the case if any accurate estimate of the crop of 1837 could have been made."

Accumulation is the subject that naturally follows that of Consumption, in a work treating of the progress of the nation in its various social and economical relations. In this section, as in the former, our author discovers manifest and pregnant proofs "that the substantial wealth, the capital of the country, has kept pace with our modern progress in other respects." "If we have not made as much progress as our means should have enabled us towards the well-being of all classes of the community, we have yet, during the present century, and especially within the last twenty-five years, made great advances in that direction, greater perhaps than were ever before realized by peaceable means, and by any community in any equal period of time." We leave the subject for the philosophy of those who may think in accordance with the author of "Past and Present." The details in the various chapters of the section will instruct men who are willing to be guided in the paths of what is ordinarily understood to constitute economical science.

Moral Progress is the theme of another division of the volume. This section has great attractions for the general as well as philosophical reader, not only as a subject, but as here handled and represented. Has our moral kept pace with our material progress? The answer returned by Mr. Porter is favourable and encouraging. Not that he is unaware of the prevalence of selfishness and mammon-worship, of the squalid wretchedness among our poor population, or of the multiplication of criminal offenders, as well as of great departures "from that course of rectitude which was wont to make this land more honoured for its justice than it was respected for its power." He holds too that if it can be satisfactorily shown, while wealth has been accumulated and luxuries multiplied, that vice has been thereby engendered, and misery augmented, "it were better, (if it were possible) that we should return to the condition of poverty, make over our wealth-procuring inventions to other people, or, better still, consign them to annihilation, and, together with their poverty, resume the simplicity and comparative innocence of our forefathers.'

Crime, of course, forms the topic of a large portion of the inquiry relative to Moral Progress. The picture drawn is dark, but not without those steady beams of hope as well as of clear lights actually realized, that must gratify the considerate reader. The author's general views and his reasons for expecting continuous amendment, may be in part gathered from the opening paragraphs of his chapter on Manners. He thus writes :

:

The result of the examination of our criminal statistics, contained in the preceding chapter, is calculated to excite feelings at once of regret and of hope of regret, that the science of government in this, one of its most important branches, has hitherto been so ill understood or so ineffectually fol

lowed out, as to have allowed the fearful growth of criminality exhibited by parliamentary returns-of hope, that the means of arresting and in a great degree of correcting the evil having discovered themselves by means of the classification of offenders which of late years have been adopted, efforts will now be made to give full efficacy to those means. Heretofore, the growing evil has been dealt with blindly, and in a spirit of empiricism-now, and hereafter, we may press forward in the work of reformation with a full comprehension of the disease, with confidence in the means of cure, and with some assurance of success. We, and those who preceded us, have formerly been content to make the too common mistake of attacking symptoms instead of seeking out and combating the disease at its source. The degree of ignorance upon this subject which has prevailed will hardly be credited some years hence, when, as may now be reasonably expected, the desired result shall be accomplished. Dr. Colquhon, a most active and intelligent police magistrate, to whom society is much indebted for the fearless disclosures made by him, which awakened attention to the growing evil, had yet the most imperfect conception of the means to be used for arresting it. In the evidence given by him before the select committee of the House of Commons on the police of the metropolis in 1816, we find this passage: "On or about the years 1744 or 1745, when multitudes of men and women were rolling about the streets drunk in consequence of the number of gin-shops, the physicians were consulted upon it, and then an act was passed that no person should be entitled to a spirit licence that could not previously produce an ale licence." We must infer, from his approval of this expedient, that Dr. Colquhon attributed to the existence of gin-shops the disposition to drunkenness then prevalent, instead of looking at them as the consequence of the prevailing low condition of morals. How this evil was to be remedied by obliging the publican to pay a few pounds additional for an ale licence, and to keep a few gallons of ale upon his premises for such as might choose to ask for it, does not appear; neither is it shown why physicians were consulted, since there could be no doubt of the injury to the bodily frame from habitual drunkenness, and there was no thought of curing the propensity by administering physic. The state of things, as described by Dr. Colquhon to exist in 1745, had not then newly appeared. Ample time had then been afforded for contemplating the evil, and for attempting its cure. The addiction of the people to intoxicating drinks had reached such a point in 1736 as to occasion continual debates in parliament, and to call for remedies of a very stringent character. It was then the practice of some publicans to entice their customers with a notice painted on a board outside the house to this effect:-"You may get here drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, and have clean straw for nothing." The legislators of that day, thinking that the cheapness of the liquor caused the abuse, proposed a duty of 20s. per gallon, and to prohibit the sale of spirituous liquors by retail, a measure far more likely to attain the end proposed than that of obliging the publican to provide himself with a supplemental licence; and yet it signally failed in its purpose. Coxe, in his "Life of Walpole," speaking of it, says, "The Act led to the usual proceedings of riot and violence; the clandestine sale of gin was continued in defiance of every restriction; the demand for penalties the offenders were unable to pay filled the prisons, and, by remov

ing every restraint plunged them into courses more audaciously criminal.” In March, 1783, a proclamation was issued to enforce the Gin Act, to protect the officers of justice in their efforts to that end, and to threaten offenders with punishment. Within less than two years from its passing, 12,000 people had been convicted under the Act within the bills of mortality, of whom 5000 had been sentenced to pay each a penalty of 100%., and 3000 people had paid 107. each to excuse their being sent to Bridewell house of correction.

These harsh proceedings failed entirely. It was given in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons in 1743, that the quantity of spirituous liquors made for consumption in England and Wales was :

These quantities were consumed by a population not exceeding six millions, giving 3 1-6 gallons for each individual in 1742. One century later, and we find a population increased to sixteen millions consuming 8,166,985 gallons in the year, or half a gallon per head; showing a diminished consumption of more than five-sixths. There were, in 1742, in the bills of mortality, more than 20,000 houses and shops in which gin was sold by retail.

Education is another subject of the examination into the moral progress of the nation that obtains Mr. Porter's enlightened survey and valuable suggestions. Rowland Hill's Postage plans also receive a merited consideration. Nor is the greatly increased circulation of stamped newspapers in consequence of the reduction of duty from 4d. to 1d. per sheet, to the repression of low-priced and greatly inferior unstamped papers,-an overlooked event and feature in our recent national history. A slight glance is also taken of our intellectual advancements in all the various departments of human discovery and acquirement; the inference being that if we have profited as well of our opportunities as our fathers did of those bequeathed to them, we must have made greater and more rapid strides than any who have gone before us, providing at the same time for a still more rapid advance on the part of those who will succeed us.

Colonies and Foreign Dependencies occupy our author throughout the last section of the volume. He begins with noticing certain erroneous views entertained on these subjects:

If called upon to declare 'the circumstance in the condition of England which, more than all other things, makes her the envy of surrounding nations, it would be to her colonial possessions that we must attribute that feeling. In the eyes of foreigners those possessions are at once the evidence of our power and the surest indicant of its increase. A very different estimate of their importance is, however, made by many among ourselves. How VOL. II. (1843.) NO. IV.

often do we hear the value of those possessions depreciated; nay, how common is it to be told that England would be more prosperous and happy without colonies!

Nor is this doctrine confined to the common herd of society; it is put forth from time to time by men who would teach us by their writings, and is occasionally heard even within the walls of the Houses of Parliament, where, so often as some real or alleged act of mismanagement or extravagance in our colonial administration is brought forward, occasion is used for displaying to the world how small a portion of the science of government may be possessed by men who take upon themselves one of the highest functions of society-that of making laws for its regulation. "Colonies are mismanaged therefore they are evils. They are the source of ceaseless expense-therefore it would be wise to rid ourselves of the encumbrance!" Such has been the cry from time to time, and more or less at all times, of men who, while they put themselves forward as being competent to assist in the government of a nation, are unable to discern the difference between use and abuse, or to see that in politics as well as in all other branches of human concerns, everything, however useful or even necessary to happiness, may be converted into an injury by an unwise mode of dealing with it.

It would form a very inconclusive argument against the value of colonies and foreign possessions, that under bad or defective systems of government they had always been productive of evil. The like objection might as reasonably be made against every personal and every national blessing. Wealth may be abused, intellectual gifts may be perverted, station and power may be prostituted to serve the most unrighteous purposes, and we all have seen these things happen; but do we thence find occasion to denounce the pernicious nature of riches, or mental endowments, or personal and national influence, and to renounce them, together with the good they are calculated to yield? It would seem to require but one moment's reflection to be convinced that colonial possessions must be capable of adding to the wealth, the power, and the resources of the parent state, if the right means for making them so shall be adopted; and that if, on the contrary, they have tended to our weakness and impoverishment, those consequences are attributable not to anything inherent in the nature of those possessions, but to unwise legislation or to unjust government.

Mr. Porter goes on to characterize the principal cause of this weakness and impoverishment, viz., the restrictive and colonial system; our dependencies having been converted into a close monopoly in favour of England. New lights, to be sure, have broke in upon our statesmen relative to the impolicy of this selfish system, and various relaxations have been introduced. But "it is still sought to retain a great share of the supposed advantages of monopoly by means of differential duties chargeable in the colonies against the productions and manufactures of foreign countries. After having fortified his views of what ought to be the leading principles of colonization in all the maritime states of Europe, by quoting Adam Smith and Bryan Edwards, Mr. Porter again thus expresses himself:

In order to reconcile our colonists to the "badge of their dependency" thus fastened upon them, the legislature of England has sought to give them compensation at the expense of other countries, by means of differential duties that admitted the productions of our colonies at lower rates than the same productions brought from other quarters. Every real benefit thus imparted to the colonists must be at the expense of the people at home; first, because of the higher price which we pay for the colonial articles, and without which higher price there could manifestly be no advantage to the colonist; and further, because of the retaliatory measures to which the system is sure to give rise, on the part of countries whose produce is thus placed at disadvantage in our markets, and which measures of retaliation are levelled, not at the trade of our colonies, which indeed they cannot reach, but against that of the mother-country.

The amount of injury sustained from this last-named cause cannot well be made the subject of calculation; but some idea may be formed of the ruinous effect of differential duties upon the expenditure of this nation, by showing the result produced in one year by the prohibitory duty upon a single article of colonial production -sugar. A statement to this effect will be found in this volume (page 40,) where it is shown that we paid for the quantity of sugar used in 1840 more than 5,000,000l. sterling beyond what would have been paid for the same quantity, irrespective of duties, by any other people of Europe. The total value of our manufactures exported in that year to our sugar colonies was under 4,000,000l., so that the nation would have gained a million of money in that one year by following the true principle of buying in the cheapest market, even though we had made the sugar-growers a present of all the goods which they took from us.

It must be idle to suppose that colonists depend for their existence and progress upon such preferences. Unless prevented through the interference of legislative restrictions, they will certainly be able to apply their industry in some profitable channel. The very fact of their existence indicates that the inhabitants of colonies are in possession of advantages, whether of soil or climate, greater than are afforded by the country whence they have emigrated; and it must be reckoned among the evils produced by differential or protective duties, that they divert capital and industry from more profitable into less profitable, and sometimes even into hurtful, branches of employment.

After having established his doctrine relative to the advantages to a state of being possessed of colonies, Mr. Porter takes a survey of those pertaining to England in the several quarters of the globe. He concludes the section and the volume in these words :-"During the very few years that have elapsed since the first volume of this work was offered to the notice of the public, the cause of commercial freedom, which is the cause of human progress, has made more rapid strides than its most sanguine disciple then dared to expect. The system of restrictions and preferences so strictly advocated and maintained, and in support of which such signal party triumphs have been achieved, at length is drawing to its end. The hands even to which it looked for support have assisted towards its downfall, and,