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Shall thoughtful turn, where dimly to his eyes

Through the pale night these mellow'd turrets rife ;
And, as he mufes on fome friend most dear,
Rais'd by thy mercy from a watery bier,
Swelling at heart, fhall o'er the tranquil wave

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Give thee a figh, and blefs thy hallow'd grave. P. 191. 192. Upon the whole, though we do not think Mr Richards a first-rate poet, we are inclined to place him very high among writers of the second order, and are fatisfied that he has much more merit than many that make much loftier pretenfions.

ART. VIII. An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth, and into the Means and Causes of its Increafe. By the Earl of Lauderdale. 8vo. pp. 486. Edinburgh, Conftable & Co. London, Longman & Rees.

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wo good confequences have always refulted from men of high rank beftowing their attention upon literary purfuits; an ufeful example has been fet to thofe whofe fituation in life gives them abundance of leifure for fpeculative employment; and that occupation, which is in its own nature the most dignified, has been exalted alfo in the eyes of the multitude. If any branch of science deferves fuch patronage, it is furely the ftudy of political economy, both on account of its extenfive importance to fociety, and its peculiar claims upon thofe who are born to a high intereft in itate affairs. We are inclined, therefore, to offer Lord Lauderdale our unfeigned thanks for the zeal with which he has devoted his retirement to the cultivation of this great field of inquiry, and to exprefs our conviction, that an example, fo laudable, will be followed by many perfons who are at prefent lavishing the influence of their rank and fortune upon objects far lefs worthy of their regard,-upon the affairs of practical policy, for which very few are fitted by nature, or upon the empty trifles of fashionable life, which are equally below their ftation and their fex. We truft, alfo, that Lord Lauderdale having begun to deferve well of the fcientific world, by his fair and honeft endeavours, will be encouraged to perfevere, until he fhall augment the obligation by more fuccefsful exertions. Nor have we any doubt, that, conftrained as we now are thus to limit our praifes, we fhall obtain from his candour fuch a patient perufal of our remarks, as may at once correct the estimate which he appears to have formed of his prefent work, and excite him to farther enterprifes, which fhall fecure a tribute of more unqualified approbation. There are errors indeed, as it appears to us, in the prefent publication, of a tendency fo dangerous as to counteract much of the benefit which the noble author's patronage

is calculated to confer upon the fcience: and this confideration, together with the unquestionable importance of the fubject, must plead our excufe for lending the work a greater portion of our attention than its actual merits may feem to juftify.

In the volume now before us, Lord Lauderdale profeffes to difcuts the moft elementary branches of political economy. The practical inferences which he from time to time ftates, are introduced rather as illuftrations of his general principles, than examples of their actual application to the affairs of nations. The abítract doctrines of national riches; the diftinctions between the kinds of wealth; the peculiarities in the modes of its diftribution; the variations in its quantity, and in the fources of its production; in a word, what we may denominate the pure metaphyfics of political economy-form the whole fubject-matter of the prefent publication. The fyltem, therefore, of the authar, if he thall be found to have produced any thing that can deferve fuch an appellation, muft receive judgement upon the principles applicable to mere fpeculative theories, and not upon any views of its practical tendency; the work must be regarded altogether as a piece of abftract reafoning, without any reference to actual policy, and the novelty of a few paradoxical affertions refpecting the peculiar condition of this country, can in nowife be admitted to take it out of this general defcription.

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Lord Lauderdale's pretenfions in the outfet, are of a nature to excite no inconfiderable degree of expectation. The prefatory advertisement arrogates, with fome confidence, the merit of radi cal difcovery: the general principles which are unfolded, the author tells us, are not only new, but even repugnant to received opinions;' infomuch, that he has thought it prudent to withhold, for the prefent, another volume, containing the prac tical application of his doctrines---and to paufe here, that he may judge of the effect produced on the public by the doctrines which are now revealed. He expects, too, it would appear, to be affailed by rejudice; and avows his determination, in fuch a cafe, to defend himfelf with obftinacy.' The fame kind of language is continued through the whole work; and the repetition of thofe affertions as to the author's difcoveries, feems to be fubftituted for the fulfilment of the promifes they imply. It is very well, no doubt, to announce to us, in the outlet, that we fhall have the true nature of wealth explained, that we shall be put in poffeflion of the just notion of value, and that we fhall be taught the precife means by which nations acquire riches. But when we have perufed the whole book, chapter after chapter, in fearch of these things, and find ourselves exactly where we were at the beginning, it is rather teazing to be reminded, at every pause, that we have received all manner of inftruction; to be told, that

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the truth has now, for the first time, been unfolded; and to be congratulated on our good fortune, with fundry hints at the difadvantages under which the economists, and Dr Smith and others laboured, who did not poffefs the lights now communicated to ourselves.

In the Introduction, Lord Lauderdale delivers fome remarks, rather more judicious than original, upon the evils that have arifen from the ufe of erroneous and theoretical language in political fpeculations. He illustrates his obfervations by the example of the mercantile theory, which owed its origin to the vulgar habit of confounding riches and money as fynonymous. This leads him to remark, that a till more fatal error has refulted from confounding together the mafs of public or national wealth, and the fum-total of the riches of the individuals who conftitute the community He then fettles (rather preposterously, in a note) the nomenclature which he deduces from the diftinction here hinted at, and premifes that he is to use wealth' as denoting the opulence of the ftate, and riches' to defignate the fortunes of individuals. From thefe preliminaries, he is led to lay down the plan of the treatise in the following words.

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As a clear understanding of the relation which public wealth and individual riches bear to each other, appears of the higheft importance, in fecuring accuracy in every fubject that relates to the force of political economy; the firit and fecond chapters of this Iiry, are therefore devoted to the confideration of the nature of poffeffion of which alone qualifies any thing to form a portion of dividual riches;—to an explanation of what public wealth is, of what conflitutes individual riches;-and to an examination of the phe tion in which they ftand to each other.

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The meaning annexed in this work to the phrafe Public Wellth being thus explained, the third chapter contains an investigation of the fources of wealth, in which land, labour, and capital, are farmely treated of as the fources of wealth ;-an opinion which, though it has been announced by fome, and hinted at by others, does not feem to have made on any author fo ftrong an impreffion as to be uniformly adred to in the courfe of his reafonings.

An idea which has generally prevailed (though it feems in itself a paradox) that wealth may be increafed by means by which it is not produced, in particular by parfimony, or deprivation of expenditure, has made it neceffary to investigate this fubject in the fourth chapter, as a preliminary to an Inquiry into the Means and Caufes of the Increafe of Wealth; which is the object of the fifth chapter.' P. 9. 10.

It is not our intention to follow the author through the various parts of his Inquiry, exactly according to the arrangemen: -which he has adopted. Without omitting any of his fpeculations, we fhall prefent all we have to offer, either as the abftract

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of his views, or as our own remarks upon them, in the following order. In the first place, we fhall confider his fundamental pofition concerning the difference between collective and individual wealth, or what he is pleased to call public wealth and private riches: This will comprehend also his observations upon the nature of value. Secondly, We fhall offer a few ftrictures on the theories of the economifts, and of Dr Smith, respecting the fources of national opulence. This fpeculation will lead us, in the third place, to propofe a theory extremely fimple and obvious upon this fubject, and to examine, by its affiftance, the obfervations which Lord Lauderdale has introduced on the fources of wealth, and the means of its increase. We fhall referve for a feparate difcuffion, his ftrange opinions concerning the operation of finking funds.

Under these several heads, it is propofed to exhibit a pretty full analysis of our author's doctrines; and to demonftrate, as concisely as the extenfive nature of the inquiry will permit, the fallacies with which the work every where abounds. We mean to ftate diftinctly, that this book, excepting where it refutes fome errors of former writers, cannot be confidered as an investigation, merely tinctured with doubtful or erroneous theory; but as a collection of pofitions, all of them either felf-evident or obviously falfe, and founded upon errors which the flightest attention is fufficient to detect. This is our fair and candid opinion; and we can scarcely doubt that it will also be that of every man who reads the work now before us with any reasonable knowledge of the fubject.

Lord Lauderdale feems firft to have been an acconomist, and afterwards to have difcovered fome of the errors of that sect ;— to have read Smith, before he was weaned from the prejudices of Quefnai, and, during that period, to have refolved that no two pages in the Wealth of Nations fhould agree together;-to have found himself embarrassed for want of a theory, and, in this ftate, to have been dazzled by the first paradox which prefented itself to his fancy. The paradox, as is ufual, probably appeared, upon examination, lefs fufpicious than at first view; by degrees, he was convinced of its truth, and refolved to make every thing fall before it. Not fatisfied with one fuch paffion, he was foon fmitten with new objects of the fame kind; and his ingenuity always enabling him to discover arguments in fupport of each fucceffive favourite, he at laft adopted the whole train, and has now collected and cemented them together for public edification. We are feriously convinced, that nothing but a hafty, unthinking procefs, fuch as this, could have blunted the natural acutenefs of our author's powers, and made one who is uniformly fo

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clear-fighted in detecting the errors of others, obftinately keep his eyes fhut upon his own mistakes.

I. Value, according to Lord Lauderdale, is conftituted by the concurrence of two circumstances;-one or more qualities useful or delightful to man, and a certain degree of fcarcity. Nothing can be deemed valuable intrinfically; nor can any commodity, however excellent in itself, be confidered as of value, unless it is also rare. When we measure the value of one commodity by comparing it with another, the refult is evidently liable to be affected by eight circumftances, viz. by the variations in quantity and in demand of both thefe commodities. Thus, if we would exprefs the value of grain in pounds Sterling at different times, our calculation might be affected by a diminution or an increase in the quantity both of money and of grain, and by a fimilar di-minution or increase in the demand for both thefe commodities. It is not, then, upon the poffeflion of any inherent quality that value depends; but upon the proportion between the demand for, and the fupply of the valuable commodity.

In all this, it does not appear to us that there is any novelty, if we except the very obvious circumftance of our author confining his attention exclufively to one kind of value. Former writers had confidered value as twofold-value in use, and value in exchange-or what may be termed abfolute and relative value. The one of these qualities depends entirely on the nature of the commodity itself, and is wholly uninfluenced either by its quantity or the demand for it; or by the quantity of, and demand for any other commodities. But the idea of relative or exchangeable value, owes its existence altogether to the fuppofition, that an operation of barter renders it neceflary to compare a portion of one commodity with a portion of another; and this comparifen must depend on the ratios between the fupply of, and the demand for both articles. That the idea of value, however, may exift independently of all commerce, no one can deny, without a total perversion of common language. If, to take Lord Lauderdale's own illuftration, the quality of infuring a century of robust health were fuddenly communicated to each grain of wheat, can any one doubt the propriety of faying that wheat would inftantly become infinitely more valuable? Exchangeable value is evidently a fecondary confideration; it depends on the circumitance of fome men wanting what others poflefs; it depends on the unequal diftribution of poffeffions. If every human defire were univerfally gratified in extreme abundance-if all the commodities which we find neceffary or defireable to us, were at once multiplied beyond the utmoit wants of the whole fpecies, it is true that all barter would ceafe; and, confequently, that the

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