the Essay on the Principle of Population of Mr. Malthus." After giving an abstract of Mr. Malthus's views, he continues, "Mr. Malthus has incurred much obloquy for these harsh doctrines; but their manifest truth and great importance have at length produced conviction in the minds of the greater number of those who have turned their attention to political economy; and they may now (1826) be considered as settled."

Don Florez Estrada, the most celebrated of the Spanish economists, says in his Course of Political Economy, "Malthus, for having established in the most luminous manner the doctrine of Population, on which theory depends the lot of the classes who live by their labor, is in my opinion the economist, who has given to the science the most important contribution since Adam Smith. This author, in his work published in 1798 under the title of 'Essay on the Principle of Population,' after examining with the greatest judgment and erudition the progress and the decline of population in different countries, shows that artificial encouragements, instead of augmenting population, have the effect rather of diminishing and demoralizing it. He shows that the only means of augmenting population without evil effects, is to augment the means of subsistence; that instead of falling short of these, population always tends to pass beyond them; and that if the propensity which prompts man to reproduce his species be not restrained by prudence, the population will be repressed by vice, misery, and the grinding law of necessity. The numerous assaults which have been directed against this work, have only served to prove more and more clearly its singular merit, and have given additional testimony to the fact, that there is no new truth which does not meet with resistance in direct proportion to its importance.

"Political Economy is indebted to Malthus not only for the doctrine of Population, but also for another very important discovery. In 1815 he published a small treatise entitled 'An enquiry into the nature and progress of Rent,' in which he demonstrates the origin and causes of the rent of land: without the knowledge of which it is not possible to levy a land-tax justly, nor to know upon whom such a tax would fall."

Signor Antonio Scialoja, formerly Professor of Political Economy in the University of Turin, says in his Principles of Political Economy, "The faculty of reproduction has in the human species an immense power. America doubles its population every 25 years, and the vacuum which wars and epidemics create in society, is soon filled up. Where a man cannot find the means of subsistence, he is morally constrained to resist the impulses of his senses; and even if he does yield to them, his progeny is not numerous, for but a small proportion of these unhappy children, deprived of all the cares which are at that time so indispensable, survive the earliest stage of life."

The most distinguished among the Russian economists of the last generation is M. Storch, whose work, the Cours d' Economie Politique, was written in French, and was re-issued in Paris with notes by M. J. B. Say. "This work," says a reviewer in the Dictionaire de

l'Economie Politique, "is its author's principal title in the eyes of the science that which places him in the rank of distinguished economists. A contemporary of J. B. Say, of Malthus, and of Ricardo, Storch treats with great clearness the same questions as these writers. Generally speaking, his principles and demonstrations are similar to those of Smith and of Say, from whom indeed he borrows many quotations. He seems to have been less acquainted with, or at least to have less deeply studied, the works of Ricardo."

The first original treatise on Political Economy in the Russian language, however, was published in 1847 by M. Bowtowski, a member of the Society of Economists at St. Petersburg. In a review of this work in the Journal des Economistes, a writer says, "M. Bowtowski adopts the theory of Ricardo on rent. He explains the rent of land, properly so called [that is, the sum which is paid for the use of the soil itself, and not for farm-buildings, &c., the latter of which is not, properly speaking, rent, but profits] by the difference between the price of agricultural produce and its cost of production. We believe it is needless to add that M. Bowtowski fully adopts the theory of Malthus."

Among the other continental writers who have advocated the Malthusian principles may be mentioned M. Ambrose Clement, in his work entitled Recherches sur les causes de l' Indigence (Researches on the causes of Indigence); M. de Bruckère, burgomaster of Brussels, and President of the Congress of Economists which met at Brussels in 1847, in his Principles of Political Economy, written for the Popular Encyclopædia of Belgium; M. Wolowski, professor of Commercial law at Paris, in the Principles of Political Economy, published as one of the Cent Traités (Hundred Treatises)-a work which corresponds to our own Information for the People; M. Monjean, Principal of the College Chaptal, who has translated into French the Principles and Definitions by Mr. Malthus; Count Duchatel, formerly minister of the interior, in his work on Public Charity; Count Arrivabene, who has translated the Lectures of Mr. Senior, and the Elements of Mr. James Mill; M.M. Guillaumin and Coquelin, publishers of the Journal des Economistes, the Collection complète des principaux Economistes, &c.; M. Prevost, formerly Swiss Consul at London, the translator of the Wealth of Nations, and the Essay on Population; M.M. Fix, Daire, Leclerc, Horace Say, Cherbuliez, and others, members of the Society of Economists at Paris, &c. The Malthusian doctrines have indeed been for the last thirty or forty years, received as settled principles of the science of political economy; and this science, to use M. Garnier's words, is "one and the same from Naples to Moscow; its fundamental ideas, its general laws, its principles are everywhere the same." Wherever political economy is cultivated, the principle of population is taught, with greater or less clearness, as one of its leading doctrines; and the study of the science has now spread throughout every country of the civilized world, and is daily making further progress. Chairs of political economy have been established in almost all the Universities of Germany, Russia,

Belgium, Holland, &c., and in some of those in France and England. "There is scarcely a university either in Europe or America," says Mr. Senior, "which has not its chair of political economy." Instruction on the subject has also of late years been introduced into many of the primary schools in this country and in Ireland, owing, in great part, to the exertions of Archbishop Whately and Mr. Wm. Ellis; while in several continental countries, as for example in Russia and Belgium, it forms one of the regular branches of elementary education. When the above facts and quotations are considered, it will not, I think, appear an exaggeration to say that the Malthusian theory, and the evidence on which it rests, must have been carefully scrutinised by hundreds of thousands of educated minds in this and other countries. It has withstood every test during the last half-century, with its rigorous methods of scientific proof, and vast accumulation of statisticalfacts, and has been embraced as the basis of their reasonings, by some of the greatest thinkers that have existed among mankind. However, therefore, these great principles may still be ignored or opposed by those whose judgment is swayed by prejudice, and not by evidence, or by those who have paid no adequate attention to the subject, they should be regarded, to use Mr. Mill's words, as axiomatic truths; as principles which are as well established as the rotation of the earth, the circulation of the blood, or any other of the best known laws of nature. Like the Newtonian theory of the solar system, the Malthusian theory of society is the only true explanation of the facts, and must in time be as universally accepted.

[The following particulars respecting the lives of the chief political economists above quoted, may be not uninteresting.

Thomas Robert Malthus, the discoverer of the chief law of social science, was born in 1766 at the Rookery, near Dorking, in Surrey. His education was at first carried on at home under the superintendence of his father Daniel Malthus, the friend and correspondent of Rousseau. He afterwards went to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, and then became the clergyman of a small parish in Surrey. In 1798 appeared his first printed work, the Essay on the Principle of Population, which was subsequently much enlarged and improved, and ran through many editions. In 1799 he visited Norway, Sweden, and Russia, the only countries of the continent then open to the English traveller. During the peace of Amiens he visited France, everywhere collecting fresh facts illustrative of the law of population. In 1805 he married, and was soon after appointed to the professorship of political economy and modern history at Haileybury, where he continued till his death. He died suddenly in 1834, in his 70th year, leaving behind him his wife, and one son and daughter. He was one of the founders of the Political Economy Club, and of the Statistical Society; and was a member of many of the most eminent scientific bodies, in particular, the National Institute of France, and the Royal Academy of Berlin. His other principal works are the Principles of Political Economy, and Defini tions in that science; and also an admirable treatise published 1815, in which he established the true theory of Rent.

Mr. James Mill, one of the profoundest thinkers of modern times, was of Scotch extraction, being born, I believe, at Montrose. Besides his Elements of Political Economy, which were composed as a schoolbook of the science, he was the author of an Analysis of the Human Mind, one of the ablest works on mental philosophy. He is best known however for his History of British India, of which his son Mr. J. S. Mill says, "This work has begun to spread the light of philosophy over the affairs of that country, and has placed its author in the first rank of political writers of the democratic school." Shortly after the publication of this work, Mr. James Mill obtained a high situation in the India House, which he occupied till his death. He was the intimate friend of Ricardo and Jeremy Bentham, and zealously advocated many of the latter writer's opinions on politics and moral philosophy.

Mr. John Stuart Mill, his son, was born in London in 1806. At an early age he entered the India House, where until lately he held one of the highest offices. His principal works are a System of Logic, published in 1843, Essays on some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy in 1844, the Principles of Political Economy in 1848, and an Essay on Liberty in 1859. His treatises on Logic and Political Economy were truly described in a late article in the Saturday Review as "the greatest works on these subjects in the English language."

Mr. David Ricardo is the writer to whom, together with Adam Smith and Malthus, the discovery of the chief laws of political economy is due. The researches of this great thinker into the distribution and exchange of wealth were much more accurate than those of Adam Smith. With regard to the laws of distribution, he threw additional light on the law of wages; gave the first clear statement of the law of profits; and although he was preceded in the discovery of the law of rent by Mr. Malthus and Sir Edward West, he explained the law and traced its consequences in so masterly a manner, that it is now generally known under the name of "The Ricardo theory of rent." He showed the tendency of the cost of labor to rise, and profits to fall, owing to the agricultural law, in the course of industrial progress. His contributions to the theory of exchange were not less important. He pointed out the fundamental principle which determines the value of commodities-namely, the quantity of labor employed in their production; and corrected several errors and inconsistencies into which Adam Smith, Mr. Malthus, M. Say, and others had fallen on the subject. He showed that agricultural rent is not an element of cost of production; and that a general rise or fall of wages does not cause a general rise or fall of values and prices. The subjects of Currency, Foreign Trade, Taxation, &c., were also greatly advanced by his researches. Ricardo was born in London in 1772. He entered into business on the Stock Exchange (of which his father also was a member) and made an immense fortune. Later in life he became Member of Parliament. He was intimately acquainted with Jeremy Bentham, Malthus, and other writers; and had a close friendship with Mr. James Mill. Mr. Ricardo was the author of several treatises on economical subjects, but his greatest work is the Princi

ples of Political Economy and Taxation, published in 1817. He died in 1823, aged 51. Mr. James Mill says of him, alluding to his life on the Stock Exchange, "Amid this scene of active exertion and practical detail, he cultivated and he acquired habits of intense and patient and comprehensive thinking; such as have been rarely equalled and never excelled."

Mr. Nassau William Senior_was born in Berkshire in 1790, and was called to the bar in 1817. In 1826 he became professor of political economy at Oxford, and in 1836 Master in Chancery. Mr. Senior was appointed by the Government in 1832, as one of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Poor-Laws; in 1838, as one of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the condition of the Weavers; and in 1847, again as professor of political economy at Oxford. His chief works are Lectures on Political Economy, which were first published in 1826; also an admirable treatise on Political Economy published in 1835 in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana. He likewise assisted i:: drawing up the Report on the Poor-laws, and the Report on the state of the Weavers, which were published by order of Parliament.

Mr. J. R. McCulloch was born in 1789 in Wigtonshire. He was for some time editor of the Scotsman; and afterwards became professor of political economy in University College, London, a situation which he retained for only three years. In 1838 he was appointed Controller of the Stationery Office. Mr. McCulloch is the author of numerous works on economical and statistical subjects; the chief of which are the Principles of Political Economy, the Commercial Dictionary, the Descriptive and Statistical Account of the British Empire, &c.

M. Jean Baptiste Say was born in 1767 at Lyons. In 1794 he became the editor of a Republican journal, the Decade Philosophique; and in 1799 he was appointed member of the tribunate under the French Republic. His principal work, the Traité d'Economie Politique, appeared in 1803, and has since passed through six editions; although the publication of the second edition was prevented for several years by Napoleon, who was pleased to object to its free-trade doctrines. In 1815 Say delivered the first course of lectures on political economy in France, at the Athenæum of Paris. It was not however till 1830 that a chair of political economy was founded in the Collège de France, of which Say became professor. He died in 1832. Among his other works are the Catechisme de l' Economie Politique, the Cours Complet de l' Economie Politique, and Six Letters to Malthus, with whom he had a discussion on the possibility of a general glut of commodities-a point on which Mr. Malthus entertained an erroneous opinion.

M. Rossi, one of the most eminent French writers on political economy and jurisprudence, was born in 1787, at Carrara, in Italy, and studied law at the universities of Pisa and Bologna. He afterwards settled at Geneva, as a political refugee, where he gave lectures on jurisprudence, and was elected to represent Geneva, at the Swiss Diet in 1832. He succeeded J. B. Say as professor of political economy in the Collège de France in 1833. In 1845 he was appointed by Louis Philippe and M. Guizot ambassador plenipotentiary to