powers. Their mental energies rise in proportion to the obstacles to be surmounted, and blaze forth in all the magnificence of self-sustaining energetic genius, on occasions when feeble minds would sink in despair.

POLITICAL ECONOMISTS.

There were in this period several writers on the science of political economy, treating of the formation, the distribution, and the consumption of wealth; the causes which promote or prevent its increase, and their influence on the happiness, or misery of society.' Adam Smith laid the foundations of this science; and as our population and commerce went on increasing, thereby augmenting the power of the democratical part of our constitution, and the number of those who take an interest in the affairs of government, political economy be came a more important and popular study. It now forms one of the subjects for lectures in the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

BENTHAM-MALTHUS-RICARDO-SADLER, ETC.

A singular but eminent writer in this department, and in the kindred studies of jurisprudence and morals, JEREMY BENTHAM (17481832), was for more than half & century distinguished as an author and utilitarian philosopher. He lived in intercourse with the leading men of several generations and of various countries, and was unceasingly active in the propagation of his opinions. Bentham was the son of a wealthy London solicitor, and was educated at Westminster School and Queen's College, Oxford. He was only thirteen when he entered college, but even then he was known by the name of the philosopher.' He took his degree of B. A. in 1763, and afterwards studying the law in Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar. He had a strong dislike to the legal profession, and never pleaded in public. His first literary performance was an examination of a passage in Blackstone's Commentaries,' and was entitled A Fragment on Government,' 1776. The work was prompted, as he afterwards stated, by a passion for improvement in those shapes in which the lot of mankind is meliorated by it.' His zeal was increased by a pamphlet which had been issued by Priestly. In the phrase, "the greatest happiness of the greatest number," I then saw delineated,' says Bentham. 'for the first time, a plain as well as a true standard for whatever is right or wrong, useful, useless, or mischievous in human conduct, whether in the field of morals or of politics.' The phrase is a good one, whether invented by Priestley or Bentham; but it still leaves the means by which happiness is to be extended as undecided as ever, to be determined by the judgment and opinions of

men. To insure it, Bentham considered it necessary to reconstruct the laws and government-to have annual parliaments and universal suffrage, secret voting, and a return to the ancient practice of paying wages to parliamentary representatives. In all his political writings this doctrine of utility, so understood, is the leading and pervading principle.

4

In 1778 he published a pamphlet on The Hard Labour Bill,' recommending an improvement in the mode of criminal punishment; 'Letters on Usury,' 1:87; Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Politics,'. 179; Discourses on Civil and Penal Legislation,' 1802; A Theory of Punishments and Rewards,' 1811; A Treatise on Judicial Evidence,' 1813; 'Paper relative to Codification and Public Instruction,' 1817; The Book of Fallacies,' 1824, &c. By the death of his father in 1792, Bentham succeeded to property in London and to farms in Essex yielding from £500 to £600 a year. He lived frugally, but with elegance, in one of his London houses— kept young men as secretaries-corresponded and wrote daily-and by a life of temperance and industry, with great self-complacency, and the society of a few devoted friends, the eccentric philosopher attained to the age of eighty-four. His various productions were collected and edited by Dr. (afterwards Sir) John Bowring and Mr. John Hill Burton, advocate, and published in eleven volumes. In his latter works Bentham adopted a peculiar uncouth style or nomenclature, which deters ordinary readers, and indeed has rendered his works almost a dead-letter. Fortunately, however, part of them was arranged and translated into French by M. Dumont. Another disciple, Mr. James Mill, made known his principles at home; Sir Samuel Romilly criticised them in the Edinburgh Review' and Sir James Mackintosh in the Ethical Dissertation,' which he wrote for the Encyclopædia Britannica.' In the science of legislation, Bentham evinced a profound capacity and extensive knowledge: the error imputed to his speculations is that of not sufficiently weighing the various circumstances which require his rules to be modified in different countries and mes, in order to render them either more useful, more easily introduced, more generally respected, or more certainly executed.' As an ethical philosopher, he carried his doctrine of utility to an extent which would be practically dangerous, if it were possible to make the bulk of mankind act upon a speculative theory.

One of the most celebrated of the political economists was the REV. T. R. MALTHUS, an English clergyman, and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Mr. Malthus was born of a good family in 1766, at his father's estate in Surrey. In 1798 appeared his celebrated work, an Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the Future Improvement of Society." The principle here laid down is, that population has a tendency to increase faster than the means of subistence. Population not only rises to the level of the present sup

ply of food, but if you go on every year increasing the quantity of food, population goes on increas ng at the same time, and so fast, that the food is commonly still too small for the people.' After the publication of this work, Mr. Malthus went abroad with Dr. Clarke and some other friends; and in the course of a tour through Sweden, Norway, Finland, and part of Russia, he collected facts in illustration of his theory. These he embodied in a second and greatly improved edition of his work, which was published in 1803. The most important of his other works are, An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Kent,' 1815; and Principles of Political Economy,' 120. Several pamphlets on the Corn-laws, the Currency and the Poorlaws, proceeded from his pen. Mr. Malthus was in 105 appointedProfessor of Modern History and Political Economy in Haileybury College, and he held the situation till his death in 1834.

His

MR. DAVID RICARDO (1772-1823) was author of several original and powerful treatises connected with political economy. first was on The High Price of Bullion,' 1810; and he published successively Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency,' 1816; and Principles of Political Economy and Taxation,' 1817. The last work is considered the most important treatise on that scie ce with the single exception of Smith's Wealth of Nations.' Mr. Ricardo afterwards wrote pamphlets on the Funding System and on Protec tion to Agriculture. He had amassed great wealth as a stock-broker, and retiring from business, he entered into parliament as representa tive for the small borough of Portarlington. He seldom spoke in the House, and only on subjects connected with his favourite studies. He died, much regretted by his friends, at his seat, Gatcomb Park, in Gloucestershire, on the 11th of September 1823.

The Elements of Political Economy,' by JAMES MILL, 1821, were designed by the author as a school-book of the science as modelled or improved by Ricardo.-DR. WHATLEY (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin) published two introductory Lectures, which, as Professor of Political Economy, he had delivered to the university of Oxford in 1831. This eminent person was also author of a highly valued work, Elements of Logic,' which attained great popularity, and is a standard work; Thoughts on Secondary Punishments;' and other works, all displaying marks of a powerful intellect.-A good elementary work, Conversations on Political Economy,' by MRS. MARCET, was published in 1827.-The REV. DR. CHALMERS on various occa sions supported the views of Malthus, particularly in his work On Political Economy in connection with the Moral Prospects of Society,' 1832. He maintains that no human skill or labour could make the produce of the soil increase at the rate at which population would increase, and therefore he urges the expediency of a restraint upon marriage, successfully inculcated upon the people as the very essence of morality and religion by every pastor and instructor in the kingdom. Few clergymen would venture on such a task!-Another

zealous commentator was MR. J. RAMSAY M'CULLOCH, author of Elements of Political Economy,' and of various contributions to the Edinburgh Review,' which have spread more widely a knowledge of the subject. Mr. M'Culloch also edited an edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations' and the works of Ricardo, and compiled several useful and able statistical works, the most important of which are a Dictionary of Commerce,' a 'Statistical Account of the British Empire, and a Geographical Dictionary.' This gentleman was a native of Wigtownshire, born in 1789, and died at the Stationery Office, London, of which he was comptroller, November 11, 1864. A pension of £200 a year was conferred on Mr. M‘Culloch by the administration of Sir Robert Peel.

The opponents of Malthus and the economists, though not numerous, have been determined and active. Cobbett never ceased for years to inveigh against them. Coleridge also joined in the cry. MR. GODWIN came forward in 1820, with an Inquiry concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind,' a treatise very unworthy the author of Caleb Williams.'-In 1830 MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER (1780-1835) published The Law of Population: a Treatise in Disproof of the Superfecundity of Human Beings, and developing the Real Principle of their Increase. A third volume to this work was in preparation by the author when he died. Mr. Sadler was a mercantile man, partner in an establishment in Leeds. In 1829 he became representative in parliament for the borough of Newark, and distinguished himself by his speeches against the removal of the Catholic disabilities and the Reform Bill. He also wrote a work on the condition of Ireland. Mr. Sadler was an ardent benevolent man, an impracticable politician, and a florid speaker. His literary pursuits and oratorical talents were honourable and graceful additions to his character as a man of business, but in knowledge and argument he was greatly inferior to Malthus and Ricardo.-Among other works of this kind we may notice, An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth, and the Sources of Taxation,' 1831, by the REV. RICHARD JONES, This work is chiefly confined to the consideration of Rent, as to which the author differs from Ricardo.-MR. NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR (1790-1864), Professor of Political Economy in the university of Oxford, in 1831, published Two Lectures on Population.' He was the ablest of all the opponents of Malthus. Mr. Senior wrote treatises on the Poor-laws, on National Education, and other public topics. In 1864 he published Essays on Fiction,' being a collection of articles on Scott. Bulwer Lytton, and Thackeray, contributed to the chief Reviews. He also contributed a valuable article on politi cal Economy to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana.'

MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS.

HANNAH MORE.

HANNAH MORE adopted fiction as a means of conveying religious ins ruction. She can scarcely be said to have been ever free of the corpora ion of novelists; nor would she perhaps have cared much to owe her distine ion solely to her connection with so mo ley and various a band. Hannah withdrew from the fascinations of London society, the theatres and opera, in obedience to what she considered the call of duty, and we suspect Tom Jones' and Peregrine Pickle' would have been as unworthy in her eyes. This excellent woman was one of five daughters, children of Jacob More, who taught a school in the village of Stapleton, in Gloucestershire, where Hannah was born in the year 1745. The family afterwards removed to Bristol, and there Hannah attracted the attention and patronage of Sir James Stonehouse, who had been many years a physician of eminence, but afterwards took orders and settle at Bristol. In her seventeenth year she published a pastoral drama, 'The Search after Happiness,' which in a short time went through three editions. Next year she brought out a tragedy 'The Inflexible Captive.' In 1773 or 1774 she made her entrance into the society of London, and was domesticated with Garrick, who proved one of her kindest and steadiest friends. She was received with favour by Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, &c. Her sister has thus described her first interview with the great English moralist :

First Interview with Johnson.

We have paid another visit to Miss Reynolds; she had sent to engage Dr. PercyPercy's Collection,' now you know him-quite a sprightly modern, instead of a rusty antique, as I expected; he was no sooner gone than the most amiable and obliging of women, Miss Reynolds, ordered the coach to take us to Dr. Johnson's very own house; yes, Abyssinian Johnson! Dictionary Johnson! Ramblers, Idlers, and Irene Johnson! Can you picture to yourselves the palpitation of our hearts as we approached his mansion? The conversation turned upon a new work of his just going to the press-the Tour to the Hebrides-and his old friend Richardson. Mrs. Williams. the blind poet, who lives with him, was introduced to us. She is engaging in her manners, her conversation lively and entertaining. Miss Reynolds told the doctor of all our rapturous exclamations on the road. He shook his scientific head at Hannah, and said she was a silly thing! When our visit was ended, he called for his hat, as it rained, to attend us down a very long entry to our coach, and not Rasselas could have acquitted himself more en cavalier. We are engaged with him at Sir Joshua's on Wednesday evening-what do you think of us? I forgot to mention, that not finding Johnson in his little parlour when we came in, Hannah seated herself in his great chair, hoping to catch a little ray of his genius: when he heard it he laughed heartily, and told her it was a chair on which he never sat. He said it reminded him of Boswell rnd himself when they stopped a night, as they imagined, where the weird sisters appeared to Macbeth. The idea so worked on their enthusiasm. that it quite deprived them of rest. However, they learned the next morning. to their mortification, that they had been deceived, and were quite in another part of the country.