would be the 6th of the 1st volume, "On the Nativity of Christ." Eloquence and pathos are conspicuous in this composition; and the succeeding passage will display the author's ability in deducing just remarks and moral reflections from the incidents recorded in the Gospel history. His observations on the circumstances of our Saviour's birth are striking and appropriate :

'Let us learn not only to submit to, but to rejoice in the distinctions and varieties of condition, which a wise providence has established in the world. These are the appointment of God, else they would not exist. The absolute and universal equality of mankind is a chimera unwarranted by revelation, and flatly contradicted by fact and experience. When Jesus Christ came into the world, did he disturb civil society by an attempt to bring mankind to a level of nature, or even to distinctions founded on wisdom and virtue? Did his mother, under pretence of a miraculous conception and birth, claim the best house in Bethlehem as the property of heaven's favourite, or endeavour to dispossess a wealthier or more powerful guest of his lodging at the inn, to make way for David's son? Is Herod attacked with violence on the throne of Judea, or Cæsar on that of the world? Quite the reverse-the murderer of a thousand innocents is permitted to live, and to reign-the tribute of a lordly conqueror is cheerfully rendered him. Under what pretence then do the saints claim the dominion of the world? How could the disciples of Jesus ever think of turning the world upside down, to procure for themselves a place and every ebullition a name? How severely did our Divine Master check of such a spirit in his greatest favourites! This is not the state of retribution, but of discipline The object of the gospel is to level, not men's fortune and rank. but their spirit and temper-to teach the rich in this world "to do good and to communicate, to be rich in faith and good works"—and the poor" to be rich in faith," meekness, and contentment-to instruct the mighty to be merciful, and the weak to be modest and diffident—to form the happy to moderation, and gratitude, and compassion-and the wretched to patience, and submission, and obedience—and, in a word, to bring all men, whatever be their external situation, to the common standard of humility, and to a sense of their dependence upon God, and accountableness to him, and to the habitual observance of the law of kindness, and forbearance and forgiveness, and love, one toward another. In this alone consists, it it exist at all, the equality of human nature-and this, as far as it is attained, makes earth resemble heaven, and men resemble angels-among whom there is dignity without pride, and subordination without murmuring or envy-with whom difference of degree is a source not of jealousy and strife, but of love and joy.'

Prefixed to these Sermons are some Introductory Addresses In the Church of Scotland, of on Sacramental Occasions. which Dr. H. was a member, the service of the Lord's Supper is conducted with extraordinary solemnity; and it is rarely administered more than twice in a year. A day in the middle of

the

the week previously to its celebration is appointed as a Fast; and the Saturday preceding the Communion Sabbath is observed as a day of preparation. The Monday following is also devoted to Divine Service. These Addresses of Dr. H. were delivered on giving Notice of the Sacrament-on the Fast Day on the distribution of the Tokens and on fencing the Tables; to which are added two Consecration Prayers.

ART. XIII. An Essay upon Political Economy; being an Inquiry into the Truth of the Two Positions of the French Economists; that Labour employed in Manufactures is unproductive; and that all Taxes ultimately fall upon, or settle in the Surplus Produce of the Land. By Daniel Wakefield, Esq. 12mo. pp. 120. 28. 6d. Boards. Rivingtons.

THE

HE distinction of labour into productive and unproductive would be pronounced by most persons to be a mere abstract question, a matter of little or no practical importance, a fit subject for the schools: but, trivial as it may appear, consequences of the most serious nature have followed from it. If it be true that agricultural labour alone yields a surplus production, it follows that taxes can arise only out of this fund, and that an exclusive territorial tax is the most eligible mode of raising a revenue. This deduction was almost literally exemplified in France under the Assembly which has been grossly misnamed the Constituent. In conformity to the doctrine of the economists, that Assembly abolished most of the old taxes, and substituted for them a general land-tax; and never did more

After service on the Saturday, the persons intending to com municate receive each from the ministers or the elders of the parish a stamped piece of metal, denominated a token, which they return before receiving the sacrament on Sunday. The intention of this is to prevent any person not known to the minister, and approved of as a person acting worthy of the christian name, from seating himself among the communicants, and partaking of the sacrament. On this occasion which is called the distribution of the tokens, an address, with suitable exhortations, is again delivered by the minister of the parish. The piece to which this note is subjoined is one of these addresses.'

After the ordinary service of the Sunday is over, and immediately before the distribution of the sacrament begins, the clergyman addresses the people, and informs them, that as this sacrament is intended only for the true christian, those who are conscious of disposi tions inconsistent with that title, are debarred from it. He then enumerates the several sins, a subjection to which excludes from the worthily partaking of the Lord's Supper. This is called fencing the tables, or defending them from the approach of unworthy persons.'

actual mischief proceed from a mistaken abstract notion. One branch of industry (the agricultural) was overburthened, and another (the commercial) exempted from public demands, on conclusions drawn from a false theory; thus a vast source of revenue was left untouched, and a system of taxation adopted which materially assisted the successive rulers of that country to destroy commerce, to subvert the state, and to construct a fabric of tyranny. The governing demagogues, seeing that commerce was unproductive of revenue, and regardless of individual sufferings, became indifferent to its fate; and perceiving that a territorial tax might be levied amid the shocks of public convulsions, they more readily adopted schemes of anarchy. The present ruler of the same country would not have had so easy a task in establishing his arbitrary sway, had the nation been subject to a system of taxation founded in freedom, and liable to be rendered inefficient by lawless rule. Taxes judiciously laid become a sort of guarantee to liberty, since they induce governments to respect that sacred principle from a fear of diminishing the revenue. It is curious to behold an assembly so jealous of freedom, and which carried their veneration for it to extremes fatal to itself, deliberately establishing a system of finance which favoured the subversion of the public prosperity; and which facilitated the erection of a more complete despotism, than any which Europe has witnessed in modern times. This property of direct taxation, as best allying with arbitrary power, follows from the nature of things; and it is rendered probable from its being the mode of raising revenue adopted by the latter Roman empire, and by China.

This doctrine of the French School, which regards labour employed in providing food as the only productive labour, indi cates a very limited range of mind; it is formed on the idea that the mere sustentation of life is the sole end of our being, and that all which gives it relish, or confers dignity and importance on it, are to be held in no estimation; that all is propter vitam; and that we are wholly to overlook the causas vivendi.

Mr. Wakefield supposes the great error of this school to have originated in the abundant produce which land yields in France, at a small expence of labour, skill, and capital. There is, perhaps, more of refinement than solidity in this conjecture; for it must be recollected that the framers of this hypothesis, at the same time that they witnessed the ample returns, made by a propitious soil, had under their view the wealthy manufacturers of Lyons, and the rich merchants of Bourdeaux and Marseilles. Is it not fully as probable that the notion arose out of the vast importance in which eating is held by this people,

people, as is manifest from the numerous metaphorical senses which the term manger bears in their language; and also from their superior fondness for the article of bread, of which they consume so large a quantity ?

A summary of the doctrine maintained in this tract is included in the subsequent passage:

It is obvious, that the cultivator of land produces something, only by means of a previous annihilation, first, of his own intermediate support, between seed-time and harvest; secondly, of the wear of his stock advances* ; and thirdly, of the seed sown: the manufacturer also produces something, only by means of a previous annihilation; first of his own intermediate support between the beginning and completion of the manufacture; secondly of the wear of his stock advancest; and thirdly, of the raw material used. The rude produce of the cultivator is worth more than he has annihilated, it will exchange for more than his support, between the next seed-time and harvest, than the wear of his stock advances, and than as much seed as he will require to sow this excess is therefore called his surplus value, or surplus production, which surplus is divided into two parts, the profits of his stock, and the rent of his land. The finished manufacture of the manufacturer is also worth more than he has annihilated, it will exchange for more than his support, during the time of completing a similar manufacture, than the wear of his stock advances, and than as much raw material as he will require to work up this excess is therefore called his surplus value, or surplus production, which surplus is also divided into two parts, the profits of his stock, and the interest of his capital.'

A late French author considers agriculture as a particular species of manufacture, and land as a sort of machinery furnished to us by the bounty of nature. This view of the matter would have assisted Mr. Wakefield in elucidating the analogy between the two classes of labour; in shewing that the incidents to both are the same; and that a surplus produce belongs as much to the one as to the other. It must be admitted that Mr. W., in following his own method, has ably laboured this point; he has brought the observations of Mr. Locke, in his disquisition on the origin of property, happily to bear on it; and he well employs, in the same service, the strictures of the same great writer, on the resemblance between the rent of land and the interest of capital.

Aristotle's argument against taking interest for the loan of money, because money was barren, and incapable of producing

By this term, as applied to the cultivator, I mean what is generally denominated live and dead stock, as cattle for work, implements, sheds, &c.'

By this term, as applied to the manufacturer, I mean tools, machines, buildings, &c.'

money,

money, has often been ridiculed: but, if duly considered, it will appear to be worthy of the superior penetration of that great genius; inasmuch as the only rational view of the subject, and that which accounts for the fluctuations of interest according to the respective situations and circumstances of states, arises from the consideration suggested by the objection of that great philosopher, namely the reproducing property of money when it is duly applied, and which is finely illustrated by Mr. Locke in passages inserted in this tract. It is very justly remarked by Mr. W. that

In a cultivated and advancing socitey, so high a price is given for the rude produce of land, and so low are the profits of all kinds of stock, that the nominal rent of land rises above the price for which the surplus of its produce will sell, and the land owner consequently receives more than his due proportion; but in a barbarous or declining society, the rude produce of the land being greater than the consump tion of its inhabitants, its price falls; and as at the same time, the profits of stock rise, the nominal rent of land sinks below the price, for which the surplus of its rude produce will sell, and the land-owner receives less than his due proportion. The correctness of thus accounting for the rise and fall of the nominal rent of land, above or below its real rent, is demonstrated from land sometimes yielding no nominal, though in most cases it yields a real rent or surplus.

In a cultivated and advancing society, so high a price is given for raw material, and so great is the money reward of labour, that notwithstanding the lowness of the profits of stock, the nominal interest of capital falls below the price, for which the surplus of its manufac tured produce will sell, and the capitalist receives less than his due proportion; but in a barbarous or declining society, raw material being at a low price, and the money reward of labour being also low, the nominal interest of capital rises above the price, for which the surplus of its manufactured produce will sell, notwithstanding the highness of the profits of stock, and the capitalist receives more than his due propor tion.'

The above observations are founded on the relations of things, and are warranted by facts: but they admitted of being more perspicuously stated, and merited farther elucidation.

A distinction, on which some stress has been laid by great authorities on the present subject, is effectually obviated in the ensuing passage:

• There is a distinction drawn by some writers between labour consumed in use, and labour employed in production, which does not appear to me sound. I am not going to argue which a wise man would chuse, personal servicet, an article of clothing, or a healthful

Aristotle and Smith.'

meal;

+ This term includes the exertions of the lawyer to preserve our property from knavery, and our fame from calumny; the attendance of