supply, and by no means much to exceed it; for that is their best and safest land-mark. Were they in general to follow this prudent rule, they would seldom be distressed and embarrassed by stagnation and depression, and by these, only in consequence of some unusual change of circumstances.

During the first three quarters, foreign commerce also was very busy. This was shown by the great increase of the imports for the supply of our manufactures, and for home consumption. There was a considerable falling off in the December quarter, compared with the same quarter in 1835, but this might be chiefly nominal, arising out of some arrangements of our merchants, and some change from the customs to the excise. And the decrease of £450,477 in the customs, was fully balanced by an increase of £456,001 in the excise. The latter, unless when some interchanges, &c., take place in it, is the best criterion of the increase of the general wealth and comforts of the country, by shewing the consumption. The customs are the next best; for a considerable portion of the duties paid for articles imported, are paid for articles of direct home consumption. It appears that there has been an increase of more than five millions, on the declared value of the exports of 1836, above those of 1835.

The increase of the excise for the year, was £1,200,000, and and of the customs, £1,100,000, or, in the whole, £2,300,000. This result shows what good prices can do; and it is another decisive answer to those persons, labouring under the old foolish prejudice in favour of low prices.

The Building and Other Classes.

I believe that extensive class, the building, comprising masons, carpenters, brickmakers, bricklayers, &c., have in general been very busy throughout the island. They have been particularly so in London. The following is a striking proof of it. In one of the paving trusts of our large parish, the commissioners, three or four years ago, paid the contractors about three hundred pounds a year, for cleansing the streets, and taking away the ashes (the latter for burning bricks); and for the last year, the scavengering contractors paid the commissioners above three hundred pounds, for being allowed to cleanse the streets and carry off the ashes; such have been the demand and high prices paid for "breese," as I think the ashes are called by them.

Some few of our trades in London, I find, have complained of a general slackness during the last year, and which still continues; particularly the tailors. I know not whether, with

respect to that numerous class, this is not owing considerably to the very general use of the Mackintosh great coats, cloaks, &c. &c.

Mere manual labour, or that which requires more strength than skill, but all require some degree of skill, has been in an unusual amount, and all over the country. The vast additional quantity connected with our railways, of digging, carting, &c., and indirectly with them, by means of the various articlesiron, bricks, lime, stone, &c., required in forming these favourite new roads, will account for much of this. The wages of a large mass have been high. The result must have been a great increase of comforts among this very numerous class of our population; and the increase in our excise and customs confirms it. But I wish I could have to say, that the use of these increased means had been as much wiser and more rational among this extensive and too generally uneducated class, as the means have been more copious. But education and religion may in time do what is so much wanted among them.

In sum, as far as the means of comforts go, the annual return of the public revenue shows, that the increase of the duties for 1836, has been no less than £2,570,957. We have heard much of the American surplus; but here we have a surplus or increase, in one year only, of above eleven and a half millions of dollars. And this, after taxes had been taken off, since the peace, to the amount of above forty millions sterling, or about two hundred millions of dollars; and all this too, in spite of many injudicious, depressive measures.

So much for what the increase of population can do. And so much in decisive confirmation of the various principles of the productive system, and at the same time to the entire refutation of our economistical, anti-population, and bullionistic reveries and wild hypotheses. I must say hypotheses; for I really can scarcely consider it reasonable to dignify such gross absurdities, so completely in opposition to the really operating principles and actual results of nature, with the respectable name of theories.

I know not whether the farmer has found the last stormy and ungenial year injurious to his cattle in general. But I understand from my scientific friend, Mr. Sewell, of the veterinary

college, that there has been an extraordinary mortality among horses, for which it is difficult to account, unless from something deleterious in the atmosphere operating on the lungs.* The deaths, in many cases, have been quite sudden and unexpected.

The Influenza.

If there be a pestilential influence in the atmosphere operating on the irrational animals, man is not likely to escape entirely; and in this case, it has certainly fallen very severely on him.

The epidemic, which is here called the influenza, and on the Continent, la grippe, for the last two months, has been running through all ranks of this island, as well as throughout the greatest portion of the rest of Europe. On the Continent, it has by no means been so mortal as the cholera; but throughout our island it seems to have been much more fatal. In our immediate neighbourhood, (the north-western portion of London), it has been very much more so: indeed to an extent, according to the calculation of some medical practitioners, quite alarming.†

Whether it was caused by the great humidity only, or not, there can be no doubt of its having been fostered by the constant excessive moisture of the late months; particularly of January. After the 3rd of that month to the close, there were only one or two attempts, and those feeble and ineffectual, at any thing like a dry or bracing frost. The whole was one unremitting state of sheer wetness. Whether the barometer rose to 30.4, or fell to 29.6, there seemed to be no difference as to the moisture; only in the former case, it was attended with fog, which seemed to have very little of the usual sooty smell of our London fogs in it. The effect of such a constant moisture, with the damp fogginess, on persons of weak lungs and relaxed constitutions, could scarcely be other than it has been.

* I regret to have to notice that the humane and excellent institution Islington Market has failed; not, indeed, through the feeders and suppliers, but the combination of some of the most influential butchers. I hope the failure of what not only humanity to the animals, but sound policy, in other respects, requires, will be temporary. And I hope, further, that for the sake of humanity and decency, we shall, at length, have three other such institutions at the three other corners of our immense metropolis.

I have to lament the unexpected loss of a sister by it, (my youngest, see vol. 9, p. 303), and in the same neighbourhood, I have learnt, we have lost one of our very best Berwickshire farmers by its attack, Mr. Wilson, of Preston.

Commutation of Tithes.

The last year was memorable for the carrying of a measure most beneficial to the farmers as well as to the nation in general, which should have been carried long ago. This was the commutation of tithes. That mode of paying the clergy, which had such an injurious influence both on morals and statistics, and on the peace of the community, was turned into a rent charge, as it has long been in Scotland. And in a few years that irritating topic will be no more heard of in the English portion of our island, than it is in the Scottish.

Church Rates.-The National and Voluntary Systems of maintaining Religion.

I trust, this year, we shall get rid of that other irritating subject, church-rates, by commutation also. I mean not to enter here into the question of there being a right in the national church to them. Indeed, I have no more doubt of that right being a legitimate, and also a proper one, than I have of tithes. being so in England. But, for similar reasons, I wish to see them likewise commuted. In my article on Taxes, (see vol. ix, p. 337), I have given my reasons against such duties or rates being direct. And, in this case, there is an additional reason. It comes directly into contact with the sectarian prejudices of many. A fair sum, therefore, for keeping the national churches in proper repair, and for defraying some other expenses, should be given by the nation, through its legislature, in another or indirect way. None seems to be better than that proposed by Lord Althorp, with his usual good sense, or appropriating a sum out of the land-tax. In such cases as may occasionally render interference fairly necessary for promoting that best friend of mankind, Christianity, special sums may be voted, as at present.

It is not my business, here, to enter on the question of a national establishment of religion. To me, the sound policy, religious and moral benefit of such an establishment, do not admit of the slightest possible doubt. The principle of the voluntary system, like the principle of democracy, is perfectly rotten. It cannot stand reasoning for a minute.

It puts the choice of the teachers of religion into the hands of the majority. Now, as three-fourths of mankind, at the very lowest, are utterly incapable, of themselves, of making a proper

choice in the case, it thus puts the choice into the power of those who are most unfit for making it. Can there possibly be a more clear, or a more gross absurdity than that? Or can there be a principle more to be rejected by the wise?

The impelling and regulating power of the voluntary system is equally rotten. It places the means of religion on the demand for them. Now, it is a notorious fact, that in proportion as persons want religion more, they have less the desire for the means of it. The voluntary system would thus place the want and the supply in the inverse ratio of each other.

The national system, again, does the very thing that is wanted. It regulates the supply not by the demand, in this case as usual, but by the wants of the population. The great mass of any community stand most in need of positive and sound instruction in religion and morality; but they will be at no expense or trouble about either. The state, therefore, supplies them with the means, and enables all to enjoy the benefit of such necessary instruction. A great mass, who would otherwise disregard or shirk all such instruction, is induced to take advantage of what is prepared for them in town and country, alike to their own advantage and that of the state. And whether the rest may, or may not, be induced at one time or another to have recourse to so valuable an institution, the nation has provided it for them.

I speak not here of sectarian creeds. It is not for the benefit of a state to encourage the troublesome and immoral sectarian, or polemical spirit, but to check it. The object of a state, as a state, in the case, is to maintain and foster pure religion, as tending to national morality and national tranquillity. The creed of the national church should, therefore, be not any sectarian creed whatever, but Christianity, or the Bible. Those who want to maintain particular or sectarian creeds, whether of the Protestant, Romish, or Greek casts, must pay for a Minister to teach what they want.

A Certain Un-British Spirit.

Under the miscellaneous division, I cannot help noticing a sort of unpatriotic spirit, which has been exhibited somewhat prominently, in 1836, on the occasion of legislative inquiries concerning institutions connected with science and the arts. I cannot go into particulars here. But, really, the opinions of many of our British folks seem to have lost altogether the old islandish cast; and not merely that instead of having rather