Walcheren was in our possession except Flushing; and that Middleburgh, the capital, had been ours for three days. We were now retracing our steps, but, owing to our vessel being a slow sailer, and ill manned, we were continually falling astern. The batteries on shore kept firing at the ships as they passed up the channel, but with little effect. On Sunday the 6th, the whole fleet, with the exception of the vessels under the convoy of the Circe, stood over for Walcheren. We followed not long after, and a little after mid-day come to anchor off Der Haak, a town in that island, amidst a numerous and powerful fleet. The ships lay so close together, that their masts presented exactly the appearance of a large and dark forest. We could take in, at a mere casual glance, no less than 20 or 25 ships of the line, with an immense number of frigates, gun-brigs, transports, &c. It was here that the certain intelligence reached us of the defeat of the Austrians, and their submission to Bonaparte. It was also reported that the Emperor had already returned to Paris. | A most tremendous squall came on in the afternoon, attended by thunder and lightning, and the heaviest rain I ever witnessed. All passed away, however, almost immediately, and did no harm. The morning of the 7th found us still at anchor; but about one o'clock the master of the transport came on board with the intelligence that we were to proceed immediately to the island of South Beveland. We weighed anchor accordingly. FINE ARTS. EXHIBITION OF THE SCOTTISH ACADEMY. To judge by the hurried glance of these pictures which we were able to take on Thursday, this Exhibition is one of the best which we have seen in Edinburgh. There is which we last week directed our readers' attention. We LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. Monday Evening, February 14, 1831. CAPTAIN J. D. BosWALL, R. N. in the Chair. Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Brougham; Etty's Present,-Drs Carson, Alison, Hibbert, Borthwick, Keith, Moncrieff; Messrs Allan, Graham, Dalyell, Gordon, J. T. Gibson-Craig, Maidment, Pitcairn ; Lieut.-Col. Miller, Captain J. E. Alexander, &c. &c. &c., with a number of visitors. CHRISTIAN ERASMUS RASK, L. L. D., Professor of Literary History in the University of Copenhagen, was unanimously elected an HONORARY MEMBER of the Society. A number of donations received since last meeting were announced by the curator, particularly the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, in 16 vols. 4to, a gift from that learned Body. Mr Gregory, Secretary, then proceeded to read a notice of the discovery, in the month of August last, of the remains of the bones, coffin, and shroud of a child, in a cavity in the wall of the Palace, Castle of Edinburgh. Communicated by Captain James Edward Alexander, Cor. Mem. S. A. Scot. Some of the bones, and a fragment of the silken shroud, with the letter J embroidered on it, also some fragments of the coffin, were exhibited to the meeting. The workmen who made the discovery state, that on the most entire part of the coffin the letters J. K. were visible, the first quite distinct. This singular discovery will, no doubt, exercise the ingenuity of our historical antiquaries. "Judith leaving the Tent;" landscapes, by Thomson; a scene from the moors, by Simpson; Lauder's Master of Ravenswood, which gained the prize at Liverpool; Harvey's Covenanters; Kidd's Chimney Sweeps playing the devil with cold water amid frost and snow; portraits, landscapes, and fancy-pieces innumerable. It strikes us that we shall make our bow at the breakfast table this morning very appropriately, in order to lend our aid in deciding the very important question, “Whether to visit the Exhibition to-day or not?" Certainly! This is one of Edinburgh's gayest gala days-the holyday of art-the day on which the élite of our citizens make their bow to the Muse of Painting. You cannot be absent. There is beauty on the walls, and mirth and beauty on the floor. You will see ladies and gentlemen who come to look at their own pictures; young men who come to look at the ladies; and artists who come to see how the sales go on. And bustling through the throng, there will be the pompous man of monies who fancies himself a Mecenas, because he expends ten pounds per annum on a picture; and the "good-natured man," who, himself unable to buy, drags up the reluctant millionaire to the object of his admiration, and indulges in the pleasing delusion, that if he cannot purchase himself he is the cause of purchasing in others. “And is this fitting homage for art?" Oh, yes! Be-shire, on the property of Thomas Tod, Esq. It is 3 feet 7 inches in height, 15 inches in depth, and the same across lieve us, that amid all this flutter and frivolity, there are the front; and on it there appears the following inscription: deep and passionate worshippers. The throng that follows a monarch's triumphal car-the crowds which jostle on high festivals in the temples of the land, may not be all of them loyal and pious, but there is a leaven of true hearts among them, and, for the moment at least, every breast throbs with generous emotion, THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. ANOTHER document has appeared in the same quarter, and, to our conviction, from the same source as that to The Secretary then read a letter from Sir David Erskine, F.S. A. Scot., describing a Roman altar in fine preserva tion, which was dug up on the 27th January, 1830, in a field at New Abbey Steed, near Drygrange, Roxburgh DEO. SILVANO. PRO. SALUTE. SUA. ET. SUORUM. V. V. V. S. L. L. M. The vexillation of the 20th Legion was employed in building Antoninus' Wall, and the head-quarters of the Legion may have been at Trimontium (on the Eildon hills) during the progress of that undertaking. Sir David conjectures the date of the altar to be about the year 140 of our era. The next and concluding paper was a notice by Mr Gre gory, of the proceedings of the University Commission in 1690, relative to the learned David Gregorie, the friend of Newton and colleague of Halley, who was at that time Professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh. This Commission was appointed soon after the Revolution to visit the universities, not to determine the relative merits of the professors as men of science and learning, nor with any view to the real interests of these seminaries, but to ascertain the fitness of certain individuals to hold their offices from their political creeds, from the church they attended, or from their readiness to take certain tests proposed by the commissioners, and authorized by Parliament. The proceedings of the commission, at least of the more violent party in it, which consisted chiefly of Presbyterian divines, headed by the Rev. David Williamson, showed that regard for civil and religious liberty which might have been expected from the avowed objects of the visitation. Many of the professors were arraigned upon charges which could never have been credited for an instant, except at a time of great political excitement; and, to crown all, the Commission requested informers to come forward against the obnoxious individuals, who were thus required to plead to anonymous charges. Several of the professors were expelled; but the subject of this notice was more fortunate." He was not, indeed, spared the annoyance of grossly scandalous and calumnious, even puerile, charges, tending to ruin his character in every point-charges which he refuted in so triumphant a manuer, as (in his own words) to put "the very ministers out of countenance;" but his character stood so high as a teacher of mathematical science, and as the first public teacher who had introduced the Newtonian philosophy into the schools, that the Town Council, although sufficiently well inclined to do so, durst not press his deprivation. For the short time which he remained in Edinburgh after this period, he was continually harassed and importuned to take the oaths, which he as constantly and steadily refused to do. Hearing, in 1691, of a vacancy at Oxford, he declared himself a candidate, and was, almost without opposition, elected Savilian Professor of Astronomy there, in place of Dr Bernard. The Town Council of Edinburgh, and the reverend divines in the Commission, may share the merit of depriving our University of one of its brightest ornaments. Several extracts from a journal kept by this gentleman during the period abovementioned were also read, from which we select the following anecdotes: "It was," says Gregorie, "hotly disputed in the Commission, whether tendency to Cartesianism be such an error as to infer deprivation against the suspected person;* and only by one vote, Sir W. Hamilton's, was it decided that it is not. "One day, while the examination of witnesses against some of the professors was proceeding before the Commission, the divines were turning over the different classbooks, and according to Mr Gregorie, they complained horribly on [against] buying the Tacitus and Livy of the Delphin classics; but when they came to Calderwood's History of the Church of Scotland, they said, that indeed was a book for a bibliotheque, and preferred it to the other two.' We would prolong our extracts from this interesting paper, did our space permit; but we hope that Mr Gre gory will allow it to be printed in the Transactions of the Society. A paper announced for this evening, by Mr D. Laing, on the state of the Fine Arts in Scotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was necessarily deferred to the next meeting, and we have no doubt that it will prove highly interesting. ANDERSONIAN UNIVERSITY, GLASGOW. THE fifth soirée of this Institution, during the present season, was held on Monday, when Dr Scouler read a sketch of the progress of Natural History during the last year. He commenced by stating, that from the increasing number of cultivators of the natural sciences, the accumulation of new facts was advancing in a corresponding ratio, and that it was therefore necessary to restrict the attention of the meeting to a few of the more important discoveries. In the department of geology, he gave an account of the interesting views of M. Elie de Beaumont, on the relative ages of mountains. As all the strata which contain animal or vegetable remains, must have been deposited originally in This was Mr Cunningham, Professor of Logic. horizontal layers, and as many of them are now found to rest in very highly inclined planes, it is obvious that they must have been elevated at a later period than that of their deposit. Had it been otherwise, organic remains would now be found in greatest abundance at the least inclined part, or, in other words, at the base of the mountains. Reflecting on this circumstance, it occurred to M. Elie de Beaumont, that a careful study of the diferent strata thrown around mountains, would afford valuable data for ascertaining the relative ages of the different hills; and, prosecuting his researches, he arrived at the unexpected conclusion, that the loftiest mountains are often those which have been the most recently elevated; that Ben Nevis, for example, and Mount Jura, on the continent, are of much earlier origin than the Andes, or the Himalaya Mountains. We find that the oolitic strata, which in England are nearly horizontal, are in Mount Jura highly inclined, and, in fact, nearly perpendicular. This mountain must, therefore, have been elevated after the deposition of the oolitic, but before the formation of the tertiary strata, which has not been disturbed by its rise. On the other hand, as the tertiary strata are of a more recent origin than the oolitie, and have been elevated in like manuer around Mont Perdu, it is obvious that this mountain is of later origin than Mount Jura. By an induction of the same kind, we ascertain that the Andes are of more recent elevation than any European or Asiatic mountains. As this immense chain of mountains is studded with volcanoes yet in full activity, and as it is the general opinion that volcanic agency has been the power which elevated mountains, the abundance of unextinguished fires in the Andes is another presumption in favour of the views of M. de Beaumont. These opinions, said Dr Scouler, are bold and magnificent; and coming from an eminent geologist, who has made an extensive series of observations, to confirm his views by the only evidence the subject admits of, cannot fail to attract the attention of geologists. The rest of Dr Scouler's discourse was occupied by an exposition of the anatomical views of M. Geoffroy St Hilaire, for whose talents and ingenuity the speaker expressed the highest admiration, although he could not adopt his opinions to their full extent. ORIGINAL POETRY. TO AURA. By Thomas Tod Stoddart. THEIR music started never Thy music storm'd the soul of love In tempest, whirling to the heaven above. Strange were the thoughts that came Thoughts of the spirit-girl, That bade the quivering chord Ring to the silver anthem, pour'd Through rows of living pearl. Thou must have done; the dream For some unbodied image still Haunts my mad heart, more pale than thee: Break the wild vision with a thrill Of mirth and mockery! ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. DR THOMSON. By W. M. Hetherington. WHERE is the arm that wont to wield In Zion's cause the two-edged sword? That bore aloft Faith's blazing shield, That fought the battles of the Lord, That waved the Red-cross armies on, And shook the Dragon- foe's dark throne? "How are the mighty fallen!" The eye that never knew to quail Untaught the pulse of fear to know,- "How are the mighty fallen!" The voice that woke the cry of war As if tongued thunders peal'd afar, "How are the mighty fallen!" O! ye on whom that eagle-eye Dwelt with the fondness of a dove! "How are the mighty fallen !" And thou, my Country! where is he That burn'd within our martyr-sires, "How are the mighty fallen !" Fallen though our Champion, dry the tear! While error shrinks from truth's clear eye, LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. THE Literary Gazette announces that the Quarterly Reviewers mean to put forth another number of their journal this mouth. We learn from another quarter, that they have it in contemplation to publish an extra number as often as the interest of the materials they have on hand warrants such a step. A new religious periodical is announced; the first number to appear on the 26th of this month. It is to be published weekly, and also in monthly parts. The title is, The Christian's Magazine, or Weekly Miscellany of Religious Essays, Anecdotes, Literature, &c. An interesting Memoir of Bradbury, author of the Mystery of Godliness, &c., by the Rev. John Brown, Whitburn, is on the eve of publication at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Part VII. of Sir William Gell's Pompeiana will be published on the first of March. Mr Power, author of the "Lost Heir," is about to publish a novel under the singular title of "The King's Secret." Lord Mahon has nearly ready his "War of the Spanish Succession (1702-14.)" This work will derive much new information from the MS. papers and correspondence of General Stanhope, at one period Commander-in-chief of the British army in Spain, and afterwards (as Earl Stanhope) First Lord of the Treasury in England. Lord Nugent announces "Some Memorials of John Hampden, his Party, and Times," with Portrait, Autograph Letters, &c. Colonel Bouchette will publish, during the present month, a Topographical and Statistical Description of the British Dominions in North America; including Observations on Land-Granting and Emigration. MEETINGS OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES DURING THE WEEK COMMENCING SATURDAY, 19TH FEBRUARY.-Wernerian Society, this day at Two P. M.-Royal Society, Monday, 21st February, at Eight P. M. We learn from Elgin, that Mr Calvert, Lecturer on Belles Lettres and Teacher of Elocution at King's College, Old Aberdeen, has announced his intention of delivering a course of lectures in the former city during the months of May and April. PERIODICALS AND PAMPHLETS.-This department of literature is far too extensive to admit of our bestowing more than occasional rapid glances upon it. Owing to the late snow, some of our periodicals have this month been rather late of coming to hand. The Monthly Magazine contains a happy imitation of L. E. L.'s poetry. The Lady's Magazine might, for any thing we can see about it but the fashions for the month, be called the Gentleman's -Our Scots Law Chronicle goes on improving in spirit and talent. It has lately added Reports of the Appeal Cases decided in the House of Lords, an important accession. As a collection of Scotch Law Reports, it is now almost every thing that could be wished.-The first Number of a periodical, entitled "Library of the Fine Arts," has just come to hand. Its professed object is to afford the artist and amateur information respecting the Fine Arts, both of past and present times, in a cheap and accessible form. The first number promises well. We intend to keep an eye upon this work, and give our opinion of it as soon as two or three months have confirmed or destroyed our favourable auguries. We are not quite certain whether the Gazetteer of Scotland, by the brothers Chambers, ought to be considered a periodical, and will therefore place it between works of that class and the pamphlets. The third part, which has just come to hand, is worthy of its predecessors. With several blunders, which have been most relentlessly pointed out to the public, this work is better calculated than any we have yet seen to diffuse through every class of Scottish society, information respecting our native country.-We noticed cursorily last week a letter to the Lord Advocate, by the author of certain political letters published at Glasgow, with the signature of Lucius Verus. These letters we had not then seen, but we have since glanced over a copy forwarded to us by the author, and find them composed in a manly and sensible spirit, expressed in an energetic and polished style.-The Rev. R. Warner has published a pamphlet, exhorting the nation to confidence in the present ministry. We have nothing to object to his arguments, and certainly have no intention to discuss the question, but feel much inclined to sing, "Be sure whatever king shall reign, I'll be the Vicar of Bray, Sir!" ASSOCIATION FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF LITERATURE.-The rules submitted to a general meeting of this body by their provisional committee, and unanimously approved of, are in the course of circulation. The Association is not to consist of less than 200 members, each to be responsible for L.50, forming in all a capital of L.10,000. A deposit of L. 10 is to be paid by each member on entry, and the committee of management are authorized to commence operations as soon as 100 shares have been subscribed. The Association proposes to encourage literature, by bearing the expense of publishing works of merit in every branch of literature, whose authors may be unable to do so themselves. Their only objects are, to benefit the author, and secure the members against loss. The account of every work published shall be made up within six months from the time of publication, or as soon after as possible—the actual expenses discharged, and the author remunerated in the following ratio: out of the first L. 100, at 50 per cent; out of the second, at 65 per cent; out of the third, at 75 per cent; out of all sums exceeding L.300, at 90 per cent. The remainder will be carried to the account of the Association. In the event of a second edition being called for, the author shall have the privilege of purchasing back the copyright, at a price to be fixed by the committee, with reference to the avowed principles of the Association. No publisher or bookseller is eligible as a member of the committee of general management. In the event of a dissolution of the Association, it stands pledged to appropriate any balance standing at its credit to the benefit of distressed authors and their families. The laws of the Association are drawn up in a spirit of just jealousy of undue influence. Thomas Campbell has been appointed honorary secretary. LETTER FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.-Cape Town, 25th Oct. 1850.-Our College, I am happy to say, promises well, two permanent professors having been found in the colony, both Scotchmen,-the Rev. Mr Pears, a gentleman who, about eighteen months ago, came out to assume the pastoral charge of our countrymen at Glen-Lynden, but who, in consequence of disappointments experienced, was obliged to resign his situation there; and a Mr Innes, formerly government teacher for the district of Hitenhage. Another professor is daily expected from Holland, whose place is filled, pro tempore, by the Rev. Mr Fairre, one of the ministers of the Dutch church. The ultimate object of this foundation is to afford the inhabitants of the colony the means of acquiring instruction in the higher branches of science and literature; but at present the directors confine their efforts towards affording them a liberal elementary education, being anxious to ascertain whether the subscriptions will enable them to support more than the number of professors now engaged. The last public examination, in August, afforded the utmost satisfaction, and the number of pupils is at present upwards of 130.-Amongst the literary characters at the Cape, Old Scotland can boast of a fair pro portion. Greig's paper, and the Literary Gazette, (a work lately men. commenced, and of average talent,) are each conducted by ScotchThe two secretaries of the South African Institution/for the promotion of Science and Literature, are likewise Scotchmen. One of the secretaries of the Literary Society, and several of our best writers and speakers, claim their origin from the Land of Cakes. Dr Phillip, since his return, has met with most unkind treatment. His work has been criticised in the most severe manner, and he himself, in a weekly paper called the South African, held up to public scorn and contempt. The prosecution for libel, I regret to say, has gone against him, and he has been cast in damages to the amount of £200, which, together with the expenses, will make his loss about £1100. No favour was shown the good cause he was engaged in, and the veracity of the friend. Thomas Pringle, from whom he had the information respecting Mackay, was entirely kept out of view. Of this, however, you will perhaps hear more, as Lushington and some others of the ablest lawyers, have agreed to take up the case A SECOND EDITION OF gratis. Our Governor, also a Scotchman, seems still to study the THE OPERATIVE CHEMIST, consisting of a good of the colony. He is likely to immortalize himself by roadmaking. In November last, a very excellent one, over the Hottentot Holland Mountains, was opened. It is called Sir Lowry's Pass. He is busy with others of equal importance. Theatrical Gossip.-The King's Theatre has opened with Il Barbiere di Seviglia, in which Madame Vespermann has made her debut as Rosina. The lady was labouring under a severe cold, and therefore scarcely a fair subject for criticism; but the majority of the critics seem to anticipate in her rather a respectable than an eminent operatic performer.-Miss Sidney has appeared at the Olympic, in Our readers will observe with pleasure, that Miss Eliza Paton gives a Concert on the evening of the 4th proximo, on which occasion, we understand, she will be powerfully supported. WEEKLY LIST OF PERFORMANCES. Cinderella, & The Child of Nature. $ SAT. TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. A NUMBER of reviews are deferred for want of room. Our Correspondent, W. J. M. B. will observe, upon re-perusing the two passages he has submitted for our judgment, that the ideas sought to be expressed by the two poets are diametrically opposite. When Burns says "The speedy gleams the darkness swallowed," he wishes to paint the complete, though momentary, annihilation of The jaws of darkness do devour it up," he seeks to paint the complete disappearance of the light. The word "swallow" is a bold figurative substitute for "absorb." Burns tells us that the light for a moment absorbed the darkness: Shakspeare, that the darkness permanently absorbed the light. Both were full Practical Display of MANUFACTURING CHEMISTRY, and of its detailed applications to every branch of Manufactures. BY SAMUEL F. GRAY, Esq. Author of "The Supplement to the Pharmacopæia," &c. &c. AIDS TO REFLECTION, IN THE FORMA TION OF A MANLY CHARACTER, on the Several Grounds of PRUDENCE, MORALITY, and RELIGION By S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. R.A., R.S.L. Neighb'ring on Heaven; and that no foreign land.” DANIEL. London: HURST, CHANCE, & Co., 65, St Paul's Churchyard. An. ESSAY on the CONSTITUTION of the 1 DRAWN ON STONE BY J. D. HARDING. "The reviewing of these Sketches as they have made their appear. ance at various intervals, has been to us like so many green spots in the monotonous waste of criticism. They all betray the quick and investigating eye, the rapid and energetic hand, and the plastic power of a varied genius. The whole collection has been beautifully Lithographed by Mr Harding." London: Printed for JAMES CARPENTER and SON, Old Bond Street; and ALEXANDER HILL, 50, Prince's Street, Edinburgh. In one Volume Quarto, BURNET'S PRACTICAL HINTS on PAINT ING. Illustrated by nearly One Hundred Etchings, from celebrated Pictures of the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. The Parts may be had separate, viz.-On Composition, 15s. -On Light and Shade, 18s-On Colour, L.1, 11s. 6d. "To the Professor these remarks must be invaluable; and the Library of no lover of the Fine Arts can henceforward be considered complete without Mr Burnet's work."-Literary Gazette. A very few Copies remain of the Royal Paper, with Proof Impressions of the Plates, and a Portrait of the Author. Price L.6, 6s. London: Printed for JAMES CARPENTER and SON, Old Bond Street; and ALEXANDER HILL, 50, Prince's Street, Edinburgh. LITERARY CRITICISM. The Principles of Political Economy; with a Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Science. By J. R. M'Culloch, Esq., Professor of Political Economy in the University of London. Second Edition. 8vo. Pp. 563. London: Longman and Co. Edinburgh: William Tait. 1830. The Quarterly Review. No. LXXXVII. January, 1831. Price 6d. necessary for defraying the expenses of government, and the most available method of increasing them. In other words, the great object of the political economist is to devise a plan for securing to government the largest possible share of the available wealth of the nation, in order to defray the expense incurred in maintaining social order, without crippling, by excessive demands, its productive energies. Such an investigation naturally divides itself into two branches. The first-the preliminary enquiry-respects the nature of wealth, the source or sources whence it is derived, the natural and necessary mode of its distribution. The scientific enquirer, who has formed to himself clear and definite notions of these points, is prepared to derive from them a series of important corollaries, of which the most prominent is, How individual and national wealth may be most surely increased? We have frequently repeated that it is our intention to preserve our columns free from the vulgar disputes of party. We conceive literature and science subjects of so sacred a nature, that they must necessarily be debased the moment that the transient interests of individual politicians are mixed up with their discussion. Amid the fierce contest-the dark storm of contending factions that now lours over our land, we wish our little brochure to remain like an oasis in the arid desert of political strife; a domain where the eternal principles of abstract truth, the graces of imaginative literature, and playful chastisements of individual failings, alone shall be heard. We wish it to be a sort of neutral ground, upon which men of all fac-alone this state income may be supplied? tions may linger with delight; and recognising, at least, one source of feeling in common with their opponents, evade the danger of forgetting, amid their broils, that they are possessed of one common humanity-children of the same soil. We should despise the man who, in a crisis like the present, could stand still, a tame and inactive looker-on; but into this our sanctum sanctorum, the rude breath of party politics shall never be allowed to A firm foundation being thus laid, he is ready to proceed to the second-the practical branch of his enquiry :How the supplies desired by government may be most easily and economically levied? How this necessarily disagreeable duty may be performed, with the least possible injury to the springs of that national wealth, from which enter. In accordance with these principles, we should have allowed the attack upon our modern political economists, in the January number of the Quarterly Review, as well as the innumerable sneers at the science with which almost every article in that number is so thickly sown -to pass unnoticed; but that we conceive the Jesuitical attempt to bolster up a cause, by attacking science when it bears against a favourité system, is rather overstepping the not very puritanical latitude which we have been accustomed to concede to political disputants. We enter the field, not against Whig or Tory, but against the desperate sophist, who, finding himself worsted in an argument, seeks to conceal his failure by an attempt to perplex the judge's notions of right and wrong. We have no intention of following out all the shallow, flimsy, and often-refuted sophistries by which the reviewer attempts to throw an air of ridicule upon the science of political economy. It is our intention to lay before our readers a brief popular sketch of the problems which that science attempts to solve, and of the truths which it has already succeeded in evolving. We wish to place it unexaggerated, undistorted, before their eyes; convinced that if we succeed in our attempt, their own good sense will convince them of its importance. The designation, " Political Economy," admirably indicates the object of the science: it is to ascertain the mode of raising and husbanding such supplies as are : When thus stated, the limits of this science seem distinct enough, and yet we find them continually misapprehended and overstepped by those who have devoted themselves to its study. In the preliminary branch, we find a continual tendency to diverge from the true question before them into metaphysical disquisitions. Thus :It is necessary to start with clear notions of what is meant by the words value, wealth, &c., and to use them throughout all our investigations in the same distinct sense. But it is sufficient for this purpose that we have the clear, vulgar, common-sense apprehension of them. It is not necessary to bewilder ourselves with dialectical subtleties, such as, Whether there be such an entity as value entering into the composition of an article, or, whether it be a mere figment of our imagination? or, How it comes that man should attribute to himself the power of appropriating external objects? Such mental exercises have their use in sharpening men's wits, but they lie beyond the province of political economy, and are of no direct use in solving any one of its problems. But Again, in the second branch of the science, we occasionally find the professors of political economy stretching its enquiries to subjects with which it has nothing to do. Political economy alone is incompetent to determine the question, What the state expenditure ought to be? It can say no more than that it ought to be confined within the narrowest limits that the attainment of the ends for which government is instituted admits of. these ends are determined by investigations of a higher class, which form the sciences of jurisprudence, ethics, and theology. The necessity of promoting the increase of national wealth, would dictate the reduction of state expenditure to a degree far beneath what is warrantable, when we consider the claims of yet higher interests of humanity. The limits which we have here fixed to the investi |