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different soils, but we believe it never happens that such extension takes place in this manner, but is invariably caused by the high money prices of raw produce. If profits should fall it would lessen the inducement to an increase of expense, when there would be no fund to meet it. The fall of profits and additional expenditure are absolutely incompatible effects. But to make such fall indispensable to the cultivation of bad land, and to make it also the consequence of that cultivation, is still more inconsistent. It is the same thing as saying, that the return in money, from the difficulty of finding employment for capital, must be first reduced to admit of additional supplies from the soil, and then, that the return in produce being less, compared with the same expenditure, than before, will be accompanied by a still further reduction in the rate of profit. This inconsistency results from abandoning the principle of demand and supply, as regards the products of the soil, or which is the same thing, supposing the increased expense of raising the last portion of subsistence and raw materials, is the cause instead of the consequence of the price being elevated.

With regard to the fall of money wages or the price of labour, on which so much stress is laid, as also necessary to the cultivation of indifferent land, the heaviest portion of the expense in reclaiming such soils from their natural poverty, is in manure and not in labour, except in some peculiar situations. Nearly the whole of the inferior lands of the county of Norfolk, (Eng.) have been brought into profitable cultivation from the application of composts, to obtain which, the greater part of the outlay has been in stock, and in what are technically termed, artificial manures; instances of levelling and draining, in which labour is the principal ingredient of cost, constitute exceptions rather than the contrary. There is, then, never any transfer in consequence of the fall of profits and money wages to rents, under any circumstances; and, we may add, that there is never any transfer, as insisted on by the new school, of profits to wages, as the difficulty of procuring the subsistence of the labourer increases, unless the working portion of the population can submit to no further reduction in the quantity or quality of their food, and no increase of physical exertion.

The capitalist has every interest in that excess of population, which, while it tasks the labourer to the utmost of his bodily energies from the pressure of want, keeps down his money wages to their lowest possible limit. The landlord has an equal interest in the depression of his corn wages. The toils and privations of the working classes may not always measure the amount of profits and the value of rents, for wages may advance

proportionally with both; but, in the ordinary state of things, the sacrifices of the labourer will very nearly determine the gains of landlord and capitalist, excepting, where, under a system of poor laws the former is compelled to refund a portion of his high rents in the form of rates. It would appear then, that the stages between a moderate and a low standard of comfort for the labourer are so far separated, that the point at which the fall of profits commences, from the pressure of the population against the limits of food, is scarcely if at all to be prescribed. It is impossible to say where it can be placed. The situation of the people of Ireland, with great natural resources in land, is conclusive evidence of this. But, admitting the influence of this circumstance on the population, it is in no instance a resort to inferior soils that affects profits by influencing wages. The cultivation of indifferent land is never forced, as we have endeavoured to show, except under a very high stimulus, and in that state of things it is great excess of value or most extraordinary money prices that rewards labourer, landlord, and capitalist liberally.

We are not disposed to deny the influence of fertility on profits. They must be limited by the capabilities of the soil, supposing them fully called forth by adequate demand. But, as Mr. Malthus has, himself, well observed, limitation is a different thing from regulation. They cannot exceed the natural or acquired powers of the soil, nor be depressed below them, should the proper stimulants be present. The land cannot support a greater number on the profits of stock, than, after allowing for the labour devoted to its cultivation, it can be made to yield in subsistence and raw materials; but this does not invalidate the principle, that profits as well as wages depend on the great law of demand and supply; on the contrary, it is in strict subordination to it. It is the demand of the manufacturing and commercial classes, for the produce of the soil, that measures the value of the general returns obtained in agriculture, as it is the proportion of capital to population that governs the rate of wages and profits respectively. The principle that regulates the division of the produce of society between the labourer and capitalist, lies so open to observation, that it cannot be misunderstood. It is competition that must determine the share that falls to each class under every condition of things, whether rent be paid or

not.

The principle of the new school, therefore, by which that law of profits, which is founded on competition, is superseded, is neither true in fact, nor rational in theory. What is gained by the labourer, is not necessarily lost to the capitalist, and vice

versa. If it were true, that population must be always excessive, compared with the demand for the produce of its labour, and the means of setting it to work, still, until it be shown, that the labourer's wages in money, must rise as his wages in corn diminish, the rate of division will not be as stated. There is a different scale of comfort for the working population in the same country, at periods not very far separated, and it cannot be conceded, that habit is so connected with a certain and invariable standard of necessaries for the labourer, that the rate at which he is recompensed in money, must be necessarily raised, as the rate of his reward in commodities in general is lowered. The division then of the whole produce between labourer and capitalist will, when the population increases faster than the produce, or the converse, be adjusted by the law of competition. The labourer must receive fewer commodities when they exist in relative scarcity, and a smaller sum in wages, if there are a greater number seeking employment, than there is demand for the products of capital and industry. This is agreeable to universal experience. But in a just theory, it is more natural to suppose that the demand should not be so far separated from the supply of provisions, as well as the commodities produced by labour and capital generally, than, that wages should always be encroaching on profits, and, that an unavoidable action and re-action each on the other, should present a necessary progress. It is more rational to infer, that if some disturbing influence were not, in the division of the whole produce or its value, constantly varying the proper proportions-that as a greater share fell to the lot of the labourer, a larger quantity would be assigned to the capitalist. Under no circumstances, however, would we be entitled to reject the influence of the law of demand and supply. The supply might admit of being a little in advance of the demand for commodities, and the labour by which they are produced. The price or money value of both might fall slowly and progressively together.

It is a mistake to suppose, that supply will not produce demand, as well as demand supply The expectation of an extension of demand, from increase of quantity and fall of price, is sufficient to stimulate producers, equally with a pre-existing demand. The love of indolence, by which the demand may be suspended or lessened, or the markets not fully supplied, is not a stronger principle, as assumed in too many of the reasonings of economists, than the wish, in the majority of mankind, where property is well secured, to better their condition and to accumulate. Activity is, on the contrary, the overbalancing motive. VOL. L-NO. 1

28

The illustrations of the superior force of the opposite principle, have been necessarily drawn, in the greater number of instances, from those parts of the earth where, although possessed of great natural resources, the inhabitants have been sunk in slothful habits, from the absence of the stimulants that best call forth those resources, and the powers of human labour and invention. Those systems of political economy, therefore, in which a greater influence is ascribed to indolence, than to that activity, mental and physical, which is the main spring of all improvement, because connected with increase of enjoyment, the desire of possessing and transmitting property and a dominion over others, must be false. The occasional recurrence of gluts, is a symptom of the faulty distribution of capital and of a disturbance in the regular exchanges of its products, and not a proof that man must cease to produce from the want of consumption, in the ordinary way.

But those writers who are not advocates of the passion for expense, appear to lay too much stress on the necessity of accumulation. Whilst one class of economists seem apprehensive, therefore, that men will spend too freely, another appear to dread, that they will accumulate too fast. Both apprehensions we think equally unreasonable. These desires are in equilibrium in the conduct of the majority of men, when left to their natural impulses, and the enjoyment of the fruits of their labours. There is an equal absurdity in the doctrine that teaches the necessity of unproductive consumption, to a balance between produce and expenditure, as in that which is the foundation of sumptuary enactments.

The length to which we have extended these remarks, precludes us from explaining the points of difference between us and Dr. Cooper, on the subject of population. We hope, however, at no very distant period, to redeem the promise with which we set out, in noticing the very useful contribution he has made to science, by his "Elements of Political Economy."

ART. VIII.-The Tenth Annual Report of the American Society,
for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States.
With an Appendix. Washington.
Washington. Way & Gideon, 1827.

THAT the institution of slavery is attended with some evils, and those not inconsiderable ones, we readily admit; though we think that it is also attended with advantages which, in some degree, compensate for them. That the scale of evil preponderates-that, upon the whole, domestic servitude is not, with a view to the general circumstances of the world, the best of all possible institutions-even this proposition, it is not our purpose

to controvert.

We believe, however, that much as the subject has been discussed, it is not yet thoroughly understood. We think that in the various publications unfavourable to slavery, which have appeared in print, the evils have been exaggerated, and the compensating circumstances, in a great measure, overlooked. We are of opinion, that on this subject, there exists and has existed for some time past, both in this country and in England, a great deal of uninformed and misguided zeal ; as much, perhaps, as on any, that has ever employed the thoughts and pens of men; and, that many of those who conceive themselves to be best informed and best qualified to instruct, and who have taken the greatest pains to enlighten others on the subject, are grossly ignorant, not only of facts but of the very principles upon which a judgment is to be formed. And, what is most surprising of all, some individuals among ourselves, instead of attending to what passes before their own eyes and under their own observation, are content to take up their opinion, ready-made, from the haphazard speculations and vehement invectives of these enlightened and benevolent, though distant instructors. We believe also, that most or all of the schemes which have been proposed for the abolition of slavery, or the mitigation of its evils, are useless or impracticable, or dangerous, and likely to do infinitely more harm than good.

Our

We do not, however, purpose, at present to enter at large into the discussion of these topics. We shall have occasion to recur to them, perhaps, in the course of our future labours. views in this article shall be exclusively confined to the plans of the Society, whose name appears at the head of it.

This institution has gone on from the very beginning, with much energy and zeal. This report announces, that its success can no longer be considered as doubtful. A colony has been

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