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know nothing more than some of the broad and general results of Adam Smith's speculations, a few sweeping and comprehensive maxims that have passed into vulgar currency, and are no longer weighed by those who deal with them, should take it upon them to decide on the great questions of internal policy that now call imperatively for our decision, or be allowed to influence public opinion by their confident and senseless clamours. There is truth and certainty in this science unquestionably-nay, more truth and more certainty, we will venture to say, than in any other that deals only with moral elements; but assuredly they do not lie on the surface, or are to be attained without careful study and consideration. Considered with relation to practice and general utility, they are indisputably of more importance than any other truths, relating to his mere temporal interests, of which man can attain a knowledge; and we would earnestly invite all who wish to promote their own worldly prosperity, or who have the means of influencing either public opinion or individual conduct, to enter upon the study, and to pursue it with perseverance and in earnest. It is a study in itself, we think, highly interesting and attractive, both from the magnitude of the interests it involves, the great variety of historical notices and explanations it supplies, and the multitude and familiarity of the illustrations by which it is everywhere confirmed. In the far greater part of its doctrines, too, there is nothing perplexing or obscure-and the part that is plain and certain is not only clearly distinguishable from that which is questionable, but furnishes principles so precise and manageable for the elucidation of the difficulties that occur, that, with a fair measure of care and attention, the truth may be almost always evolved by a most satisfactory and beautiful deduction.

This science, which has been rapidly rising in importance and public estimation for the last fifty years, has lately acquired a peculiar and engrossing interest. The war of the sword has given place, over most of the civilized world, to the rivalry of commerce and finance-and the industrial resources of Europe, which had been neglected for nearly a century, are now everywhere pursued with an awakened intelligence and activity, with which it will require all our exertions to maintain a successful competition-while at home, the change of relations, occasioned by the sudden termination of a long and universal war, has shut up so many old, and opened so many new, channels to industry and commercial enterprise, that it has become the interest of almost every individual in the kingdom to consider in what manner capital and labour can be employed to the best advantage, and to ascertain, if possible, the principles by which adventure may be guided in safety to the attainment of wealth.

We may notice also, in this place, the great additional information which the commercial results of that extraordinary war incidentally afforded to the observer-and the many truths and errors which were, for the first time, experimentally established by the measures which were then adopted. "The experience," as Mr. M'Culloch has well observed in the work before us :— "the experience of previous centuries was crowded into the short space of thirty years; and new combinations of circumstances not only served as tests whereby to try existing theories, but enabled even inferior writers to extend the boundaries of the science, and to become the discoverers of new truths. It is not too much to say, that the discussions that grew out of the restriction on cash payments by the Bank of England, and the consequent depreciation of the currency, have perfected the theory of Money; and the

discussions respecting the policy of restrictions on the Corn trade, and the causes of the heavy fall of prices which took place subsequently to the late peace, by inciting some of the ablest men that this country has ever produced to investigate the laws regulating the price of raw produce, the rent of land, and the rate of profit, have elicited many most important and universally applicable principles; and have given birth to a work rivalling the "Wealth of Nations" in importance, and excelling it in profoundness and originality."

The altered policy which these great and irresistible changes have already forced on our government must obviously lead to still further changes and corrections- the bearing and effects of which can only be determined by an enlightened consideration of some of the most delicate doctrines in the whole range of the science. The new and pleasing duty, too, which has been lately imposed on our rulers, of reducing and abating taxes, plainly calls for an exercise of economical skill, of no vulgar importance in itself, and for which they cannot have been prepared by any previous part of their training. The single problem that exercised the financial genius of the late reign-and that, heaven knows, most imperfectly solved-was how to increase taxation, with the least waste of capital or discouragement of industry. The task of encouraging it by diminishing taxation, though apparently more simple, and unquestionably more popular, is yet attended with nearly equal difficulties, and obviously requires a large and comprehensive knowledge both of facts and of principles-at once to foresee the facilities of improvement to which such remissions of imposts may give rise, and to determine the grounds of choice among the different remissions that may be suggested.

In addition to all these reasons for the general cultivation of this most important and most practical study, there is one other consideration, also arising out of the aspect of the times, that is probably of greater weight than any we have yet mentioned. We allude now to the rapid and remarkable progress which the lower orders are making in this and in all other branches of knowledge—as well as to the distinction and visible predominance that attaches in public life to those who can counsel on it with authority. Of all the derangements that can well take place in a civilized community, one of the most embarrassing and discreditable would be that which arose from the working classes becoming more intelligent than their employers. It would end undoubtedly, as it ought to end-in a mutual exchange of property and condition-but could not fail, in the mean time, to give rise to great and unseemly disorders. To avoid this, however, there seems to be nothing left for the richer classes but to endeavour to maintain their intellectual superiority by improving their understandings, and especially by making themselves thoroughly acquainted with those branches of knowledge on which they and their immediate dependents are most likely to come into direct collision. In a manufacturing country like this, there is always a tendency to disagreement between the labourers and their employers; and after a certain degree of intelligence has become general, and the means of communication have been made easy, there is really nothing, in our apprehension, that can prevent the perpetual hazard of the most frightful disorders, but to instruct both parties in the true principles of the relation by which they are connected. There is no natural issue to disputes which arise from ignorance on both sides-and not much chance for moderation in the conduct of them; and it is plain that they will only be

aggravated by being referred to the decision of a legislature infected with the same ignorance-or with the passions and delusions of one of the contending parties.

Such, however, is the class and description of questions with which public and private men are destined, according to all probality, to be almost exclusively occupied in the years that lie before us; and in neither sphere can distinction or great utility now be hoped for, except from the possession of those qualifications which give a right to take a lead on such questions. The time, we may be assured, is gone by, when any permanent fame or substantial power can be obtained by mere brilliant eloquence or party zeal. The great body of the people are no longer to be led away from the care of their personal interests by the arts either of courtly or of factious declaimers. We fear, indeed, that they are becoming every day more indifferent, comparatively, even to proper constitutional questions. The prevailing opinion is, that the time of the legislature ought not to be consumed in eternal contentions as to who should administer our affairs, but be mainly devoted to their beneficial administration: and if those who are in possession of power will only act liberally and wisely in all that regards the pecuniary interests of the people, there is but too little disposition to resist their disregard of political rights. In the ordinary course of things, at all events, and in seasons of tranquillity, such questions are naturally of rare occurrence-while men are perpetually and eagerly alive to all that promises to aid or obtruct them in the pursuit of their worldly prosperity;-and he therefore, and he alone, will be regarded with respect or admiration who is believed to un-derstand the principles on which the general prosperity depends.

This general prosperity it is the peculiar object of political economy to promote; but in a country where so many partial and opposing interests have been created, it is not easy at all times to determine what the general interest requires; and as this can only be determined by examining and giving to each partial interest the effect to which it is entitled, it is plain that the discussion can never be fairly conducted, unless the champions of all those different interests be equally well instructed as to the principles concerned in the decision. Even without supposing any intentional partiality in the advocates, it is certain that the statement and argument of a party will always be partial. And, therefore, unless the parties be pretty equally matched in these contentions, an undue advantage will be obtained by those who understand most of the science with reference to which they are contending an undue impression will consequently be made on the public and the legislature, and unreasonable disadvantages will be thrown upon those by whose unskilfulness their cause has been betrayed. The only remedy, however, for this great evil, is to have the public, the legislature, and, above all, the whole of the contending parties, sufficiently instructed. It could do no good, we have seen, but probably a great deal of harm, to make them all ignorant. But this, at all events, is no longer possible; and as some of them will study enough of the science in question, to enable them to make a plausible statement in behalf of their own interests, the rest must study it also in their own defence, and protect the general interests in the pursuit of their own.

ENGLISH CRIMINAL LAW. *

There is a tendency in man, connected with some of the least unamiable weaknesses of our nature, to reverence with an undue observance established practices and existing institutions, merely because they have been handed down through a succession of ages, and owe their origin to a period of society, in which, as Lord Bacon sagaciously remarks, the world was by so many ages younger and less experienced than it is in our own times. This feeling, while it resists the changes by which customs, and systems of polity, would otherwise be insensibly adapted to the changes which, in spite of us, are constantly going on in the circumstances of society, persuades us, at the same time, that there is a virtue in those very incongruities, rendered every day more apparent, between ancient arrangements and the state of things, wholly unforeseen by their authors, to which they are now applied. Thus, by a strange refinement of self-complacency, we ascribe to design, effects produced, not by human contrivance, but in spite of it,-nay, in counteraction of it,—and actually give our ancestors credit for having intended that the same plan should work for some ages in one direction, and then for so many more in the very opposite. It is not easy to imagine, that any thing but the most entire thoughtlessness could, for a moment, so far supersede the evidence of facts, and the authority of common sense, as to impose such dreams upon our belief.

The most noted example of this delusion meets us in the great question of Reform, in both its branches. Broach the subject of Parliamentary Reform, and you are sure to be met with an inflated panegyric of the present system of representation,-contrived by the wisdom of our forefathers to attain the utmost degree of perfection, and unite freedom, stability, and tranquillity. After an invective against reformers, as mere speculatists and theorists, a piece of the purest theory, the most unreal fancy-work, is presented, which you are desired to regard as the true mechanism of the constitution. It was fashioned, we are assured, upon the principle of virtual representation or, at least, a mixture of real and virtual representation, for the purpose of forming an assemblage of persons of all classes, capacities, and endowments-some actually and publicly delegated, and others chosen by themselves or a few private nominators. The system of Rotten boroughs is thus recommended as the ancient British constitution; and whoever is foolish enough to doubt that our ancestors actually designed the stone walls of Gatton and Old Sarum to return as many members as Yorkshire and Lancashire, must be accused of innovation! Nor is this a statement merely held out in terrorem of rash speculators. We verily believe, that there are various worthy characters, in different parts of the country, who feel grateful to their forefathers for the wholesome and constitutional invention of decayed boroughs. In like manner, when you attack sinecures, or offices of which the progress of time has suppressed the duties, and augmented the emoluments, you are again charged with a new-fangled disrespect for the wisdom of ages;-as if, in the nature of things, a sinecure itself could possibly be other than an innovation;-and as if our ancestors ever contemplated the uses ascribed to such places, any more than they foresaw the constitutional virtue of parliamentary elections by uninhabited towns.

* Observations on the Criminal Law of England, as it relates to Capital Punishments; and on the Mode in which it is administered. By Sir Samuel Romilly.-Vol. xix. p. 389. February, 1812.

Thus, those changes which time is constantly making are overlooked,except it be for the purpose of imputing the abuses which steal upon the system to wisdom and design; and all attempts to accommodate ourselves to those unavoidable changes-that is, to keep things, upon the whole, in their ancient and intended relation to each other-to maintain the order and arrangement contrived by our forefathers, are stigmatized as mere innovations.

The same delusion prevails, for want of but a very little reflexion, respecting several parts of our judicial system. It may safely be asserted, that no law was ever made in the world without the design of carrying it into effect; and yet nothing is more common than to hear the praises of that wise provision (as it is called) of the English law, by which severe punishments are denounced, while mild ones only are inflicted. When the severer statutes were passed, the manners of the age were different. The changes which have gradually softened the character and habits of the people have made many of those laws a dead letter; but we are taught to praise this discrepancy between the theory and practice of our jurisprudence, as if it were a positive good; and to venerate it as if it had been the result of design in our ancestors,-who, we must therefore suppose, made laws for the purpose of breaking them, or with the refined intention that they should be operative for a certain time, and afterwards cease to be executed.

The beautiful and interesting tract, now before us, begins with an exposition of the error to which we are now alluding: and the best proof of the mischiefs with which it is pregnant is to be found in the fact, that the most cruel laws have actually been executed, down to a comparatively recent period; and that, in general, the relaxation of the criminal law has only taken place to a considerable degree during the last half century. Even the sanguinary act of Elizabeth, Sir Samuel Romilly observes, which made it a capital offence for any person above the age of fourteen to associate for a month with gypsies, was executed in the reign of Charles the First ;-and Lord Hale mentions thirteen persons having, in his time, suffered death upon it at one assizes. Scanty and imperfect as are the materials for enabling us to trace the progress of the law, enough is known to convince us that no such refined plan can be discerned in former times, as that of leaving severe laws on the statute-book merely to terrify offenders, as the same time that they were relaxed in practice, or wholly suspended as to their execution. Sir John Fortescue tells us, that, in his day (in the reign of Henry VI.), more persons were executed in England for robberies in one year than in France in seven. Hollinshed states, that no less than 72,000 persons died by the hands of the executioner during the reign of Henry VIII. —being at the rate of 2,000 every year. In Queen Elizabeth's time only 400 were executed yearly. But this relaxation, far from owing its origin to the Crown, draws forth the complaints of Lord Keeper Bacon, who tells the Parliament, that this ineffectual enforcement of the laws is not the default of her Majesty, "who leaveth nothing undone meet for her to do for the execution of them." In more modern times we have further details of this subject. Mr. Howard has published the Tables kept by Sir Stephen Janssen, by which it appears, that in seven years ending 1756, there were convicted capitally in London and Middlesex 428-of whom about three-fourths, or 306, were executed;-that from 1756 to 1764, 236 were convicted, and 139, or above one half, executed;-from 1764 to 1772, 457 convicted, and 233, or little more than a half, executed. During the interval between 1772

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