ART. IV. Colquhoun's Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire. (Concluded from P .259.) THERE is no maxim more probable in speculation or more illustrated by universal experience than that the internal prosperity of nations, and ultimately their political power, depend essentially upon the purity of those regulations which are made, for the security of property, and for establishing the natural right of every man, by all lawful means, to acquire, to enjoy, and to dispose of it. This is the golden principle of policy, which distinguishes the nations of modern Europe under their established governments, from the nations of the antient world, and from those which yet groan in barbarism, or under the unmixed tyrannies of the East. The labour which is at the will. and for the advantage of another, will seldom be found to be permanently productive. The rights of seigueury in the feudal institutions precluded the greater masses of the people from the power of acquiring wealth, and made them like the soil which was subject to their imperfect culture, the property of others. Their industry depended for its reward upon the precarious favour of a master, who consumed its produce without foresight or reflection. In that condition of society, population diminished, agriculture languished, the human mind sunk into ferocious ignorance, the government was poor and oppressive, and men passed in frequent vicissitudes from abundance, wasted in riot and prodigality, to the sharpest penury and famine. These institutions though deeply rooted in England, sustained many a rude shock in the convulsions which perplexed the early ages of our monarchy; at length they became inoperative, when the principles of commercial polity were adopted by corporations and powerful societies, and obtained the support and countenance of government. The principle of monopolies necessary in the infancy of commerce, was itself moderated when the intercourse of nations was extended, and riches were more generally diffused. The higher and the lower ranks were then brought more closely together. The state felt that the support of all was wanted, both for personal service and contribution, and became equally favourable to all. The last traces of villenage and personal subjection were at length erased from the constitution. The freedom of commerce was extended beyond the exclusive companies, whose privileges were thenceforward rather nominal than real. The wealth of the community rapidly increased when the right of creating it was laid open to all. The opu lence lence which proceeded from the free industry of many was general participated, and gave new energies to the state, and a nobler character to the commonwealth. Our author, in his fourth chapter, proceeds to detail the divisions of our great national estate among the different classes of society now subsisting among us. It is by that extended diffusion of wealth that we are happily distinguished from all other nations. He presents to our view an elaborate table, in which he intends to exhibit the proportions of annual income allotted to every degree in the community, from the sovereign, presiding over all, descending by easy gradations of rank and fortune, to the pauper, who subsists without honour, a burthen upon the community. This is designed to represent the results of our social institutions and our moral qualities. Here are delineated those elevatious of rank and virtue, which have been raised and adorned during ages of successful industry and prudence, and those woeful tracts of misery and want which yet disfigure the social plan, and remain to stimulate our benevolence, and to exercise the wisdom of our legislators. It displays a population of more than sixteen and a half millions of souls, in their various degrees, powerful, wealthy, virtuous, and independent; sustaining the vast fabric of the commonwealth, and every hour enriching it by their energies; but the splendour of the exhibition is impaired by a great mass of poverty and wretchedness, consisting of more than a million and a half of indigent persons, who subsist upon the labour of the rest. This, while it excites our compassion and a desire to remedy so great a grievance, must also check our presumption. In this detail too much stress is laid upon that artificial distinction between the productive and the unproductive classes, denominations invented by the French economists, which we think have but a feeble foundation in truth, and are certainly, both by them and by our author in the work before us, very inaccurately applied. We recollect that Dr. Smith designates "The labour of some of the most respectable orders in the society, as like that of menial servants, unproductive of any value. The sovereign, for example, with all the officers, both of justice and war, who serve under him, the whole army and navy, are unproductive labourers; as are churchmen, lawyers, physicians, men of letters of all kinds, players, buffoons, musicians, opera singers, opera dancers," &c. &c. The distinction implies, that no one is a productive labourer but he "whose wages are restored, together with a profit in the 'improved value of the subject upon which his labour is be stowed." Our author adopts this definition of Dr. Smith, but, applied with strictness, it would make the class of productive labourers very limited; and, with a liberal construction, it would comprehend all art, all science, and all political function. Therefore it cannot be just. The husbandman is certainly a productive labourer. He manures and ploughs the soil, and sows the seed in proper season, he watches the plant in its growth to protect it front weeds and vermin, and in due time reaps the harvest, whiclr repays all his labour, and leaves a redundant profit; on account of which only he is deemed a proproductive labourer. But the man of science, who directed him in the choice of manure adapted to the soil, and the mechanic who facilitated the operation of the plough, and the naturalist who informed him how to select and when to sow the seed, and the magistrate, who, as the minister of the laws, secures to him the harvest, because he tilled the land, have all of them respectively contributed to that profit. We doubt whether the denomination of productive labour must not be confined to the servile operator, or be extended to every one who contributes, by any application of power, mental or mechanical, to create that which is valuable to man. In either case, the distinction of the productive and the unproductive classes ceases to be important. According to the usually received principle, a stigma is unjustly attached to the most honourable callings of civilised life, and undue honour and importance are attributed to those who cease to be useful members of society when they cease to be subservient. Several judicious suggestions are made respecting the numerous class of paupers which contribute nothing to production, and bear more heavily even than the national taxation upon that most méritorious part of the community, which, hardly removed from indigence, struggles for independent support under the pressure of many difficulties. We trust, that the attention of parliament will be particularly directed to this most important subject; for we are persuaded, that much may be done to mitigate the evil. We should hail, as a sacred institution, the introduction of a system which" should consist not in the pu hishment, but in the prevention of the moral and criminal offences, which should lessen the demand for punishment, by turning the hearts and arresting the hands of evil doers, by forewarning the unwary, and preserving in innocence the untainted." But these benign effects are not to be produced by the creation of new powers of magistracy, inconsistent with the spirit of our laws, and incompatible with our civil privileges. Let all the means of communicating religious instruc tion to the lower olasses be steadily pursued, and let new channels of industry be laid open. These are the only practicable remedies. We believe that a system of vigilant and rigorous. police, which our author seems to recommend, would be inef ficacious for the attainment of the important ends which he proposes. Such expedients have been often tried, and have ins variably failed of producing that most desirable result; but wherever they have been instituted they have sooner or later been perverted to purposes of vexation and political oppression ; and, without improving the morals, have greatly deteriorated the manners of the people. Our author observes, that it is "A melancholy truth, obvious to all who may have devoted their attention to the manners and habits of the labouring classes, that they have retrograded in morals in the course of the last thirty years; and that a considerable change has taken place in the state of society, particularly in vulgar life, since the commencement of the French revolutionary war, which has been, in a certain degree, disorganized in every country in Europe." We cannot subscribe to this severe censure cast upon the lower classes of our fellow subjects. With respect to drunkenness, the prevailing immorality of English labourers, we believe that in the metropolis, and in the country, it is much less frequent than in former times. The representations of their manners, inimitably pourtrayed by Hogarth in several of his productions, were not considered extravagant thirty years ago, but they are now regarded as recording a state of morals which subsists no longer, and as bearing no resemblance to any thing now presented to observation. The poor are much more enlightened than their forefathers, not in matters of doubtful and dangerous speculation, but in religion and useful knowledge. We believe that the Sabbath is every where more reverently observed than in former times. Capital executions are certainly much less frequent, and the commission of atrocious crimes we believe to be much rarer than formerly. As to the positive virtues, we cannot but raise our feeble voice in testimony to the patience and good humour with which the poor have borne the many hard privations to which they have been subject in these times of difficulty; we must remember too, that to their unyielding loyalty we owe the stability of the state and the grandeur of our country, which the work before us so ably illustrates; that they sent forth the brave and generous warriors who have established our naval superiority, and our triumphant commerce in every quarter of the globe; they filled the ranks which, first stood firm array against the battalions of France, while they were yet yet flushed with conquest; they repelled the insolent invaders from Portugal and Spain; and lately, on the glorious field of Waterloo, they crushed the last gigantic efforts of the revolu tionary foe. We are of opinion, that during the last thirty years there has been a great amelioration of the manners of the lower classes; and we presume to attribute the improvement of the moral condition of the poor, (as yet, we trust, progressive, but capable of being greatly augmented), to certain powerful causes, which necessarily produce most beneficial effects wherever they ope rate. The higher classes, at least as to manners, are themselves considerably improved. We often meet with a country gentleman of cultivated mind, who tempers the power derived to him from wealth and station, by the milder influence of chafity and general christian benignity. The character of an Allworthy is not peculiar to romance, but very often appears in real life; but we shall search in society, without success, for a remote resemblance to the low tyranny and ferocious barbarity which was too faithfuily pourtrayed for the country gentleman of those days, in Sir John Brute and Squire Western. The clergy of the establishment are much more solicitous than formerly in the exercise of their sacred function. The societies for promoting Christian Knowledge, for National Education, and for the discouragement of vice, for there are many to be found in every diocese, do not toil in vain. The infant poor have hardly any where been wholly destitute of religious education during a long period. The general establishment of friendly societies, under the patronage of magistrates and the gentry, assuming, in all instances, the strictest rules of morality as the basis of their institution, have had a powerful operation to civilize and improve the moral condition of all their members. Whether the poor deserve praise for their virtues, or censure for their increased depravity, it may not be very important to determine. All good men concur in desiring, that nothing may be omitted which shall make them really better than they are. It is more charitable, and far more consolatory to those who love them to find motives to approve rather than to condemn them. In either case, we cordially agree with our author, that it is most desirable "To give their industry a proper and beneficial direction, so as to promote the general happiness and comfort of the community, by affording them employment in every species of productive labour, and even in national works, which individual interprise may be found inadequate to compass. To effect their full employment, a considerable part of the public revenue could not be more bene ficially |