produced in six days, which, without such aid, would require twelve days, it is clear that the profit on the capital so employed is equal to six days' labour, and the total value of the commodity produced is equal to twelve days' labour. It is of the utmost importance to understand the true nature of capital' to explain the effect of fluctua tions in the rate of wages.

The value of commodities is divided into two portions; profits and wages. Profits of stock are only another name for wages on accumulated labour. Suppose an independent workman-a shoemaker, for example; he must have a certain amount of capital to purchase tools, to buy his leather, and to support himself during the performance of his work: it follows the price of his shoes is made up, not only of wages, but of profits of stock. Unless the shoemaker could obtain a profit on his capital, as well as the price of his labour, he had better lend it out to be employed by another. Thus it is evident, that the exchangeable value of commodities depends on the quantity of labour expended in producing them; of labour either in the form of capital, or of labour immediately employed in their production.

Mr. M'Culloch next showed the tendency of variations in wages and profits. Real wages are not measured by their amount in money, but by that proportion of the produce of industry which goes to the labourer. Wages are often lowest when their nominal value is highest. Money wages in 1813 were double their amount in 1790; yet, as the prices of commodities had more than doubled, wages had vir tually fallen.

If capital were all equally durable, the rate of profit would be the same; this is a principle admitted by Smith, as well as Ricardo. A rise of profits in one employ ment, must cause a rise in all other employments; otherwise capital would be withdrawn from those branches of industry in which profits were stationary, to those in which an advance had occurred. In like manner a rise of wages can never be confined to one business; competition affects them all equally. It follows, that a rise of wages can never be a cause, or pretext for the rise of prices: if the price of making a pair of stockings increases, so must that of making gloves, or hardware, or woollens. Commodities are always either bought by commodities, or labour. If wages advance ten per cent. in manufactures, they must advance ten per cent. in agriculture; the produce of both species of industry are affected by a rise of wages in either: but, as there is no alteration in the quantity of labour necessary to produce a given amount of commodities, there is no

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alteration in their relative value; a bushel of wheat still exchanges for the same quantity of broad cloth. When sixpence more is given in wages, it is immediately concluded a rise of price has been caused by the advance of wages; whereas a rise of wages has arisen from the rise of commodities.

The lecturer proceeded to show the absurdity of the old doctrine, in which it was supposed every rise in wages must be compensated by a rise in the price of commodities. Were this principle correct government had only to tax wages; which, causing them to advance, it would cause a corresponding rise in prices; so that an abundant revenue might be obtained, without taking a farthing from any one, which is certainly the beau ideal of taxation!

Mr. Ricardo was the first to show, that a rise of wages could only cause a diminution of profits; and the contrary. He also demonstrated the more extraordinary position, that an advance of wages may, in certain employments, cause the fall of prices. Mr. Malthus has attempted to impugn the subsidiary points in the doctrine of Ricardo, but the main principle is unassailable.

Some commodities are the produce of capital only; others of labour: the price of the first consists of profits, the second of wages. The price of the former must vary with the rate of profits. When wages rise, profits fall; and the contrary. It follows, that in manufactures, in which capital or machinery is chiefly employed, prices cannot be affected by fluctuation in wages. While, therefore, the rise of wages tends to depress profits in some branches of industry, they will be stationary in others; the consequence is, that capital flows into these branches, and by the competition of which the prices are reduced.

On this principle we may account for the rapid extension of machinery when wages are rising; the proprietor of machines realizing larger profits by not being affected in the same degree by the advance on labour. The exportation of machinery has been opposed on the ground that it would enable France, or other countries, to manufacture at a lower rate; but the fact is, that the cheapness of commodities, chiefly the produce of machinery, results from the high price of labour.

Mr. McCulloch admitted these principles were somewhat staggering and paradoxical. But how many truths had been established in astronomy-the most exact of all the sciences-which were contrary to first impressions. Throughout, it is necessary to bear in mind, that capital is only accumulated labour in a latent state;

and that the value of labour depends on the portions received of the produce of industry.

The lecturer then enumerated the chief points he had endeavoured to establish in this and the two preceding lectures: 1. That demand and supply can only have a temporary influence on prices; where there is no monopoly, the value of commodities depends solely on the cost of production. 2. That rent is extrinsic to, and does not form a component part of prices. Lastly, that high or low wages have no effect on the prices of commodities.

In conclusion Mr. M'Culloch apologized for the difficulties of the subject, and remarked, that they were in some degree compensated by the important conclusions to which they lead: but having now travelled through the more abstruse and thorny parts of the science, the subsequent progress would be more easy and exhilarating.

MR. M'CULLOCH began with observing, that he had in a former lecture shown, however different the apparent rate of wages might appear, yet, allowing for different degrees of skill, the certainty and uncertainty of work, the agreeable or disagreeableness of employments, the average rate of labour was nearly equal: this necessarily results from the constantly operating principle of competition. The next subject of inquiry is the circumstances which determine this average rate of wages.

Wages, whether paid in money or not, really consist of a part of the produce, and in every discussion it is important to distinguish between the market and natural rate of wages. The former are the wages actually paid; the latter are such amount of wages as is necessary to maintain the labourer, without deterioration, in that sphere in which he is accustomed to move. The natural rate of wages, therefore, must depend on the cost of producing the food, necessaries, and comforts of life.

Between the natural and market rate of wages no great difference can long subsist: if the market rate be below the natural rate, the comforts of the labourer are abridged, and consequently his numbers diminish; on the other hand, if the market

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price of labour exceeds the natural price, a stimulant is given to population, which ultimately tends to reduce the wages to the natural rate, by increasing the supply of labourers. Agricultural improvements tend to keep down prices, but they cannot keep pace with the increase of population. Inferior soils are brought into cultivation; the cost of raising the produce is augmented; provisions rise, and wages rise too, for the labourer must live.

The well-being of the labouring classes depends on the proportion between capital and population. By capital is meant that portion of stock employed in productive industry-buildings, machinery, and the tools of the artisan, are all capital. If capital increases, the condition of the labourer is ameliorated; because the means of subsistence and employment are augmented. It is only by an increase of capital, or by lessening the supply of labourers, that the situation of workmen can be permanently bettered: all other schemes, unless bottomed on this principle, must prove delusive and nugatory.

However low the demand for labour may be, the price must be ultimately regulated by that of the quartern loaf. To a certain extent the labourer may economize, and consumption is lessened: but whatever tends to abridge comforts must discourage marriages, and increase the mortality of the people. If we examine the register of births and deaths in London, or elsewhere, in different years, we shall find that they are more or less according to the plenteousness or scarcity of different periods.

By the natural rate of wages, the lecturer explained, such a rate as would procure those comforts and conveniences with which creditable people could not dispense. What are considered comforts will vary in different climates and stages of civilisation. Humboldt mentions, that there is a permanent difference of twenty-three and thirty per cent. in wages, according to the temperature in different districts of Mexico. In England, bread is considered a necessary article of subsistence; in China and the East, they live on rice; and in Ireland, potatoes are enough. In Ireland, a mud cottage is sufficient for the peasantry; in England, glass windows, and neat furniture, are indispensable.

The habits of the people in England are widely different from what they were in the reign of Elizabeth, and happily they have formed higher notions on the comforts and enjoyments necessary to their condition. This improved standard of comforts, Mr. M'Culloch said, he hoped they would continue to maintain; without it there is no limit to their degradation. The worst

effect of low wages is, it compels the people to resort to inferior diet; they get accustomed to it: wages are no longer regulated by the price of wheat, but that of potatoes and garbage. It is a miserable error to suppose low wages are beneficial; they tend to degrade and demoralize the great body of the people. They had better be addicted to luxuries, with the activity and excitement they tend to create, than sink into the sluggish apathy and insensibility caused by low and degrading diet.

One great evil of a general low diet is, that it leaves no resource against vicissitudes. Ireland is an example: provided the cotter gets his bowl of potatoes, he is content to vegetate in filth and rags. When porter, and ale, and gin, constitute the beverage, and bread and meat the food of the people, they have the means to retrench; but when the diet is already the lowest, they have no resource in case of scarcity, or a fall of wages. They cannot resort to inferior diet, or bear reduction of income; both being already at a minimum. This was the case in 1821, when in the counties of Clare and Limerick, owing to the failure of the potato crops, the peasantry broke out into insurrection. Potatoes rose four hundred per cent.; there was abundance of wheat, it was exportedwhen the people were famishing-because their low wages did not admit of their buying it!

When people are so degraded as to care nothing for the comforts and elegancies of life, when regardless of their diet, their clothes, furniture, and houses, there is little hope of their advancement; nor is there any security for their obedience to authority, and against their continual breaking out into barbarous and bloody insurrections. Bacon observes, that of all insurrections those of the belly are the worst'; and, doubtless, it is to the low and precarious subsistence of the Irish that most of their outrages and insurrections may be ascribed.

Dr. Franklin entertained a singular notion, that high wages are a source of idleness and dissipation. Nothing, Mr. M. contended, could be more erroneous, more contrary to sound principle and experience. A few exceptions will always be found, but in the aggregate, the principle of accumulation will always predominate over that of expense. Low wages invariably tend to produce discontent, apathy, and indolence; without enjoyment there is no stimulant to exertion. The poor are actuated by the same motives as the rich, have similar faculties, and the same desire to better their condition, with the means of doing so.

Compare the condition of countries with

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low and those with high wages. Have the low wages of Poland, India, or Ireland tended to exalt their population, or those of the United States, and England, to degrade them? How can it be otherwise. When wages are high, the people are cheered by hope and ambition. Industry, they see, leads to independence and enjoyment; they begin to accumulate; feel an interest in the rights of property, and attached to the institutions under which they live and flourish. Their morals improve, their minds enlighten, and even their amusements become intellectual. They thrive, and become happy, and deserve to be so. Labour constitutes the strength of nations; by it machinery is made, and commercial greatness and opulence acquired. "Those who feed and clothe all the rest, ought themselves to be well fed and clothed." They are the foundation of society, the base of the social pyramid.

PEG TANKARDS.

OUR ancestors were formerly famous for compotation; their liquor was ale; and one method of amusing themselves this way, was with the peg tankard. There are four or five of these tankards now remaining in this country. It had on one side a row of eight pins, one above another, from top to bottom. It held two quarts, and was a noble piece of plate; so that there was a gill of ale, half a pint Winchester measure, between each peg. The law was, that every person that drank was to empty the space between pin and pin; so that the pins were so many measures to make the company all drink falike, and to swallow the same quantity of liquor. This was a contrivance for merriment, and at the same time a pretty sure way of making all the company drunk and it was for this reason, that in "Archbishop Anslem's Canons," made in the council of London, A. D. 1102, priests are enjoined not to go to drinking bouts, nor to drink to pegs.

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.

LONDON INSTITUTION,

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SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH menced a very excellent lecture, in the theatre attached to this establishment, by observing, that many persons passed through life without once examining the beautiful connection which existed between the vegetable and animal kingdoms.

With regard to the physiology of the vege table world, it might indeed be considered as a most instructive pursuit, and one well worthy the attention of the thinking part of his auditory.

Sir James then proceeded to examine the general texture and construction of a living plant, in which he was materially aided by a valuable collection of specimens from the nursery of Messrs. Loddiges and Co., of Hackney.

Every part of a living plant is covered with a skin, or membrane, called the cuticle; and there is a striking analogy between this part of the plant, and the cuticle of animal life. In the latter, it varies in thickness, from the delicate film which covers the eye, to the hard skin of the tortoise, or rhinoceros. In the vegetable world it is equally delicate in the finer parts of a flower, and no less coarse in that of the pearly aloe and plane-tree.

The use of the cuticle is to regulate absorption, and to prevent the external air doing injury to the plant. On the curranttree the cuticle is smooth, and scales off in large entire flakes, both from the young branches and old stems. The same may be observed in the elder. The fruit of the peach has a cuticle covered with dense and harsh wool; while the leaf of white willow is clothed with a fine silky cuticle. In the nettle, this acts a very important part, as it protects the leaf from violence, by exuding a poisonous fluid, when pressed by the finger.

The bark, which may now be examined, consists of as many layers as the tree is years old. The innermost is called the liber; and it is in this layer only that the essential vital functions are carried on for the time being; after which it is pushed outwards, and becomes a lifeless crust.

A specimen of the lace bark of Jamaica was then exhibited, the silky fibres of which, sir James stated, had been converted to important domestic uses. In the bark, the peculiar properties, or virtues of a plant, are chiefly found to reside: and more especially in several of its internal layers nearest to the wood. Instances of this would be found in the resin of the fir, the astringent principle of the oak and willow, on which their tanning property depends. The valuable bitter of the Peruvian bark, and the aromatic oil of the cinnamon, might also be adduced as illustrations. When a portion of the bark of a tree is removed, the remainder has a power of extending itself laterally till the wound is closed; and if the dead wood be carefully removed, and the wound protected from the atmosphere, the process goes on more rapidly than it otherwise would do.

The woody portion of the tree was next examined. This, when cut across, is found to consist of numerous concentric layers. The wood owes its strength and tenacity to innumerable fibres, and consists of various vessels, running for the most part in a longitudinal direction. Physiologists have long differed about the origin of the wood. Du Hamel, by many experiments, proved the wood to be se creted from the innermost part of the bark. He introduced tin-foil under the barks of growing trees, carefully binding up their wounds; and, after some years, cutting them across, found the layers of new wood on the outside of the tin. A. still more conclusive experiment, by Dr. Hope, was then referred to.

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In the centre of the vegetable body is placed the pith. This, it was observed, bore a strong analogy to the nervous system of animals. It is branched off, and diffused through the plant, as nerves are through the animal.

Sir James concluded his lecture, by briefly examining the arrangement of the sap vessels, in which the same likeness to animal life was shown to exist.

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

Dr. Roget, in his eighth lecture, entered upon the subject of vision, the most perfect and most exalted of all other external senses. Whether we consider the infinite multitude of objects with which it renders us acquainted, the immense range of its operation, and the refined intellectual character of its perceptions; or whether we examine the exquisite apparatus, and admirable combination of means by which such important ends are accomplished, we find, at every step of our inquiries relative to this sense, the most interesting topics of philosophical investigation, and the most fertile theme of admiration and of gratitude.

The objects of vision are to convey to animals a knowledge of the presence and situation, as well as the colour of external and distant objects, by means of the light which these objects are sending off, either spontaneously, or by reflection from other bodies. There is only one part of the nervous system so organized as to be capable of being affected by light, and of conveying to the sensorium the impression of light; a peculiar delicacy of construction in the nervous matter being requisite for conferring this power. It would appear, that in some of the tribes belonging to the lowest order of the animal kingdom, such as the hydra, achtinia, and other soft zoophites, that the skin, or surface of the body, possesses some degree of sensibility to light; for these animals show by their movements that they feel its influence,

as they place themselves always on that side of the vessel containing them, on which the light shines. After some remarks on the organs of vision in the inferior tribes of annulose animals, Dr. Roget observed, that they attained their full developement only in the higher classes of vertebrated animals.

That portion of the nervous system which is adapted to receive the impression of the rays of light, is a thin and delicate expansion of the optic nerve, called the retina. But if the rays of light which reach the eye from surrounding objects, were simply admitted to the retina, in the state in which they arrived, it evident that the only perception which could be com municated to the mind by an organ so constructed, would be a vague impression of the total quantity of light diffused in the opposite hemisphere. But this does not properly constitute vision. In order that the presence of a particular object, in a particular direction from the eye, may be recognised, it is necessary that the light, which comes from it, shall produce exclusively its impression on some particular part of the retina. If the light coming from any other object were allowed to act at the same time upon that point, the two effects would interfere with one another, and a confused impression would result. Thus the objects in a room are all sending light to a sheet of white paper placed on the floor; but the light, thus equally spread over its surface, allows of no means of distinguishing the different sources from which it proceeds; or, in other words, of ascertaining the respective figures, situations, and colour of the objects themselves. Hence, however sensible the skin of the polypus may be to light, it is incapable, of itself, of accomplishing the purposes of

vision.

We might suppose it a problem pro

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posed to us, to contrive an apparatus by which, availing ourselves of the known properties of light, all the rays which proceed from the respective points of the object to be viewed, and which meet the eye, shall be concentrated upon separate points of the retina, and thus form a faithful delineation, or miniature picture, as it were, of the external scene. The simplest mode of accomplishing the proposed end, would be to admit of only one ray proceeding directly from that part of the object which is to be depicted, and to exclude all the other rays. But by thus limiting the illumination of each point of the retina to the effect of a single ray, the image produced would be extremely faint. only mode of securing distinctness of image with an increase of light, is to collect pencils of rays into separate foci; a purpose which may be effected by the refraction they undergo, when passing through the surfaces of media of different densities.

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The mathematical conditions of the law of optical refraction, and the application of this law to the circumstances of the present problem, were then stated, and ilfustrated by various appropriate diagrams. The operation of a double and single convex lens, with reference to pencils of parallel rays, was traced; and the mode in which it may be made to produce such a distinct image, was pointed out and explained. The eye was shown to be analogous to the camera obscura, both in the immediate object it has to accomplish, and the principles on which it is constructed. But it was, at the same time, shown to be an infinitely more perfect machine than any which human art could achieve.

In illustration of Dr. Roget's observations, we may now explain the construction of the eye, with reference to a diagram.