which it is composed-they, in turn, growing in power, because of their perfect control over the commerce among themselves— that commerce on which man is most dependent. That growing, its effects are seen in the exhibition, by each little community, of a constantly increasing number of persons possessing each his own land, and his own house, upon which he concentrates his exertions for his own improvement-his own wife, and his own children, in whom centre his hopes of happiness; and for the promotion of whose ease, comfort, and enjoyment, he is at all times ready to exert his physical and mental faculties. The machine is simple. It moves of itself—each man moving his share. The work is done, yet it is difficult to see by whom. The labor is light, being done by many. Its form being natural, the tendency towards stability is most complete. Its capability of resistance is great, but its power of assault is small, and hence its tendency towards peace.

§ 2. Such is concentration, a term expressing precisely the same idea presented to the mind by that of commerce, or society -it being the simple and natural form imagined by Adam Smith, when discoursing of "that order of things which necessity imposes in general," and which is "promoted by the natural inclinations of man." Had "human institutions never thwarted those natural inclinations, the towns could never," as he thought, "have increased beyond what the improvement and cultivation of the territory in which they were situated, could support," and men-freed from the tyranny of trade-would have been enabled to enjoy those "beauties of a country life," and that "tranquillity of mind," which such a life affords, and which the author of the Wealth of Nations so much admired. Believing, as he did, in the humanising tendency of commerce, as compared with traffic and transportation, he did not fail to see the great injustice to the farmer, resulting from the separation of consumers from producers, sought to be produced by the people among whom he lived, and to whom he addressed his work. His eyes, as his readers clearly see, were fully open to the great advantage everywhere resulting from compressing tons of food, and hundredweights of wool, into pieces of cloth-thus enabling the farmer readily to maintain intercourse with the distant world.

Perfectly aware of the advantage of concentration, he, throughout his work, declares himself opposed to centralization. The one, always looking inward, promotes a love of home, and of quiet happiness. Facilitating commerce, it promotes a love of union. Freeing the farmer from the most oppressive of all his taxes, it aids in creating a scientific agriculture. Promoting the growth of wealth, it enables men to have leisure for reflection on what they see around them, and on what they find recorded by their predecessors. Developing the individual faculties, it promotes the habit of independent thought and action. Enabling each to combine with all, it facilitates association, and thus developes MAN-the subject of social science.

Looking always outward, centralization tends to the fomenting of war and discord — thereby producing a dislike for peaceful pursuits, preventing the growth of wealth, and retarding the development of the vast and various powers of the earth. Under it, men are forced to move in masses, governed by ministers, generals, and admirals - the habit of independent thought or action having no existence. Here, no man directs his own business; no man controls the application of his labor, or its proceeds. The State manages everything-being, itself, composed of those who live by profits derived from managing the affairs of others.

Tending towards steadiness in the movement of society, with daily increased security, the one looks to an extension of the proportions borne by fixed to movable property; while the other -producing always unsteadiness and insecurity-increases the movable, at the expense of that which is fixed. The one looks towards peace, wealth, and freedom; the other towards war, pauperism, and slavery.

§ 3. The more rapid the circulation of society, the greater is the tendency towards concentration - towards the maintenance of peace towards the growth of wealth-and towards the production of the real MAN, the being made in the image of his Creator, and endowed with faculties fitting him to control and direct the forces of nature. For proof of this, we must, now, once more, call the reader's submitted:

attention to the diagram here

On the left, he finds the trader, or the warrior-chief, taking a large proportion of the product of labor-leaving the laborer so little, that he remains enslaved. On the right, the proportion to be divided among the middlemen is very small, while labor is largely paid. In the one case, the power of the trader to purchase service is very great; in the other, it is very

small.

The peaceful effects of the beautiful law of nature which controls and determines the distribution of the things produced, are here exhibited, and in a manner worthy of serious attention. Examining history where we may, we find that when population is small, wages are very low; while the proportion of labor's products taken by the trader, or warrior, is very large-facilitating the hiring of men, to aid him in the accomplishment of his desires. So is it, now, in all declining countries—it being easier to hire thousands, for warlike purposes, in Ireland, India, or Mexico, than hundreds in Massachusetts. So was it, in the early ages of England, as is shown by the large proportion of the population that, in the days of the Plantagenets, was constantly in the field. So, too, in those of France, as is proved by the facility with which armies were raised, by kings and nobles, throughout the reigns of the various sovereigns of the Valois family. The castles of counts and dukes, destitute, as they were, of even the commonest comforts, were thronged with their retainers; and yet, the revenues of men who were followed to the field by hundreds, if not even thousands, scarcely equalled those of tolerably prosperous farmers of modern times. Even so late as the middle of the last century, "Cameron of Lochiel, a gentleman," says Adam Smith, "whose rent never exceeded £500 a-year, carried 800 of his own people into the rebellion

with him." On the other hand, the laird of the little island of Skye, contributed no less than 2000 of his own retainers to the support of government.

So is it, even now, in the slave States of the American Union. Wretched as are, not unfrequently, the house accommodations of the planter, and destitute, as he almost everywhere is, in regard to clothing, books, or pictures, his house is filled with servants, half-a-dozen of whom are required for doing the work that should be done by one-the same facts thus presenting themselves in all countries, ancient or modern, as we recede from those times, or places, in which the prices of raw materials and finished commodities approximate, towards those in which they are widely separated from each other.

On the right of the diagram, the soldier and the trader have little power of disturbance. Commerce, therefore, grows the circulation becoming more rapid from day to day, with large development of the mental faculties, and great increase of wealth and freedom. On the left, the power of the soldier and the trader is great. Commerce, therefore, declines-the circulation becoming more sluggish, and men becoming more and more enslaved, as we move in that direction.

Concentration grows in the one-man and land there acquiring value, and society taking, more and more, that natural form described by Dr. Smith. Centralization grows in the other— man and land losing value, and society assuming the form regarded, by the teachers of the Ricardo-Malthusian school, as being the one fore-ordained by the Being who gave to man the faculties required for enabling him to control and direct the vast and various powers of air and earth.

§ 4. Studying the history of Greece, we find, through many centuries, a tendency towards an union such as is above described-exhibiting itself in the gradual formation of the Athenian and other States, and in the extensive combinations for the maintenance of the Olympic, Isthmian, and Nemean games, as well as in the Amphictyonic league. So, too, in the union of the cities of Latium, of the communities of the Netherlands, and of India. Man, however, in the early ages, having been poor, and destitute of power to subject to cultivation the richer lands, he is

found, invariably, occupying the higher and poorer soils; and hence the frequent contests for the possession of tracts of land that appear, to us, to have been entirely insignificant. Poverty tends, thus, to produce war-that, in turn, stopping the circulation of society, augmenting the difficulty of obtaining food, and producing a necessity for further war; as is so well exhibited in almost every page of Gallic history.

Throughout the Middle Ages, France presents a series of civil wars; rarely broken, except when kings and barons united for plundering their weaker neighbors. The consequences of this are seen in the fact, that down to the Revolution, the right to labor was held to be a privilege, to be paid for to the crown, while kings and nobles made of themselves the conduits by means of which the wealth of the kingdom was passed to foreign countries, in payment for luxuries that, under existing circumstances, could not be produced at home. Eleven-twelfths of the products of the land, had to go forth from the place of production, in payment of the taille, and other taxes-the people being corvéeable à volonté, for making the roads by which they were to pass towards the central city for distribution. In no part of Europe was centralization more complete. In none, were the obstacles standing between the producer and the consumer so great. In none, therefore-extremes always meeting-were the people poorer, or those by whom they were governed more magnificent.

Centralization, in that country, is still exceedingly great. The road requiring repair, orders therefor must come from Parispassing through a series of forms, requiring the co-operation of hosts of officials, before the permission can be granted.-The land-owner, desiring to mine his coal, must seek permission at Paris-paying liberally for it, and waiting years before it can be obtained. The people of a neighborhood, desiring to open a bank, find themselves precluded therefrom by a monopoly secured to a few individuals, owners of the Bank of France.-The baker, desiring to open a shop, must seek a patent, and pay for it.The son, desiring to aid his father in supporting his mother and sisters, finds that the State has a mortgage on his services, covering several of the most important years of life. Stoppage of the circulation would seem almost to be the rule of French