5. A Vindication of Niebuhr's History of Rome from the VII. ARCHEOLOGIA, Vol. XXII, Part II. Vetusta Monumenta . 401 VIII. TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA, in the Years 1827 and 1828. By Captain Basil Hall, Royal Navy . IX. BENTHAM, BROUGHAM, AND LAW REFORM. 1. Petition for Codification, by Jeremy Bentham, Esq. 2. Petitions for Justice. By the same Author. 3. Elucidations relative to the proposed Summary mode 4. Plan for an Experimental Dispatch Court. Idem. XI. ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH, on the Progress of Knowledge, and on the Fundamental Principle of all Evi- dence and Expectation. By the Author of "Essays on the 472 477 . 490 XV. MEMOIRS OF LADY FANSHAWE, Wife of the Right Hon. Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart. ; Ambassador from Charles II. to the Court of Madrid, in 1665. Written by Herself. To THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW. JULY, 1829. ART. I.-1. Three Lectures on the Mercantile Theory of Wealth, deli- Uni- 2. Two Lectures on Population, delivered before the 3. Mathematical Exposition of some Doctrines of Political Economy. 4. Catechism on the Corn Laws; with a List of Fallacies and GLORY to God and the Empress! Ismail has fallen.' Such, with distinction due between the Giver and the instru- religious sects-down to Joanna Southcote's inclusive, if it still exist-have a claim to a fair dividend of the funds appropriated by law to the maintenance of religious teachers. That such a discovery must come, is as clear as that the claim to the equal distribution of justice will be discovered in any other branches of the administration. The only reasonable plea in opposition would have been, if what is called the Established Church could have urged, that the gifts had been made to her by the original owners. But it happens that she herself is only a tenant by club law. Any will or intent of the original owners, is as completely set at naught by every hour of her occupation, as if the possession were in the hands of the followers of Joanna Southcote; and, to increase the difficulty, the representatives of the original owners are among the foremost claimants for a fair division. The only hold therefore of the predominant sect is in the fiat of the legislature; and as the legislators become more impartial and enlightened, an approximation must necessarily be accomplished to what is in accordance with justice to the whole. These are among the further movements which every body sees must be consequent on the fall of the fortress which has just been carried. But there are other Ismails of nearer site, which must be attacked long before arriving at these ultimate results. Religious equality will come in time; but in the mean while, we must have the bread that perishes. And as all wrongs hang in a certain degree by one another, the moment when a great blow has been struck in favour of justice in Ireland, is evidently favourable for an effort on the part of the people of England to procure their emancipation from an equally flagrant injury at home. The Corn Laws are no new subject; and for that very reason, have a chance for continuing six months longer than might otherwise have been the natural term of their existence. They may be defined to be, the prohibition of foreign trade by act of parliament, for the benefit of the owners of land, who by means of the imperfect state of the representation, have contrived to acquire a majority of votes in the House of Commons. It is true that foreign commerce is not prohibited in the abstract. As in Figaro's celebrated dissertation on the liberty of the press, there is perfect liberty in every thing that is of no use. The only restriction put on the manufacturer and merchant is, that their goods shall not be sold for the only thing that is wanted in return. It is permitted to them to buy sticking-plaister ad libitum; but if they aspire to the more substantial consolation of food, the land-owner steps in, and declares it to be a breach of his patent. How, or for what reason, the manufacturer thus comes into the world bridled and saddled, and the land-owner ready booted and spurred to mount,-how or why it should be more expedient and just that the land-owner should have a prohibition or duty against corn being procured by the operations of the manufacturer, than that the manufacturer should have a prohibition or duty against the growth of corn at home, for the sake of increasing what he would purchase from abroad,-is what nobody has explained, except by pointing to the inequality of the representation, and the well-known disposition of mankind to use power for their own advantage when they have it. On these grounds indeed, the situation of the manufacturing interest is as explicable as the situation of the negro interest in the West Indies. It is a simple display of power against justice; and the evil must go on till somebody or other can be persuaded that it would be wise to alter it. A remarkable circumstance connected with the supporters of the injustice is, that they never venture on a reply. They can put off and vend a string of original fallacies; but when these are answered and exploded, no invitation can induce them to enter on the pain and peril of rejoinder. The fact before the public therefore is, that their defence is at a stand. They are not men that can render a reason. Like unskilful pugilists, they throw their arms abroad, and may chance to hit an opponent who has no notion of defence; but one parry, and they are down,-they have no idea of a riposte. It is plain therefore, that as Marlborough said, 'they must go off.' They may kill some thousands in the going; but go they must. The public will never submit to be oppressed, by people who cannot say a word in their defence. A certain quantity of good tropes are necessary ammunition for every wrong; and when the stock of these is out, the end of the mischief is at hand. Why-as has been often said before-does not Vindex or Agricola write down the babblers on the Corn Laws? Why does not the Quarterly Review, for instance, confound the demagogues who describe our land-owners as drones subsisting upon the earnings of the people'—or Blackwood turn some of his hundred arms of might, to protect the unfortunate sufferers from the aspersions of their enemies? The reason is clear; it is because they cannot. In all causes, one side must win; and the last fatal symptom for the losing party is, when his advocates are conscious that the less is said the better. In all of which, there is no desire to triumph, or to institute invidious comparisons with any body; but only to take political advantage, to the greatest possible extent, of the substantial fact. When the press on the side of the monopolists is in this unresisting state, it would be weakness to suppose there could be any doubt of the ultimate result, however great the material force arranged upon the other side. No cause can hold its ground, after it has given up its defence by argument. It is true that it may be a long time before argument finds its way into the necessary places. But this is no more than an inevitable consequence of the structure of a representative government like ours. Knowledge, like every thing else, must take root downwards and bear fruit upwards; and it would be a most odd and unreasonable demand, that should expect the representative to find wisdom for the represented. The people must first be wise, that they may chuse representatives of like quality. When every man, and woman, and grown child, in the lower and middle ranks of society, have been for twelve months conversant with all the mystery of Corn Laws, it will be quite time enough to expect any appearance of substantial transfusion into the councils of their representatives. As soon, however, as any such transfusion shall take place, strong hopes may be indulged, from the rapidity with which representatives are known to be illuminated, on points where a great mass of public opinion is brought to bear. They are subject above all men, to what Newton called 'fits of easy transmission and reflection; and the Catholic question is a case at hand, to demonstrate how easily a cause that six months before appeared to be in a state of hopeless obscuration, may find itself the subject of extensive comprehension and support. There is no guarantee against the effect of common sense upon a minister. Masses of men may agree to keep it out, and by mutual cheers may keep up their spirits to the sticking point. But there is no providing against the secret voice, which haunts the leader of a nation's counsels, crying to him 'Good Launcelot-or good Gobbo-or good Launcelot Gobbo-consult the public interest and your own, however disagreeable it may be to to gentlemen opposed to you.' The point which the opposition to the Corn Laws has at present reached, is that of being acknowledged by Professors of both the Universities. If any man can tell what interval there was between the publication of the Newtonian system and its acknowledgment in parliament, he will have a valuable datum for calculating the present prospects of the country. First stands forth the Professor of Political Economy in the wild and revolutionary University of Oxford; who publishes his lectures annually by statute, that the public may know the sort of doctrines inculcated among that learned body. And |