That war is an

powers this effect can hardly be a happy one. evil most deeply to be deplored and strongly to be deprecated we of course admit. In the present state of the world, however, it unfortunately happens that the best way to avoid war, is to be ostensibly prepared for it. But this is hardly the case with England. That our present paper convertible currency is a serious obstacle, we cannot help seeing, together with Lord Ashburton; and this view is doubtless shared by the ruling powers of other countries, to whom the will may not be wanting for aggression upon the power of England, if such aggressions seem likely to be succumbed to. That considerations like this ought to be an element in the calculations of all statesmen to whom these questions are submitted, seems to us quite indubitable. That they form one element in the combinations of foreign cabinets, is hardly to be doubted; and evidence may be adduced to prove that such is the case. It is, indeed, by no means clear to us, that the cabinet of the United States is not, at this moment, acting upon calculations partly so based; and all the more so, inasmuch as they, themselves, have had much and severe practical experience of the infinite modes in which the fluctuations of an ill-regulated money act and re-act upon the destinies of nations. It is a consideration which ought never to be absent from any view of the effects upon a people, liable to arise from artificial regulations or crude theories, when applied to the vital subject of a national money; and as such we have adverted to it.

Such is the importance, and thus various are the relations of this subject. Our aim has been so to treat them as to show that these intricacies are not such as are difficult to be mastered, by those whose minds are cleared from the mistakes and fallacies with which, on this topic, reflection is at first, from obvious reasons, beset. The subject is one, in its own nature, clearly intelligible quite within the ordinary range of human intellect; and only distasteful because the reader, in the commencement does not perceive the variety and importance of the consequences, to which a right or wrong appreciation of the matter infallibly leads. That a considerable part of the acknowledged evils, under which society in England is suffering, springs from mistakes committed in this all-important portion in the economy of nations, we cannot avoid concluding. Be it so; there is no cause for alarm, still less for despair. Such mistakes are only a part and parcel of a national policy, nor are they in their own nature incapable of a remedy. The knowledge of a disease is, indeed, half its cure; and nowhere is this truth more true than when applied to the subjects at present under dis

of a variable statute acre, or a variable ton avoirdupois, if such things could be accomplished. We are too prone, however, to refer to changes in currency evils which may be palliated, if not removed, by other means. It cannot be denied by those conversant with the effects of taxation, that a part of the evils of the excessive taxation of this country arises from the injudicious manner in which the taxes are imposed. The taxation of Great Britain in proportion to its population is far above that of any other country. Its direct taxation, when compared with its indirect imposts, is less than that of most countries. To this the judicious statesman will first turn his attention. To put burthens upon labour, whilst property is exempted, seems to us as great a mistake in the economy of a nation as can be even a rash alteration in the standard of value; and whilst we lay stress upon that which has been done (as it seems to us in ignorance of the facts) to alter the value of the British currency, we are ready to admit that changes in the value of the money of a country are the last to which a wise statesman will suffer himself to be driven.

There is one other effect of the present position of the monetary system of this kingdom, to which little or no attention has been given. We shall, in conclusion, take leave to advert to it, because of its existence, however rarely brought into view, we do not entertain a doubt. Notwithstanding that which has been recently done to limit the quantity of paper currency in circulation, as compared with the metallic money circulating with it, the amount of coinage compared with paper is small, when we institute a comparison of our own with the currencies of other countries. There is great evil inseparable from this state. A nation is, by this means, subjected to all the inconveniences of a metallic money, together with all the dangers of a currency chiefly of paper. Whilst the weight of taxes and the pressure of national engagements are enhanced, and the profits of trade diminished on the one hand, on the other, the country is perpetually exposed to the dangers of monetary panics, arising from various natural and various political causes, from which nations, where coin is exclusively circulated, or nearly so, are free. Thus, France has been twice occupied by foreign troops, without a money panic, whilst the appearance of an invasion would almost inevitably produce one in England. It was asserted by Mr. Alexander Baring, now Lord Ashburton, as far back as 1823, that even the commencement of a war with any great power might seriously affect our monetary system. That such an assertion, coming from such an authority, must have great weight everywhere is indubitable; but upon our relations with foreign

*

powers this effect can hardly be a happy one. That war is an evil most deeply to be deplored and strongly to be deprccated we of course admit. In the present state of the world, however, it unfortunately happens that the best way to avoid war, is to be ostensibly prepared for it. But this is hardly the case with England. That our present paper convertible currency is a serious obstacle, we cannot help seeing, together with Lord Ashburton; and this view is doubtless shared by the ruling powers of other countries, to whom the will may not be wanting for aggression upon the power of England, if such aggressions seem likely to be succumbed to. That considerations like this ought to be an element in the calculations of all statesmen to whom these questions are submitted, seems to us quite indubitable. That they form one element in the combinations of foreign cabinets, is hardly to be doubted; and evidence may be adduced to prove that such is the case. It is, indeed, by no means clear to us, that the cabinet of the United States is not, at this moment, acting upon calculations partly so based; and all the more so, inasmuch as they, themselves, have had much and severe practical experience of the infinite modes in which the fluctuations of an ill-regulated money act and re-act upon the destinies of nations. It is a consideration which ought never to be absent from any view of the effects upon a people, liable to arise from artificial regulations or crude theories, when applied to the vital subject of a national money; and as such we have adverted to it.

Such is the importance, and thus various are the relations of this subject. Our aim has been so to treat them as to show that these intricacies are not such as are difficult to be mastered, by those whose minds are cleared from the mistakes and fallacies with which, on this topic, reflection is at first, from obvious reasons, beset. The subject is one, in its own nature, clearly intelligible-quite within the ordinary range of human intellect; and only distasteful because the reader, in the commencement does not perceive the variety and importance of the consequences, to which a right or wrong appreciation of the matter infallibly leads. That a considerable part of the acknowledged evils, under which society in England is suffering, springs from mistakes committed in this all-important portion in the economy of nations, we cannot avoid concluding. Be it so; there is no cause for alarm, still less for despair. Such mistakes are only a part and parcel of a national policy, nor are they in their own nature incapable of a remedy. The knowledge of a disease is, indeed, half its cure; and nowhere is this truth more true than when applied to the subjects at present under dis

cussion. The error to which those who understand them are most liable is, to attribute too much to them solely, and to attempt to explain everything by their means, as if the currencyquestion were a universal calculus,' or a solvent for every national problem that can by possibility occur. This is a serious and grave error. The affairs of nations are not so simple as to be explained by one hypothesis, or brought under one category. They who deem the repeal of our restrictions on the import of grain, and the removal of protective duties generally, in themselves a panacea, are not further from the truth, than are those who refer everything to the currency and the lapses of its regulations. That they have done their share of mischief we trust we have proved; but we trust that, at the same time, we have given reasons for believing that there are other causes of malevolent agency at work, which must be included in any rational view of our condition as a nation. The weight of taxes is one thing; the mode of laying them on is another. An intellectual, and at the same time honest, government, will look at both; and leave to the quack in politics, as to the quack in medicine, the task of attempting to cure all the diseases of a constitution by the exhibition of one remedy.

ART. II. Poems. By ALFRED TENNYSON. 2 vols.

PERHAPS an admixture of caprice, and profound obscurity, and wilful singularity, has, in the instance of Tennyson, even added something to the reputation of a poet, of whom every candid reader must admit that he has written some of the most charming verses these later times have produced. It is good policy in an author, at least it is a fortunate circumstance for his immediate popularity, if, in companionship with sterling merits that may challenge the applause of severest judges, he can exhibit certain startling eccentricities that will attract the gaze and wonder of the crowd, and invest him, amongst superficial readers, with an air of undoubted originality. He thus bribes the wise, and wins the foolish. The applause of the judicious cannot, indeed, be long dispensed with; but the judicious are not the people who make much clamour in the world, and he whose object is renown, must, some way or other, gather the crowd about his heels.

There is no speedier way of doing this, than by affecting singularities which attract and amaze the ignorant. Besides which, there are many, by no means belonging to the ignorant class of mankind, who eagerly attach themselves to an author,

in the admiration of whom they also can be a little bold and singular-who are pleased to be presented with certain eccentricities which they can either generously pardon or courageously adopt. There are those who, in literature as in life, choose, not the book or the friend whom they can thoroughly esteem, but rather some pet author, or pet companion, whom they are resolved, right or wrong, through good and ill repute, to side with and to admire. They are determined to show their free will in the distribution of their praise; nor are they ever so well pleased with their favourite genius, as when, throwing themselves manfully in the breach, they defend, explain, applaud all the affectations of which he is accused. These are they who, in our republic of letters, form those cateries who exert often so mysterious an influence in its affairs, and raise to so sudden an elevation the poet of the day. Advocates even of his weaknesses, they, at all events, must be supposed pre-eminently to appreciate his indisputable excellences. It will, at least, they think, be conceded, that to them above all others must be known where his strength really lies. A concession, which will not, perhaps, be universally granted. To us these admirers appear to imagine that all their heroes must resemble the miraculous champion of the Israelites, and that their strength must lie, not in bones. and sinews, but in that loose, disordered hair which is hanging uncombed about their shoulders.

We have no idea of attributing to Mr. Tennyson a distinct premeditated policy in this conduct we have observed upon. On the contrary, it has sometimes occurred to us, that, in the varied licences which some of our later poets have taken-in their disregard to established rules of composition-their wilful carelessness their wanton play with language and metre-they have but yielded, though, perhaps, unconsciously, to the influence of a prosaic and practical age. In such an age, the maker of verse finds himself half ashamed of his vocation; and in order not to be thought to devote a disproportionate labour to what, after all, may be looked upon as a species of ingenious trifling, or, at best, an unproductive industry,' he throws aside, from time to time, the air of study and of toil, and attempts to give to his best and happiest efforts the appearance of hasty and spontaneous effusion. They are casual beauties, they-the natural wealth of the climate-gifts of the morning sun; if you think them valueless as summer dew-drops, they at least cost as little. Brush them away-you are welcome-to-morrow can sow the fields again with the same profusion of pearls-pearls which no diver has raked up, with care and agony, from the bottom of the seas. The extreme polish of verse, the slow progressive labour