LECTURE XIV.

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Nature and Origin of Rent· Value of Commodities in the early Stages of Society -Mr. Ricardo's Correction of Adam Smith-Definition of Rent Does not enter into Prices-Distinction between Agriculture and Manufactures Rent of Mines, Fisheries, and Houses.

In this lecture Mr. M'Culloch entered on the important subject of RENT, its nature and origin, and its influence on the prices of commodities.

In that remote period of society which precedes the accumulation of stock, and the appropriation of land, the proportion between the quantities of labour necessary for acquiring different objects seems the only circumstance which can afford any rule for exchanging them one for another. If, among a nation of hunters, for example, it costs twice the labour to kill a beaver which it takes to kill a deer, one beaver would naturally exchange for, or be worth, two deer. It is natural that what is usually the produce of two days', or two hours' labour, should be worth double of what is usually the produce of one day's, or one hour's labour.

If one species of labour be more severe than the other, allowance will naturally be made for the superior hardship; or if one species of labour requires an uncommon degree of dexterity or ingenuity, the esteem which men have for such talents will give a value to their produce superior to what would be due to the time employed about it. In the advanced state of society allowances of this kind, for superior hardship and skill, are commonly made in the wages of labour; and something of the same kind most probably has occurred in its earliest and rudest ages. In this state of society the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer; and the quantity of labour commonly employed in acquiring or producing any commodity, is the only circumstance which it ought to purchase, command, or exchange for.

Thus far Dr. Smith explains the origin of price: he, as well as subsequent economists, all agree, that the value of commodities depend on the comparative quantities of labour expended in producing them. But Dr. Smith conceived, that when society had advanced beyond the first stage of civilization, and land had been appropriated, and capital accumulated, that rent, profit, and wages would

Mr. Ricardo has shown that Smith erred in making this distinction; and that the same principle which determines the value of commodities, in the earliest and rudest ages, determines it in those the most cultivated and refined. In establishing this derived considerable assistance from the new and important doctrine, Mr. Ricardo

previous inquiries of Mr. Malthus and Mr. West, on the subject of rent, which I shall now explain.

Rent is properly that portion of the produce paid for the use of the natural and inherent powers of the soil. In the first settlement of countries no rent is paid: in that of New Holland, for example, where there is abundance of unappropriated land, equally fertile, no rent is paid. It is only when land is appropriated, and it becomes necessary to resort to soils of inferior fertility, that rent is exacted; and then the amount of rent paid depends on the fertility of the soil successively brought into cultivation. Suppose land of the first quality yields one hundred quarters of wheat, and land of the second quality only ninety quarters; the rent in this case would be ten quarters of wheat, the amount of the superior productiveness of the soil of the first degree of fertility.

The price of produce is equal to the cost of raising it on the soil last brought into cultivation; or on land which pays no rent. Were this price not obtained, land of the last degree of fertility would be abandoned; for no one would cultivate it at a loss. It must always be borne in mind, that there cannot be two prices for the same article in the same market and as this last, or necessary price must be obtained, it is that which determines the price of the whole produce. Corn is not high because rent is paid, but rent is paid because corn is high. Mr. Malthus has justly observed, that if landlords were to give up the whole of their rent, prices would not fall; it would only enable the farmers to live like gentlemen.

To this theory it has been objected, that there is no land which does not pay some rent. Mr. Mill has shown this does not alter the general principle; there is, however, scarcely any land which does not yield more or less rent. He (Mr. M.) was acquainted with a gentleman who had fifteen hundred acres, which he let for 30%. a year, and the tenant complained, if this rent were not reduced he should be obliged to give it up! Such land would require thousands to bring it into profitable culti vation. Whether capital will be applied to land, depends whether prices are such as to yield the average rate of profit.

The agriculturist is influenced by the same considerations as other men. As a mer chant sends a ship to sea, or the manufacturer builds a cotton-mill, depends on the rate of profit likely to accrue from the adventure, so the agriculturist is determined in the investment of his capital in land.

In the late rage for agricultural speculation, caused by high prices, lands of greatly inferior degrees of fertility were pressed into cultivation. As prices fell, the inferior soils were abandoned, and those only retained the expense of whose cultivation corresponded to the depression of price. Prices must always be such as to remunerate the grower: suppose you have two loaves of bread on your breakfast-table, equal in quality and fineness, one of which has been raised on a rich, and the other on a poor soil; it is evident, that the price of the last must be such as to remunerate the grower, otherwise it would not have been produced.

This analysis of the nature of rent discloses an important distinction between manufactures and agriculture. In manufactures the worst machinery is always first employed; and competition never fails to reduce prices. In agriculture, on the other hand, the best soils are always first resorted to, and competition tends to enhance prices. The fall of prices, which is permanent in manufactures, is only temporary in agriculture. Increase of population causes an increased demand for produce, which can only be checked for a time by agricultural improvements.

The lecturer next quoted a passage from Mr. Malthus, in which he says: "the earth has been sometimes compared to a vast machine, presented to man for the production of food and raw materials; but to make the resemblance more just, as far as they admit of comparison, .we should consider the soil as a present to man of a great number of machines, all susceptible of continued improvement, by the application of capital to them, but yet of very different original qualities and powers. This great inequality in the powers of machinery employed in producing raw produce, forms one of the most remarkable features which distinguish the machinery of land from the machinery employed in manufacture. Every extensive county may be considered as possessing a gradation of machines for the production of corn and raw materials, including in this gradation, not only all the various qualities of poor land, of which every large territory has generally an abundance, but the inferior machinery, which may be said to be employed when good land is further and further forced for

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additional produce. As the price of raw produce continues to rise, these inferior machines are successively called into action; and as the price of raw produce continues to fall, they are successively thrown out of action."

Mr. M'Culloch resumed with remarking, that the rent of mines and fisheries depends on the same principle as the rent of land. If mines were equally abundant, and every one might work them, no rent would be paid. But as mines differ in their degrees of fertility, and, consequently require a different expenditure of labour, and capital to bring their produce to market, a rent is paid.

Mr. M'Culloch concluded with remarking, that the rent of houses depended on the rise and fall of profits; a subject which, together with wages, he should reserve for the next lecture.

DR. DARWIN.

THE celebrated Dr. Darwin being one day at Nottingham, assembled a large crowd of people around him, and thus addressed himself to them :

"Ye men of Nottingham! listen to me. You are industrious and ingenious mechanics. By your industry life's comforts are procured for yourselves and families. If you lose your health, the power of being industrious will forsake you. That you know; but you do not know that to breathe the fresh and changed air constantly is not less necessary to preserve health than sobriety itself. Air becomes unwholesome in a few hours if the windows are shut. Open those of your sleeping-rooms whenever you quit them to go to your workshops. Keep the windows of your workshops open whenever the weather is not insupportably cold. I have no interest in giving you this advice. Remember what I, your countryman and a physician, tell you. If you would not bring infection and disease upon yourselves, and to your wives and little ones, change the air you breathe; change it many times a day, by opening your windows."

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.

LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

DR. BIRKBECK, after some preparatory observations, commenced his third lecture at this institution by observing, that so great was the zeal and activity of modern scientific inquirers, that the ingenious experiments of Oersted were no Sooner promulgated than they were instantly repeated and extended by other individuals, with the production of the most curious and astonishing results.

In the course of the summer of 1823, Dr. Seebeck, of Vienna, by combining metals of different kinds, succeeded in producing deflections of the magnetic needle by an increase of temperature alone, without any assistance from the voltaic arrangement before used. Dr. Seebeck's apparatus was then exhibited: It consisted of a parallelogram composed of two metals, bismuth and antimony; one long and one short side being formed of each metal. The lecturer stated that this apparatus, though a voltaic combination, was not in a state of electrical activity; but upon the application of heat, it would produce the same effect on the magnet as had been witnessed in other experiments during the previous lecture. Even the heat of the hand was sometimes sufficient to occasion a deflection of the needle.

After adverting to an apparatus contrived by professor Cumming, for exhibiting the combined effects of heat, electricity, and magnetism, Dr. Birkbeck exhibited an ingenious instrument, contrived by Mr. Marsh, for the same purpose.

In a former number, we inserted a diagram intended to illustrate the double rotation of an electro-magnetic combination; this effect was now illustrated by Dr. Birkbeck, with reference to a horsemagnet.

Dr. Birkbeck then observed, that as in his first lecture he had only described the manner in which the voltaic pile is constructed, he would afford the audience an opportunity of seeing it built, and they would observe that the operator commenced with a plate of copper, upon which he placed one of zinc, and then a piece of moistened cloth, proceeding in the same arrangement till the pile reached the top of the open frame which supported the plates. They would observe that a distinct ring was marked upon each of the discs of cloth, which had been previously used in the construction of the pile, and moistened

with the chloride "or muriate of soda, These rings are the result of a chemical change produced by the action of the pile, and upon this change depends the perma nent effect of the apparatus; for if there were no moisture, though electricity would be evolved, it would not produce a permanent effect.

A large trough was then prepared, the form of which will easily be understood by referring to the figure, and the effects of ignition illustrated in the most striking way.

Dr. Birkbeck then exhibited an interesting modification of Mr. Barlow's wheel and axle rotation, by means of a horse-shoe magnet.

A B is a rectangular piece of hard wood, c D an upright wooden pillar, D E a piece of stout brass or copper wire, and a b a somewhat smaller wire, soldered upon it at F, on the lower side of which the wheel w, of thin copper, turns freely; hf is a small reservoir for mercury, sunk in the wood, and gi a narrow channel running into it; H H is a strong horse-shoe magnet. Mercury being now poured into the reservoir fh, till the tips of the wheel are slightly immersed in it, and the surface covered with weak, dilute, nitric acid, let the connection with the battery be made ati and D,'and the wheel w will immediately begin to rotate with considerable velocity. If the contact be changed, or if the magnet be inverted, the motion of the wheel will be reversed; but, in general, the best effect is produced when the wheel revolves upwards.

The president then proceeded to illustrate his subject by the performance of a variety of important and highly interesting experiments, and concluded by observing that a more clear developement of the che

mical effects of voltaic electricity, and an exposition of the theory of this wonderful action, would be presented, when an opportunity was offered for performing all the requisite experiments, and a proper space was provided for the necessary arrangements. All this, ere long, he hoped to be able to accomplish, in a manner which was now quite impracticable. He then stated that he should conclude by exhibiting the effects of that extraordinary substance, potassium; which, as he had previously observed, had been discovered by the employment of voltaic power, in the researches of sir Humphry Davy, a philosopher, of whom he might say with justice, that since the time of sir Isaac Newton, the world had not produced so great an experimental genius.

Though the existence of these substances is only known to the world as the result of chemical processes, their for mation may possibly depend upon natural operations, and it is probable that large bodies of potassium and sodium may exist in the earth, and that when water is brought into contact with them, the resulting flame and gaseous evolution produce heavings of the earth, and the rupture of its crust or surface. Hence it is probable that these very substances are the occasion of earthquakes and volcanoes, and that the latter act as a kind of chimney to permit the escape of the vast quantities of gas generated by the internal combustion, and thus prevent, as it were, the bursting of the earth itself. This opinion receives confirmation from a circumstance which occurred in 1822, when an eruption of Vesuvius took place, which was accompanied with the discharge of large quantities of chloride of soda, one vast mass of which was employed by the population for a long period, for domestic uses; and it is also probable that the immense collections of rock-salt, found in the bowels of the earth, are the result of the chemical changes produced in periods long past by the contact of potassium and water. Thus voltaic electricity is not only intimately connected, as I pointed out to you before, with the circumstances of ordinary life, but is connected likewise in the way of explanation with some of those awful phenomena which, to the unenlightened mind, are supposed to threaten the utter destruction of the earth itself: and thus you will perceive, as science proceeds, it mingles completely with occurrences the most trivial and the most momentous, either for the protection or the illumina tion of man.

SPITALFIELDS MECHANICS' INSTITU

TION.

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Mr. Partington's Lecture on Electricity.

THE lecturer commenced the interesting subject arranged for the evening's lecture by observing, that the phenomena which arise from electricity may be observed in every part of created nature; and yet our knowledge of many of its more important properties can scarcely be traced farther than the middle of the last century. Thales, the Milesian, who lived about five hundred and eighty years before the christian era, was the first who observed the electrical properties of amber: and about two hundred years after that period, Theophrastus discovered that the precious stone called tourmalin possessed similar properties. This, however, was all that was known of the matter, till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when William Gilbert, a learned English physician, published a treatise which threw some light on the subject.

After Gilbert, the science made rapid strides, and we soon find the names of Bacon, Boyle, Otto Guericke, sir Isaac Newton, and Franklin, among its most distinguished proficients; and it is worthy of remark, that it is to the latter of these learned electricians we are indebted for its first useful application to the general purposes of life. The name electricity is derived from electrum, or amber; and, in general, a body is said to be electrified when it contains either more or less of the electric fluid than is natural to it. Any body containing more than its natural quantity, is said to be positively electrified-while those bodies from which a portion of the electric fluid has been withdrawn, are said to be negatively electrified.

If I rub a glass tube with a piece of silk, it will produce, or rather collect, the electric fluid from my hand; and if I then present it to a light, pendulous body, it will be attracted.

On the contrary, if a stick of sealingwax, a piece of sulphur, or a tube of rough glass, be drawn through the hand, the effect of the friction is, that a quantity of the electric matter naturally belonging to those substances, passes to the hand, and the sulphur or wax being surrounded by the air, which is an imperfect conductor, remains exhausted, and is ready to take sparks of electric fire from any body to which it is presented.

A French philosopher, of the name of Du Fay, appears to have been the first to form a theory-or, rather, a general hypothesis for the explanation of these phenomena. He supposed, that when a glass tube was excited, it produced a peculiar

species of electricity, which he called vitreous; while a stick of sulphur, or resin, produced an opposite sort of electricity, which he called resinous. It was, however, soon discovered, that the different phenomena depended rather upon the surface of the electric excited, than its internal composition. In proof of this, Mr. Canton found that a glass tube, when the polished surface was destroyed, produced the resinous electricity, while the same tube when greased produced the vitreous electricity.

The greater part of the anomalies and inconsistencies apparent in the theory of Du Fay were, however, obviated in that of Franklin, which accounts for facts in a much more intelligible way than in that of the French philosopher.

We have seen that Du Fay considered that there were two fluids pervading nature, while Franklin only admitted of one. The different effects, according to the latter hypothesis, being produced by a plus, or minus state of the electric fluid. The nature of these, however, may be better explained by reference to the machine itself.

When the cylinder is whirled in an electrical machine a result similar to the excitation of the glass tube is readily produced, and the effect will be found much more striking. The friction of the cylinder against the rubber collects the electric fluid, that was in the cushion, and conveys it from thence to the prime conductor, which is provided with metal points to receive it. The prime conductor, being thus overloaded, will give sparks to any conducting body that may be presented to it, while the rubber receives a new supply of electric matter, by means of a brass chain that connects it with the earth.

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There are few pieces of apparatus that are so easily constructed as the electrical machine. Two or three phials, and some sealing-wax, forming nearly all the materials essential for this apparatus. And if only employed for the purpose of performing a series of amusing experiments, they constitute a valuable philosophical toy.

Instead of a glass cylinder, a single plate of the same material is frequently employed; this, however, is more expensive, and less simple in its construction than the one I have already described.

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The largest machine yet known was constructed by Mr. Cuthbertson, and forms part of the apparatus placed in the Teylerian museum. The labour of two strong men is said to have been essential to give motion to this gigantic machine, the effects of which can be rendered visible at a distance of many feet, and

fine wire, twenty-four inches in length, melted by a spark from its prime conductor.

A gentleman of the name of Wilson has also exhibited an electrical apparatus of great power. The principal conductor was one hundred and fifty feet long, by sixteen inches in diameter, composed of old military drums, and he passed a shock through a circuit of metal wire four thousand eight hundred feet in length.

The best conductors of electricity, are those which suffer this subtile fluid to pass through them with the greatest ease; and amongst these may be enumerated metals of all kinds, and water, while the most perfect non-conductors are glass, resin, sealing-wax, sulphur, and baked-wood. But all substances become conductors, if their temperature is much increased.

I have already stated, that when a conductor is so surrounded by non-conductors, that the electric fluid cannot pass from it to the earth, it is said to be insulated. A sufficient illustration of this will be found in the prime conductor of the electrical machine.

The forked end of the conductor receives the electric fluid from the cylinder, and I can readily take sparks from the opposite end. But if I present my hand to the glass leg no sparks are received: this proves that the one allows the electric fluid to pass, while the other does not. But glass may be so coated with moisture as to render it a conductor, and then it loses its property of insulation. When the air is humid and heavy it quickly deposits the water it contains in solution on the surface of the glass, and much difficulty is of necessity experienced in the performance of delicate electrical experiments.

But we may readily convert any one of our auditory into a great prime conductor, and to effect this it will only be necessary to employ a glass legged stool, upon which the individual must be placed. The possibility of thus converting a human subject into an useful appendage to the electrical machine was then practically illustrated, very much to the amusement

of the members.

Having thus briefly noticed the conducting powers of bodies, we may now proceed to examine more minutely the nature of electrical attraction.

It has been shown, that light bodies, when brought within the influence of an excited electric, are immediately acted upon by this subtile fluid, and attracted; but we shall now find, that if two balls are similarly electrified, they will repel each other.

To farther illustrate the theory of attraction and repulsion, we may employ