were divided, the tailors who wanted shoes, would make coats, and go to the shoemakers who were out at the elbows, and exchange the coats for shoes. But we have got too far advanced for this our exchanges are managed entirely by means of money, the universal representative of value; and so entirely have we become accustomed to this mode of managing our affairs, that we may find six people living in different parts of the same town, whose several industry could produce much more than enough of all that the whole number required; yet they stand idle and produce nothing, because they have not money to offer to one another for the commodities which they want. Here, then, is one of the great evils of our present condition, that the money is gathered together in great masses; that the contraction of the circulating medium of the country has taken out of the hands of the common people that which will alone be taken in exchange for the various products of industry. We trust we have already shewn, that all that is required to set industry to work, so as to supply the whole population with all they want, is a something which shall give one individual a claim on, or an inducement for, the industry of another. This claim, or inducement, is to be found in money; and it matters not the least whether this money has any intrinsic value of its own or not, so that it be acknowledged as a general representative of value. If a farthing's worth of paper be acknowledged to represent twenty shillings worth of goods, it will answer this great purpose, of setting our industry in motion, just as well as a golden sovereign, which actually costs very nearly twenty shillings to produce it. This is a point of the very highest importance. If it be true, first, that there are within these kingdoms abundant materials for the production of food, clothing, and habitations for all the population; secondly, that nothing but labour is required to convert these materials into the essentials of life just mentioned; thirdly, that this labour would be applied, if the different individuals of the community had any claim or inducement to offer to one another for undertaking this labour; and, fourthly, that a more plentiful supply of a generally acknowledged medium of value would supply this claim or inducement;-if

these four positions be true, and we think we have not advanced them without first having laid some good grounds for adopting them, then it must be of the very highest importance to devise the means by which this circulating medium shall be abundantly supplied to the nation, yet with the utmost security that the public shall not be cheated, by taking that as a representative of value which shall afterwards turn out not to represent it.

From the views which we have taken, it will follow as a necessary inference, that the introduction of machinery, when it throws men permanently out of employment, does the reverse of promoting the wealth of the country, because, inasmuch as the demand of the people thrown out of employment is diminished, the produce which such demand would occa→ sion is diminished, and the country loses not only the entire labour of those thrown wholly out of employment, but also a considerable portion of the la bour of all those who formerly were busy in supplying them with the various articles which now they cannot afford to use. If sixty men be dismissed from a cotton-mill, and become in consequence permanently idle, the power-looms which have taken their place may doubtless produce more cotton goods, and at a less expense, than the men did, and the individual manufacturer may become more rich in consequence; but by as much as the articles of consumption by sixty flourishing mechanics exceed the bare necessaries supplied by the parish to sixty paupers, the productive industry of the country is diminished, and, in the present state of things, it may well be doubted that the gain in production by machinery is equal to the loss occasioned in the way we have just mentioned. During the war, when the prodigious drain on the country drew forth the productive powers of its industry with such immense effect, our machinery assisted us to a degree too vast to be expressed, for no lack of demand was experienced in conse quence. Every one found a ready market for all they could produce, and consequently every one did produce as much as they could, which, unfortunately, they now do not. As to the talk about over production, which has latterly prevailed, it is nonsense; it is want of distribution that

should be complained of. We may produce more than we can cram into foreign warehouses, and thus be obliged to sell a part at less than it cost us, and leave the rest to rot; but if, by the encouragement of domestic industry, we can scatter our produce over the face of our own country, then we cannot produce too much.

But to come more immediately to the subject of the Emigration Report. Notwithstanding the objectionable nature of the evidence generally, to which we have already alluded, there is some good direct evidence in the volume, which goes to show, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that for what is called the "redundant population of Ireland," there is abundance of means of profitable employment. Let any one read the answers given by Mr Nimmo to questions 3438, 3448, and 3456, and we think they will be amazed, that the chairman of the Committee, who heard these answers, should get up in his place in Parliament, to assert that he saw no means of profitable employment for the people. Mr Nimmo states, that he had himself been engaged in the reclaiming of bog for Lord Palmerston, which, when they commenced operations, was utterly valueless; and by the outlay of L.7 per acre upon it, it was brought to that state, that it would produce, if let, 30s. per acre annual rent; and when he is asked by the Committee for a general estimate of the quantity of land now waste, upon which an outlay of L.10 per acre would make it worth 20s. an acre annual rent, his answer is, "five millions of English acres !"

Here, however, is a notable instance of the stupidity of the Committee, in putting leading questions; for, had Mr Nimmo's opinion been, that these five million acres could have been reclaimed at the same expense, and be come as valuable as Lord Palmerston's acres, of which he had just spoken, he must still have given the same answer, as he did to the question put to him in so peculiar a form. He should have been asked how many acres there were, and what it would cost to reclaim them, and not have had a question so fenced about with conditions.

Mr Nimmo states, moreover, that the greatest facilities exist for reclaiming the bogs in Ireland, in consequence of the fact, which is generally true all over the island, that in the neigh,

bourhood of these bogs, that species of soil or gravel is found, which is necessary to be combined with the substance of the bog, in order to convert it into productive earth.

Mr Strickland's evidence, to which we have already alluded, is still stronger than Mr Nimmo's.

He tells the Committee that the expense of reclaiming the waste lands would, in his opinion, be even less than had been stated, and that, independently of these lands, the ground which is already considered to be in cultivation, requires in his part of the country every kind of improvement in which a good farmer would employ labourers. It really seems after this to be almost waste of words to argue the matter any farther. It is a truth so glaringly palpable that the population ought to be employed in these works; it is so plainly a disgrace to the country, that these important works should be delayed for a single month, that it seems something very little short of insanity to think of putting the country to expense to send away the people whose assistance is necessary to accomplish them. But, say the right honourable and honourable the Emigrationists, how is this to be done? how are we to get rid of the "difficulties of tenure" about the bogs? or how induce Irish landlords to improve their estates? Ay, gentlemen, there's the rub, we do confess; but these are the very points you ought to have been inquiring about, and not wasting your time in examin ing Mr Malthus about the population of Ireland.

We cannot believe these difficulties are utterly insurmountable. It is ridiculous to suppose they are; we ourselves think we could suggest some strong measures before. which these difficulties would soon fall to the ground-but we pause for the present, content if we shall have been fortunate enough to direct the attention of men who have the power to promote them, to measures, which, while they relieve our suffering population, will improve, adorn, and enrich our country, and much gratified if we shall have shewn the public in a stronger light than they have yet seen them, the hollowness and worthlessness of the arguments which the soi-disant liberal politicians of the day, have put forward in favour of emigration.

SIR,

AMONG the prodigious advantages which this country is to derive from what is called unqualified Emancipation, the patriotic recommenders of that measure promise us full employ ment for its native population, and all the happy effects that are to flow from the possession of comfort, competency, and union. To the generality of your readers, the attainment of such blessings must, I am inclined to think, appear paradoxical. They are unable to conceive what difference it can make to the people at large to mix Roman Catholic with Protestant Senators, or to throw open to the former a few high offices of trust and emolument, from which they are at present excluded. The cultivators of the soil will continue to have the same rents and the same landlords. Merchants, trades men, and shopkeepers, will experience no change of situation; their means of acquiring property, and the property itself, being already as secure as those of the more favoured description. Neither grain nor potatoes will grow one whit the better for the projected change, nor will the seasons alter their accustomed mode of bringing forth the fruits of the earth. To what then are we to look for the blessings and enjoyments so confidently promised? Or are those promises mere Îy held out as a bait for the Legislature?

These, sir, are questions which your readers may amuse themselves in sol ving-my present object is confined to one of them. I am prepared to demonstrate, by a reference to the experience of other countries-the only mode by which such a proposition can be demonstrated-that, among the consequences contemplated by what some call the Catholic Association, and others the self-constituted Parliament of Ireland, we may certainly look to the attainment of that object which Mr Wilmot Horton, and other speculators for depopulation, are so laudably endea vouring to compass. I do not, however, say, that such consequences are contemplated by all the members now composing that respectable body, in which are enrolled several, who, like Rodorigo, join the pack only to keep up

the cry, and several who want understandings to contemplate any conse quences at all. I speak only of the few by whom the many are led, and of whose ultimate ends it is impossible for any person of deep reflection to entertain a doubt. As to the language employed in public documents and parliamentary petitions, in examina tions before committees, and senatorial speeches of political friends, he will be very far short of the truth indeed, whose notions extend no further, and who draws his conclusions from such premises-Sic notus Ulysses? All these, sir, like the prologue to a play, necessarily put on the form of courteous entreaty, and respectfully be speak that countenance and protection which is likely to secure the success of the piece. It would be preposterous indeed to ask for more than participation of power, whatever may be in the future contemplation of the askers. Had we, therefore, no other ground for suspicion than the general spirit of that religion which admits no equal, still there would be something left for the Protestant to fear, and consequently he would be justified by common prudence in looking to a security for his religious and political rights. But the indiscretion or impatience of the Catholic Association has removed the veil which policy or decorum had drawn over the penetralia of their intentions, and we are no longer left to the anxieties of doubt, or the surmises of suspicion. To rescind the Union, and re-establish the independence of Ireland-or, in other words, to put her into the hands of seven millions of Roman Catholics, and cut the connexion with great Britain, is now de clared to be a fixed and final object,

an insular Elysium to which Milesian piety looks, and to which the favouring breeze of unqualified emancipation is to waft the Ark of Hibernian glory, with its discordant cargo of Bravos and Breviaries, Saints and Sinners. Nor is this idea confined to the casual effusions of idle vapour ing, or irritated imbecility, but to be found among the frequent and undis guised declarations of those leading spirits, who, however frenzied and in