ant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste -on every thing on earth, and the waters under the earth-on every thing that comes from abroad, or is grown at home-on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal-on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride."

Since the year 1815, the popula⚫ tion of the United Kingdom has increased more than thirty per cent. ; but it does not appear that her resources have increased in an equal proportion. To an attentive observer, it has been evident for some years that the great interests of the country were less healthy than heretofore, and that many things which to a superficial eye seemed like vigorous growth, were in truth the result of diseased action. To most men this statement would have seemed, a year since, almost paradoxical; at the present time no one, we believe, would hesitate to admit its truth.

In our last number we suggested to our readers some thoughts respecting the causes of the financial crisis of England. That article being limited both by time and space, was less thorough and minute in the examination than we wished. We propose at the present time to consider somewhat in detail, the situation of Great Britain in several respects, and particularly in respect to the great interests of agriculture, of manufactures, and-what has recently begun to rival these in importance of railways; and to compare her situation and prospects as to these particulars, with those of

our own country.

The national debt of Great Britain is too important an element of her political organization, and exerts too great influence upon her pros perity, not to demand careful examination in an enquiry of this nature. Were it due wholly to her own citi zens, it might be regarded as neither

increasing nor diminishing the national wealth; since if it were annihilated by a simple act of repudiation, the amount of tangible actual property in the country would be precisely the same as at present. But this view would be exceedingly imperfect and superficial. The debt amounts to eight hundred million pounds sterling, and the annual in. terest is more than half the national income. It is impossible to say how many persons receive from this source a sufficient revenue to maintain their families without their own exertions; but it is not improbable that there are nearly half a million; and these with the landed aristocracy, the pensioners of gov ernment, the army and navy, and a multitude of smaller divisions, constitute the class of non-producers;

of those who contribute nothing by their industry to the national wealth, and who are supported by the labor of others. This class exists in every country, but with us it is so small as hardly to produce any perceptible effect upon our social organization; in Great Britain it is very numerous and powerful, controlling the legislation of the coun. try, and affecting every department of its industry. To support this class in idleness and luxury, all oth er members of the community are taxed to the extreme limit of endu rance. In a time of general pros perity their numbers and influence attract comparatively little atten tion; but now, when the pressure of every burden seems augmented tenfold, the most ignorant and unreflecting laborer can hardly fail to realize that were there not so many who eat but do not work, his own labor would secure for him a more adequate support; and the political economist will not hesitate to say, that the national debt of England is among the most efficient of the causes which have embarrassed the industry and impaired the prosper. ity of the people.

It is stated in a recent number of Blackwood's Magazine, that the yearly value of the real or heritable property in England and Scotland, as ascertained by official documents, is ninety million pounds sterling, or four hundred and thirty-two million doliars; and this at twenty-five years purchase, which we believe to be the usual estimate, gives the absolute value, £2,250,000,000, $10,800,000,000. This vast amount, so far as it consists of land for cultivation, is almost without exception leased by the owner to the cultivator; the exceptions, where the occupant is the owner of the land, being hardly more numerous, or more important in a general estimate, than are cases of an opposite character in our own country.

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We can not, perhaps, better present our views respecting the condition and prospects of the agricultural interests of Great Britain, than by contrasting them with those of the youngest member in our confederacy of states-Wisconsin. The island of Great Britain contains about eighty-five thousand square miles, or almost fifty-five million acres: Wisconsin is four-fifths as large. The soil of Wisconsin is naturally more fertile, and a larger portion of it, beyond doubt, is more susceptible of cultivation, than in England and Scotland. These are the only particulars in which these countries can be compared in every other we shall contrast them. There are in England and Wales more than three hundred inhabit ants to the square mile; in Scotland, about ninety; in Wisconsin, three. In the former countries every acre which promises a tolerable reward to industry, is cultivated with a degree of skill and care of which few of us form a conception; in the latter, the traveler often passes ten or twenty miles, through prairies of unsurpassed fertility, without meeting an inhabitant, while the imperfect and careless manner in

which the land is tilled, would excite extreme astonishment in an English farmer. In England, the average value of an acre of land may, we are informed, be roughly estimated at fifty pounds, or nearly two hundred and fifty dollars; in Wisconsin, our President will sell for the same price two hundred acres.

From this comparison we infer, and we believe that our readers will allow that the inference is not unwarranted, that unless the policy of the British government with respect to the admission of bread stuffs from foreign countries should be modi fied, the value of their land is des tined to a steady and permanent decline. Previous to the recent change in the English corn laws, the "sliding scale" prevented the importation of wheat from abroad, except in times of scarcity and extreme high prices, and the price in the London market was rarely so low as a dollar and a half, and usually exceeded two dollars a bushel. The farmer in Wisconsin will be highly prosperous if he can sell his wheat at sixty cents a bushel, which is about equal to two dollars and fifty cents for a barrel of flour, and at times it can be transported from Milwaukie to Liverpool for an equal amount. The British duty, after March 5, 1849, is, we believe, to be less than twelve cents a barrel for flour. How can the English farmer buy or hire land valued at two or three hundred dollars an acre, pay the taxes, tithes and poor rates, which press so heavily upon the national industry, and compete successfully with his American rival. Nor can he cherish the hope that in equalization of prices, the value of land in Wisconsin will rise so as to meet him half way. Should this take place, he must sustain the competition of Nebraska, Minesota, and other districts stretching into the far west, which will in a few years become populous states.

We have in our own country an illustration of the manner in which the causes we have suggested operate. Soon after the completion of the Erie Canal, lands in Western New York began to increase in price, and rose steadily in value until they were sold in many cases at from sixty to one hundred dollars an acre. But as soon as Ohio and Michigan began to produce wheat in quantities greatly exceeding their own consumption, and were able to deliver in Buffalo several millions of bushels annually, the value of these lands began to decline. A year or two since we were informed that the depreciation was so great, that lands which some years before had been mortgaged for two-thirds or three-fourths of their value, would not at that time sell for the amount of the mortgage. The same thing is strikingly evinced by the fact, that the aggregate population of twenty-four counties in the State of New York, comprising some of the most fertile in the central and western parts of the state, was less in 1845 than in 1840.

Though it may appear to our readers a new and unwarranted view of the subject, it seems to us not impossible that an approximation may take place in the value of labor in the two countries, which would tend to the same result. It is universally known that in England there has for many years been so great a surplus of labor, that its wages barely sufficed to support life. In this country, and particularly in the new states, wages have, from the opposite reason, been high; so high, that few of us can realize, what is nevertheless true, that there has been more than one instance within the last quarter of a century, when in the vicinity of New York, able-bodied men, in large numbers, have applied for work, asking no compensation except their food. If the emigration from Europe to this country should increase in the same

ratio as for three years past, we shall during the next ten years receive in this manner an average ac cession to our population of more than half a million annually, most of whom will be young and middleaged. Whether so many of these will come from Great Britain as in time to increase the rate of wages by diminishing the comparative number of laborers, and whether so large an accession to our population will not lessen the prices of labor by occasioning an over supply, it is not safe to predict, but it certainly is by no means impossible.

We do not wish to be understood as expressing an opinion that the change in the policy of Great Britain respecting her corn laws, was unwise. On that point we shall not enter, as we have neither time nor space for even a hasty examination of the subject. We shall only quote the view suggested to us by a very intelligent Englishman, when we stated to him some of the evils that might result from her present course. He told us that the English government were obliged to sacrifice in part the interests either of the farmer or of the manufacturer, and decided to protect the latter rather than the former.

From the agriculture we will turn our attention to the manufac tures of Great Britain. Previous to the peace which terminated the long and desolating wars with Na. poleon, Great Britain was almost the only manufacturing nation in the civilized world. Our own manufactures were in their infancy, hardly extending beyond the coars est fabrics, and the most common implements of agriculture. France and Germany produced some arti cles of prime necessity for the supply of their own wants, but with little skill and success; and notwithstanding the continental system of Napoleon, the wants of those countries were principally supplied by British artisans. Immediately after

the close of the war, immense quantities of English goods were sold to the different nations of the continent, while the British corn laws prevented the agricultural products of those countries from being received in payment. The consequent drain upon their resources was such, that the governments of France and Germany soon perceived that, unless some remedy were applied, their subjects would be reduced to ruin. They, therefore, by the imposition of heavy duties, discouraged the importation of many kinds of foreign goods, and thus promoted their manufacture at home. And as manufactories of cotton and woolen goods, and hardware, were established, and flourished, the rate of duty on foreign goods was increased, and the importation of many descriptions virtually prohibited. In our own country the same result has been attained. The tariff of 1816 can be hardly said to have been framed for the protection of American manufactures, for these were then so insignificant in extent that they were scarcely deemed worthy of protection by our gov. ernment. It is true that they had excited the jealousy of our English rivals, as is evident from a celebra ted speech of Lord Brougham, and that some of our statesmen, among whom Henry Clay was preeminent, had even before this period deemed the establishment of a large manufacturing interest essential to the full development of the resources of the country. But the attention of our citizens, and especially of those of New England, being directed to manufactures by the tariff of 1816, the success of their efforts led to the imposition of higher duties in 1824 and 1828: and though the policy of our country has since been fluctuating, our manufacturers have acquired such skill and capital, that in many branches they are independent of tariffs and the protection of government. To illus

trate the rapidity and extent of the change, we would mention that fifteen years since about nine-tenths of the hardware goods sold in this country were imported, while we believe that at the present time about two-thirds are made at home.

Owing to the gradual growth of the manufacturing interests of the continent and the United States, Great Britain has been deprived of the most wealthy and valuable customers for some of her productions, and has experienced so severe competition with respect to others, that her profits have been very seriously reduced. Nor has the evil stopped here. The German and American manufacturer has not only supplied his fellow-citizens with the goods which they had been accustomed to import from England, but he has extended his operations, and carried his hardware and coarse cottons to Brazil, to the Levant, and to China. It is owing to this cause, in connection with some others, that the amount of cotton goods sent from England to the East Indies has so seriously diminished within the last three years.

There are so many causes that affect differently the various branches of the manufacturing interest of Great Britain, and modify their prosperity, that we can not present at a single view a correct description of their present condition. The manufacture of pig and bar iron has been for several years past extremely profitable, owing to the immense demand for the construction of railroads; but at the present time, in consequence of many of those roads being suspended, the price has fallen below the cost of production. It was recently stated in the House of Commons, by Lord George Bentinck, that "cotton manufactured goods were exported cheaper than the raw material from which they were formed could be imported into the country." Those who are acquainted with the prices at which