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and Thompson's Distribution of Wealth.' The judgment you may pass on these works will enable the public to decide how far you have emancipated yourselves from the character given of you many years since by D'Israeli, and which for your edification I will repeat.

"Absorbed in the contemplation of material ob jects, and rejecting whatever does not enter into their own restricted notions of utility, these cold arithmetical seers, with nothing but millions in their imaginations, and whose choicest works of art are spinning-jennies, have valued the intellectual tasks of the library and the studio by the demand and the supply.'

"In their commercial, agricultural, and manufacturing view of human nature, addressing society by its most pressing wants and its coarsest feelings, they limit the moral and physical existence of man by speculative tables of population. Planning and levelling society down in their carpentry of human nature, they would yoke and harness the loftier spirits to one common and vulgar destination. Man is considered only as he wheels on the wharf, or as he spins in the factory. But man, as a recluse being of meditation, or impelled to action by more generous passions, has been struck out of the system of our Political Economists.'*

"I hope you will earnestly endeavour to profit by these remarks, and henceforward consider man as destined to act a more distinguished part than merely to supply his animal desires,-that you will not display so much laborious trifling in teaching us that which has long been known; for we require not to be informed how to create wealth,-it exists

* D'Israeli on the Literary Character.

in superfluity instruct us rather how we can best apply it so as to improve our moral and intellectual character."

A few days afterwards, while standing at the window of my apartment, which is an attic at the lower end of St. Martin's Court, I was surprised to see a procession pass along the Strand to take water at Hungerford Stairs. They proved to be the Political Economists themselves, with a numerous body of emigrants. The cavalcade was preceded by a gentlemen in black: his hat was slouched over his eyes; and the brim, which was somewhat broad, appeared to have been once fastened up in a clerical shape, but the loops had given way, and left it doubtful whether the wearer was still a clergyman or not he held in his hand a large manuscript, which he was perpetually altering; and I have since been informed by those who stood near, that the words Principle of Population' was conspicuous, and that there was an astonishing number of corrections :—his countenance was melancholy, and betrayed symptoms of disappointment,—

"With broken lyre and cheek serenely pale,
Lo! sad Alcæus wanders down the vale."

The Political Economists followed him at some distance, but with reluctant step; for they now regarded him as the author of all their calamities; although in the zenith of his fame they attended constantly at his levees, and repeated his decisions to the wondering multitude as the oracles of wisdom; little dreaming into what a labyrinth of error he would lead them. At a short distance from the Economists there was a numerous body of emigrants hastening away, alarmed by the fears of a redundant population. Although their departure was

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considered as a happy release to the country, and St. Martin's bells rang a muffled yet merry peal, as if participating in the rejoicing tempered by regret, I could not help repeating the lines of Goldsmith, as they descended Hungerford Stairs:

"Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand,

I see the rural Virtues leave the land.

Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail,
That idly waiting flaps with every gale,
Downward they move-a melancholy band,

Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand."

I will send you an account of any plans we may hear of that are likely to be of practical utility; but I am sorry to add that hitherto we have been quite unsuccessful.

CHARLES WANSFORD.

Saadi.-"They must have had a noble President in those days. His power, however, was rather despotic, and not much unlike that of our Oriental monarchs, whose will is the law.”

Douglas.-"This narrative cannot be true: but that much distress prevailed in those times we have abundant historical evidence.-As the bugle is sounding we must obey the summons."

Saadi.-"Most willingly, for my rambles on the mountains have bestowed upon me a keen appetite. Bring the manuscript with you, for I am desirous of knowing something more of Charles Wansford's visit."

174

CHAPTER XI.

"'Tis he alone, whose comprehensive mind,
From situation, temper, soil, and clime,
Explored, a nation's various powers can bind,
And various orders, in one form sublime
Of polity, that midst the wrecks of time
Secure shall lift its head on high, nor fear

Th' assault of foreign or domestic crime."-Beattie. THE dinner was no sooner over, than Saadi wished

to proceed with the manuscript. And Douglas proposed their retiring to his private apartments, which were across the lawn in front of the hall. Saadi was highly pleased with the elegant simplicity with which it was fitted up.-"Here," said Douglas, "my privacy is just as sacred as if I occupied a house in a society upon the individual system."

Saadi." And certainly you escape a world of

trouble in domestic cares.

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Douglas." We will now turn to the second letter of the youthful delegate."

LETTER II.

Charles Wansford to his brother Henry. Since the departure of the Political Economists, the public mind has become more tranquil, and all classes now begin to think for themselves. They are no longer bewildered with discussions about a metallic or a paper currency, taxes, supply and demand, capitals, and profits on stock, and a variety of subordinate questions which had been the perpetual theme of contention. They observe around them immense wealth, with the power of adding to it almost indefinitely; and they ask themselves, how can the country be said to be overpeopled,

and why should poverty exist? All had felt a lively interest in the questions proposed, and had taken up opinions with more or less tenacity, which it was necessary to relinquish, before the mind could become the recipient of fundamental truths; -they had something to unlearn, before they could learn. But what, you will inquire, was there to learn? This question will be solved in the relation of all that has transpired since my last letter.

You will have perceived that the Speaker in his address, alluded to some individual whom the Economists had deemed a visionary, and who, in consequence of the preponderance of their opinions, had been compelled to relinquish the attempt to improve the condition of the people,—and, like a second Columbus, to tender his services to a foreign country.

Upon inquiry, I found that this individual was Mr. Robert Owen of New Lanark, who many years since (before we were old enough to notice public occurrences) held several meetings in London, for the purpose of explaining a new scheme of society, which was at that time, and still is, deemed impracticable.* At a late meeting between our deputation and the silk-weavers of Spitalfields, numerous plans of relief were suggested, and among others, this

"It sems to be the fate of all originality of thinking to be immediately opposed; a contemporary is not prepared for its comprehension, and too often cautiously avoids it, from the prudential motive which turns away from a new and solitary path. Bacon was not at all understood at home in his own day; his reputation-for it was not celebrity-was confined to his history of Henry the Seventh, and his Essays: it was long after his death before English writers ventured to quote Bacon as an authority; and, with equal simplicity and grandeur, Bacon called himself 'the servant of posterity.'"-D'Israeli on the Literary Character.

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