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there is a prospect either of protracted warfare, or of the necessity of more vigorous exertions on the part of government; in both which cases, new loans may be necessary, and consequently a new supply of bills will be thrown into the money market. On the other hand, should the intelligence be favourable, the price of stock will rise, because the prospect of a successful termination of the war renders it probable that there will be no new loan, and consequently no new supply of stock. It is this variation in the price of stock that gives room for the nefarious practice of stock-jobbing. That practice consists in raising and circulating reports, calculated to raise or depress the price of stock, according to the particular views of the individual. If he wishes, for example, to sell his stock or bills, he endeavours to propagate some report or other, favourable to the issue of the war, and the establishment of peace, in order, if possible, to raise the price of stock; and if he wishes to buy, he propagates reports of a contrary tendency. It is painful to think, that this abominable system is sometimes carried on by men, whose rank and station in society, to say nothing of the obligations of morality and religion, might be expected to place them far above any such disgraceful acts; but, in general, I believe it is confined to men of desperate fortune and little character, who subsist by a species of gambling, to which the finance system of this country has opened a wide and extensive field. I allude to those men who make a practice of buying and selling stock, without actually possessing any; and whose transactions, therefore, are nothing more than wagers about the price of stock on a certain day. To explain the nature of the transaction by an example, I shall suppose, that A sells to B a government bill of £100, or a £100 of 5 per cent. stock, to be delivered on a certain future day, and that the price is fixed at £102. If, when the day arrives, the price of stock shall have fallen to £100, A would be able to purchase the bill in question for £100, while, in consequence of his bargain, B would be obliged to pay him £102 for it, so that A would gain £2. If, however, stock had risen to £104, B would still be obliged to give only £102, so that A would lose £2; but instead of actually buying and sellVOL. IV.

ing the stock, the bargain is generally implemented by A paying to B, or receiving from him, the £2, or whatever may be the sum of loss or gain. In such a case as this, it is obviously A's interest that the price of stock should fall, and as obviously B's interest that it should rise, between the day of the bargain and that of settling, and hence the temptation held out to both to circulate reports favourable to their own particular views. B, or the buyer, is usually denominated a Bull, as expressive of his desire to toss up; and A, or seller, a Bear, from his wish to trample upon, or tread down. The law, of course, does not recognise a transaction which proceeds on a principle of gambling; but a sense of honour, or, what is perhaps nearer the truth, self-interest, generally secures the payment of the difference, as the person who refuses to pay his loss, is exhibited in the Stock Exchange under the designation of a lame duck, a disgrace which is considered as the sentence of banishment from that scene of bustle and business.*

I have, in the preceding remarks, for the sake of simplicity, represented the transfer of stock, as carried on in a way somewhat different from that in which it is really conducted. I have considered the securities which government gives to those from whom money is borrowed as consisting of bills, and these bills as uniformly bearing interest at 5 per cent. Neither of these statements, however, is, strictly speaking, correct, as I shall have occasion more particularly to explain in a future communication; but as my object in this introductory paper was to simplify the subject as much as possible, for the sake of those who are unacquainted with it, I have chosen an illustration that appeared to me most elementary, and which, if well understood, will enable ordinary readers to comprehend with little difficulty, the more intricate parts of the subject, to which I shall take the liberty hereafter to direct their attention. To many, I have no doubt, my observations will appear not only sufficiently simple, but abundantly silly, and as containing nothing but what every body knew before. Now, I do boldly aver, that every body does not know what I have above explained, and I

See Hamilton on the National Debt, notes, p. 182, first edition. H

solemnly protest against the sneers and sarcasms of those who do, because it is not for them I write, nor is it their approbation that I care any thing about. I write for the instruction of plain honest country folks (who, by the way, constitute no inconsiderable portion of your readers), and if I can assist one old lady in judging when it is most advantageous to invest in, or sell out, of the funds, or save one young gentleman from blushing, when he is requested to read and explain the newspaper report of the stocks, I shall not consider my own trouble lost, or the paper of your Magazine wasted. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 5th Oct. 1818.

T. N.

RICARDO AND THE EDINBURGH
REVIEW.

IN page 81, Edinburgh Review, No
59, on Ricardo's Political Economy,
are these words: "It follows from
these principles, that the interest of
Landlords is always opposed to that of
every other class of the community."
What are these principles may be seen
by those who shall study the book and
the review of it. This is the conclu-
sion drawn from them, and sanctioned
by the authority of the Reviewer,
and of this I shall treat. Were a
very long and intricate chain of rea-
soning to conclude with the inference,
that perjury and fraud were lawful in
the common transactions of life, I
suppose it would not be necessary to
follow the chain. Such a conclusion
would be considered as equivalent to
what mathematicians call Reductio ad
absurdum, or a Coroners Inquest, Felo
de se.
If any man, or class of men,
be of such a nature, or in such a state,
that their interest is always opposed
to that of every other class of the
community, then that man, or class of
men, are the natural and necessary
enemies of mankind; for the dis-
position will follow the interest, and
the conduct the disposition; and it
would be for the interest of mankind
that such a class did not exist; in
other words, that landlords did not
exist, and that there was no such thing
as landed property. Yet it is from
the land or soil that all the necessaries,
conveniences, and material comforts
of life are obtained. How these would
be produced, in such a case, or what
inducement there would be to produce
them, or under what new form of so-

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ciety they would be produced, or what previous steps would be necessary to bring matters to this happy consummation, it is for Mr Ricardo and his Reviewer to explain. As matters now stand, the case is hopeless, for (page 77,) no reduction would take place in the price of corn, although landlords should forego the whole of their rents." In other words, although the present landlords should cease to be landlords, and the present farmers be substituted in their place, still the land must be occupied by somebody, who will have an interest always opposed to every other class of the community, and will therefore be their necessary enemy, at the same time that he would be their necessary friend; for the parties could not subsist without mutual assistance. If all that is meant be, that the interest of landlords is always opposed to that of every other class of the community, because they, like every other trade, wish to make the most of their commodity, by letting their land as high as they can, "We need no ghost to tell us this, Ricardo (or Reviewer)"; although it is to be hoped that there is no ghost or spirit of any description but would have had more candour than to put so very trite an observation into so mischievous a form, and to point against one, and that an absolutely necessary class of men, what is equally applicable to every other. If more is meant than meets the eye, let it be well observed, that were the world to rise en masse, and put the present landlords hors de combat in this interminable warfare, others would rise in their place, and the same wholesome discipline would have to be repeated without end, unless it be proposed that the whole mass of the people should assume the whole mass of the land, and cultivate it, for the mutual benefit, by Committees. Indeed, it is impossible to discover the sense or use of this remark about the opposition of interests, unless it be to make it the foundation of some such scheme as this, which might, by parity of reason, be extended to every other trade or profession. While matters remain on the present footing, and property of all kinds continues to be acknowledged and respected, men will continue, as they have done since the commencement of civilized society, to buy and to sell, to let land and to take it as they best can, those who give

themselves the trouble to think well knowing, and those possessed of any candour acknowledging, that this is not a general and eternal opposition of interests; but that while every man pursues his own interest, and attends to his own affairs, under the restraint of the laws of God and his country, he may leave the general result to Providence, and rest assured, that this is not merely the best, but the only way in which human affairs can be conducted. If political economists chuse to depart from the common use of language, and call this a perpetual opposition of interests, and, consequently, a state of perpetual hostility, let them have the consistency to call it a general opposition of interests; and let the rest of mankind admit that, if in one sense they be mutual enemies, in a more comprehensive view of the matter, they are mutual friends, and cannot do without one another. The landlord, be his rent great or small, cannot enjoy it without communicating it with the merchant upon 'change, the banker in his counting-room, the retailer in his shop, the mariner on the ocean, the weaver at his loom, the smith at his forge, the mason with his mallet, the carpenter with his chisel, the cobler in his stall. Let a man be ever so selfish, if he wishes to enjoy his own, he cannot, for his heart, do it alone. This is equally true of the landholder, the stockholder, the merchant, the capitalist of every description, nay, of the man of no capital, who lives by his daily exertions. He cannot live without making others live also. Nay, it appears to me, that, where there are many great landholders and great capitalists of other descriptions, there the labourers of every description, the manufacturers, the community at large, will be in a much better situation, than where the same capital is divided among a greater number, but none arising to wealth. For the wealthy man has many wants, and none of them can be satisfied without the assistance of the poor. Even when the poor cease, from age and infirmity, to be able to contribute to the other enjoyments of the rich, there is still one remaining to which they can contribute, the indulgence of a benevolent disposition. And whoever has observation and candour, will admit that, in this country at least, riches do not

We do not

harden but rather soften the heart. On the other hand, he was possessed of more than mortal wisdom, who long ago observed, "that a poor man, who oppresseth the poor, is like a sweeping-rain which leaveth no food." Whereas, to use a homely but expressive similitude, a rich man, like a wateringpan in the hands of Providence, serves to diffuse more generally and usefully the means of subsistence; while the envious absurdity of the human heart grudges even existence to that which feeds it! as if the flesh of our bodies should rise, in unhallowed insurrection, against the heart. All would be watering-pans, all would be hearts; but this is not the order of nature nor of Providence, which must ultimately prevail. After derangement shall have succeeded to derangement, and revolution to revolution-after having exhausted all the forms of madness, of misery, of murder, and of blood, it is only by returning to the order and subordination of nature, that wretched and weary mortals can escape from anarchy and despotism, and expect to find, if not happiness, at least safety and repose. deny, what we have often felt, that there is such a thing as the proud man's contumely, as well as the insolence of office, and that nothing generates pride, and contumely, and insolence, more (although many things as much) than excessive wealth. But these are among the evils of a secondary kind, inherent in the very nature of society. For the pride of birth, of genius, of talents, of bodily strength and dexterity, is as mortifying to human nature as the pride of wealth. It is only in the dust of death that all visible distinctions shall be levelled, and envy as well as love and hatred disappear. Thus it is that the interests of the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the producer and consumer, however apparently opposed, are, in fact, linked together by an invisible adamantine chain, which no ages nor oceans can interrupt, nor death, nor war, nor the utmost malignity of the human heart, pointed by its utmost ingenuity, destroy. And no wonder; for it is formed and sustained by Him, whose weakness is stronger than man, and whose folly is wiser than man.

He from heaven's height All these their motions vain sees and de

rides

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If it is inquired what is meant by the order and subordination of nature above mentioned, I answer (what may be indeed inferred from what has been already said) that it is the order and subordination which is the natural and necessary consequence of inequality of property, which inequality is the natural and necessary consequence of the idea of property being at all admitted among men. I talk of civilized life. Wherever there is property there must be power, and where there is inequality of property there must be inequality of power. And this I look upon as the most natural, the surest, and safest basis of Government,-whatever may be the superstructure. Upon this basis stood the Comitia centuriata of Rome. An ancient and complete instance of inequality of property made the foundation and principle of Government. It united independence and intelligence, and gave every chance of stability that can be given to any human institution. It was the Comitia tributa and curialia, whose numbers, not property, was the rate of voting, which introduced corruption and confusion into the government, and made the flatterers of the people masters of the legions and the destinies of Rome. Reason and experience concur in showing, that there is but a step from democracy to despotism, and that the spirit of both is that of robbery and murder; whereas a government founded upon property must protect property, a fortiori, liberty and life. In this opinion I am much fortified by that of a very able author, who wrote no farther back than the year 1807. See Edinburgh Review, No 18, page 366 bottom, and 367 top, article -Filangieri on Legislation.

"But no country has ever possessed such a mass of landed and mercantile proprietors,

or such numbers of enlightened citizens, as our own. What lever can overturn a pyramid which rests on such a basis as this? Not surely a King of England, with less of courtly splendour than perhaps becomes his dignity, and without the practical choice of even the servants who form his household!" This was written with sound sense and sound patriotism. I would beg only to add to it, that in these respects landed property has the advantage of mercantile. It is more visible, -it is more permanent,-and it is

employed in productions of primary necessity. It is not disputed that, in some other respects, the mercantile has the advantage, and in some the stockholder has the advantage of both, particularly in the immediate command of his money. But who would have suspected that the landed interest, forming, in conjunction with the mercantile, the basis of the pyramid upon which rest our rights, our security, and our happiness, was always opposed to that of every other class of the community? Administrations may stand or fall,

66

" A breath can make them as a breath has made,"

but surely landed property does not change its nature with the change of a ministry. Moreover, in No 20 of above work, page 407, article-Cobbet's Political Register, I read, that "the influence of great families (undoubtedly great landed families) in the election of members, is rather beneficial than pernicious." Is it possible that the influence of men, whose interest is always opposed to that of every other class of the community, should be beneficial in the election of members? Will they not poison the very fountain-head of our political existence? Will they not sacrifice to their own interest that of every other class of the community? There ought rather to be express laws made to debar them from elections and the House of Commons altogether; and instead of the trust-oath, there should be one framed, that the claimant did not possess, in property or superiority, directly or indirectly, an inch of ground. Again, in above No 20, the same article (Cobbett), page 417, I find, that

"An English Peer has scarcely any other influence than an English Gentleman of equal fortune, and scarcely any other interest to maintain it. The whole landed interest, including the peerage, is scarcely a

match for the moneyed interest either in

Parliament or out of it; and, as it is the basis of a more steady and permanent, as well as a more liberal and exalted dependency, we wish to see Peers concerned in elections rather than Stock-jobbers and Nabobs ;” that is to say, that the influence of Peers, as proprietors of land, should be encouraged in the House of Commons, from whence, as Peers, they are constitutionally excluded; and yet as proprietors of land, their interest must always be opposed to that of

every other class of the community, and they must therefore have the same interest as other land-holders to do mischief in the House of Com

mons.

In page 82 of Edinburgh Review, No 59, it is said:

"High rents and low profits, for they are inseparably connected, ought never to be made the subject of complaint, if they occur in the natural state of society, and under a system of perfectly free intercourse with other nations; but if they are caused by an exclusive commercial system, or by restrictions which prevent the cheap importation of foreign corn, and which, therefore, force the cultivation of inferior soils at home, they are highly to be deprecated."

Now, if the government of this country should find expedient, and what is called the commercial interest should agree to a perfectly free intercourse with other nations, that is, to a perfectly free importation of foreign corn, and of every other foreign article of consumption, I think what is called the landed interest, as such, would not, and ought not, to object to it, whatever effect it might have upon rents. But if the meaning be, that there should be a perfectly free importation of foreign corn, and a perfectly restrained importation of every thing, or of any thing else, and this be called the natural state of society, then, I would say, that what is called the landed interest, would be hardly dealt with and treated as a stepchild by the common mother country; because it would be obliged to sell cheap and buy dear, and would be the only class of inhabitants so treated. I have said, what is called the commercial and landed interest, because I am perfectly sensible that the interest of all classes is the same, and that none can be injured, in the first instance, but the rest must ultimately suffer. I am more particularly sensible, that the home trade of this country, as of most other countries, is by far the most important-that the proprietors and occupiers of land are the greatest consumers in such trade, and that they cannot be impoverished, but the other elasses must be ruined. I have been now nearly three-score and ten years in this world, and have had some op -portunity of observing the former and present number of retail shops in different county, and other towns, and the goods and customers with which they were formerly, and are now fill

ed, and can thence form some opinion, whether or not the commercial interest has suffered by the advancement of the landed interest; and whether all interests be not much advanced, and much in the same proportion. After the income tax, and all the taxes, and all our debt, and a war of nearly twenty-five years, I can declare, that all classes of men are, beyond all comparison, better fed, better clad, and better lodged, than when I first opened my eyes upon this world, upon which I know I must soon close them forever. Further, were all nations to act upon the principle of what is said in above quotation about the cultivation of inferior soils, I suspect (and so does the Reviewer, as we shall soon see), that the earth would be less productive, and consequently less inhabited, than at present. And if this nation in particular, were to act upon it, then, and in the event of a foreign war and Continental system, such as we have seen, it would be in a very dependent and dangerous situation."

I shall make one more quotation from above Review, No 59, page 87, being the last on the subject of Ricardo.

"It is, whatever may be said to the contrary, the great and leading defect of the lower classes, that they submit to privations with too little reluctance."

There is much dark reasoning in this article of Ricardo, and unquestionably much ingenuity. But it must be confessed, that this improvement of the subject, which may likewise be considered as the key, is abundantly plain and practical. I shall now take the liberty of making rather a long extract from the same work, No 18, page 371, that I may have an opportunity of comparing above remark concerning the culpable passiveness of the lower classes, with the following eulogy upon

their

poverty

and thrift:

classes a real check to population, though "Nor is the poverty of the labouring lamented with much benevolent feeling by Filangieri. It was poverty, the parent of labour, the duris urgens in rebus egestis, which first tamed the habitable earth; and still, though more slowly, encroaches on the swamp and the thicket (inferior soils), to augment the sustenance of mankind. But

food may not only be augmented, it may be

economized. It may seem at first, the cra

vings of hunger must be nearly the same in all men, and require nearly an equal portion of food to allay them. But some

are fed with less, and some are fed with

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