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 Definitions 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 in 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 ard M. Guizot ambassador plenipotentiary to

Rome, to demand of the Pope the suppression of the society of Jesuits. He was assassinated in 1848 at Rome, by one of the extreme revolutionary party.

M. Joseph Garnier was born in 1813. In 1846, he was appointed to the chair of political economy which was then founded at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees (school of engineers), at Paris. He also holds the office of secretary to the Society of Economists, and is a member of the Statistical Society of London, and the Central Commission of Statistics in Belgium. In 1846, he became the chief editor of the Journal des Economistes, a journal which was established in 1841, and has ever since been the chief organ of the science in Europe. Among its sub-editors have been most of the economists and statists of distinction in France; for instance. M. M. Bastiat, Michel Chevalier, Dunoyer, Legoyt, Moreau de Jonnès, Leon Faucher, Rossi, Horace Say, H. Passy, Villermé, &c. M. Garnier is the author of several works on economical subjects, and among others the Elements de l'Economie Politique, which has been translated into Italian, Spanish, and Russian, and has been much used as a school-book of the science. M. Michel Chevalier was born in 1806. In 1830, he became editor of the Globe, a journal which advocated the socialist doctrines of St. Simon. In 1840, he succeeded M. Rossi in the chair of political economy in the Collège de France. In 1845, he was elected member of the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1851, member of the Institute. His principal works are a Course of Political Economy in 1842, Letters on the Organization of Labour in 1848, &c.; also a recent treatise, which has been translated by Mr. Cobden, in which he shows the probability of a fall in the value of gold, in consequence of the Californian and Australian discoveries. "He belongs," says M. Blanqui in his History of Political Economy, "to that brilliant pleiad of Saint-Simonians, whose writings have thrown so much light on economical matters."

M. Frederic Bastiat was born in 1801 at Bayonne, and died of consumption at Rome in 1850. He is one of the best known and most popular of the French Economical writers, having taken an active part in the free-trade and other public movements. In 1846 he became the secretary of the various free-trade societies (associations du libre échange) throughout France, and edited the journal which represented the views of that party. In 1848 he was elected a mem ber of the Constituent Assembly, and afterwards of the Legislative Assembly. He was the author of many treatises on economical subjects, the best known of which are the Sophismes Economiques, and the Harmonies Economiques, his principal work, which was left unfinished at his death.

M. Storch was born in 1766 at Riga, and died at St. Petersburg in 1835. He held the situation of Privy-Councillor and Vice-President of the Academy of the Sciences at St. Petersburg. In 1796 he published an important work, the Historical and Statistical Account of the Russian Empire. His Cours d' Economie Politique was published in 1815 at St. Petersburg, and a second edition in 1823 at Paris.]

THE CHIEF LAWS OF POLITICAL

ECONOMY.

The name of Political Economy has been given to the science which treats of wealth, in the same careful and systematic manner as arithmetic and algebra treat of number, geometry of extension, chemistry of the elementary substances, or physiology of the functions of living bodies. Political Economy may be defined as the science which treats of the laws of the production and distribution of wealth; in other words, it is the science which investigates the conditions according to which wealth is produced by human labor from surrounding objects, and is then shared among the classes in society who own the requisites of production. To this science belongs the consideration of the various questions relating to wealth. It is the province of political economy to consider the manifold influences which affect the wealth of nation, classes, or individuals; the causes of riches and poverty; the cause which promote or impede the production of wealth, and influence its distribution; which determine the value and price of commodities, making one commodity cheap and another dear, &c.

The laws of the production of wealth naturally consist of the laws or properties of human beings by whom it is produced, and those of material objects from which it is produced. The production and the increase of wealth depend on the efforts to attain it, and its attainability; on the amount and efficiency of labor and capital on the one hand, and the powers of the soil, &c., on the other. The laws of the distribution of wealth, again, (in a country where, as in our own, the requisites of production are owned by three separate classes, namely, the laborers, the capitalists, and the landlords), consist of the laws of wages, of profits, and of rent: wages signifying the remuneration of labor, profits the remuneration of capital, and rent the remuneration of land. Besides these laws of the production and distribution of wealth, the science treats also the laws of its exchange; that is, of the laws which determine how much of one article of wealth will be given for another, and which include the laws of value and price.

In order to understand the above definition of political economy, it is necessary to have a clear idea of what is meant by wealth.