an Alderman of London." The old man looked fixedly at the king, burst into tears, and made answer, Sir, I am worn out; I am unfit to serve your majesty or the city. And, sir, the death of my poor boys broke my heart. That wound is as fresh as ever. I shall carry it to my grave." The king stood silent for a minute in some confusion, and then said, " Mr. Kiffin, I will find a balsam for that sore.""

Want of space compels us to pass over Mr. Macaulay's narrative of what took place at Cambridge and Oxford. The infatuation of the king would be incredible, were we not aware of the influence of bigotry over a dull and obstinate mind. His measures effectually alarmed the Church, broke up the coalition which had subsisted between it and the throne, and displaced the feeling of loyalty by that of a yet higher and more potent passion. Proceeding onwards, he put forth a second Declaration of Indulgence, on the 27th April, 1688, and, on the 4th May, directed that it should be read on two successive Sundays, at the time of Divine service, by the officiating ministers of all the churches and chapels of the kingdom. This Order in Council filled up the measure of his tyranny, and brought the struggle to a crisis. The Puritan body hastened to make common cause with the Church, and the zeal of the flocks outran that of the pastors.' The Archbishop, Sancroft, and six of his suffragans, signed a petition to the king, entreating his majesty to reconsider the case, and to withdraw his injunction. James, however, was inexorable. His harsh temper was rendered yet harsher by opposition, and he resolved to break the spirits of men whom he could not render traitors to their religious faith. Of the events that followed we cannot speak. A more deeply interesting narrative than that which is given of the trial of the seven bishops, is not to be found in our language. It is detailed in a style worthy of the great occasion, and will be adduced in coming times as a noble specimen of the flexibility, grace, strength, and splendour, of which historical composition admits.

We shall await the further publication of his History' with intense desire, and, in the meantime, renew the expression of our judgment that, in the volumes before us, Mr. Macaulay has rendered a service to his country which will enrol his name amongst her most illustrious and honoured sons.

28

ART. II. -Somerville's National Wealth Tracts, Nos. I.—III., on Capital and Labour-National Wealth and Political EconomyThe Siege of Paris. Charles Gilpin, Bishopsgate-street Without. June-July, 1848.

THESE tracts on Economical Science are adapted to supply one of the most crying wants of the time-cheap instruction for the people, in regard to the philosophy of their industrial condition. Simply expressed, there is nothing in the elements of political economy which might not be taught and comprehended by child of ten years old. This elementary instruction, every really wise father will regard as just as essential to the educa tion of his children as arithmetic. The principles of free trade are truths of which it is as great a disadvantage to be ignorant, as of the art and science of numbers. Industrial or economical notions of some sort cannot be excluded from any mind, and if not early filled with truth, it will become prejudiced and preoccupied by the fallacies and maxims which make the science of wealth the knowledge of how to beggar our neighbours. If a good tutor had made Lord Stanley comprehend, in his youth, that free trade meant the best price for every commodity for every body, his speeches would have been on the side of good, and not of evil. Here we may record an anecdote which shows how great a national blessing may come from placing in the way of youth a few volumes of popular illustrations of the elements of political economy.

We were told by the late Earl of Durham that he had succeeded in inducing the Duchess of Kent to read with her daughter the whole series of Miss Martineau's Tales, in illustration of political economy. The young Princess becomes Queen; the liberal Earl dies a broken-hearted man. Years revolve, and free trade becomes the great question of the day. When calculating the strength of the cause of right against wrong, many wonder what the Queen will do? Monopolists surround her. But she had not read in vain. Her Minister, who was nobly struggling amidst a coil of difficulties to make the food of the people free, found in her a warm and intelligent assistant and admirer. In the ingenuous years of youth, her mind had perceived economical truths, and the interested partizans of error could no more turn her Majesty against it, than they could persuade her that twice two make five. Now this elementary reading, we submit, was a beneficial thing for the people, and quite as good a circumstance for the crown.

Mr. Somerville appeals for support to capitalists and labourers, and states good reasons why they ought to encourage his attempt to teach the truths of political economy popularly

'To Capitalists.-All men are in one sense capitalists. But those are here addressed, who possess a store of commodities more than sufficient to the supply of their own wants, and dispose of that store for the supply of the wants of other persons, receiving other commodities or money in return. Also those capitalists who possess a store of money, and dispose of a part of it for the commodities called raw materials, and for instruments and machinery and house-room, or land; and part of it to persons possessing strength and skill to change the quality, shape, uses, and value of the raw materials, by working with the instruments or machinery within the house-room or upon the land. To such capitalists it must be a duty to themselves, and to the nation of which they are a part, to understand clearly the natural principles upon which capital accumulates or wastes; and not less so that every person whose foot, whose hand, whose hammer, whose chisel, whose knife, or other instrument, comes in contact with that capital, should also clearly understand the same natural principles.

'To Labourers.-All men are in one sense labourers. But they who are at present addressed under this head are such as possess no capital beyond strength and skill, and who use their strength and skill to change the quality, shape, uses, or value of commodities for an employer, and who receive in return a share of the employer's profits, or a share of his expected profits, called wages. It is as indispensable to the social well-being, to the moral advancement, as to the professional excellence of such labourers, to understand the naturally economic principles which govern wages, upon which principles the first steps must be taken to rise above the condition of working for wages, upon which the first steps must be taken to become self-employers, or to provide commodities for others to work upon, and instruments, machinery, and workshops, wherewith others may work.'

'All men are in one sense capitalists;'—'all men are in one sense labourers.' We know no more important truth in economics than this, for it teaches that the distinctions which separate the industrious people into an employing class and an employed class, are only convenient for the sake of clearness occasionally, and have no correspondent realities among men. A box of tools is as really capital as a steam engine. A pen is as truly a weapon of labour as a spade. All producers belong to one fraternity. The industrious are really different only from the idlers. Capitalists and labourers, employers and employed, are only aspects of men, they are not distinctions between industrious men. Hence the identity of interests of all producers. The man whose combinations of accumulations and skill produce a manufactory is not less a producer than the man who produces a web. The production of an invoice is a work of labour as truly as the production of a house.

Most of the distinctions of society have no better origin than pride. In a former number we have shown that the artificial distinctions of rank affect only individuals, and never reach families.* The improvement of the common lot is the thing which the most enlightened selfishness, as well as Christian duty, prescribes as the interest of all families. But it is noteworthy that the great majority of the industrious and producing population go through every one of the various aspects frequently. There is more of the aristocratic spirit than there is of economical truth in the distinctions which are drawn between capitalists or employers, and labourers or employed. By making as wide a distinction as possible between himself and his journeyman, the master fancies he approaches nearer to that darling ideal which aristocracy has taught to modern pride-the lord and the serf. The tradesman and the clerk learn to talk of the lower orders.' Men abound who are ashamed of the condition of their fathers and of their youth. Men who began life in the condition of labourers think they have done a feat to boast of if they have changed their condition to that of employers. This is called raising themselves' in the scale of society, in deference to the aristocratic division of classes into higher classes, middle classes, and lower classes. Here we beg leave to make a quotation from a book which must be extremely scarce and rare in Europe, else its remarkable denunciation of the division of men into aristocracy and democracy, or higher and lower classes, never could, we should imagine, have obtained acceptance and prevalence.

'But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.'

The words by which we express the mischievous distinctions which have filled the world with violence, are derived from the Gentiles, and were the words they used themselves when the great tyrannized over the small, and the few over the many. The servant is greatest in this passage. But, the idler is greatest in modern society. According to this authority, the working classes, the servants of all, are the only great. The most offensive forms of pride in Europe are to be seen in the conduct of the labouring men who have made themselves rich. The very condition which enriched them, they have treated as a

* See Sabbatic Economics, p. 174, of the Eclectic Review' for August.

thing of shame. Nothing pleases the men who pay wages better than to be told that, in the nineteenth century, their relation to the men who are paid wages is precisely similar to the relation between the feudal baron and his retainers. Hence, the fierce resentments with which these men are regarded, and the fact which Lord John Russell declares, that, as Home Secretary, he had never been required to send the military to protect the mansions of the landlords, but he had often been solicited and compelled to send the soldiers to protect the mills of the manufacturers. The receivers of wages are not more in want of instruction in the principles of political economy, than the payers of wages are in want of instruction in the doctrine of dignity taught by Jesus Christ to his disciples.

Mr. Somerville makes the siege of Paris the subject of his third tract.

'On the 1st of July, 1848, Mr. Cobden, M.P., after reading the "National Wealth Tract, No. 2," published on that day, wrote to the author expressing his approval, and suggesting as follows:-"I suggest that you make the striking events of the day the pegs for your arguments. What a lesson is there for you to moralize on in Paris! Turn it to good. Trace the blood of generals, citizens, and workmen, which crimsoned the streets of Paris, (not forgetting that most sublime of modern historical incidents, the martyrdom of the good archbishop ;) trace it up to the innocent but ignorant authors of the tragedy. It was Louis Blanc, honest enthusiast as I believe him to be, and his followers, who really dug the trenches, raised the barricades, and converted the streets of Paris into a field of battle. They who taught the working men that a government can feed and employ the people, instead of teaching them, as a fundamental condition of freedom, it is for the people to feed and clothe themselves, aye and to support and pay the government, they it was who by appearing to have deceived the working men, but who, in reality, were self-deluded, that provoked the terrible outbreak which led to such havoc and slaughter. Nothing but the inculcation of sound views of Political Economy can preserve us from the danger of similar calamities. Let your next number be the Siege of Paris. Show, in your own familiar way, what are and what are not the functions of a government of free men.” '

This letter is full of the characteristics of Mr. Cobden. Make the striking events of the day the pegs of your arguments.' This shows that the honourable member for the West Riding has realized the secret of successful journalism. It is for the people to feed and clothe themselves, aye, and to support and pay the government,' and this ought to be taught as the fundamental condition of freedom.' This is excellent, wholesome, and needful doctrine. But here our pleasure in agreeing with Mr. Cobden ceases. He is all wrong, we respectfully submit, in his historical statements. M. Louis Blanc had nothing