American tariff of 1842, were the causes of the total change of policy that occurred in 1846. So, likewise, with the sugar duties. The emancipated negroes of Jamaica had been assured of protection against slave-grown sugar, yet Brazil compelled a violation of the well-understood agreement.

These changes are said, however, to have been made in deference to the advancing spirit of the age. Were this so, a similar spirit might be expected in other directions. Nothing can be more unjust than the tax imposed on all the correspondence between America and Continental Europe, yet it is persisted in, in spite of all remonstrances. The people of the West India Islands have for years petitioned in vain for such an alteration in the duties as would enable them to refine their own sugar. The British colonies of the continent and the islands recently desired to establish between themselves perfect reciprocity, abolishing all duties upon their respective productions; and in so doing only sought to carry into full effect the views so strenuously urged upon the government of the United States in regard to the-so-called-Reciprocity Treaty, then just made with Canada. Upon submitting the question, however, to the home government, the answer was that "it would be inconsistent with the imperial policy of free trade !"

The Spanish people find themselves greatly aggrieved by the use of Gibraltar as a smuggling depot, yet is there no change made in that respect, although when the place was ceded, it was a part of the treaty stipulations that it never should be used for such a purpose. Spanish commerce is thus sacrificed to the promotion of British trade The people of China being forced, in spite of the opposition of their government, to receive from fifteen to twenty millions of dollars' worth of opium annually, the result is seen in growing intemperance and an enormous waste of life; yet Hong Kong is retained as a necessary appendage to the Indian Empire, because "expediency" justifies the carrying out of measures utterly unjustifiable on the ground of "right." Such being the course of proceeding toward the weaker communities of the earth, the adoption of any other toward the stronger ones can be attributed only to a diminution of power to pursue that which has so long been practised.

Action and reaction are equal and opposite, the ball that stops another in its motion being retarded, if not arrested, in its own. So is it with communities, commerce at home suf fering from every injury they inflict upon commerce abroad

The real interests of all are to be promoted by every measure that tends to increase the power of association in the bosom of every other; thereby increasing the value of man, diminishing the value of the commodities required for his use, facilitating the development of intellect, and thus enabling men more and more to combine their efforts for obtaining that power over nature which constitutes wealth; and therefore is it that an enlightened self-interest would prompt each and all to carry into the management of public affairs the same spirit that should animate every Christian in his dealings with his fellow-men.*

§ 7. The theory of over-population having originated in England, as also the supporting one of Mr. Ricardo in relation to the occupation of the earth, it has been right to study carefully the English system, to ascertain how far its peculiar policy has tended to produce such serious error on the part of her economists. If the doctrines of the English school are right, then the all-wise Creator has made a serious blunder; having established slavery as the ultimate condition of a vast majority of the human race. If, on the contrary, they are wrong, then is freedom the ultimate lot of man; and then are there found throughout the natural laws regulating the social system, the same order, beauty, and harmony of arrangement which we see prevailing everywhere else throughout the organic and inorganic world. One of these things is absolutely and universally true, the other is absolutely and universally false.

Modern political economy, so justly named "the dismal science," arose out of this attempt to account for facts exhibited throughout the British Empire. Retrograde throughout, it requires that we should wholly ignore the existence of an all-wise and benevolent Deity, and put our trust in a Being by whom have been instituted great natural laws in virtue of which men shall necessarily and "regularly die of want." Retrograde throughout, it teaches :

That, in the early stages of society, as the first miserable tools are obtained by means of which to work, men

are

*The hesitating and unsteady policy of Britain in reference to American difficulties of the three past years, and more recently in regard to those of Denmark and Germany, may here be cited in proof of the great truth that the power of self-direction declines with every increase in the necessity for dependence upon trade and transportation.

enabled to compel the earth to yield larger rewards to labor; but that, as soon as they "have applied themselves to culti vation with any energy, and have brought to it any tolerable tools," a new law supervenes, in virtue of which the return to labor becomes yearly smaller than before:

That, although progress toward civilization has everywhere been marked by an increase in the power of man over matter, there exist "fixed and permanent causes" why matter must everywhere, and under all circumstances, obtain greater power over man:

That, though the value of man has everywhere increased as the value of the commodities required for his use has diminished, yet the true road to progress is to be found in the direction of increased use for ships and wagons, because this causes the greatest increase in the value of those commodities:

That, although men have everywhere become more free as employments have become more diversified, the true road to progress lies in the division of nations into agricultural and manufacturing ones, the single workshop being thousands of miles distant from the places at which the materials are produced:

That, although man has always thriven in the precise ratio in which the price of the raw material has approximated to that of the commodity manufactured therefrom, his further progress is to be increased by the adoption of a policy looking to cheapening the raw materials and increasing the quantity thereof required to be given for the finished article:

That, although man has always acquired value with the growth of commerce, and with decline in the necessity for trade and transportation,-yet his condition must be improved by establishing the supremacy of trade :

That, although progress has always been marked by increase in the power of labor over capital,-yet it is now required that "labor should be abundant and cheap" in order that it may be kept "sufficiently under the control of capital."

Such being the tendency of all its teachings, it is no matter of surprise that modern English political economy sees in man only an instrument to be used by trade; that it repudiates all the distinctive qualities of man, and limits itself to those that he holds in common with the beast of burden or of prey; and that it denies that the Creator meant that every man should have his place at the great table which he had spread for all his children.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF CHANGES OF MATTER IN FORM.

II.-Of Vital Changes.

1. Irregularity in the demand for the powers of the early settler, and consequent waste of force. Economy of force resulting from increased ability to command the services of nature. The more perfect the power of association, the greater is the economy of human force.

2. The greater that economy the larger is the proportion of the labor employed that may be given to the development of the powers of the earth, and towards the creation of a scientific agriculture. Difficulty of combination among a purely agricultural people. Slavery of the laborer its necessary consequence.

23. The farmer near to market always making a machine; the one distant from it, always destroying one. With the one, labor and its products are daily more and more economized. With the other, the waste increases from day to day-man's progress, in whatsoever direction, being one of constant acceleration. Population makes the food come from the rich soils, while depopulation drives them back to the poor ones.

4. Gambling character of the labors of the field where the market is distant. Diminution of risk resulting from the approximation of the consumer and the producer. The labor given to the work of conversion so much saved that would otherwise be wasted. Social phenomena observed in Ireland, India, and other countries, in which the consumer and producer are becoming more widely separated.

25. British system looks to the separation of the consumers and producers of the world— to the consequent destruction of agriculture-and to the elevation of trade at the expense of commerce. Hence it is, that it has given rise to the theory of over-population. Resistance thereto, by all the advancing communities of the world.

§ 1. THE early settler-the Crusoe of our island-dependent on his hands alone, is forced to exhaust his powers in traveling over extensive surfaces in quest of game; and it is only occasionally that he has the opportunity of applying his labors even to the simple work of appropriation. In time, however, having made a bow and arrows and thus secured the aid of certain of the natural forces, he obtains larger and more regular supplies of food; and in return to a diminished proportion of his time and labor. His powers being thus economized, he is enabled to apply a larger proportion to the augmentation of his capital-to increasing his supplies of arrows-to the making of a boat-or to the construction of a hut. Each and every of these changes being attended by further diminution in the effort required for effecting changes of place, while increasing that which may be given to other employments, there is thus produced a continuity in the demand for the force resulting from the consumption of food; with consequent economy of power, greatly facilitating the further accumulation of capital.

The cost to a community of maintaining a man in a state of perfect efficiency for mental and physical effort is the same, precisely, whether his powers be wasted or reproductively applied. He must eat, be clothed, and be protected from the weather; and must therefore consume a quantity of capital, which is thus withdrawn from the common stock. Although withdrawn and consumed it is not, however, destroyed; it reappears in a higher form, the food having become MAN, the being made in the likeness of his Creator, and capable of directing the forces of nature for the accomplishment of his purposes. The community thus becomes from hour to hour more wealthy than before; provided always, that the capital, thus reproduced, be so directed that its consumption shall be in itself an act of further reproduction. The power of man to change the forms of matter so as to fit it to serve his purposes, greatly exceeds the demand of the animal man for food and clothing; and all the difference between the quantity of things consumed and the quantity produced, is so much added to the general wealth. Each of its individuals, therefore, is capable of adding largely to the common stock; and whether he shall do so or not, is dependent altogether on the existence of a prompt demand on the spot for the services he is prepared to render. Labor-power is, of all commodities, the most difficult to be transferred, and the most perishable; for, if not put to use on the instant of its production it is lost forever. Where there is a regular demand for it communities rapidly increase in wealth and power, but where there is not, they decline with even more rapidity.

Commerce, association, and society being, as the reader has already seen, but different modes of expressing the same idea —and all the power of man for controlling the forces of nature being consequent on the existence of the power of combination-it follows, necessarily, that the more perfect the commerce the more rapid will be the circulation; the more instant will be the demand for human force; the greater will be the returns to labor; and the larger will be the proportion borne by the things produced to the things consumed. To the economy of power it is due that associated men so rapidly accumulate capital by means of which they obtain increased command over the great natural forces, and are enabled to march steadily onward from triumph to triumph-each successive one being greater than that by which it had been preceded. Their pace is a constantly accelerated one; whereas,