1822.] REVIEW-Walpole's Memoires. "HORACE LORD WALPOLE. "Horace Walpole was still one of the busiest men in parliament; generally bustling for the ministry to get a peerage, and even zealous for them when he could not get so much as their thanks. With the King he had long been in disgrace, on disputing a point of German genealogy with him (in which his Majesty's chief strength lay), whose the succesion of some principality would be, if eleven or twelve persous then living should die without issue. He knew something of every thing but how to hold his tongue, or how to apply his knowledge. As interest was in all his actions, treaties were in all his speeches. Whatever the subject was, he never lost sight of the peace of Utrecht, Lord Bolingbroke, and the Norwich manufactures; but his language and oratory were only adapted to manufacturers. He was a dead weight on his brother's ministry; yet nobody so intemperately abusive on all who connected with his brother's enemies; nobody so ready to connect with them for the least flattery, which he loved next to money; indeed, he never entirely forgave Lord Bath for being richer. His mind was a strange mixture of sense allayed by absurdity, wit by mimicry, knowledge by buffoonery, bravery by meanness, honesty by selfishness, impertinence by nothing. "LORD HARDWICKE. "Sir Philip Yorke, Baron of Hardwicke, and Lord Chancellor, was **** the son of an attorney at Dover. He was a creature of the Duke of Newcastle, and by him introduced to Sir Robert Walpole, who contributed to his grandeur and baseness, in giving him an opportunity of displaying the extent of the latter, by raising him to the height of the former. He had good parts, which he laid out so entirely upon the law in the first part of his life, that they were of little use to him afterwards, when he would have applied them to more general views. He was Attorney-General, and when the Solicitor Talbot was, after a contest, preferred to him for the Chancellorship (the contest lay between their precedence, for Talbot was as able a man, and an honest one), Sir Robert Walpole made Yorke Chief Justice for life, and greatly encreased the salary. Talbot dying in a short time after his advancement, to the great grief of all good men, Yorke succeeded. In his Chief Justiceship, he had gained the reputation of humanity, by some solemn speeches made on the circuit, at the condemnation of wretches for low crimes, a character he lost with some when he sat as Lord High Steward at the trials of the Scotch Lords, the meanness of his birth breaking out in insolent acrimony. On his promotion he flung himself into politics; but as he had no knowledge of foreign affairs but what were whispered to him by Newcastle, he made a very poor 237 figure. In the House of Lords be was laughed at; in the Cabinet despised. On the Queen's death he went deep into the Duke's shallow schemes of governing the King by the Princess Emely; for this cabal thought that he must necessarily be governed by a woman, because the Queen was one, not because she was a wise one. This scheme was to be built on the ruin of Sir Robert Walpole, who had no further trouble to make it miscarry than in making the King say Pho! to the first advice this junto gave him. Their next plot was deeper laid, and had more effect: by a confederacy with the chiefs of the opposition, they overturned Sir Robert Walpole; and in a little time the few of their associates that they had admitted to share the spoils. When Yorke had left none but friends in the ministry, he was easily the most eminent for abilities. His exceeding parsimony was qualified by his severity to, and discouragement of, usurers and gamesters; at least, he endeavoured to suppress that species of avarice that exists by supplying and encouraging extravagance. The best thing that can be remembered of the Chancellor is his fidelity to his patron; for let the Duke of Newcastle betray whom he would, the Chancellor always stuck to him in his perfidy, and was only not false to the falsest of mankind." Part the Second is filled with matters of more partial interest. Further proceedings against the refractory disturber of the House's privileges, Murray; the debate on Faucett's testimony, which is both long and uninteresting; seizure and execution of Dr. Cameron; discussions on the celebrated Marriage Bill; and the death of Mr. Pelham, bring these Memoirs down to the year 1754. Anecdotes, "like angels' visits, few and far between," occasionally relieve the excessive tediousness of the text, some of which we subjoin: ANECDOTES. "During Sir Robert Walpole's administration, a troop of French players had been brought over, but the audience and populace would not suffer them to perform. Another company came over in 1750, but with no better success. Several young men of quality had drawn their swords in the riot, endeavouring to support them: Lord Trentham's being present had been exaggerated into his being their chief protector. French players had been no uncommon spectacle in England. The foundation of the late animosity against them was this: the opposition to the Court had proceeded so far, as to be on the point of ridiculing the King publicly on the stage of the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, in a dramatic satire, called "The Golden Rump," written by 238 REVIEW.-Walpole's Memoires. by Fielding. Sir R. Walpole having intelligence of this design, got the piece into his hands, and then procured the Act to be passed for regulating the Stage, by which all Theatres were suppressed, but such as should be licensed by the Lord Chamberlain. This provoked the people so much, that the French company having a licence granted soon after, when several English companies were cashiered, it was made a party point to silence foreign performers." "Cowle was a noted punster. Once on a circuit with Page, a person asked him if the Judge was not just behind? He replied, I don't know; but I am sure he was never just before.' Faza "A story is current, that Sir Robert Walpole finding it difficult to prevail on Sir Philip Yorke to quit a place for life, for the higher but more precarious dignity of Chancellor, worked upon his jealousy, and said, that if he persisted in refusing the seals, he must offer them to Fazakerly.' kerly exclaimed Yorke : 'impossible! he is certainly a tory-perhaps a jacobite.' It's all very true,' replied Sir Robert, taking out his watch; but if by one o'clock you do not accept my offer, Fazakerly by two becomes Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and one of the staunchest whigs in all England.' Yorke took the seals and the peerage!" "Lord Granville, in one of his speeches upon the war with Spain, said, We were entering upon a war that would be stained with the blood of kings, and washed with the tears of queens.' It was in ridicule of this rant, that Sir Charles Williams, in a poem called The Pandaemonium,' where he introduced orations in the style of the chief speakers of the Opposition, concluded Lord Granville's with the following line at the close of a prophetic view of the ravages of war: And Visiers' heads came rolling down [March, am governed by my wife, as they say I am! Hoh! hoh! it's a fine thing to be governed by one's wife!' Oh! Sir,' replied the Queen, I must be vain indeed to pretend to govern your Majesty."" The Whigs took pleasure in copying the precedents which had been set them at the famous Westminster election in 1742; and the Speaker (Onslow) had the satisfaction both times of executing the vengeance of either party, and indulging his own dignity. On the former occasion his speech to the kneeling justices was so long and seSir Charles Hanbury Williams comvere, that the morning it was printed, plained to him of the printer's having made a grievous mistake. How? I examined the proof-sheet myself." Sir Charles replied, "In the conclusion he makes you say, more might have been said; to be sure you wrote it, less might have been said." Where? In mentioning Sir Henry Erskine, Lord Orford describes his having studied rhetoric under the celebrated baker at the Oratorical Club, Essex-street. This meeting went by the name of the Robin Hood Society. Questions were proposed, and any person might speak on them for seven minutes; after which the baker, who presided with a hammer in his hand, summed up the arguments. Burke is reported to have studied oratory under the same professor; and we are here reminded of an anecdote in the highest degree curious and amusing. When Burke on an ever-memorable occasion quitted the benches of the Opposition, and walked ing, to the great astonishment of the over to those of the Treasury, exclaimConstantinople's streets!'" "Of the Queen, Sir H. Walpole says: House, " I quit the camp!" Sheridan She always affected, if any body was prearose from his seat, and after protestsent, to act (and the King liked she should) ing with much warmth against the the humble ignorant wife, that never meddled treachery of his late ally, and informwith politics. Even if Sir R. Walpole came ing him, "that he had quitted the in to talk of business which she had pre- camp as a deserter, and that he trusted viously settled with him, she would rise up, he would not return again as a spy," curtsey, and offer to retire the King gene- he concluded his philippic in these rally bad her stay, sometimes not. She words: "The conduct of the honourand Sir Robert played him into one another's able member on the other side the hands: he would refuse to take the advice House may appear singular and inconof the one, and then when the other talked sistent, but it is in effect both natural to him again on the same point, he would and reasonable, that the man who, in give the reasons for it that had been suggested to him; nay, he would sometimes the outset of his career, could commit produce as his own, at another conversation so gross a blunder as to go to a baker to the same person, the reasons which he for his eloquence, should finish by had refused to listen to when given to him. coming to the House of Commons for He has said to Sir Robert, on the curtsies his bread!" of the Queen,There you see how much I (To be continued.) 32. Ele 32. Elements of Political Economy. By James Mill, Esq. Author of the "History of British India.' 8vo. 1821. pp. 240. Baldwin, &c. IN our review of Mr. Torrens's book upon Wealth (vol. XCI. ii. 428), we took occasion to observe, that Political Economy had not been rendered of the advantage to individuals of which it was susceptible, through a serious omission under the head of Capital; and we shall avail ourselves of pointing out another deficiency, in regard to the assistance which it may afford to Statesmen. I. With respect to Individuals, we stated, that the profits first to be sought, as most productive, are those which imply comparatively little or no prime cost, but, through ingenuity, sell for more than cent. per cent. profit. Suppose a painter to execute a picture in a month, which would sell for 1000l. abroad; and the cost of his inaintenance, canvas, and colours during that period to be 1007. it is evident that he introduces into the nation 9007. more than it would have otherwise possessed. We do not say that paintings are saleable in this manner; but there are many articles wrought by machinery, of which, in the event of a favourable market, ingenuity and invention produce enormous returns. Again, suppose a ship destined to the new world, beyond the Pacific Ocean, and provided with specie to procure that fresh supply of provisions from a Dutch port, which is indispensable, on account of the length of the voyage; and, instead of so doing, to repair to Otaheite and the South Sea Islands, and there for fifty axes, value as many shillings, to obtain such a number of pigs as will again store the meat-casks, it is plain that the balance is so much capital, saved to the concern, to be expended in new adventures. The best trade, therefore, is that by which ingenuity alone creates wealth, and becomes itself most valuable capital. A field, with a brook running through it, and a cottage by it, lets and sells for the simple value of the land and house. Convert the latter into a mill, and the value is enormously augmented. What the mill is in one case, ingenuity is in the other. Upon this head, the best modes of rendering low prime cost uncommonly profitable, the systerns of Political Economy have very slightly touched. 239 II. With regard to Statesmen, they, no more than Individuals, have been instructed in the most important branch of their art. Providence," says Mr. Fosbroke*, "has established, that wealth of every kind must inevitably be dispersed among the population interest of money not existing without a profitable channel of expenditure; and vegetable or animal products being insusceptible of accumulation without decay." Suppose A. a philanthropist, and B. a dissipated man, to be neighbours; and both to have 2,000l. a year. A. lives upon 5001. a year, and gives away 1,500l. He augments the comforts of his poorer neighbours, from whom his benefactions go to the butcher, baker, grocer, &c. B. spends his whole 2,000l. in equipage and luxury. His money goes to the coach-maker, wine-merchant, taylor, saddler, &c. who again disperse it. The difference to the public, except in moral views, is nothing as to benefit from the respective expenditures of A. or B. But suppose, further, that the whole wealth of the nation is inadequate to the support of the population, and Mr. Mill tells us, that if wages fall it is a proof of such a serious misfortune existing (p. 27). Why then, the grand object for study in the Statesman, is Population. The Political Economists say, that he must make Capital keep pace with it. Which way he is to do that, under a luxurious system, where the laws of private property are respected, it is not easy to devise; for, as Swift says, a landed proprietor who rails at poor-rates, may export as much corn as will maintain twenty poor families for a year, and receive for it only wine, from which they gain nothing. And Franklin observes, concerning the influence of manners upon states, that this influence is very conspicuous from the Quakers, Switzerland, and other countries, where there is not a greater sum expended in subsistence than ought to be expended. In luxurious nations, therefore, only a thinner population can be supported, and even that cannot be profitably done but by capital increasing in an equal ratio. were this practicable, "Population," says Mr. Mill, "has a tendency to increase faster than capital (p. 42), and as the latter continues to accumulate, *British Monachism, pp. 3, 4. But the 240 REVIEW.-Mill's Elements of Political Economy. [March, the difficulty of increasing it becomes net produce is consumed unproductively, it gradually greater and greater, till finally is taken from the Capital; and so far the increase becomes impracticable."(p.41.) Capital of the nation is reduced. p. 182. Add to this that our author says (p. 35), "that all increase of capital is derived from savings," and makes suitable remarks upon the powerful opposition of present indulgence to parsimony. (p. 37.) Mr. Mill proceeds to observe (p. 52), "that the precise problem is to find the means of limiting the number of births to that point, which will keep population on a level with capital. If three acres per head be annually consumed by every person, two hundred and thirteen inhabitants form the exact proportion to every square mile of cultivated ground." (See our review of Godwin on Population, July 1821, p. 57.) But as mathematical precision is impracticable, the only feasible checks in our opinion are, modifications of the poors-rates, a substitute for the bastardy-laws (both enormous incentives of increase), and facility of emigration. "If," says Mr. Mill," births take place more numerous than are required to uphold a population corresponding to the state of capital, human happiness is immediately impaired." p. 51. Now, most serious domestic political evils commence through deviation in produce or population, from a right standard. Gluts of the former in any particular direction have the tendency to lower one article below its natural price, and raise another as much above it, because the additional quantity which forms the glut, could be made by one means only, by withdrawing capital from the production of other commodities, which thus obtain higher prices, because they are not produced in sufficiency equal to the demand. (pp. 192, 193.) One of these deviations, excess of agricultural production, seems now to be operating; and the evil of the other excess, that of population, is exhibited in Ireland. Any vast increase of unproductive labour (an evil which grows largely out of the national debt), is another point, connected with the population, of vast importance. Mr. Mill says, "Net produce is the fund from which all addition to the National Capital is commonly made. If the net produce is all consumed unproductively, the National Capital remains unaltered: it is neither dimi nished nor increased. If more than the This may be also one of the causes of present distress: but the Statesman may compare the last census with those preceding, and as a discrimination is made between the productive and unproductive classes, he can easily see the state of things by the respective increase or decrease of each. In short, if the regulation of his family, and the best possible provision for it, be the duty of a wise father, and a nation be only a larger family, it is plain that the state of the population ought to be the first grand study of a Statesman. If he neglects it, society can never be placed upon a permanent basis of prosperity and happiness. At present, Political Economy appears to us to go no further than explanation of certain causes and effects; we say certain, because, in our opinion, there are laws of providence of most consequential operation, without including which, this science must be defective. A most luminous part of Mr. Mill's work is that which shews the injurious tendency of restricting the number of partners in private banks, instead of permitting them to assume the form of Insurance Companies. Mr. M. shall speak for himself: "The failure of the parties by whom notes are issued, is an evil against which, under good institutions, the most powerful securities are spontaneously provided. "If competition were allowed to operate freely, and if no restriction were imposed on gaged in a bank, the business of banking the number of partners who might be enand of issuing notes, would naturally place itself on a footing which would render paper currency very secure. "The number of banks would of course be multiplied; and no one bank would be able to fill with its circulation more than a certain district. "As little risk, where the partners were numerous, would be incurred by each of them; as the profits would be very sure, and the importance of having a good currency would be sensibly felt, there would be motive sufficient to all the principal noblemen and gentlemen of the county or other district, to hold shares in the local bank, and add to the security of the public. "With such competition, any bank of doubtful credit would vainly endeavour to introduce its notes into circulation. The sense of interest keeps the attention sufficiently awake on such an occasion." p. 111. We 1822.] REVIEW.-Mill's Elements of Political Economy. We regret that we are obliged to differ from Mr. Mill, concerning distrust of the people with regard to country paper; for we could name towns where mere clerks have set up banking-shops against their masters, and circulate bills with no other impediment than a refusal to receive them by some neighbouring banks. To return to Mr. Mill. "In Scotland, where banking is nearly placed upon this desirable footing, and where paper money spontaneously filled the channels of circulation, long before the suspension of cash-payments at the Bank of England, there have been few failures in the numerous banks which issued paper, notwithstanding all the fluctuations in the value of money, produced by that suspension, and all the convulsions of credit of which those fluctuations were the cause." p. 112. Sensible as we are that the Bank of England is the life-blood of our pecuniary body, we cannot deny that its monopoly tends to render other paper less secure; and that such insecurity cannot be removed but by abolition of the restriction, or another monopoly, riding pick-a-back on the first, that of the Bank of England opening houses in the provincial towns-a measure which has been agitated, and is just as fair and liberal as it would be to stigmatize all country bankers as paupers, though in general rich and respectable, and throw the commerce of the country into the hands of the monopolists. We here take our leave of Mr. Mill, who, in his school-book of Political Economy, as he modestly styles it (Pref. i.), has made a sad misnomer. It is a key for the masters; for their obscure statements are such, that it may be justly doubted, whether they can possibly understand their own works. Mr. Mill has, fortunately for them, converted their dark green tle-glass, into the fine transparent plate kind; and compressed into a small compass an immense mass of instructive information. bot 33. A Letter to Charles Henry Parry, M.D. F.R.S. &c. &c. on the Influence of Artificial Eruptions in certain Diseases incidental to the Human Body, with an Inquiry respecting the probable Advantages to be derived from further Experiments. By Edward Jenner, Esq. M. D. LL.D. F.R.S. M.N.I.F. [Member of the National Institute of France,] &c. &c. and Physician Extraordinary to the King. 4to. Pp. 67. Baldwin and Co. GENT. MAG. March, 1822. 241 WE are glad to see once more this celebrated Physician before the arena of the Publick, where he has already, like a Hercules, grappled successfully with the Variolous Hydra. In the case of the Vaccine, Nature herself seems to have riddled or anagrammed the remedy for Small Pox, which enigma, similar to that of the Sphinx, the ingenious Doctor, like another Edipus, has unravelled and published. The present invention is one of pure genius, leading to a new and distinctive and efficacious mode of practice in the Art of Medicine, which, if substantiated (and we fear not, but, under fair play, it will be so) will form the Apotheosis of its very eminent Author, as one of the grandest benefac tors to the human race. He had before a statue in the Temple of Esculapius; and though we will not, with Roman Catholic Idolatry, invest it with a Nimbus, yet we may be allowed the indulgence of the most gratifying sensation, when we see the 66 Nobles of Nature" placed in the dignified rank of the best saints upon earth, "the blessed agents of divine providence." In p. 59 we find that Dr. Jenner considers it as an axiom, as laid down by Dr. Parry, "that diseases of the skin are diversions in the animal economy for transferring diseased action from parts vital to parts text, which requires no postil, Dr. Jennot immediately vital." Upon this ner enlarges in this work, of which the tendency is to show the surprising efficacy of external applications, or ointment of emetick tartar, in diseases of the most awful character. Of these, we shall enumerate the though the Inquiry is not, as yet, following, which already appear, taken out of the cradle, but we can judge of it as an ex pede Herculem. Hypochondria. Insanity. Case i pp. 4, 5. Mania. Affection of the Brain. Case ii. p. 6, and Case v. p. 9. Pulmonary affection. Cases ii. iii. pp. 6, 7. Spasmodic Asthma. Case iv. p. 8. Chronic Hepatitis. [Inflammatory enlargement of the Liver.] Case vi. p.10. Cachectical Constitution. Case vii. |