tributions of nature just named, is the free gift of God to his creatures, and hence, would seem to have been designed either for the common use of all, or for equitable apportionment among all the members of the human family as their birthright--yet, it has been found that no cultivation can take place unless the soil be made subject to individual ownership; because," &c., &c.

We cannot follow our author further in exposition of his plan of social wealth, although it embraces many important topics, but must turn to a still more profound and abstruse department of the general subject-the natural laws which govern the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. This is, perhaps, the first attempt that has been made to treat them as a whole, and thus present them in one harmonious system. These discussions are so wide, and the principles involved in the subject so numerous and abstruse, that we shall not attempt to present them in a clear and satisfactory manner to our readers, but rather content ourselves with a statement of the conclusions at which they arrive. They are as follows:—

1. "That self-interest governs the production and distribution of wealth-the desire of happiness its consumption: that, considered in the aggregate, the desire of happiness, under the guidance of the intellect and the various degrees of restraint imposed by the limitation of means, indicates the character and relative quantities of the products desired, thus controlling the demand; and that the self-interest of mankind so directs the employment of the productive forces that each object of desire is produced in quantities exactly corresponding with this permitted demand for it, thus controlling the supply.

2. "That the quantity of true value inherent in any given product is not only equal to, but identical with, the quantity of productive service incorporated with it that the market value is sometimes greater than the true value, and sometimes less, but if measured at their mean the two are equal in quantity; and that, although the money value or market price, rarely coincides with either the true value or the market value; yet when reduced to its average, and thus measured, the quantity does not vary from that of either. Estimated in the aggregate, and regarded as units, the true value, the market value, and the money value of products, or of any given product are absolute equivalents.

3.That value is made up of two well defined but unequal parts-namely, cost of production and profits.

4. "That the proprietors of the aggregate of skill, of labor, of capital, and of land, respectively receive one quarter of the gross profits of production, the whole being divided into four equal shares; and hence, the greater the aggregate quantity of either one of the productive forces, as compared with the other three, the lower will be the relative profits of its individual proprietors, and vice

versa.

7. "That land, aside from its meliorations, does not possess real value--its market value and money value being merely the legalized reflection of the capital placed upon it, and therefore that the market value of the aggregate of land, (independent of meliorations,) is precisely equal to that of the aggregate of productive capital.

6. "That the profits of production vary inversely with the market value of land; when the one is high the other will be correspondingly low.

7. "That the profits of production, whether considered in detail or unity, vibrate about a common standard, and that this standard itself oscillates about a fixed center, which is believed to be about five per cent per annum on the value of the productive forces employed.

8. " That the portion of value constituting the cost of production returns to the sources whence it emanates, and is there consumed in the preservation and reproduction of skill, labor, capital, government, and money; that the portion constituting the profits, is applied, in part, to the augmentation of skill, labor, and capital, and the balance to the gratification of the non-essential desires of the

owners-the productive forces now existing being the accumulated profits of the present and all preceding generations.

9. "That the profits of production in the aggregate, vibrate within the range of 21 to 74 per cent, per annum, being not only restrained from transcending these limits by starvation on one side, and by a dense crowd of librated desires on the other, but also, driven back towards the center by the undue consumption of capital at the one extreme, and of population at the other."

It should be stated that the argument here is based upon the assumption that government interposes no hindrances to obstrict the path of production -such as monopolies, duties, bounties, &c., but confines itself strictly to its legitimate functions. It is also worthy of observation, that one conclusion to be drawn from the admission of this argument is, that all the phenomena connected with wealth, are produced by, and subject to, uniform natural laws.

This concludes the strictly scientific portion of the work, and brings us to the second part in which the principles heretofore deduced are applied to economic legislation, or rather, the true economic polity of government is pointed out. Passing over the considerations touching the institution of property, and of property in land, the regulation of Commerce and taxation, to which the reader's attention is called, we proceed at once to the part of the work which treats of "Money." It was the desire to disseminate the peculiar views on this subject that more especially prompted the author, as we are told in the preface, to the composition and publication of the volume.

This general subject is treated under the three titles of " Metallic Money," Convertible Paper Money," and "Inconvertible Paper Money." After pointing out the defects of metallic money-to wit: its great expensiveness or cost-its weight, and the fluctuations of its value, the author proceeds to the consideration of convertible paper money, or bank notes, showing that it is liable to still stronger objections than coin-that is, it is unprofitable to its producers-subject to more disastrous fluctuations in its value than coin, and, not unfrequently, proves utterly worthless. He then suggests a plan by which government might emit irredeemable, or inconvertible paper money which should subserve all the legitimate purposes, or uses of a circulating medium much better than either coin or convertible paper, and the adoption of which would be attended with a saving of many millions of dollars.

It is due to the author to state, that the reader can hardly be expected to understand, or justly to appreciate the importance of his system of money, without being first familiar with his views on the nature and uses of money. There is one point, in particular, in which this is apparent-that is, the ratio between Commerce and money: or to state it more distinctly; at the present cost of producing coin, what quantity of money does a given annual amount of Commerce require? The answer to this is, that at the present cost of producing gold and silver, a mean of fifteen dollars per head of the population, is the quantity of money that our Commerce requires. We now present the system of inconvertible paper money.

"Let the Constitution of the United States be amended by the insertion of provisions something like the following:-

"First, That the production and emission of convertible paper money in the United States be henceforth interdicted, and that the amount thereof already emitted, and now in use, be withdrawn from the channels of circulation, and

suppressed, in the manner following, to wit: by an annual diminution of the loans and discounts of each and every bank in the Union, now exercising the functions of discount, deposits, and circulation; which annual diminution shall be at least equal to one-tenth of the amount by which their loans and discounts at present exceed the amount of their capital actually paid in and not otherwise employed. [This would leave them at the end of ten years without any bills in circulation, without any capital loaned out, except their own, and with their deposits, if any remaining in the vaults unemployed. It would; therefore, not only deprive them of the power of producing money, but so effectually dry up their sources of profit that they would be likely to disband, and let each proprietor loan his own capital.]

Second, That the existing clause in the Constitution, which establishes gold and silver coins as the standards of value, and as the legal tender in payment of debts, be so modified and enlarged as to include the money issued under, and by authority of the ensuing clause, namely:—

"Third, That the Government of the United States, in payment of its current expenses, issue annually, for ten consecutive years, $25,000,000 of paper money, to be of the similitude of bank notes, and of various denominations, ranging from $1 to $1,000, and to be worded thus:

66

dollars, legal money of the United States, issued by authority of the people thereof. Dated, Washington City, January 1, 18

(Signed)

(Countersigned)

"A. B., President of the United States, "C. D., Treasurer,

"E. F., Commissioner,

"G. H., Register."

[Here should follow detailed constitutional provisions, prescribing the method of production and emission, and establishing the most rigorous penalties for every act of unfaithfulness committed by those entrusted with these operations, especially for the act of transcending the prescribed limits of emission.]

"That, at the expiration of the ten years, the population of the United States be ascertained, and such additional issue of this money then made as will render the aggregate emission, when expressed in dollars, equal to ten times the whole number of inhabitants; and that every year thereafter the emission be equal to ten times the annual increase of population, so that the number of dollars in paper money, and the number of inhabitants will uniformly stand as ten to

one.

"Fourth, That the production and emission of every other substitute for coin be strictly prohibited.

"Such is an outline of the monetary policy which I venture to recommend. Paper money, thus issued, would cost nothing, or next to nothing, to produce, nor would it be inconvenient from weight. Therefore, it would clearly obviate two of the three serious objections to which coin is liable. And since its quantity as compared with the population, or Commerce, would be invariable, it follows, that its value or purchasing power would be uniform; therefore it would be free from the other objection which I have urged against coin, and which applies with still greater force to convertible paper. * * * If, in these essential attributes, it is thus superior to coin, it is scarcely necessary to compare it with convertible paper, or with a circulating medium made up of coin and bank notes."

The views advanced in illustration of this plan, and the explanation of its features, which is of great importance to a lucid and complete comprehension of it, we must pass over, merely repeating our suggestions to the reader, to examine the work for himself, before he forms conclusions respecting any portion which we have presented.

As a new and original treatise on Political Economy, aiming to place that science on such ground as will render it akin to the genial nature of Republican Institutions, and as the work of an author, whose able mind is imbued

with those liberal and ennobling views which begin to characterize the political science of this age, it is certainly entitled to the attention of all intelligent men, whether in public or private life.

Art. VI.-DR. HARE ON THE LAW OF STORMS.

PHILADELPHIA, December 29, 1851.

FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc.

SIR-Some years since I received a number of the Merchants' Magazine, conducted by you, from a friend, perhaps from yourself. It was No. 78, for December 1845. It reached me while engaged in a course of experimental lectures, and being laid aside for subsequent attention, escaped my memory as well as my eye, until lately, when overhauling my pamphlets, it fell into my hands.

The article on Electricity as the cause of Storms, was no doubt the motive of the sender, as I had taken the same side as that espoused by the author, ten years before; and had published a memoir in the transactions of the American Philosophical Society, republished in Silliman's Journal, ascribing tornadoes (or water spouts) and hurricanes to convective discharges of electricity between the earth and sky. Of these, the author of the article in the Magazine seems to have been unaware, so that he must have adopted similar views to mine, independently.

I am induced now to call your attention to this subject, because I have lately gone over the ground again, in some strictures on a report made to the Secretary of the Navy by Mr. Espy. These strictures were made in a communication addressed to the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Albany. Of this communication I now inclose a copy, hoping that you may give it a place in your periodical, It may be expedient also to submit to you my remarks on the whirlwind theory made at New Haven in August, 1850, before the above mentioned association. If you are disposed to encourage communications on such subjects I shall probably be induced to become a contributor. Evidently a free discussion of any doctrine, affecting the safety of Mariners and of Commerce, should be promoted. I am sir,

With due consideration, your obd't serv't, ROBERT HARE.

STRICTURES, BY DR. HARE, UPON A REPORT RESPECTING STORMS RECENTLY MADE BY PROFESSOR ESPY TO THE SECTETARY OF THE NAVY, AS TO THE THEORETIC DEDUCTIONS THEREIN ADVANCED -BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A VERBAL COMMUNICATION TO THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, AT THEIR LATE MEETING AT ALBANY..

I have seen a report made to the Secretary of the Navy by Professor Espy, which, so far as it correctly records the phenomena of various storms, must be honorable to the author, and worthy of the department of our government under whose auspices it has been made. Doubtless, in this, as in other publications originating from the same source, there may be a great exhibition of ability, science, and zeal; nevertheless, I question the propriety of making any particular hypothesis the subject of an official report by its author, an ardent advocate, unaccompanied by a fair summary of the objections which have been made to it, or any notice of any other hypothesis which may have been advanced as preferable. With Professor Espy's opinions I concur so far as to agree in the inference that hurricanes and tornadoes are the consequence of the ascent of air from a focal area or interme

diate space, by which a confluence from two or more opposite quarters to supply the deficit thus arising, is induced; yet we differ as to the cause of the ascent of the air in such cases. In the year 1835 I advanced, before a meeting of the American Philosophical Society, that the cause of the ascent in question was a discharge of electricity between the earth and sky. This explanation was made the subject of a memoir published in the transactions of that society in 1836.

I will endeavor to give a sketch of the views which I now entertain on this subject, hoping to present them more briefly and forcibly than I did at that time.

Every person familiar with the phenomena of electricity, as produced by an electrical machine, must be aware that there are two modes in which a discharge may be effected between the oppositely charged surfaces of conductors, or of a coated electric. In one case, simultaneously with the discharge, a vivid spark is seen to take place; in the other case, some moveable body, such as a bell-clapper, a pith-ball, or a blast of air, issuing from a projecting point, is made to convey electricity from one surface to the other, until a discharge is accomplished. The latter process has been designated by Faraday as the convective discharge, from conveho, to carry, while the former is designated as diruptive, from dirumpo, to break through; since, in this case, the opposite waves break through the air, conveying the whole charge at once; while in the other process the opposite excitements are gradually neutralized by successive contacts with the matter passing from one to the other. Notoriously either of these discharging processes may be substituted for the other by a slight variation of distance.

Thus, in the experiment in which pith-balls are made to resemble hail, by dancing between oppositely electrified disks, an approximation of one of the disks towards the others induces a spark or diruptive discharge, and thus causes dancing to cease. In Cuthberton's balance electrometer the moveable ball approaches that which is stationary, in obedience to the convective process; but as soon as the distance between the balls is reduced within the striking distance, a diruptive discharge ensues, indicated as usual by a spark.

It follows that by a slight variation as to distance the same degree of electrical excitement may be productive either of a convective or of a diruptive discharge. Excepting a prodigious disparity in magnitude, the diruptive spark discharge is universally recognized as perfectly similar to lightning. Both are admitted to be due to discharges of electrical accumulations, differing only as to magnitude. Since, agreeably to this exposition, susceptibility of commutation exists, as respects diruptive discharge in its minuter forms, and convective discharge upon the same scale, does it not follow that the former, as produced by the gigantic processes of nature, should be commutable with a convective process of corresponding immensity? But if the spark or diruptive discharge is exemplified by lightning, how is the latter to be exemplified? Where is there any gigantic meteorological process which can supply the deficiency, excepting that of the tornado or hurricane, which last may be viewed as a tornado on a scale of preeminent grandeur ?

If from a point electrified by a machine, a blast of air may proceed as strong as from a blow-pipe supplied by a bellows, may not an enormous blast be emitted from every terrestrial prominence, electrified by the powerful apparatus of nature, as much greater than that of a blow-pipe as a spark of lightning of a mile in length exceeds that yielded by an excited conductor or charged jar? So long as there is an ascent of air consequent to elec