devising, the remedy, Mr. Brownson contends, is to be sought in destroying such institutions. Of these the Church stands first for its tyrannic and enslaving power, and must be annihilated not religion, not Christianity, these Mr. Brownson would honor and protect but the Church and the Priesthood, of every name over the earth. This assault upon the Church constitutes the main body of the essay. The Church being out of the way, the next remedy is to be found in the right exercisenot in the overthrow - but in a right exercise of the powers of civil government. But what shall it do? It must first un-do. It must begin by circumscribing and limiting its own powers. It must then by direct legislation, by repealing and enacting, protect the laboring classes against the others. In regard, specially to this country, it must break down the power of capital, by sweeping from the face of the land the whole system of Banking. But that is only a beginning. Then must follow the destruction of all monopoly and of all PRIVILEGE. We have done little for liberty and equality by abolishing hereditary monarchy and hereditary nobility, if we do not add the abolishing of hereditary property. We give Mr. Brownson's own words.

"Following the destruction of the Banks, must come that of all monopolies, of all PRIVILEGE. There are many of these. We cannot specify them all: we therefore select only one, the greatest of them all, the privilege which some have of being born rich while others are born poor. It will be seen at once that we alluded to the hereditary descent of property, an anomaly in our American system, which must be removed, or the system itself will be destroyed. We cannot now go into a discussion of this subject, but we promise to resume it at our earliest opportunity. We only say now, that as we have abolished hereditary monarchy and hereditary nobility, we must complete the work by abolishing hereditary property. A man shall have all he honestly acquires, so long as he himself belongs to the world in which he acquires it. But his power over his property must cease with his life, and his property must then become the property of the state, to be disposed of by some equitable law for the use of the generation which takes his place. Here is the principle without any of its details, and this is the grand legislative measure to which we look forward. We see no means of elevating the laboring classes which can be effectual without this. And is this a measure to be easily carried? Not at all. It will cost infinitely more than it cost to abolish either hereditary monarchy or hereditary nobility. It is a great measure, and a startling. The rich, the business community, will never voluntarily consent to it; and we think we know too much of human nature to believe that it will ever be effected peaceably. It will be effected only by the strong arm of physical force. It will come, if it ever come at all, only at the conclusion of war, the like of which the world as yet has never witnessed, and from which, however inevitable it may seem to the eye of philosophy, the heart of Humanity recoils with horror." — p. 24.

This is violent and threatening language. Doctrines more necessarily dependent for their reception and prevalence upon civil commotion and tumult were never, we suppose, in Revolutionary France, proclaimed by the leaders in that sanguinary social war. Had they been uttered with the same eloquence and power then and there, they would have sounded a peal that would have been answered by the guillotine in every street and square of Paris. Uttered now and here, and they fall harmless as the declamations of a school-boy, repudiated by the very classes, we doubt not, whom they are designed to move. But as we do not imagine that at present Mr. Brownson himself intends action, but merely discussion of great principles as preliminary to action at some future time, we cannot but think that a tone of greater moderation would have obtained for him a more respectful hearing, even from those most disposed to coincide with his views, certainly from all others. Whether, however, such opinions are broached in one way or another, will matter very little as to their success. They are so opposite to the philosophy of common sense, that we can have no fears on that score.

Common sense will hold it to be rather a strange doctrine of Mr. Brownson, that inequality of wealth is to be traced not to appointments of Providence, or laws of nature, but to human interference. Were it as he states, then indeed a reform of the social order would bring a remedy. What legislation had done, legislation might undo. But if this inequality is founded in our nature, in a natural difference of the desire of property, and of capacity for acquiring it, then the evil, if it be an evil, is incurable; there will always be poor and rich in spite of any and all legal or constitutional provision. And who can doubt whether these differences are natural? Place two individuals in precisely the same favorable circumstances for acquiring property, and one will come out rich, the other poor; and that not in consequence of any laws of man, but in consequence of laws of God. And not until men are sent into the world with one intellect, one conscience, and one desire of property, will there be equality of outward condition, or any nearer approach to it than there is now. Let the wealth of the world be to-day seized and counted, and equally distributed among all the individuals of the race, and how plain is it that through superior sagacity, cunning, or power of some sort on the part of some, and a corresponding inferiority on the part of others, through the virtues of some and the vices of others, that wealth would tomorrow return, and flow again in the channels from which it had been withdrawn. No agrarianism will ever help the matter

by depriving industry and capacity of their natural rewards. No human legislation can ever make those equal whom God has made to differ.

Mr. Brownson, as one means of equalizing human condition, asks at present only for a law which shall prohibit a man from bequeathing his property to whom he pleases, and shall distribute it in some manner through the community. But would he be long satisfied with so inadequate a provision? Why wait till the rich man's death for his hoarded wealth? It is not a question of time, but of unjust possession and retention on the one side, and of oppressive deprivation on the other. Let there be a law, which shall at eighty, seventy, or sixty years of age, relieve the rich man of his superfluous millions, or thousands, and portion them out among the poor. Nay for it is a question of right, not surely of hours, days, or years.

let it be that whenever a man by successful industry shall have accumulated up to a certain amount, the overplus shall go to the community. There is just as good ground, in the eye of reason, for one law as the other. But the philosophical defect, which runs through Mr. Brownson's argument, and most vitiates the whole, is, it seems to us, the position he maintains, that wealth is the true basis of human and social happiness and well-being. Equalization of property, or the nearest possible approach to it, is held out as the sovereign panacea for the ills that flesh is heir to. We cannot but hold this to be a most fundamental error. We must think, and so we believe most will think too, that there would be a far better chance for human happiness by filling the heads and hearts of men with knowledge, virtue, and religion, than by filling their pockets with money. Wealth is a good thing, but not the best thing. It is a stone in the foundation of human happiness, but not the corner stone.

Principles of Political Economy. Part the Third: Of the Causes which retard Increase in the Numbers of Mankind. Part the Fourth: Of the Causes which retard Improvement in the Political Condition of Man. By H. C. CAREY. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 1840. 8vo. pp. 270

THE First Part of this work, on the "The Laws of the Production and Distribution of Wealth," appeared in 1837; the Second, on "the Causes which retard Increase in the Production of Wealth, and Improvement in the Physical and Moral Condition of Man," in 1838; the two last, under the title given above, have just come from the press. The three volumes

evince extensive research, and embody a vast accumulation of facts. Moreover, as in connexion with his own, he gives at length the speculations of the other leading political economists, on all the great questions which come up, they are peculiarly fitted to make general readers acquainted with the history and present state of the science. The work is now complete, and will soon receive, we doubt not, the full and discriminating notice it deserves from the Journals to which the discussion of such topics belongs. What will particularly interest Christians and philanthropists is the refutation it contains of the gloomy theories of Malthus, and its earnest advocacy of the doctrine, that nothing but industry, justice, liberty, and peace is necessary to the physical, moral, and political advancement of the race. Political Economy, according to Mr. Carey, is nothing but the carrying out of the golden rule, "Do unto others, as ye would that others should do unto you."

The Law and Custom of Slavery in British India, in a Series of Letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq. By WILLIAM Boston: Weeks, Jordan, & Co. 1840. 12mo. pp.

ADAM. 279.

NATIONAL vanity is not less blind, perhaps, than personal. At any rate it is sometimes little less than stone-blind, as Mr. Adam has proved in the case of the English nation, by the revelations on the subject of Slavery in India, spread before the world in the present volume. Pleased with the eminence of her philanthropy in the emancipation of her West India slaves, and with the indignation she has felt and freely expressed toward the United States, for their continued tolerance of the institution within their free borders, without a single movement in the way even of prospective legislation, England has forgotten all but her glory. The faults of others on which she has gazed have grown to mountains, while her own, overshadowed and hidden by her intervening virtues, she has believed no longer to exist. In this pleasing delusion, Mr. Adam comes with his little volume of facts. and dissolves the enchantment; he holds up a faithful picture, as we doubt not it is, before her eyes, of that system of Hindoo Slavery, which is permitted and defended by British Laws, and calls upon her to do her duty here also, or cease to boast. The statements of his volume can hardly fail to make a deep sensation in England, for they are of a most astounding character; and coming from one of so calm and exact a mind, so thorough and cautious in his investigations, so candid in his judgments, so fair in his reasonings, they will fall

with double weight upon the public ear, and compel an attention, which time-hardened vanity might have denied to a less authoritative voice.

The volume is in the form of letters addressed to Mr. Buxton, in the course of which he treats the whole subject of slavery in India; considering, first, the law of slavery; second, the custom or practice of slavery: and third, the means that have been, or may be employed for the mitigation of the evil, or for its entire abolition. The first letter, after an introduction, treats of the Hindoo law of slavery, the Mohammedan and the British law. We intend no discussion of any of the subjects of the volume, but merely to put the reader in possession of some of its facts, opinions, and results by a few extracts and abstracts.

Although in the judgment of Mr. Adam slavery is the least of the evils tolerated or inflicted by the British Government of India, yet it is great enough, he thinks, to require to be brought before the British public, that it may be known at home what is done abroad," that all undue vaunting and exultation may be repressed, and the necessary impulse be given to the friends of humanity to complete the work they have only begun." We were not prepared by any knowledge we had on the subject for the extraordinary statements of the following paragraph; nor even in England, Mr. Adam gives us to understand, is it generally known, or known scarcely at all, to what an extent slavery prevails in her Eastern dominions.

"Is not the subject," Mr. Adam asks, "one that may well awaken the attention both of the government and of the people of England? The people of England have just paid twenty millions sterling to emancipate eight hundred thousand slaves in the British West Indies; and while they are congratulating themselves that now at length every British subject is a freeman, and insultingly reproaching republican America with her slavery, they are to be told that their congratulations are premature; that their reproaches may be retorted; that their work is only half done; that there are probably eight hundred thousand slaves more, British subjects, in the East Indies; that this slavery has been perpetuated and sometimes aggravated by the East India Company's government; and that there is no prospect of its ceasing, unless their powerful voice shall be put forth to demand its extinction. The government of England have been engaged for years in a hard-fought battle with slave-holders in the West Indies, and with the slave-holding interest in England, and they have just succeeded, at the expense of the people of England, in the great work of emancipation. They have been for years engaged in a diplomatic war, too unsuccessfully waged, with foreign powers against the slave-trade, and with praiseworthy energy and perseverance they are still adopting measures against this hydra-headed monster. Her Majesty's ministers are now to be told (are they now to be told, or have they long known 3D S. VOL. XI. NO. I.

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