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CONVERSATION I.

INTRODUCTION.

ERRORS ARISING FROM TOTAL IGNORANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF ITS PRINCIPLES. DIFFICULTIES TO BE SURMOUNTED IN THIS STUDY.

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MRS. B.

WE differ so much respeeting the merit of the passage you mentioned this morning, that I cannot help suspecting some inaccuracy in the quotation.

CAROLINE.

Then pray allow me to read it to you; it is immediately after the return of Telemachus to Salentum, when he expresses his astonishment to Mentor at the change that has taken place since his former visit; he says, "Has any misfortune happened to Salentum in my absence? the magnificence and splendour in which I left it have dis

appeared. I see neither silver, nor gold, r jewels; the habits of the people are plain, the buil ings are smaller and more simple, the arts la guish, and the city is become a desert."—" Ha you observed," replied Mentor with a smile, "t state of the country that lies round it ?" "Ye said Telemachus, "I perceive that agriculture become an honourable profession, and that the is not a field uncultivated."-" And which is bes replied Mentor, "a superb city, abounding wi marble, gold, and silver, with a steril and neglect country; or a country in a state of high cultiv tion, and fruitful as a garden, with a city whe decency has taken place of pomp? A great ci full of artificers, who are employed only to eff minate the manners, by furnishing the superfluiti of luxury, surrounded by a poor and uncultivat country, resembles a monster with a head of end mous size, and a withered, enervated body, wit out beauty, vigour, or proportion. The genui strength and true riches of a kingdom consist the number of people, and the plenty of provision and innumerable people now cover the whole te ritory of Idomeneus, which they cultivate with u wearied diligence and assiduity. His dominion may be considered as one town, of which Salentu is the centre; for the people that were wanting the fields, and superfluous in the city, we have r moved from the city to the fields."

Well-must I proceed, or have I read enough to convince you that Mentor is right?

MRS. B.

I still persist in my opinion; for though some of the sentiments in this passage are perfectly just, yet the general principle on which they are founded, that town and country thrive at the expence of each other, I believe to be quite erroneous; I am convinced, on the contrary, that flourishing cities are the means of fertilising the fields around them. Do you see any want of cultivation in the neighbourhood of London? or can you name any highly improved country which does not abound with wealthy and populous cities? On the other hand, what is more common than to observe decayed cities environed by barren and ill-cultivated lands? The purple and gold of Tyre during the prosperity of the Phoenicians, far from depriving the fields of their labourers, obliged that nation to colonise new countries as a provision for its excess of population.

CAROLINE.

That is going very far back for an example.

MRS. B.

If you wish to come down to a later period, compare the ancient flourishing state of Phoenicia,

with its present wretchedness, so forcibly described by Volney in his travels.

CAROLINE.

Has not this wretchedness been produced by violent revolutions, which, during a course of ages have impoverished that devoted country, and does it not continue in consequence of the detestable policy of its present masters? But in the natural and undisturbed order of things, is it not clear that the greater number of labourers a sovereign should, after the example of Idomeneus, compel to quit the town in order to work in the country, the better that country would be cultivated?

MRS. B.

I do not think so; I am of opinion, on the contrary, that the people thus compelled to quit the town, would not find work in the country.

And why not?

CAROLINE.

MRS. B.

Because there would already be as many labourers in the country as could find employment.

CAROLINE.

In England that might possibly be the case, but would it be so in badly-cultivated countries?

I think it would.

MRS. B.

CAROLINE.

Do you mean to say that if a country which is ill-cultivated were provided with a greater number of labourers it would not be improved? You must allow that this requires some explanation.

MRS. B.

It does so, and perhaps even more than you imagine; for you cannot well understand this question without some knowledge of the principles of political economy.

CAROLINE.

I am very sorry to hear that, for I confess that I have a sort of antipathy to political economy.

MRS. B.

Are you sure that you understand what is meant by political economy?

CAROLINE.

I believe so, as it is very often the subject of conversation at home; but it appears to me the most uninteresting of all subjects. It is about customhouses, and trade, and taxes, and bounties, and smuggling, and paper-money, and the bullioncommittee, &c. which I cannot hear named without

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