JeCULLOCII'S WRITINGS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. * THIS volume consists of treatises,

essays, and biographical notices on men or matters connected with political economy ; a few being original, but the majority revised and corrected reprints. The direct treatises embrace some of the most important questions with which political economy is concerned,—money, exchange, the let- ting and occupation of land, interest and usury laws, with the cele- brated paradox on Irish absenteeism. The essays at once historical and economical treat of the commerce of the ancient world and the middle ages; rise, progress, and decline of the trade of Holland ; the causes which created the Hanseatic League and subsequently de- stroyed its power; the origin of the compass, the progress of ma- ritime law, and the colonial systems of the ancients. The notices are biographical sketches of Quesnay, Adam Smith, and Ricardo. A goodly variety of subjects, involving various knowledge and various accomplishments, and furnishing the means of considering the character of their author as a political economist.

Natural qualities of mind may be stimulated by circumstances or improved by culture, but can never be supplied by art or effort. The sound common sense, the penetrating sagacity, and the wide sympathy though rather perhaps of the understanding than of the feelings, which distinguished the great founder of political economy, were the gift of nature. Adam Smith's education at Oxford, his employment at Edinburgh as a lecturer on Rhetoric and the Belles Lettres, his engagement at Glasgow however brief as Professor of Logic, and his subsequent elevation to the chair of Moral Philoso- phy, which originated the Theory of Moral Sentiments, gave hint that close and extensive knowledge of history, of man, and of man's feelings and doings, without which he never could have produced the Wealth of Nations. That unerring sagacity which never fail- ed him when he had sufficient data in the form of facts to deduce- his conclusions—the power of analysis at once keen and profound which enabled him not merely to lay down the laws conducing to the wealth of nations, but to present his reader with the essential principles of the defence of nations, of public expenditure, and other subjects of government—the wisdom applied alike to the history of society and to the most trivial individual expenditure— would all have been comparatively useless but for his vast and varied learning, and the attention he bestowed upon pursuits which his age avowed to be, and this age without avowing considers to be—vulgar.

Of the many successors of Adam Smith, M'Culloch comes the nearest to him in his variety of knowledge and his various sym- pathies : for although Mill had as varied knowledge, and perhaps deeper learning, his rigid logic and dryness of mind discarded from a subject everything which did not mathematically belong to it. The sympathy of M'Culloch, however, is even more decidedly of the head than that of the great master, and might perhaps more properly be called interest. He has none of the pervading pleasantry which animates the style of Smith, and brings the minds of the philosopher and the pupil into fellowship ; but M'Culloch's style is plain and forcible,—the latter quality, not- withstanding his hammerlike blow, being somewhat too uniform. His knowledge of what others have advanced on political economy is very great, not only extending to modern economists, but to old and obscure writers. He is greater as an expounder than as an original inquirer. In fact, from some deficiency of inventive lo- gic, conjoined with a want of (to speak phrenologically) the " or- gan of cautiousness," his own opinions are often questionable, if not heretical. Such we consider are his theories on Irish absenteeism, the impossibility of gluts, and on there being no such thing as un- productive expenditure in the economical sense. The same want of cautiousness which induces him to push originality into paradox also induces him to state a paradox in the broadest and extremest manner. It is said that Queen Elizabeth insisted on having no shadow in her portrait : in like manner, Mr. M'Culloch will allow of no hesitation or question about his views, either to himself or • Treatises and Essays on Subjects connected with Economical Policy; with Bio- graphical Sketches of Quesnay, Adam Smith, and Ricardo. By J. R. M'Culloch. Esq., Member of the Institute of France. Published by A. and C. Black, Edinburgh. others. What he sees he sees with wonderful distinctness ; but he cannot, or he will not, see much at once, and he is too apt to require everybody else not only to see as he sees, but not to see anything else, either more or less. The endless shades and neutral tints which are found in nature are overlooked in the presentations of our limner ; everything there is not only distinct but "stark staring." Neither is he very tolerant of those who differ from him even on difficult or abstruse subjects. Indeed, it is perhaps his manner of urging paradoxes, as much as the actual paradoxes, that raised up so many opponents, and for some years brought discredit on political economy itself. Even when he cannot resist an argu- ment, he is apt to deny its importance or extent, on his mere ipse' dixit. Thus, in the celebrated paradox on Irish absenteeism, when he is driven to admit that absenteeism does make a difference as far as domestic servants are concerned,—which is in reality admitting the principle at issue, for the real question is, who eats the food that forms the rents,—he pooh-poohs the number of the persons, which is an important point, as well as the importance of the matter, which may be very great in a country such as Ireland was with an overstocked labour-market, or, as it was at that time, with scarcely any demand for labour except for menial service. " It should, however, be observed, that these statements are only strictly true when absentees take their servants along with them. When these are left behind they require to be modified. The modification necessary in such cases is, however, extremely unimportant. It applies only to that portion of the earnings of household servants which they receive in the shape of board. If a resident gentleman expend 4001. or 500/. a year on the money wages of household servants, ho has so much less to expend on produce. In the event, however, of his going abroad and leaving his servants behind him, this 4001. or 500/. will be expended on produce of one kind or other, and will afford employment in its production to the whole or the greater number of the discarded servants. All, consequently, that they lose, or rather all that is lost by the class to which they belong, is their board and lodging in the houses of the absentees. And it is to be observed, that this effect is only, if at all, sensible at the commencement of a system of absenteeism, and hardly even then if the country be advancing. But trifling as it is, this is the whole extent of the injury, in an economical point of view, which it ever directly inflicts on the population. And it is so very insignificant, and so evanescent, that, in a practical point of view, it is hardly worth adverting to."

Again, the positive fact of a "deserted village" cannot be re- sisted, but it can be disposed of—in words.

" For the reasons now stated, a village built in the immediate vicinity of a gentleman's seat generally declines on his becoming an absentee. That, however, lain most cases anything but an injury. The inhabitants of such villages are very generally poor needy dependents, destitute of invention,

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and without any wish to distinguish themselves. But when the proprietors are absentees, they are forced to trust to their own resources, and either esta- blish some sort of manufacture, or resort to those manufacturing and com- mercial cities where there is always a ready demand for labour, and where every latent spark of genius is sure to be elicited. Although, therefore, it be certainly true that absenteeism has a tendency to reduce the villages which are usually found in the neighbourhood of the residences of extensive proprietors, it is not on that account prejudicial to the country at large, but the reverse."

A stern experience contradicts the statement that there is always a demand for even skilled labour in towns, but more especially for the unskilled labour of villagers of both sexes and all ages. In fact, it is but another form of " no gluts" and "transfer of capital and labour." No doubt, in very long periods of time, an employ- ment that is unproductive ceases to be pursued ; though the case of the hand-loom weavers shows that it may be pursued from gene- ration to generation. But even when a change does take place, it is with great material loss, and often much mental misery. The whole theory rests on an expansion of the popular phrase " it will be all the same a hundred years hence."

As an expounder or enforcer of established truths, Mr. M'Cul- loch is very eminent. His peculiarity of genius renders him less certain as an applier of economical science,—as witness some of his late propositions for the management of our fiscal system. His leading pursuit, his varied knowledge, and in a certain sense his catholic range of mind, together with his literary acquirements, render him eminent as an economical historian; for he combines, and in a high degree, that special knowledge which is not always Lund in the historical inquirer, with the various reading in which the mere economist is very often deficient. Hence, we think that the summary reviews of commerce, from its origin with (so far as we know) the Phoenicians, till about the close of the last century, is not only the most attractive but really the best portion of this volume. This passage on the peculiar opinions of the Romans on commerce, and the effect of those opinions, may be taken as an ex- ample of the author in historical disquisition.

"The warlike genius of the people, their military education, and the spirit of their laws, concurred in estranging them from industrious undertakings. Commerce was despised. A law was passed, in the year of Rome 535, which prohibited patricians from owning ships of more than a very limited burden, (300 amphorse,) because, as Livy says, all gain was held to be discreditable to a senator, 'quaatus omnis patribus indecorus visas est.' The higher chases could not openly engage in any branch of commercial or manufac- turing industry. And though this prohibition did not directly extend to the inferior class of citizens, it did so indirectly, by stigmatizing these pursuits as ignoble or vulgar. It was the opinion of the early legislators of Rome, that the citizens should be brought up only to the plough and the sword ; that the counter and the shop-board, though ever so necessary, should be consigned to aliens and slaves ; that the Roman youth should addict them- selves to nothing that might impair their strength or enervate their courage; and that to scale the breach and strike down the enemy in the sight of the Roman army, was riches and honour, and the only true nobility. In such a society the mechanical arts, commerce, and navigation, were necessarily abandoned to slaves, freedmen, provincials, and the very dregs of the popu- lace.

"This contempt of industrial occupations, which was natural to a rude, a warlike, and an agricultural people, was not less congenial to its tastes after it had been enriched by plunder. and had spread its conquests over all the surrounding states. Instead of depending on their own exertions, the Ro-

mans trusted to the reluctant labour of slaves, and to subsidies extorted from. conquered provinces. They endeavoured not only to make the interminable contests in which they were engaged defray their own expense, but to render them an abundant source of wealth. Rome drew to herself spoils and tributes of a conquered world ; and, in the end, Italy was in the enviable situation of enjoying a nearly total immunity from taxation.

"The philosophy, too, of the ancient world contributed to perpetuate anti- industrial prejudices. That taste for refinement, for improved accommo- dation, and for foreign products, which is an ordinary result of commerce, was reckoned by the ancient moralists an evil of the Arst magnitude. They necessarily, therefore, looked upon its source with aversion. Hence, Cicero who had mastered all the philosophy of the ancients, speaks very dispa- ragingly of manufacturing and trading pursuits. There can, says he, be no- thing ingenuous in a workshop; and he adds, that commerce, when con- ducted on a small scale, is mean and despicable ; and, when most extended, barely tolerable—' non admodum vituperanda!' " In one of the lately discovered fragments of his treatise De _Republica, Cicero eulogizes the sagacity of Romulus in founding the city of Rome at a distance from the sea ; partly because it was less liable to surprise, but prin- cipally because it was more likely to escape that demoralization, and that decay of patriotism and of the martial spirit, which he says, are distin- guishing characteristics of all great sea-port towns. It is needless to say how completely this statement is contradicted by all history ; even by the cases of Tyre, Corinth, Syracuse, and Carthage, with which Cicero was well acquainted. But these declamatory. harangues in favour of poverty and rus- ticity did not appear absurd, even in the mouths of those who, like Ballast and Seneca, were indulging in every sort of luxury. They were also, as might be anticipated, a favourite theme of the poets. "Virgil has described, as follows, the peculiar destiny and duty of the Romans- ' Excudent ali, spirantia mollius a:re ;

Credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore vultus : Orabunt causes melius, ccelique meatus Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent. Tu regere itnperio populos. Romane, memento (Hs: tibi erant artes) pacisque imponere morem ; Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos."

"These apparently lofty, but really narrow and illiberal prejudices, be- came in the end alike inconvenient and mischievous. Military skill and bravery were for centuries the only means by which distinction could be at- tained; and hence the contempt of wealth, and the unparalleled energy, fortitude, and perseverance of the Romans. But, to be always at war, there must be enemies to contend with. And after Italy, Carthage, and Macedonia had been subjugated, the martial virtues became of less importance, and were less valued. And while this decline took place on the one hand, on the other the vast wealth which poured into the city from the conquered pro- vinces produced an entire revolution in the sentiments and habits of all classes, and riches became the grand object of pursuit. When this change took place, or soon after, the estates of the higher classes were mostly culti- vated by slaves, under, the superintendence of stewards or bailiffs ; and being either excluded from those industrial occupations in which they might have employed their time and acquired affluence, or despising them as mean and servile, they were forced to look out for other methods of advancement. The extraordinary eagerness with which the principal offices of the state began about this time to be sought after, was thus, in truth, the result of the novel circumstances under which the candidates were placed. They were not co- veted merely as means by which individuals might distinguish themselves and rise to eminence, but as means by which they might support a lavish expenditure, repair ruined fortunes, and amass vast wealth. Though pro- vinces could no longer be conquered, they could be made available for the private advantage of their governors. The rapacity of the proconsuls, prae- tors, prtefecta, and other provincial rulers, in the latter ages of the republic, and particularly during the civil wars, was such as almost to surpass belief. The proceedings of Verres in Sicily are known to everybody from their hav- ing been made the theme of the indignant invective of Cicero. But Verres was not so much an exception to as a specimen of the class to which he be- longed. The disgust occasioned by the intolerable exactions of the goiernors and taxgatherers occasioned the massacre of the Romans in the East, and did much to enable Mithridates to wage a lengthened contest even with their best generals. Though curbed and restrained by the emperors, the oppres- sion and extortion practised on the provinces were never effectually put down ; and every now and then the grossest abuses were brought to light. " While, however, the patricians disdained the pursuits of manufacture, they were notwithstanding, by what seems a singular contradiction, at all times prone to engage in the practice of usury. From an early period they endeavoured to multiply their clients and augment their resources, by the adoption of all those usurious devices which brought discredit on the Jews and Lombards of modern times. And the oppression and hatred thence arising led to frequent and sometimes serious commotion; and stimulated the plebeians iu their efforts to limit the power and privileges of the nobles.

" The wealth acquired by the plunder of provinces, of allies, and of the public, was usually spent in ostentatious folly and sensual gratifications. The crowds of slaves and other retainers belonging to the Roman grandees, and the magnitude of their expenditure, exceed anything of which history has preserved an account."