it from their employment. Mr McCulloch has met these arguments, founded on a very narrow and partial basis of induction, with others derived from the more extended experience which the lights of modern science have brought into view. "Nothing," says he, can be more marvellously incorrect than these representations-more completely at variance with principle and experience. It is most true, indeed, that in every country and situation of life, individuals will be found who are careless of the future, and intent only on present enjoyment; but these always form a very small, and even inconsiderable minority, of each particular class. Whatever may be the case with a few individuals, the principle of accumulation always predominates in aggregate bodies over the passion of expense. When ever the wages paid to the labourer are so low as to render it impossible for an ordinary increase of exertion, to make any material and visible addition to their comforts and conveniences, they invariably sink into a state of idleness, and of sluggish and stupid indifference. But the desire to rise in the world, and to improve our condition, is too deeply seated in the human breast ever to be wholly eradicated. And as soon as labour is rendered more productive-as soon as an increase of industry brings a proportional increase of comforts and enjoyments along with it, indolence uniformly gives place to exertion; a taste for the conveniences and enjoyments of life gradually diffuses itself; increased exertions are made to obtain them; and, ultimately, the workman considers it discreditable to be without them.

"If an increase of wages," continues our author, "ever discourages industry, it must be the industry of the wretch who had previously been straining every nerve to obtain mere subsistence, or the forced industry of the indolent and the dissolute; and even to produce this effect on them, the increase must have been sudden and transitory,-not gradual and permanent. We are warranted in affirming, that a steadily high rate of wages never has had, and never will have, any such effect. The poor have, upon all plain prac

tical questions, that touch their own interests, the same understanding, the same penetration, and the same regard to remote consequences, as those who are rich. It is, indeed, an absurdity to pretend, that if lahourers are capable of earning, by an ordinary degree of application, more than is sufficient for their support, they alone, of all orders in the community, will spend the surplus in riot and debauchery. They have the same common sense, they are actuated by the same passions, feelings, and principles, as other men ; and when such is the case, it is clear that they cannot generally be guilty of such inconsiderate conduct. But to lay aside general reasoning, does not the state of industry, in countries where the natural rate of wages is low, compared with its state in those where it is high, prove all that has now been said? Have the low wages of the people of Ireland, Poland, and Hindostan, made them industrious? or the high wages of the Americans, the English, and the Hollanders, made them lazy, riotous, and profligate? Just the contrary. The former are as notoriously and proverbially indolent, as the latter are laborious, active, and enterpris ing. The experience of all ages and nations proves that high wages are the keenest spur-the most powerful stimulus to unremitting and assiduous exertion."

In the following section of the Essay, our author proceeds to discuss the circumstances on which the different rates of wages in different employments depend. In this part of the Essay we do not find that the author has stated any thing with which the readers of Smith's Wealth of Nations are not familiar; but it is of consequence to have brought into a short space, and a form accessible by every one, the doctrines of that great work in reference to this subject. The result of the whole is, that whether the rewards of employment, in different occupations, amount, in individual cases, to twenty, or to twenty thousand pounds a-year, still, on the supposition that a free competition exists for entering on the different occupations, the average return from them to each person engaged in them will be the saine. The perma

nent differences that actually obtain in the rate of wages, paid to those who are engaged in different employments, in countries where industry is free and unfettered, are never more than sufficient to balance the favourable or unfavourable circumstances attending them. Those who receive the highest wages are not, when the cost of their education, the chances of their success, and the various disadvantages incident to their professions, are taken into account, really better paid than those who receive the lowest. The wages earned by the different classes of workmen are equal, not when each individual earns the same number of shillings or of pence in a given space of time, but when each is paid in proportion to the severity of the labour he has to perform, to the degree of previous education and skill which it requires, and to the various other causes which have been enumerated and illustrated by the Author of "The Wealth of Nations."

The Essayist, in his sixth section, has entered into some historical details and interesting disquisitions on the laws for repressing combinations among workmen, previous to their repeal in the year 1824. He has pointed out distinctly the impolicy of these laws, and shewn that their real effect was to do violence to the rights and feelings of the labouring classes, and to excite them to dangerous secret conspiracies against their masters, whom, in most instances, they accused, unjustly, of keeping their wages unduly low. And he has shewn to our perfect satisfaction, that it is tyrannical on the part of Government, and useless so far as the interests of capitalists are concerned, to interfere for the purpose of prohibiting voluntary combinations, unaccompanied with threats, intimidation, or violence; but that, when the slightest attempt is made to obstruct either their fellow-workmen in the free disposal of their labour, or their masters in giving whatever wages they may think proper for that labour, immediately the

strong arm of the law ought to be stretched out to punish the aggres

sors.

A short section is devoted to the discussion of the advantages of Friendly Societies and Savings Banks,-institutions which have

been attended with signal benefits to this country. The effects of the Poor Laws on the condition of the labouring classes are next brought into view, in a short but masterly paragraph. Every one seems now to admit their most pernicious effects, except when they are applied to the relief of the aged and impotent poor; and even in this case many insist for their repeal, on the ground that private charity is adequate to the relief of all who are really objects requir ing it. We are strongly inclined to coincide with the latter class, as, from all that we have been able to learn of the operations of these laws in England, where they are firmly rooted to the soil, we suspect they have been attended with almost unredeemed evil.

We wish that we could quote at length the truly eloquent conclusion of this Essay. It refers to the allimportant subject of education; but as we have inserted various remarks on this subject in another part of this Number, we shall no longer detain our readers than by recommending to one and all of them the perusal and re-perusal of this invaluable Essay. To the Author, the best thanks of all classes of his countrymen are due, for accommodating, in so simple a form, the great truths of economical science to the comprehension of every individual who can read and reason, however humble may be his situation, however confined the sphere of his attainments. In bidding our Essayist adieu, we have only farther to apologise to him for transferring to our obscure pages so much valuable matter from his work. But when he considers the end which may perhaps be served by it, we are sure that he is the last man that will bring an indictment against us for plagiarism.

THE Ducal House of Hamilton has found, in the present historian, a faithful and industrious chronicler of the history of the family, from the remotest period to the present time. He has traced the descent of the family to the ancient English House of the Earl of Leicester, or Family of De Bellomont, from whom he alleges the great progenitor of the Hamilton family came. The reader is carried back, in following up the history of the renowned and potent House of Leicester, to the period of the Norman Conquest. To the Normans, the origin and descent of a great proportion of the Peers of the three kingdoms may be traced. It was the battle of Hastings, which declared for the Norman chiefs, and establishing William the Conqueror on the English throne, conferred on him the power, which he freely exercised, of dividing among his immediate followers the country which their enterprise and prowess had won. The property was wrested from its ancient possessors, and the rich lands of England became the property of Normans, who parcelled it out among themselves. It is again to the civil wars, subsequent to the time of Henry the First of England, that we must ascribe the different settlements of the AngloNormans in Scotland. Encouraged by the munificence of our Scottish Kings, particularly our first David, who did much for Scotland, in erecting towns and promoting trade, many Anglo-Normans then settled in this country. Before the middle of the 13th century, these settlers had acquired from the natives a great proportion of the lands south of the Forth, as well as formed many settlements on the north side of that river. Our historian, too, lays before us the progress of the noble family; its increase in wealth, power, and noble titles, is faithfully and chronologically stated-from the time when we have the first of the family bearing only the simple knightly title, till we find the pre

sent noble and distinguished personage, who wears the honours of the family, house no less than eighteen different noble titles.

The family of Hamilton has, from its origin, continued to occupy so distinguished a place in their country's history, that any biographer, who aims at giving an account of the House, must accompany it with many details already recorded in the pages of our historians. Connected with all the great historical events of our country, much matter which has been long before the public must be again produced and repeated. This course the present author has adopted, so that we can refer many of his details to their true sources. In many cases they are but transcripts of the events taken from the different historians of the period. Douglas's Peerage, by Wood, is laid largely under contribution, while Melville, Burnet, Robertson, and other historians, are resorted to for furnishing the details wanted. His obligations to these writers the author has very properly acknowledged. His obvious duty, when he undertook the task he has so respectably accomplished, was to connect the rise of the noble family with the progress of the History of Scotland, and he was then sure to make his book what it should be-a faithful record of the family's history.

This family has been fortunate in finding biographers. Burnet's Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, as well as the Memoirs of James, Duke of Hamilton, published in London in 1742, are known to many of our readers. Our author has thus had all the advantage of the research and skill of his predecessors. These biographies, though the histories were scanty and meagre, compared to that of our author, must have furnished him with most useful materials for attaining his object. These he has judiciously used; and, upon the whole, has given to the public a volume which cannot fail to interest all those who are attached to the study