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England, and that such consumption produces a correspondent exportation of English goods to the foreigner. The absentee is enabled to receive his rent abroad because a foreign trade already exists; and it is not necessary, in order that he shall be able to receive his rent in money abroad, that a trade should exist between his native country and the country of his residence. There must be a foreign trade somewhere, in order that he may receive his rent abroad in money, but a man may live in a part of Europe which has no trade with Great Britain, and he will receive his money by an indirect route, and by means of the trade of England with some other foreign country. But it does not follow that the foreign trade of Great Britain is increased by the consumption of an absentee abroad so as to produce an exportation of English goods to the amount of his foreign consumption. And if we admit that the absentee's consumption of foreign goods abroad produces all the effect that has been attributed to it, this will not remove | the whole difficulty. Many of the things which he consumes abroad are not the peculiar products of the foreign country which he would or might consume, whether he was in England or a foreign country. He consumes and uses many things abroad which he would consume or use in England, and which must be furnished by the country in which he is residing.

Accumulation, or the increase of wealth in a country, can only arise from savings or from profits. All persons who supply the demands of others obtain a profit by the transaction; at least the obtaining of a profit is the object with which a demand is supplied, and the actual obtaining of a profit is the condition without which a demand cannot be permanently supplied. All persons who have an income to spend may in one sense consume it unproductively, as it is termed, that is, the income may be spent merely for the purpose of enjoyment, and not for the purpose of profitable production. But no income which is received in money can be spent without indirectly causing profitable production, for every person who supplies the wants of the spender of the income receives

a portion of the spender's money, part of which portion is the profit of the supplier. If this income is spent in France or in Belgium, persons in France or in Belgium derive a profit from supplying the absentee, and this profit enables them to accumulate. What is thus spent in France or in Belgium produces a profit to a Frenchman or a Belgian, and enables him to accumulate, and this profit is something taken from the profits of those who would supply the demands of the consumer in England. If all the persons who come to settle in London, and require commodious houses, servants, fruits, vegetables, and so forth, were to settle at Brussels, the houses which are now built in London, and the grounds which are employed as kitchen-gardens round the metropolis, would not exist, and the profit derived from this employment of capital would not exist. It would be transferred to Brussels and to Belgian capitalists. This would be the immediate effect of the wealthy residents in London removing to Brussels. The removal of these residents to Brussels would be the withdrawal of one of the means of profitably employing capital, and would so far be a loss to the national wealth. Nor can it be shown that the capital which is now employed in and about London in building houses and cultivating gardenground could be employed with equal profit in some other way; for to assert this would be equivalent to asserting that it is always possible to employ capital under all circumstances in a manner equally profitable. It may be rejoined, that if the wealthy residents of London removed to Brussels, English capital would be required in order to accommodate them with houses, and to provide other ordinary necessaries. This may be admitted, and yet it does not remove all the difficulty, for if the resi dents were to remove to various towns of Italy, the employment of English capital would not be required to the same degree as if they were all to remove to Brussels.

There are also numerous small sources of profit arising from the supply of the ordinary wants of a man and his family, which accrue to the people of the place

in which a man fixes his residence: these are the ordinary retail profits of trade. This is obvious in the case of a number of families quitting a provincial town to reside in London: the provincial town decays, and that source of profit which is derived from supplying the wants of the families is transferred to the tradesmen of their new place of residence. This, which is true as to one place in England compared with another, is equally true as to England compared with Belgium or France. If we take into account merely the amount of wages which a large body of absentees must pay to their domestic servants, this will form a very considerable sum. The savings of domestic servants in England from their wages are invested in various ways; and such savings are no small part of the whole amount of the deposits in Savings' Banks. It will hardly be maintained that all those who would be employed as domestic servants in London, if the absentees in France were to come to live in London, are employed with equal profit to themselves while the absentees are abroad. London is supplied with domestic servants from the country, many of whom would be living at home and doing nothing, if there were no demand for their services in London; and everything that diminishes such demand, diminishes the savings of a class whose accumulated earnings form a part of the productive capital of Great Britain.

Those, then, who maintain that absenteeism has no effect on the wealth of the country from which the absentee derives his income, maintain a proposition which is untrue. Those who maintain that the amount which a man spends in a foreign country is so much clear loss to the country of the absentee, are also mistaken. There are many ways in which the loss is indirectly made up; but whatever may be its amount, it would be unwise to check absenteeism by any direct means, and it is not easy to see how it can be checked indirectly in any way that will produce good.

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ACCEPTOR. [BILL OF EXCHANGE.] ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL, an officer of the Court of Chancery, first appointed under an act (12 Geo. I. c. 32) "for securing the moneys and effects of the suitors." The act recites that ill consequence and great prejudice already had and might again ensue to the suitors by having their moneys left in the sole power of the Masters of the Court. The bonds, tallies, orders and effects of suitors were, it appears, until the passing of this act, locked up in several chests in the Bank of England, under the direction of the Masters and two of the Six Clerks. The act confirms a previous order of the Court of Chancery for adopting a different system; and § 3 enacts that "to the end the account between the suitors of the High Court of Chancery and the Bank of England may be the more regularly and plainly kept, and the state of such account may be at all times seen and known," there shall be "one person appointed by the High Court of Chancery to act, perform and do all such matters and things relating to the delivering of the suitors' money and effects into the Bank, and taking them out of the Bank, &c., which was formerly done by the Masters and Usher of the Court." The Accountant-General is "not to meddle with the suitors' money, but only to keep an account with the Bank." one has yet been appointed to the office without first becoming a Master in Chancery. The present Accountant-General, who was appointed in April, 1839, is the thirteenth who has filled the situation since

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the first appointment in 1726. The salary | accumulate the income thereof, either is 900l. a year, and 600l. a year as Master's salary, with some other emoluments. The total sum standing in the name of the Accountant-General on the 30th of April, 1841, was 40,957,8891., of which above 39,000,000l. was invested in stock, and 1,759,6291. was in cash. (App. to Report on Courts of Law and Equity, No. 476, Sess. 1842.) The act 5 Vict. c. 5. § 63, directs the Accountant-General to cause to be laid before Parliament every year an account showing the state of the Suitors' Fund and the Suitors' Fee Fund, which stand in his name. The Suitors' Fund consists of money and stock unclaimed, but which are open to claim at any time. On the 1st of October, 1842, | this fund amounted to 26,2991. cash, and 2,869,2131. stock. The Fee Fund accrues from fees formerly payable to the different officers of the court for their own advantage. These fees amounted to 62,8087. in the year ending Nov. 1842. The salaries of the lord chancellor, the vice-chancellors, and other officers of the Court of Chancery are paid out of these two funds.

wholly or partially, "for any longer term than the life or lives of any such grantor or grantors, settlor or settlors, or the term of twenty-one years from the death of any such grantor, settlor, devisor, or testator, or during the minority or respective minorities of any person or persons who shall be living or in ventre sa mere at the time of the death of such grantor, devisor, or testator, or during the minority or respective minorities only of any person or persons who, under the uses or trusts of the deed, surrender, will, or other assurances directing such accumulations, would for the time being, if of full age, be entitled to the rents, issues, and profits, or the interest, dividends, and annual produce so directed to be accumulated. And in every case where accumulation shall be directed otherwise than as aforesaid, such direction shall be null and void, and the rents, issues, profits, and produce of such property so directed to be accumulated shall, so long as the same shall be directed to be accumulated contrary to the provisions of this act, go to and be received by such person or persons as would have been entitled thereto, if such accumulation had not been directed." Sect. 2 provides, "that nothing in this act contained shall extend to any provision for payment of debts of any grantor, settlor, or devisor, or other person or persons, or to any provision for raising portions for any child or children of any person taking any interest under any such conveyance, settlement, or devise, or to any direction touching the produce of timber or wood upon any lands or tenements; but that all such provisions shall be made and ACCUMULATION. [CAPITAL.] given as if this act had not passed." Sect. ACCUMULATION. An act of Par-3 provides that the act shall not extend liament (39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 98), after to dispositions of heritable property in declaring in the preamble that "it is ex- Scotland. pedient that all dispositions of real or personal estates, whereby the profits and produce thereof are directed to be accumulated or the enjoyment thereof postponed, should be made subject to the restrictions thereinafter contained," proceeds to enact to the following effect. No person can settle or dispose of property by deed, will, or otherwise, so as to

Before the passing of the act 5 Vict. c. 5, for suppressing the equity jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer, there was an Accountant-General of that court; and in April, 1841, a sum of 2,730,8621. was standing in his name in the Bank of England. The account is now transferred to the Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery. The duties of the Accountant-General and Masters of the Exchequer are now performed by the Queen's Remembrancer.

There is an Accountant-General of the Irish Court of Chancery.

This act was passed in consequence of the will of Peter Thellusson, a Genevese by birth, but settled in London, who died in 1797, leaving a landed estate worth about 4000l. a year, and personal property to the amount of 600.000l. He devised and bequeathed this large property to trustees upon trust to accumulate the annual proceeds of his property and

invest them in the purchase of lands, during the lives of his sons, grandsons, and the issue of sons and grandsons, either living or in the womb (in ventre sa mere), at the time of his death, and the lives of the survivors and the survivor of them; and after this period to be conveyed to the lineal descendants of his sons in tail male. According to the provisions of this will, the proceeds of the property were not to be enjoyed, but to be accumulated and laid out in land during the lives of all his sons and grandsons, and the issue of sons or grandsons living, or unborn, at his death, provided such issue was then in the womb. After long litigation, it was finally decided by the House of Lords that the trusts for accumulation were legal (Thellusson v. Wordford, 11 Ves. 112); but the act which was passed shortly after has prevented such accumulation for a longer period than during the minority of persons living or in ventre sa mere at the time of the death of the person who so disposes of his property. The act, as it will be observed, mentions various periods, any one of which may be selected by the person who directs the accumulation of his property. There were nine lives in being at the time of Thellusson's death, and the enjoyment of the property was consequently deferred till they had all died.

The general rule of law in this country is, that a man may dispose of his property as he pleases; he may give it to whom he likes to be enjoyed; or he may give it to trustees to apply to such purposes as he pleases. But various restraints have been imposed by statutes on this general power, and the restraint upon accumulation is one of them. The Statute of Mortmain, as it is commonly called [MORTMAIN], is another instance in which the legislature has interfered with a man's general power of disposing of his property. In the case of accumulation, which a man directs to be made after his death, the limits of time now allowed seem amply sufficient for any reasonable purpose. We may conceive various good reasons against allowing a man an unlimited power of directing the accumulation of property after his death; and it is not easy to see that any mischief

is likely to arise from limiting this power, as is done by this act. Another instance of this legal limitation of a man's disposition of his property is noticed under PERPETUITY.

ACHEAN CONFEDERATION.The Achæans, who formed that federal union which is commonly called the Achæan League, inhabited the tract which lies along the southern coast of the Corinthian gulf (Gulf of Lepanto). They formed twelve small independent states. The history of the Achaans is an inconsiderable part of the general history of Greece till about B.C. 251. During the invasion of Greece by the Persians, they took no share in the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platæa; nor, during the long war of twenty-seven years, did they take anything more than a kind of forced part in this protracted struggle between Athens and Sparta. At the commencement of this war (B.c. 431), they were, with the exception of Pellene, neutral; but afterwards favoured the Lacedæmonian interest, in compliance with the general feeling in the peninsula. The cause of their taking no part in the general affairs of Greece may probably have been the want of union among the twelve little states; for though they acknowledged a common origin, and had a kind of connexion, they seem not to have had any complete federal system. Yet they probably attained, at an early period, a considerable degree of prosperity and internal good policy, for the Achæans founded several flourishing colonies in Southern Italy; and the political institutions were considered preferable to those of most states, and were often imitated as a model.

During the struggles of the Southern Greeks against the successors of Alexander, the Achæans wished to remain neutral; but they ultimately became the prey of the Macedonians. Some cities were compelled to receive the garrisons of Demetrius and Cassander; and afterwards those of Antigonus Gonatas, or to submit to tyrants. There would be little in the history of the Achæan states to attract at tention, were it not for the more complete federal union which arose out of these discordant elements.

Four of the western states of Achæa,

ACHEAN CONFEDERATION. [ 17 ] ACILEAN CONFEDERATION.

Dyme, Patræ, Tritæa, and Pharæ (Polybius, ii. 41), seeing the difficulties in which Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia, was involved, formed a union for mutual protection, B.C. 281. Five years afterwards Egium ejected its garrison, and Bura killed its tyrant, which examples moved Iocas, who was then tyrant of the neighbouring town of Ceryneia, to surrender his authority, and save his life. These three towns joined the new league. In B.C. 251, Aratus having delivered Sicyon, which was not an Achæan town, brought it over to the confederacy, of which he was elected general in B.C. 245. In 243, having driven the Macedonian garrison out of the stronghold of Corinth, which is the key of Southern Greece, this town also joined the league. Megaris, Epidaurus, and Trozen, followed soon after. During the long career of Aratus other Peloponnesian states were included in the union; and in fact Aratus is called by Polybius the founder of the confederation. In the year B.C. 208, five years after the death of Aratus, Philopomen was elected general of the confederacy, to which he gave a new life by his activity and wisdom. As the Romans had now humbled Philip V. of Macedonia (B.C. 197), and reduced him to the rank of a dependent king, it was their policy to weaken the power of the confederation; and this was easily effected by the Roman and anti-Roman parties, which had been for some time growing up in the Greek cities. In 191, however, Sparta became a member of the Achæan league, and the design of its leaders was to include all the Peloponnesus within its limits. After the death of Philopamen (B.c. 183) the Roman party grew still stronger under the influence of Callicrates, and the league remained, in appearance at least, on the side of the Romans in their final struggle with Perseus, king of Macedonia, which ended in the defeat and death of the king (B.C. 168). The influence of Callicrates was now almost supreme, and, so far from opposing, he urged the Romans to demand 1000 of the noblest Achæans to be sent to Rome to answer for their conduct in the late war. Callicrates and his party had named more than 1000, of whose guilt, however, no proof was adduced; his only

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object was to humble the party of his opponent Lycortas. Among the accused who were sent to Rome, and there detained for seventeen years, was the historian Polybius, the son of Lycortas, and the strongest support of his father's party.

The last war of the league was with Sparta, which was brought about (B.C. 150) through the influence of Critolaus, one of those who had been detained at Rome. This, which the Romans considered as a kind of attack on themselves, joined to the contumacious treatment of the Roman commissioners at Corinth, which will be presently mentioned, induced the Republic to send L. Mummius to chastise the Achæans; and a fitter man for the purpose could not have been found. The treatment of the Roman commissioners did not tend to soften the ferocity of their barbarian opponent. The Achæan general Diæus met Mummius on the isthmus of Corinth, and fell an easy prey to the Roman general, who, after the battle, burned Corinth to the ground (B.C. 146). Mummius and ten other senators then changed Greece into the Roman province of Achæa, leaving, however, to certain cities, such as Athens, Delphi, and others, the rank of free towns. Corinth afterwards received a Roman colony.

To those who study the history of civil polity, it is a matter of some interest to trace the formation of federative systems, or those by which a number of states unite for certain general purposes, while each maintains all its sovereignty except that portion which is surrendered to the sovereignty of the united states. The object of such associations is twofold-to secure peace and a ready intercourse between all the states, and all the members of them; and secondly, to facilitate all transactions with foreign states, by means of the power given to the united body. Defence against foreign aggression is one of the main objects of such a union; while foreign conquest is, strictly speaking, incompatible with it.

The history of the Grecian states presents us with several examples of federal unions, but the Achæan confederation is better known than any other, though our information about its constitution is very defective.

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