Homs, Damascus, &c. know nothing of the samieli. The mixture of burning and cool gusts is caused by the heated mephitic gas passing first, and because the wind which impels it has not become heated. The marshes of the Wangara instantly reproduce an ardent mass of mephitic gas, which a new gust of wind takes and impels before it.

Such, I presume, is the origin of the famous samieli. It is, I think, on the marshes of the Wangara, on the immense plateau of Africa, that its true source is to be sought.

At Bagdad this wind, coming from the north, strikes against the chain of mountains which pass near Sohneh, and which go obliquely from the north to the south-west, and meet the Euphrates to the north of that city, at the distance of three days' journey. Bagdad is at the bottom of the valley of the Euphrates, the ridge which separates that river from the Orontes, is of a great elevation; the wind cannot come there but by surmounting, gliding over the eastern slope of the valley of the Orontes, and having struck the chain in question, taking a direction analogous to its course.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

THE Correspondence of Mons. Say, published in the late Numbers of the New Monthly Magazine, is replete with interest. The wide difference of opinion between men so eminently gifted as this gentleman and Mr. Malthus, may induce a superficial observer to suspect that the source of incertitude lies in the science itself; but those who are in the habit of following literary and scientific disputes, will not fail to perceive that the minds of these philosophers have been variously acted upon by the realities of life, and that their opinions are adjusted by the nature of their sensative impressions.

Monsieur Say, by the peculiar circumstances of his country, has been made the witness of a sudden and extensive developement of agricultural power, and has had ocular experience of the expansive nature of industry, when the shackles with which it has been oppressed are suddenly removed. The experience of Mr. Malthus is wholly of a contrary kind. The necessities of the times operating upon the invention and enterprising spirit of British merchants, had, indeed, developed to a great extent the manufacturing power of the country. The invention of the steam-engine, an infinity of improvements in manipulations and machinery, œconomies in the use of fuel, and in the application of raw materials, had enabled the manufacturer to produce, with a given capital, an enormously increased quantity of goods. During the course, however, of this long series of improvements,

at every fresh œconomy of time, labour, or capital, the minister had been present, and had loaded the raw material with a duty, if not equivalent to the gain, at least sufficient to absorb a large portion of it. Although, therefore, the price of certain manufactured articles may have abated to a certain extent, it has by no means come down to that natural level, which would be found in the free and unfettered operation of things.

To balance this evil, political events, for a time, opened new markets for English produce; and the monopoly of Europe compensated any disadvantages arising from taxation. But at length the continental system of Napoleon came into play; and no remote markets presented themselves to take off the glut occasioned by such a revulsion in trade. A violent and convulsive struggle succeeded, which exhausted the whole of Europe, and wasted an immensity of accumulated wealth; producing a Peace concomitant with starvation and a most forced œconomy. With the existing taxes, to reduce the prices of English manufactures to the level of continental purses was impossible; and, even if our grateful and high-minded allies had not determined to preserve the system of exclusion commenced by Napoleon, the impoverished condition of Germany and other continental states would have produced the same results.

The phænomena peculiar to this order of things are, unemployed capital, overstocked warehouses, a suspension of manufacture, and great general misery; and such a picture, too heartrending to escape attention, might naturally cherish a presumption in favour of consumption under any circumstances, productive, or non-productive. Without asserting that Mr. Malthus has followed this train of reasoning in forming his opinions, and applied it to an abstract argument, it is not perhaps too much to imagine that such facts may have made some impression on his mind, and have prejudiced him in favour of his consuming hypo

thesis.

On the other hand, it should seem that Monsieur Say, not being aroused by any such striking difficulties, has abandoned himself too much to the abstract and closet methods of the French œconomists, in supposing that produce can engender produce to an indefinite extent. His produce seems reduced too much to the condition of counters or algebraical quantities, called into existence, and annihilated, according to the necessities of the calculation. This, indeed, he virtually admits, in his third Letter in the last New Monthly Magazine, just come to hand. definite increase of produce, or of artificial wants and their supply, supposes an indefinite increase of raw materials, and of workmen; but the powers of the earth's fertility are bounded, and consequently the number of manufacturers which a given number of acres can support. Thus when a sudden develope

ment of trade calls an increased number of workmen into existence, without a corresponding developement of agricultural power, although the goods may thereby be rendered cheaper, 'the rise in the price of grain must diminish the workman's capability of subsisting upon his necessarily reduced wages. Artificial gratifications are, indeed, multiplied for the wealthy classes, but the condition of the lowest is brought nearer to starvation.

On the other hand, if we admit that the earth in Europe does not as yet produce the half nor the third of its abstract possibility, we know that it does and ever must produce as much as the skill and capital of the respective countries allow. In England it produces even more: for the operation of Corn Bills enables the capitalist to employ his means upon ungrateful soils, whose return would not repay his interest, if things were left to their natural course. The price of grain, then, as far as concerns internal commerce, must necessarily determine the quantity of manufactured goods which can be produced; since all must have essentials before any one can permanently enjoy superfluities. For otherwise, on the one hand, poor-rates must exhaust the superfluous wealth of the country, to maintain the struggling manufacturer; or on the other, the manufacturer must perish, and with him the means of creating superfluities. This chain of reasoning, which I find M. Say admits in his third letter, completely and entirely overthrows the theory of indefinite produce. The subject is, however, susceptible of still further developement. The value of all manufactured produce must be regulated by the labour it requires for its production, or it will cease to be produced. The utility, however, or the relation of produce to the organization of the species, is very different, in different articles. Alimentary articles may be indefinitely increased by diminishing the cost of production within the limits of the possible growth of the raw material; because the supply regulates the demand. Articles of sensual gratification, such as tea and tobacco, may be nurtured into universal consumption, and follow closely the ratio of production of corn. But admitting every theoretic facility of lowering prices, the power of consuming articles of wearing apparel, and their consequent utility, will be placed within narrower bounds; and still more so that of baubles, confectionary, &c. But in proportion as industry satisfies more and more completely the real wants of a nation, the more it will be driven for fresh exertions to such branches of manufacture. Now to suppose that any circumstances could induce the same general consumption of superfluities, as is made of articles of primary necessity, is utterly Utopian. When, therefore, population is carried to its uttermost stretch, if we suppose on the one hand a degree of foresight sufficient to prevent the generation of paupers, and on the other an improvement in manufacture

capable of clothing and housing perfectly the whole numbers which the earth's fertility could maintain, that population would not continue its exertions to satisfy capricious wants: it would become idle, poor, and would dwindle. It would be reduced to the state of those countries, in which nature produces spontaneously in too great abundance. On every account, therefore, indefinite productive power is impossible.

But, however this may be, whether man can, or cannot produce too rapidly for his necessities, an unproductive consumption cannot remove the embarrassments which violence, or the impertinent interference of legislatures induce in trade. Whatever is consumed unproductively, is wasted; and the same ends might be produced by flinging the goods into the sea, at the national expense, as by consuming them without any return. The nonproductive consumer can consume only the proportion which he receives from the producer, either in rent, interest, or taxation. If he consumes less than his income, he accumulates capital, and interest falls. With the fall of interest, a fall in the price of goods takes place, and consumption is promoted. If he spends his full income, in the course of nature he will soon be impoverished; either by an increase of family, or by those accidents which are inseparable from life. With the fall of the capitalist, money becomes scarce; and interest high; and the affair is much worse, when the non-productive consumer expends his capital in the absurd notion of increasing consumption, and by that of benefiting trade.

With respect to the converse of this proposition, that a total abstinence from consumption would be total ruin, and that, therefore, consumption is itself a good, it is to be observed, that enjoyment being the end of labour, if mankind refused to enjoy, they must cease from their exertions, and must perish by starvation. But because men till the earth that they may eat corn, it does not follow that they should eat it totally, seed and all: but the saving of the capitalist is the seed of the next year's commercial harvest. The glut of a market arises from the production of an article in greater quantity than that country can consume at a vendible price. If a country could consume five million pairs of stockings, at five shillings a pair, it would take off more than the value of ten millions at two and sixpence; for not only would many who went barefooted purchase at the cheaper price, but those who wore coarse stockings would now buy them fine. But this operation is excluded from the proposition, because, to constitute a glut of the market, we suppose that the manufacturer cannot afford to lower his prices without ruin, nor the consumers to lay out more money on the article. If then the capitalist, to accommodate the market, purchases and consumes the second five millions at the higher price, his wanton

and capricious expenditure would indeed diminish the stock in hand pro hac vice, but it would impoverish the market for future manufacturers; and if they continued to manufacture at the same rate, their embarrassment would be greater than ever.

A knowledge of the realities of life proves but too plainly that capitalists are habitually prone to this extravagant expenditure. Not having the trouble to labour, in order to make money, such persons are rarely acquainted with its value. They know not how much can be done with a given sum; and having more than enough for their wants, they indulge their caprices: but for caprice there is no applicable measure. Hence people with the greatest means of riches are generally embarrassed, and few large estates continue long undipped or unshackled. Of this truth the condition of Ireland affords a decisive proof. Without commerce or manufacture, this country is divided into large estates inordinately rent-charged, and paying a double tithe and a heavy imposition of taxes. Hence nearly the whole rental of this devoted kingdom is wasted in wine and pleasure-horses, and a host of other non-productive consumptions. The landlords, instead of increasing their capitals, are rarely out of debt; and the tenant, getting but his cabin and potatoe from the soil, is incapacitated from saving. Here there is not, as in England, a large portion of the earth's revenue turned back upon itself, and consumed in improvements, manure, and drainage. Here there is no accumulation for the support of fresh labour, the whole nearly of the earth's fertility is divided between the landlord, the clergy, the tax-gatherer, and the exciseman; the merchant and manufacturer simply maintain themselves in existence, but are totally prevented from increase or multiplication, and the cultivator of the soil is poor, naked, and ignorant. A nation, like an individual, must become rich or poor by the proportion its expenses bear to its means. Parsimony and industry alone beget riches; and extravagance and idleness are the necessary forerunners of ruin, to communities alike and to individuals. The fallacy seems to be in the notion that mere circulation produces wealth; and that, therefore, the more money is circulated, the more trade is benefited: whereas the utility of circulation resides altogether in the presupposed gain: while, in fact, the circulation may be, and is often attended by loss. If all consumed more than they produced, universal starvation must ensue: if all refused to consume, there would be no possibility for labour. The balance to be observed between the two will be found in the reality of human interests, and the activity of human passions: it must, therefore, be left unrestrictedly to society; and M. Say's remark against preaching in works of political economy is just and well founded. The love of enjoyment is fixed in the human heart; and society will always consume, unproductively, as