nent abundance or scarcity of money, only lowers or raises the rate of interest, in proportion as its presence or its absence augments or reduces the quantity of the general circulating capital.

Whatever is paid for the use of money beyond the market-rate of interest, is paid as a premium to the lender to compensate him for the risk he runs, of not being repaid without expense and delay, or of losing his money altogether.

Laws limiting the rate of interest on loans, diminish competition among lenders, and raise the rate of interest in the market. The borrower, besides being obliged to pay this higher rate of interest, is also obliged to pay to the lender such an additional sum, as will cover the risk which the lender runs, of losing his money, by infringing the law.

Thus it seems that usury laws, instead of favouring and protecting those for whose benefit they were intended, namely, the needy, do, on the contrary, actually compel them to incur a much heaver debt to obtain the means of succour, than they would otherwise be required to do.

It is not only, however, as these laws aggravate the evil they were intended to correct, that their expediency is to be objected to, but upon other grounds they are still more objectionable.

They tend to diminish the force of moral obligation. They invite to acts of dishonour, baseness, and fraud; and this by offering a discharge from debt as their reward. And thus they lead the unfortunate debtor from pecuniary embarrassment, to a state of moral degradation.

Further, when the profit on the employment of capital raises the market-rate of interest above the rate limited by law, it compels, in the transaction of business, to a very general evasion of the law. And in this respect, it is a question for legislators to determine, whether it be good policy to enact or retain laws of this nature, which, by accustoming the people to violations of law, tend to impair the respect wherein the laws generally ought to be held.

It is moreover a question, whether, instead of endeavouring to prevent the idle, the improvident, and the prodigal, by these laws, from parting with property which they know not how to use, it would not be better for society to leave them at liberty to transfer it to other hands, where it would be used productively to the public benefit.

This change of property, while it would promote the interest of the community on the one hand, might prove, to those who parted with it, a profitable lesson of experience on the other. It would lead them, through necessity, to a knowledge of the advantages of industry, providence, and economy; and with this

knowledge, they would not be likely to require the interposition of usury laws for their protection.

These, as well as all other legislative enactments, which interpose obstacles to the punctual performance of ordinary contracts, entered into in prosecution of the common affairs of life, have the effect to produce distrust, diminish confidence, abridge credit, discourage industry, and with these to retard the progress of public prosperity and wealth.

VIII. PRODUCTION, USE, AND CONSUMPTION, DEFINED.

The results of production are products. Products are not consumed, while in use; they are consumed only when by use they are annihilated.

Wheat and wool are products. One is used for bread, and consumed in food; the other is used for cloth, and consumed in clothing.

Houses and household furniture are products. One is used for shelter, and the other is used for convenience.

The improvements of land are products, aud used for profit or pleasure. In short, all things of a material nature, adapted by art and labour to consumption, use, or enjoyment, are products of industry and the results of production.

IX. PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY DEFINED.

Productive industry comprehends the exercise of talent, intelligence, invention, art, skill, dexterity, and labour, either in production, as in agriculture, the fisheries, manufactures, and the mechanic arts, or in the augmentation in the value of products, by the distribution and exchange of the transportable and circulating surplus, as in commerce.

The power of productive industry is measured by the quantities of its products in their relation to wealth, and not by their quantities in their relation to value; for the value of a product is increased by diminishing its relative quantity, whereas wealth is increased by the augmentation of the quantity of a product.

X. DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE LABOUR.

It is not easy in all cases to draw a distinct line between productive and unproductive labor nor is it of any practical importance that it should be done.

The following distinction may however be made between them. In private service, all labour, by which the exchangeable value of material objects is augmented, is productive labour; but that which adds nothing to the exchangeable value of material objects, notwithstanding it may be useful in other relations, is called unproductive labour.

In public service, all labour, which is employed to augment the utility of those objects, which come under the head of public property, is productive labour; whereas all other public labours, however important they may be to the public welfare, are nevertheless unproductive labours, in their relation to the production of wealth.

XI. OBJECTS OF PRODUCTION.

The objects of production are either perishable, and for immediate consumption; or more durable, and for present and future use and consumption. Those of the first kind are principally of agriculture and the fisheries; and those of the second, are mostly of manufacture and the mechanic arts. From the consumable products of this first department of industry, man principally derives his subsistence; in the more durable products of the second, he chiefly accumulates his wealth.

XII. DISTINCTION BETWEEN MANUFACTURE AND THE MECHANIC

ARTS.

By the mechanic arts, is understood the various arts, in which the operations are manually performed by the aid of tools and machines of little cost, and such as are within the means of the mechanic generally to procure for himself, without the aid of the capitalist.

By manufacture, is understood those great productive operations of art, which cannot be effected without the assistance of large capitals; but by the employment of which, under the direction of skill, the powers of nature are brought through the medium of machinery to the aid of human labour, and made to perform its functions to such an extent, as greatly to augment production. And by means of this in the saving of labour, the costs of production are very considerably reduced, and the public supplied with the products, at a price reduced in a corresponding proportion. H. C.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE LAST SONG OF THE GREEK PATRIOT.

One last, best effort now

They shall not call us slaves

These iron necks shall never bow

To barter for a hated life,

But we will tell in mortal strife,

What wrath a freeman braves-

A few short years, and we have known
The pride and joy-to live alone.

Our ancient land was free,—

We washed its stains in blood-
Again the hymn of Liberty

Rose from the high Athenian shrine,
And virgin hands did often twine,
In the dark olive wood,

Their garlands for the youthful brow,
Who taught the heathen Turk to bow.
These have been glorious days-

Let come what will, our fame
Is like the sun's eternal blaze,
And when they tell of Marathon,
And all the fields our fathers won,
They too shall name.

Botzaris, and the few who died,
Victims of glory, by his side.
The world has told our doom-

'Tis Liberty or Death

The tree we planted must not bloom,
For Turk and Christian-all unite,
And royal hands our sentence write,
And yet our breath,

When trampled by the ruffian herd,
Shall never breathe one recreant word.

If we must die-then die-

And let the foul disgrace

Cling to their names eternally,

Who, when they had the power to save,
Doomed to a dark and bloody grave

A high, devoted race

Awhile the sweets of life to know,
O God! and then to perish so!
But Freedom has one shore-

Would we could shelter there
The tender ones, we value more
Than life or fame-O! generous men,
Be with us, as ye long have been,

And we will share

All the poor fruit of toils and pains,

Our hearts our lives-perhaps, our chains. Come, at this fatal hour,

Ye last of high-born souls;

Come-when the crushing weight of power Has all but bent our necks to earth

We will not shame our glorious birth;

Nor Turk, nor Hun controls
The heart that holds the Spartan fire,
The sacred relic of his sire.

We know, ye cannot fear

We know, that ye are brave-
To us--your very name is dear-
O! by that name, and all its light,
We bid ye join the murderous fight,
To win and save-

O! come-if it be only time

To fall with us--in Death sublime.

P.

SONNET.

Why have ye lingered on your way so long,
Bright visions, who were wont to hear my call,
And with the harmony of dance and song
Keep round my dreamy couch a festival ?-
Where are ye gone with all your eyes of light,
And where the flowery voice I loved to hear,
When, through the silent watches of the night,
Ye whispered like an angel in my ear?-
O! fly not with the rapid wing of time,
But with your ancient votary kindly stay,
And while the loftier dreams that rose sublime
In years of higher hope, have flown away,
O! with the colours of a softer clime,
Give your last touches to the dying day.

P.

MUSINGS

I sat by my window one night,

And watched how the stars grew high;
And the earth and skies were a splendid sight

To a sober and musing eye.

From heaven the silver moon shone down

With gentle and mellow ray,

And beneath the crowded roofs of the town
In broad light and shadow lay.