page 77,) "no reduction would take place in the price of corn, although landlords should forego the whole of their rents." In other words, although the present landlords should cease to be landlords, and the present farmers be substituted in their place, still the land must be occupied by somebody, who will have an interest always opposed to every other class of the community, and will therefore be their necessary enemy, at the same time that he would be their necessary friend; for the parties could not subsist without mutual assistance. If all that is meant be, that the interest of landlords is always opposed to that of every other class of the community, because they, like every other trade, wish to make the most of their commodity, by letting their land as high as they can, "We need no ghost to tell us this, Ricardo (or Reviewer)"; although it is to be hoped that there is no ghost or spirit of any description but would have had more candour than to put so very trite an observation into so mischievous a form, and to point against one, and that an absolutely necessary class of men, what is equally applicable to every other. If more is meant than meets the eye, let it be well observed, that were the world to rise en masse, and put the present landlords hors de combat in this interminable warfare, others would rise in their place, and the same wholesome discipline would have to be repeated without end, unless it be proposed that the whole mass of the people should assume the whole mass of the land, and cultivate it, for the mutual benefit, by Committees. Indeed, it is impossible to discover the sense or use of this remark about the opposition of interests, unless it be to make it the foundation of some such scheme as this, which might, by parity of reason, be extended to every other trade or profession. While matters remain on the present footing, and property of all kinds continues to be acknowledged and respected, men will continue, as they have done since the commencement of civilized society, to buy and to sell, to let land and to take it as they best can, those who give

themselves the trouble to think well knowing, and those possessed of any candour acknowledging, that this is not a general and eternal opposition of interests; but that while every man pursues his own interest, and attends to his own affairs, under the restraint of the laws of God and his country, he may leave the general result to Providence, and rest assured, that this is not merely the best, but the only way in which human affairs can be conducted. If political economists chuse to depart from the common use of language, and call this a perpetual opposition of interests, and, consequently, a state of perpetual hostility, let them have the consistency to call it a general opposition of interests; and let the rest of mankind admit that, if in one sense they be mutual enemies, in a more comprehensive view of the matter, they are mutual friends, and cannot do without one another. The landlord, be his rent great or small, cannot enjoy it without communicating it with the merchant upon 'change, the banker in his counting-room, the retailer in his shop, the mariner on the ocean, the weaver at his loom, the smith at his forge, the mason with his mallet, the carpenter with his chisel, the cobler in his stall. Let a man be ever so selfish, if he wishes to enjoy his own, he cannot, for his heart, do it alone. This is equally true of the landholder, the stockholder, the merchant, the capitalist of every description, nay, of the man of no capital, who lives by his daily exertions. He cannot live without making others live also. Nay, it appears to me, that, where there are many great landholders and great capitalists of other descriptions, there the labourers of every description, the manufacturers, the community at large, will be in a much better situation, than where the same capital is divided among a greater number, but none arising to wealth. For the wealthy man has many wants, and none of them can be satisfied without the assistance of the poor. Even when the poor coase, from age and infirmity, to be able to contribute to the other enjoyments of the rich, there is still one remaining to which they can contribute, the indulgence of a benevolent disposition. And whoever has observation and candour, will admit that, He from heaven's height in this country at least, riches do not All these their motions vain sees and

harden but rather soften the heart. On the other hand, he was possessed of more than mortal wisdom, who long ago observed, " that a poor man, who oppresseth the poor, is like a sweeping-rain which leaveth no food." Whereas, to use a homely but expressive similitude, a rich man, like a wateringpan in the hands of Providence, serves to diffuse more generally and usefully the means of subsistence; while the envious absurdity of the human heart grudges even existence to that which feeds it! as if the flesh of our bodies should rise, in unhallowed insurrection, against the heart. All would be watering-pans, all would be hearts; but this is not the order of nature nor of Providence, which must ultimately prevail. After derangement shall have succeeded to derangement, and revolution to revolution-after having exhausted all the forms of madness, of misery, of murder, and of blood, it is only by returning to the order and subordination of nature, that wretched and weary mortals can escape from anarchy and despotism, and expect to find, if not happiness, at least safety and repose. We do not deny, what we have often felt, that there is such a thing as the proud man's contumely, as well as the insolence of office, and that nothing generates pride, and contumely, and insolence, more (although many things as much) than excessive wealth. But these are among the evils of a secondary kind, inherent in the very nature of society. For the pride of birth, of genius, of talents, of bodily strength and dexterity, is as mortifying to hu man nature as the pride of wealth. It is only in the dust of death that all visible distinctions shall be levelled, and envy as well as love and hatred disappear. Thus it is that the interests of the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the producer and consumer, however apparently opposed, are, in fact, linked together by an invisible adamantine chain, which no ages nor oceans can interrupt, nor death, nor war, nor the utmost malignity of the human heart, pointed by its utmost ingenuity, destroy. And no wonder; for it is formed and sustained by Him, whose weakness is stronger than man, and whose folly is wiser than man.

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If it is inquired what is meant by the order and subordination of nature above mentioned, I answer (what may be indeed inferred from what has been already said) that it is the order and subordination which is the natural and necessary consequence of inequality of property, which inequality is the natural and necessary consequence of the idea of property being at all admitted among men. I talk of civilized life. Wherever there is property there must be power, and where there is inequality of property there must be inequality of power. And this I look upon as the most natural, the surest, and safest basis of Government,-whatever may be the superstructure. Upon this basis stood the Comitia centuriata of Rome. An ancient and complete instance of inequality of property made the foundation and principle of Government. Itunited independence and intelligence, and gave every chance of stability that can be given to any human institution. It was the Comitia tributa and curialia, whose numbers, not property, was the rate of voting, which introduced corruption and confusion into the government, and made the flatterers of the people masters of the legions and the destinies of Rome. Reason and experience concur in showing, that there is but a step from democracy to despotism, and that the spirit of both is that of robbery and murder; whereas a government founded upon property must protect property, a fortiori, liberty and life. In this opinion I am much fortified by that of a very able author, who wrote no farther back than the year 1807. See Edinburgh Review, No 18, page 366 bottom, and 367 top, article -Filangieri on Legislation.

"But no country has ever possessed such a mass of landed and mercantile proprietors, or such numbers of enlightened citizens, as our own. What lever can overturn a pyramid which rests on such a basis as this? Not surely a King of England, with less of courtly splendour than perhaps becomes his dignity, and without the practical choice of even the servants who form his household !" This was written with sound sense and sound patriotism. I would beg only to add to it, that in these respects landed property has the advantage of mercantile. It is more visible, -it is more permanent,—and it is

employed in productions of primary necessity. It is not disputed that, in some other respects, the mercantile has the advantage, and in some the stockholder has the advantage of both, particularly in the immediate command of his money. But who would have suspected that the landed interest, forming, in conjunction with the mercantile, the basis of the pyramid upon which rest our rights, our security, and our happiness, was always opposed to that of every other class of the community? Administrations may stand or fall,

"A breath can make them as a breath has made,"

but surely landed property does not change its nature with the change of a ministry. Moreover, in No 20 of above work, page 407, article-Cobbet's Political Register, I read, that "the influence of great families (undoubtedly great landed families) in the election of members, is rather beneficial than pernicious." Is it possible that the influence of men, whose interest is always opposed to that of every other class of the community, should be beneficial in the election of members? Will they not poison the very fountain-head of our political existence? Will they not sacrifice to their own interest that of every other class of the community? There ought rather to be express laws made to debar them from elections and the House of Commons altogether; and instead of the trust-oath, there should be one framed, that the claimant did not possess, in property or superiority, directly or indirectly, an inch of ground. Again, in above No 20, the same article (Cobbett), page 417, I find, that

"An English Peer has scarcely any other influence than an English Gentleman of equal fortune, and scarcely any other interest to maintain it. The whole landed interest, including the peerage, is scarcely a match for the moneyed interest either in Parliament or out of it; and, as it is the basis of a more steady and permanent, as well as a more liberal and exalted dependency, we wish to see Peers concerned in elections rather than Stock-jobbers and Nabobs ;” that is to say, that the influence of Peers, as proprietors of land, should be encouraged in the House of Commons, from whence, as Peers, they are constitutionally excluded; and yet as proprietors of land, their interest must always be opposed to that of

every other class of the community, and they must therefore have the same interest as other land-holders to do mischief in the House of Com

mons.

In page 82 of Edinburgh Review, No 59, it is said:

"High rents and low profits, for they are inseparably connected, ought never to be made the subject of complaint, if they occur in the natural state of society, and under a system of perfectly free intercourse with other nations; but if they are caused by an exclusive commercial system, or by restrictions which prevent the cheap importation of foreign corn, and which, therefore, force the cultivation of inferior soils at home, they are highly to be deprecated."

Now, if the government of this country should find expedient, and what is called the commercial interest should agree to a perfectly free intercourse with other nations, that is, to a perfectly free importation of foreign corn, and of every other foreign article of consumption, I think what is called the landed interest, as such, would not, and ought not, to object to it, whatever effect it might have upon rents. But if the meaning be, that there should be a perfectly free importation of foreign corn, and a perfectly restrained importation of every thing, or of any thing else, and this be called the natural state of society, then, I would say, that what is called the landed interest, would be hardly dealt with and treated as a stepchild by the common mother country; because it would be obliged to sell cheap and buy dear, and would be the only class of inhabitants so treated. I have said, what is called the commercial and landed interest, because I am perfectly sensible that the interest of all classes is the same, and that none can be injured, in the first instance, but the rest must ultimately suffer. I am more particularly sensible, that the home trade of this country, as of most other countries, is by far the most important that the proprietors and occupiers of land are the greatest consumers in such trade, and that they cannot be impoverished, but the other elasses must be ruined. I have been now nearly three-score and ten years in this world, and have had some opportunity of observing the former and present number of retail shops in different county, and other towns, and the goods and customers with which they were formerly, and are now fill

ed, and can thence form some opinion, whether or not the commercial interest has suffered by the advancement of the landed interest; and whether all interests be not much advanced, and much in the same proportion. After the income tax, and all the taxes, and all our debt, and a war of nearly twenty-five years, I can declare, that all classes of men are, beyond all comparison, better fed, better clad, and better lodged, than when I first opened my eyes upon this world, upon which I know I must soon close them forever. Further, were all nations to act upon the principle of what is said in above quotation about the cultivation of inferior soils, I suspect (and so does the Reviewer, as we shall soon see), that the earth would be less productive, and consequently less inhabited, than at present. And if this nation in particular, were to act upon it, then, and in the event of a foreign war and Continental system, such as we have seen, it would be in a very dependent and dangerous situation.

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I shall make one more quotation from above Review, No 59, page 87, being the last on the subject of Ricardo.

"It is, whatever may be said to the contrary, the great and leading defect of the lower classes, that they submit to privations with too little reluctance."

There is much dark reasoning in this article of Ricardo, and unquestionably much ingenuity. But it must be confessed, that this improvement of the subject, which may likewise be considered as the key, is abundantly plain and practical. I shall now take the liberty of making rather a long extract from the same work, No 18, page 371, that I may have an opportunity of the culpable passiveness of the lower comparing above remark concerning classes, with the following eulogy upon their poverty and thrift:

classes a real check to population, though "Nor is the poverty of the labouring lamented with much benevolent feeling by Filangieri. It was poverty, the parent of labour, the duris urgens in rebus egestis, which first tamed the habitable earth; and still, though more slowly, encroaches on the swamp and the thicket (inferior soils), to augment the sustenance of mankind. But food may not only be augmented, it may be economized. It may seem at first, the cra

vings of hunger must be nearly the same in all men, and require nearly an equal portion of food to allay them. But some are fed with less, and some are fed with

more, than nature would mete out. What a difference between the consumption of a Bedouin Arab and an English farmer! Perhaps Mr Malthus has not sufficiently taken notice of this key to some of the phenomena of population. There seems to be no mode of accounting for the well-attested populousness of some nations, but their extreme thrift and temperance. If we may put any faith in the early books of Livy, nearly 200,000 citizens were included in the census soon after the expulsion of the kings, when the territory of Rome was less than Rutlandshire. The book of chronicles bears testimony to the astonishing population of the Hebrews, who united, with the common frugality and temperance of the east, institutions more favourable to agriculture than have commonly existed.In modern Palestine, the sensible Volney gives credit to a population of 40,000 fighting men among the barren mountains of the Druses. This would give 150,000 persons for a district of 110 square leagues, or about 150 for each square mile, which approaches to the populousness of France or England. Volney ascribes this to their liberty ; but free men must eat as well as slaves; and though a bad government will make a fruitful land desert, yet the best cannot turn barrenness into fertility. It is only their frugal style of life, and especially their abstinence from animal food, which can explain it. Poverty then, which puts men upon short allowance, makes the same quantity feed more than if they were at ease; and thus the inequality of property, whatever may be its evils, has a tendency to help forward population, because it stimulates to the production of more, and checks the consumption of what there is."

I presume, the good sense contained in this quotation, will recommend it equally to others, as it has done to me, and that I shall need no other apology for its length. The hints it suggests to the English farmer and manufacturer, may be as useful to them and their families as the remark about their too easy acquiescence in privations, may be agreeable. The ingenious author has certainly furnished the materials of the utile and the dulce. will have carried every point, if, by a farther exertion of his ingenuity, he can get them to mix and amalgamate together.

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I shall conclude with one general observation, on an author whose style and taste, rather than whose sentiments, I would wish to adopt; that it is the great and leading defect of one of the ablest critical works that has ever appeared in this, or, I believe, any other country or age; that it has a strong, not an intentional, tendency to make mankind unhappy and discon

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