advancement of her station as an empire; and that the art of being wealthy and successful at home, principally consists in benefiting others, and in following only the line marked out by reason.

CHAP. II.—England—its population.

THE true basis of a country's strength is its population. Man is the universal, indispensable agent, whose destiny it is to work and fertilise the earth; to whom land and sea yield alike their tributary riches; whose presence gives life and animation, and whose absence is alone sufficient to produce the sterility of a desert. He is in fact

the same vivifying principle to the social state which the sun is to nature at large; for without the concurrence of men there would be neither the nerves nor sinews of a kingdom; and without the invigorating influence of the solar orb we should in vain look for the varied productions of the soil.

The European population of the three united dominions of Great Britain amounts to 18,000,000. The census of 1821 proves that the population of the British Isles has advanced one-fifth during the last thirty years. This increase is very considerable, and has no example in any other country of Europe; but in the United States it has been still greater; for "there" the population, which, in 1776, was calculated at three millions, has already reached eleven millions. The progressive advance of population in England has been going on, notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances of a long and sanguinary war; and this, which has proved a scourge to humanity on the continent, has entirely failed in checking the population of England, owing to its local and other peculiar advantages accorded to it by nature. In fact, so situated, and so socially constituted, England derives benefit and increase from those circumstances which press heavy on, and are injurious to, the other states. The plagues of war reach only to the money coffers of Britain, but spare its cities, its fields, and its cultivators. Misery and dévastation, those ordinary attendant curses of war, perish on her coasts. Her numerous and powerful fleets render the interior of her dominions secure from the attacks of an assailing foe. Whilst almost all the capitals of Europe were occupied by hostile armies; while twenty princes were driven from their hereditary thrones, were wandering over the face of Europe; or trembling received back from the conquering hand their diadems, shorn of their brightest gems, England was attracting to its bosom the gold and merchandise of the whole world; she was supporting, clothing, and arming both friends and foes; the arts, encouraged by necessity, verged on perfection, creating at once the want of and taste for her manufactures! In such a state of things, for

one man slaughtered in the field, it must be evident, that industry would summon a hundred to the work of reproduction, and thus, that England would naturally derive life and increase from the very causes which tended to depopulate and to weaken other kingdoms. The national progression of England was exactly in an inverse ratio to that of the continent, where war suspended the course of operative labor, the principal and chief agent of reproduction in the social state. England has lately furnished a solemn example of the contrary effects of war on herself and the continent. The more envenomed the character of the war, the greater her prosperity; at once she became the grand entrepôt and manufactory of the world; and thus the value of her soil, and the number of her working men, increased every day. But the succeeding peace, which gave to the continent its share in her hitherto exclusive prosperity and happiness, has proportionably diminished the wealth of her agriculturists and the demand for her manufactures. But it does not follow that the population of England should, owing to this state of peace, be on the decline. Under an enlightened government she has sought and discovered compensations for the losses which she has in this manner sustained. Her revenue for 1821 and 1822 exceeded the amount of any year during the war, the most favorable to her prosperity. The increase of the British population is on many accounts no less favorable to the continent than to England herself. Commerce is the sail of modern societies; every where it seeks consumers; the nation which is the greatest consumer is the most valuable in a commercial view, and most beneficial to society at large. The English take more for consumption than any other nation, and thus their increase in numbers will be commensurate with the extent of their commerce, and will be of infinite consequence to the whole world. Compare with the British those nations who are morally and physically benumbed, and insensible to the enjoyments of life, the Turksthe Africans-is their increase of importance to the world? What have they to give? what to exchange with us? Dead in a manner to the world, the very animals by which men are supported rank higher in the scale of existence than those beings, who are clothed with the human figure, and yet contribute nothing to the welfare and comfort of their fellow creatures. We have purposely excluded from this census the 18 millions of British subjects, who inhabit the Eastern and Western colonies, and whose defence requires a part of the population of the mother country, and stand thus to it more in the light of expense than receipt; more as diminution, than addition of numbers. They are useful, however, to England, as consumers of her productions. These objects of consumption create labor, and salary, which in their turn contribute to the increase of the population of the country, which furnishes those

objects. Our attention therefore is limited to the population of the three united kingdoms of Great Britain!

CHAP. III.

THE most remarkable, and, at the same time, the most instructive feature in the character of the finances of England is, that their almost incalculable extent does not depend upon her possession of mines of gold and silver, but on the industry of her people, and her undeviating fidelity to the admirable institutions by which she is governed. This is the real and permanent cause of her immense wealth. The possession of the precious metals does not constitute national wealth, as the example of Spain more than sufficiently proves. It is by the adoption of fixed principles, (not liable to be changed by the continual control of public opinion,) and by the unrestricted development of the faculties of every citizen, that the wealth of a nation is acquired, and rendered durable. The revenues of Scotland and England must be considered apart from those of Ireland in our estimate of the British finances, for the Irish government returns, as well as those of the colonies and the Indies do not enter into their composition.

The budget of England, in 1823, amounted in

Receipt, to

£55,333,333. 6s. 8d.

Disbursements, to £50,000,000, according to the report brought up in the house of Commons, on the sixth of February of that year. In 1815, the taxes levied in England amounted to £66,666,666, 13s. 4d.

From 1808 to 1815, (an uninterrupted period of war,) this revenue remained steady (at a mean ratio) of £62,500,000; the product of the labor of twelve millions of men ouly!

Consequently, had England possessed the same advantages in territory and population as France, her annual revenue would have amounted to £150,000,000.

Spain, with all her superiority over England, in the possession of the country teeming with the precious metals, and numbering a population nearly equal to that of Britain, and with a soil infinitely superior, has never seen her revenue exceed £6,666,666. 13s. 4d.

Austria, with her numerous population and fertile territory, with difficulty forces her revenue up to £12,500,000 which is scarcely the 5th part of the revenue of England, whose population is less than that of Austria by one half, and who at most has only onethird of her territorial extent; so true is it in finance, as in every thing else, that natural causes must be submitted to moral causes, that is to say, to wisdom guided by the light of experience and observation!

Under the Stuart race of sovereigns England ranked in Europe the lowest on the scale of wealthy nations. Her revenues, her credit, her industry, her commerce, all languished, or perished. The history of that time is nearly that of a "financial" struggle between the Prince and his people, and the lamentable demonstration of a revenue annually deficient. No sooner however was she free to display her native strength, and put forth her hidden powers, than in an instant she became prosperous and wealthy; and established her interests on that line of intelligence and success, from which the national vigilance has never permitted the government to depart. From that period she has gone on progressively increasing in wealth and happiness, and from being originally one of the smallest of the European states, and the least favored by nature, she at this day surpasses them all by her wealth; and rules in nearly all by her powerful influence! In fact, England possesses the purse of the world, and disputes with it the absolute possession of the sceptre of universal dominion! She has arrived at such a degree of wealth, that, nationally speaking, the words "gain" or "lose" have not in her case their common acceptation and force; therefore that which would overthrow or enrich another state, (such is the immensity of her wealth,) scarcely affects her; or in case of increase, it would be like adding drops of water to the ocean! It is "the public utility" alone which guides and restricts the propositions and measures of the English ministry. Let this be fairly proved to be the object of a measure, the means necessary to its execution are instantly forthcoming without any difficulty. Thus the English government unhesitatingly adopts the most extensive and boldest schemes, and easily overcomes obstacles, the very contemplation of which would paralise a hundred other administrations. Thus taxes have, since 1819, been remitted to the people to the amount of no less than £12,666,666. 13. 4.; and the public debt of the country has been reduced, in part, by the conversion of the five per cents. into a four per cent. stock, the capital remaining integral to those who did not choose to embrace the proposals of the finance minister. The naval and military pensions paid by the government of England, and amounting to £5,000,000, have been converted into annuities for forty years, a financial arrangement doubtless beneficial to the country. But so great was the increase of her military pensions, in consequence of her immense establishment and of the protracted war with France, that their amount actually exceeded the revenues of Sweden, Denmark, Piedmont, and Saxony, taken together; in 1792 they were not more than £78,333. 6. 8, whereas in 1822, they touched £5,000,000.

The credit of England surpasses all that is attributed to the signification of the word in other countries. Burdened by a debt of nearly £800,000,000, her ministers declare, in the face of Europe,

that never was she more able than at the present hour to adopt every measure required for the preservation of her own honor, and the general interests of Europe. It is the national spirit; the fidelity of the nation to its engagements. It is England herself-England with all her mighty and distinctive attributes of moral integrity, universal diffusion of knowledge, as of wealth, which is the soul of this. credit. With foundations thus deeply laid, where is the power that shall overthrow the glorious edifice of British credit? It is quite impossible that England should bely herself and all her institutions! The credit of other countries does not exceed the funds of their exchequers, and is supported only by the sovereign and his council. Whereas, in Britain, a large proportion of the people have identified: their interests and very existence with the public debt, that is to the public credit. On the continent the mass at large have no interest in the national credit, which is in the hands of a few capitalists, and the people would rather vote for its destruction than for its support. In every county of England there are numerous private banks, in full operation, whereas four of the principal commercial cities of France, Bordeaux, Lyons, Rouen, and Lisle, have actually been unable to answer their own bills of exchange. It is then the union in England of the private interests with those of the community at large that gives her in this respect such decided advantages over the continent.

say,

In 1822 the English minister announced to the Commons that during the five preceding years (from 1817 to 1822) the number of prosecutions in excise cases had diminished more than twothirds. In 1817 the number amounted to 461; in 1819 to 220; and in 1822 to 186! No nation presents so remarkable a feature as this in its fiscal history. Secure in the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor, and left free to the development of all their faculties, the English may boast of an hitherto unknown blessing, namely, the capability of their means "to pay," in proportion to the increasing amount of their taxes.. Elsewhere we have no such happy relation existing between demand and payment, between the wants of a government and the power of its subjects to answer its regulations. The taxes in. England are levied chiefly on consumption, while the soil is spared. This principle is carried still farther in America, for there the land is totally exempt from taxes, and consumption alone is burdened.

In England the direct impost on the soil does not exceed £1,500,000; all the other imposts, which affect the soil, produce only £8,333,333. 6. 8. Consequently the imposts on property in England hardly amount to the eleventh part of the government expenditure; whilst in France, where the budget is fixed at £37,500,000, this same impost forms a little more than one-third of all the