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it incumbent on themselves to make any other provision for labor, than to save it from starvation, and to get the greatest profit out of it, as the owner does out of his ox or his horse; and believing, as they do, that system the best which will secure this end most effectually. There can be no redeeming quality with Americans, for a system of public economy, one of the fundamental principles of which is of this kind, pervading it throughout, imparting its character to it, and constituting a part of its very essence. The three words, rent, profit, and wages,' in the sense in which they are employed by Smith and his school, as representing the three comprehensive parts of their system, are sufficiently declaratory of its character, and look back to a feudal state of society. The things here intended are not to be found in this country, and are not tolerated by its institutions.

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No man

Labor-capital is the parent of all other capita. Other capital is chiefly, if not altogether, the creature of civilization, though the same thing, in substance, may be found in a savage state. But as a subject of public economy, it is regarded as one of the things receiving its definite form and measure from the hand of civil It will be found, indeed, that the entire polity. structure of civilization owes its existence to labor, and of course those parts of it which derive their tangible value from its forms, and which are regulated by them. Civilization itself is secondary and ministerial, in relation to all the capital which labor creates, and comes in to define and protect it. It was in part the value of these products of labor which made civilization necessary, that it might receive a definite form, and be made secure. can apply his hand or point his finger to a thing regarded as capital, which is not the product of labor. All intrinsic values are but fictions of the imagination, always imapalpable, vanishing as they are approached. The diamond and the pebble are of equal value in the eye of the barbarian, and would be equivalents in every other eye, but for the existence of that capital, the product of labor, which is able to purchase the diamond at a high price. We do not, however, mean to say, that it is improper, or without significance, to use the terms, intrinsic value. They are employed in this work in the usual sense, and are pertinent when so used, because they represent a practical idea. It will be found, however, that this value is entirely the product of labor; and this conclusion may be justified by the doctrines of all the economists worthy of respect.

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"Labor, in its true position, defines human rights, without a word, and men will scarcely fail to recognize them, while it remains there. But, when thrust out of place, into a false position, and chained to slavery; when it is made to occupy this position in all the systems of public economy most in vogue in the world,

it is no wonder that men who are entitled, and who ought, to be free, should be slaves. In its proper position, it proclaims a great truth, the consequences of which are stupendous, when carried out to all its legitimate results, in a system of public economy, morally and socially considered, as well as commercially—and more especially in the former aspects.

"The rocking of the cradle of American independence, jostled into one those distinctive elements on which the Free-Trade economists have founded their system. It broke down the barriers of classes, which form the peculiar features of that system, and the doctrine was then proclaimed, that all men are born free and equal.' As before, more especially from that time, this nation became a community of working men, in whose eyes labor is an honor; and he who does not work, is the exception to the general rule. Labor, therefore, in the United States, occupies an elevated, influential, honorable position. It is not the man that lives by work, but the man that lives without work, that is looked upon with disrespect. A gentleman of fortune and of leisure, who does nothing, has far less consideration than he, who, though equally able to live without work, devotes himself to some useful pursuit.

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Labor, work, is the spirit, the genius of the American people. It was so from the beginning by necessity; it became a fixed habit of the community; and has ever been a part of the morale of the country. It is a grand political element; it was born of a great political exigency; it was nourished in a political cradle; it graduated into manhood with political honors; it made with its own hands, and has ever worked, the machinery of the political commonwealth; it lies at the foundation of the social edifice, pervades the entire structure, and its escutcheon stands out in bold relief from the pediment. And is this the thing, the element, the power, that is to content itself with the position and the doom of the third class enumerated, defined, and described by European economists, whose measure of degradation and of comfort could not be expressed by Adam Smith and others, as seen in the citations from them, without a picture drawn from slavery.

"It should be observed that labor is never independent, when it has no alternative; that is, when it is not strong enough in its own position to accept or reject the wages offered to it in any given case, if unsatisfactory, and when, in such a case, it cannot turn away, and live and prosper. When it can do this, it not only has a voice in its wages, but the parties in contract, the employer and the employed, stand on a footing of equality. This principle is equally applicable to the producer of commodities of any description, as the proprietor of a farm, workshop, or any other producing establishment, over which he presides, and where, per

haps, he labors with his own hands, as to him who works for hire. The time has never yet been in the history of the United States as an independent nation, when labor was not in this sense an independent agent-when it could not reject an unsatisfactory offer, and yet live. It is not pretended that labor has been able to dictate its own terms. That would be equally improper and unjust, as for the employer to do it. But it has always had an alternative. As a last resort the American laborer can at any time go to the backwoods. His independence is never necessarily sacrificed.

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"In the light of this contrast, the condition of European and other foreign labor is one of absolute bondage. In the first place, it is for the most part deprived of all political influence. This is the primary cause of its misfortunes. In the next place, and also for the most part, it has no voice in its wages. There is no alternative left to it. It must work for what is offer

ed, and work hard, or perish in want; and the wages doled out are measured by so nice an estimate for bare subsistence, as to be often insufficient for that. In all those countries, labor is the agent of power. Power dictates its wages, controls it, enslaves it; and it needs but a little reflection, in connection with what has already been said, to see that this difference is immense, and immensely important."

But we must resist the temptation to further extracts from this interesting chapter, to pass to the fifth point as we have specified them, which in fact contains two of the most important to be found in the work, occupying two chapters replete with facts, statistics, and argnment. We refer to the positions, that protective duties are not taxes, and that they are besides a rescue from an enormous system of foreign taxation. It must be admitted that this point established in the first case, would be enough to settle the controversy between free trade and protection. We cannot begin to do justice to these chapters by citations. They must be taken in their very wide, yet condensed embodiment of facts, to be appreciated. They are overwhelmingly convincing, and leave little to be said. It has been so generally conceded, and it is so easy and natural to believe, that protective duties are taxes, that an argument to prove the contrary will occasion surprise. It will be yet more surprising, when the subject comes to be understood, that the free trade argument on this point had ever received the slight

est credence.

But not content with this achievement

-not a small one certainly-Mr. Colton has marched boldly into a field yet more entirely new, with an array of figures and facts, to demonstrate a system of foreign taxation, under free trade, which is not only immense, but amazing. It is to be hoped that these two chapters, so new and strong as they are, will not only be appreciated, but that they will produce we leave them, as the argument, in either their proper effect. With these remarks case, cannot be broken up without injustice.

The chapter which is devoted to the sixth point enumerated by us, and which is the tenth of the work, entitled, "The different states of society in Europe and America, require different systems of public economy," will naturally be appreciated by this title. Like other distinct lines of argument in this work, it is replete with fact, and characterized by skill and energy. The fallacies, not to say the atrocities of the doctrine of the Adam Smith school, as it relates to this point, are here laid bare to observation, and the Malthusian theory is scattered as with a thunderbolt. We cite the following passages on this point:

"Mr. Malthus's theory of population, which is generally respected in Europe, particularly in Great Britain, explains all this. He thinks and food for them; that the masses will fight men multiply faster than there is room, work. against each other for employment to support life; that landlords, and all capitalists, may rely on this natural strife, among laborers, m bidding for the lowest wages that will support existence; and as a consequence, resulting from this theory, it may be assumed that the natural increase of the human family is not s blessing, but a curse, to the majority of the race; and that the masses are doomed by Proidence to degradation, to a state of serfdom et slavery, to want and wretchedness, withca hope or possibility of relief.

"Rather than be guilty of this libel un Providence--it is indeed a very grave and inpious one-it would have been much mare consistent with Christian piety, and with the Christian doctrine of morals, it may be said more philosophical, to assume a defect in society. It is shocking to ascribe such a want of wisdom and goodness to the Creator! Mr Malthus supplies in theory what was wanted w wit, the hopeless degradation and misery of the sustain the practice of the European world, to masses; and the European economists of the Free-Trade school, assume the fact as a postilate, putting it in the place of one of the four

There arose, therefore, from the first, a state of society not before known in Europe or elsewhere-a republican or democratic society, in which there were no uneducated classes, and no laboring classes which did not comprehend the whole community. All went to school, and all worked when old enough; and on no point were the people more thoroughly educated than on the principles of free government. The oppressions of the old world drove out its own sons from its own bosom, and under its own charters, to set up a school, which must necessarily, in a course of time, subvert its authority, and become independent, because the emigrants brought away all that was good, and left behind all that was bad. The elements of this new state of society were all healthy, and full of infant purity. While the old world, from a vitiated and decrepit constitution, tended to decay, the new, purged of parental diseases, sprung up with giant strides, to giant vigor. Instead of the old leaven of European economists, that intellectual and moral culture belongs only to the higher classes, and that the working classes require nothing but bare subsistence like cattle, schools were provided for all-all were educated--trained to knowledge and virtue as a preparation for the working tirge of life. It was a republican or democratic state of society from the first, and continued to be such, till the struggle arose between the colonies and the mother-country, which resulted in American independence.

"The system of common schools, early set up in this country, coeval indeed with American civilization, handed down from generation to generation, provided for as the first care of the state, watched over with paternal solicitude, nurtured, endowed, edified, and never suffered to decline, but always put forward with vigor and efficiency, is the cradle of those chances of which we speak. On this broad foundation, common to all, has been erected a system of select and higher schools, up to the college and university, which are also within the reach of all, by reason of a system of public economy, which it is our special purpose in this chapter to notice; not, indeed, so much within the reach of all, as the common schools, but yet not excluding any, nor presenting insuperable obstacles to any. The poorest and meanest born of the land, prompted by innate ambition, and developing hopeful talent, can, and do often, pass through all the stages of education, from the common school till they have graduated with honor at the highest seminaries, and entered upon the graver responsibilities of life, to contend in open and fair field, with the best born, for the highest prizes of the social state, whether of wealth or of influence. And it is an attribute of American society and institutions, to favor and help forward merit that emerges from obscurity, and strives to rise.

The common school is the basis of all; the genius of the government is the parent of all; and the joint operation of the two crowns all."

Passing for the present our eighth enumeration of new points, relative to money, we hasten to dispose of several following that, which, though eminently interesting and instructive for the novelty and practical character of the views presented, we have space only to notice with the head of a definition of freedom, as a few brief remarks. The chapter under

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consisting in the enjoyment of commercial rights, and in the independent control of commercial values fairly acquired," exhibits what we will venture to say will be regarded as an entirely new element of public economy, if it is to be received into the list; and our author makes it at least one of the foundation stones of an American system. It is an argument of profound interest, and must be read entire to be appreciated.

out of it, are several points which we have Of a near affinity to this, and growing specified in our enumeration, which, we doubt not, will receive attention and awaken sympathy, as exhibiting views in a striking light, and which, though not before reduced to form, are common to most minds, such as, protection the cause of the the American revolution; protection the ground of all the struggles for freedom. in past ages, down to this time; the ne use of freedom in American independence. as founded in a protective system; the rise and progress of the free trade hypothesis, American instincts as they bear on this question; the fact and reason of the d ferent cost of money and labor, here and elsewhere; the destiny of freedom but is perfectly achieved, being only in the be ginning of its career, and its dependen on a protective system ; free trade a leece for depredation on the rights of others, its identity with the principle of anarchy. &c., &c. All these are great topics, and are elaborately treated in this work: bat in our condensed notice it is impossible t do justice to them by an attempted and ical review.

We return to the subject of money, ær however, for the purpose of noticing new points, one of which is the announ ment and specification of the foundation the value of money; another, the distinctim