and revenue or consumption. This division, as he correctly observes, appears to comprise the science of political economy in its general bearings, its particular parts, and its most minute details. He connects with his "outline of plan" an enumeration, of the opinions, of the most celebrated writers in his department, concerning the question, in what consists national wealth? a question about which so great, and so strange a diversity of sentiment prevails. In addition, he throws out some general and very just remarks, on the indissoluble connexion between political economy on the one hand, and politics and legislation on the other.

He asserts, that it is of the utmost importance to nations, that their statesmen be intimately acquainted with the science of which he treats; that with a bad system of political economy, it is impossible to have good laws, or great prosperity. Unfortunately, there is no people more negligent than ourselves, on the score of this serious truth, while at the same time there is none, whose situation is in any degree so favorable, for the application of sound principles. The labor and capital of these States might be rendered fruitful of every kind of prosperity, to an extent unparalleled in the annals of mankind, were the men who superintend our public concerns, conversant with the means of giving the greatest animation to that capital and industry, and of directing both into the most profitable channels.

According to Mr. Ganilh,-"wealth in the simplest and most general acceptation of the term, consists in the surplus of produce above consumption, or of income above expenditure. The extent both of public and private wealth depends on the accumulation of this surplus, and on the manner in which it is managed and applied." In his " Introduction" he undertakes to shew, the unequalled advantage of wealth to a nation, both in a moral and political point of view. This theory he supports, by an examination of its natural tendencies, and an historical survey of its effects. He endeavors to prove that those effects when disastrous, have sprung, not from its nature, but from extraneous causes, and that philosophers have erred, in not imputing to the latter exclusively, its injurious operation on the nations of antiquity. This part of his subject is treated with great ability, and leads to a powerful exposition, under the disguise of philosophical inquiry, of the deplorable consequences of the Napoleon system of conquest and plunder.

The passion of wealth, he states to be universal, and as it were inherent in mankind. He even traces it to the brute creation. With respect to the human race, he considers it "as the spring of every private action, the principle and end of all public resolutions." He allows nothing for the thirst of

dominion separately from the lust of plunder, as a notice of action, even with governments. His doctrine generally, on this. point of the passion for riches, we think somewhat extravagant, but the question is of little importance in itself,

What is of much more consequence, and certainty is, the just and leading distinction which he draws between ancient and modern wealth, as regards the mode and spirit of its acquisition. This distinction he considers as a satisfactory explanation of the visible difference in its effects, upon the ancient and modern nations respectively. The development of it embraces his vindication of wealth, from the aspersions cast upon it by philosophers, and the demonstration of his position, that wealth is the true measure of national prosperity. We shall here let our author speak for himself, and we regret sincerely, that we cannot quote his historical induction to prove the identity of impulse, but contrariety of means, with which the ancients and moderns pursued the acquisition of wealth.

"The barter, exchange, or commerce, which was become the basis of the connexion of the European nations with each other, exercised also a favourable influence, over their relations with the nations of Hindostan and America. In vain do force and violence still attempt to keep them in subjection, and to maintain an odious monopoly in those two portions of the globe. Modern nations have no solid and durable means to enrich themselves, but by labour, by the development and improvement of their faculties, by the economy and rapid circulation of their produce, and by its wise application, distribution, and consumption. From Kamtschatka to the Pillars of Hercules, from the Elbe to the Ionian Sea, labour is the power which distributes wealth, and whose favours all nations implore; and it is particularly worthy of remark, that this wealth, far from occasioning the destruction or decline of opulent nations, has proved the firmest support of their prosperity, power, and grandeur.".

"The nations of antiquity, as well as those of the middle age and modern times, have all been ruled by the passion for riches: they only differ in the means employed to satisfy that passion. This difference satisfactorily explains the various effects which wealth has had upon these different nations, and throws a brilliant light upon its true nature.'

"The ancients and the people of the middle age knew and practised but one way to grow rich, and to increase and keep their riches: they placed their hope and confidence in the right of the strongest, to which they made their institutions,

their laws, their manners, and their customs, subservient. Their only object was to render their population numerous, brave, skilled in arms, and always ready to sacrifice themselves, for the purpose of subduing other nations and seizing their wealth."

“But, by a singlar fatality, it happened that, in proportion as these nations improved in military science, as their arms were successful, and their wealth augmented by victories, their domination lost its stability, they became less able to defend themselves, their grandeur shortly declined, and they were soon subdued.”

"Both moralists, and publicists have observed this phenomenon, and have thence inferred that wealth caused the fall of the great empires of antiquity: and it must be confessed, that their opinion appears indeed an immediate consequence of the most certain and best authenticated facts."

"But have they not gone too far, when they magnified this consequence into a principle, and pronounced the wealth and safety of nations, and the opulence and preservation of empires, to be absolutely incompatible?"?

"Had they inquired without prejudice into the causes which rendered riches fatal to the Persians, to the Greeks, to the Carthaginians, to the Romans, and to the nations of the middle age, they would have perceived that these causes did not arise from a vice particularly inherent in wealth, but from the system of violence by which these nations acquired their riches; from the nature of their military government, which concentrated wealth in the least numerous class, and, as it enslaved or impoverished the other classes, rendered wealth equally fatal to the rich and to the poor, to individuals and to the state."

"But its moral and political effects, as soon as it circulated, with comparatively less obstacles, in every class and among all individuals, ought in my opinion, to remove every doubt respecting the nature of wealth and the estimation in which it is to be held."

"From that period, which separates modern times from the middle age, wealth has been as productive of public and private prosperity, as it had been before of general and individual distress."

"Produced by labour, it rendered men particularly attentive to the means of augmenting the productiveness of labour. They soon perceived, that the free labourer who works for his profit, multiplies the produce he consumes during his labour; while the slave or bondman scarcely replaces what he consumes. In proportion as this truth was diffused by experience,

the passion for wealth broke the fetters with which it had held mankind enslaved."

"On the other hand, the free but poor class that till then had lived dependent on the great land owners, being enriched by labour, shook off this dependence, afforded to the public power a force formerly devoted to the private power of the great land owners, conferred upon civil society a greater sta bility and extent, and gave it a stronger and more secure direction."

"By being rendered more general, the interests of the community were aggrandized, the commonwealth ceased to be a private concern, and actually became common. The interest of the hitherto oppressive and domineering rich was no longer an obstacle to good laws, a protecting government, and a public power capable of watching over, and maintaining the rights and interests of all. The ideas of morality, justice, and humanity, which are effaced when poverty is oppressed by wealth, resumed their force, as soon as riches circulated in every rank of the community; the poor had no longer to dread the oppression of the rich, the laws guarded every private interest, and governments directed their attention to the interests of all."

"As wealth diffused itself in every rank of the community, it consolidated forever this beneficial revolution by affording to every class the means of knowledge, instruction and wisdom, formerly confined to the rich alone. Nations, as they grew more enlightened, became better acquainted with their own interests, and better disposed to perform every individual, domestic, and social duty. Knowledge exercised a reaction upon wealth, and imparted to it a power which rules alike individuals, associations, and empires."

"The social compact, the constitution, the laws and the institutions of every people, were gradually directed towards the maintainance, preservation, extension, and possession of those riches, which every one may acquire by labour, industry and commerce."

"Even in the foreign concerns of nations, and in their treaties with others, diplomacy had no other object in view than the preservation and extension of their respective riches."

"Thus, that passion for wealth, which had armed the nations of antiquity and the middle age, which had continually excited them to battles, rapine, destruction, and conquest, and filled up the measure of social calamities, enticed the moderns to labour, manufactures and commerce, and inspired them with the love of peace and feelings of general benevolence and

friendship. On this new road to wealth, individuals, communities and empires have found all the prosperity which may reasonably be expected in civilized society."

"Wealth, produced by labour, maintains, in eighteen twentieths of the people, the strength, energy, and dexterity, with which man is endowed by nature, and develops, in the two remaining twentieths, those faculties of the mind which seem beyond the sphere of humanity, and bring man as it were nearer to the divine nature. Produced by labour, wealth banishes idleness and the vices unavoidably connected with idleness; it renders man laborious, patient, sober, economical, and adorns him with those precious qualities, the sources of individual, domestic and social virtues."

"It binds the natives of the same land by the most powerful of all ties, mutual wants, reciprocal services, and the general consideration, which they entail upon their country."

"It restores man to his primitive dignity, through the sentiment of his independence, through his obedience to laws common to all, and his sharing in the benefits of society in proportion to his services."

"It has rendered nations more powerful, because every individual member is interested in the success of national affairs, all bear their weight, and all share in the advantages which they procure. This community of good and evil, to which the circulation of wealth calls every individual of the nation, affords the greatest strength which the social compact possibly can or ever did produce. The conquering nations of antiquity and the middle age, were acquainted with this stimulus, and employed it during their conquests; it constantly insured their success, but they neglected it after victory; they attached the rich alone to the interests of the community, and from that instant their power declined, and was shortly annihilated.

"This stimulus is as active among industrious and commercial, as among conquering nations, and its strength and intensity can never be impaired or lost. Whatever may be the stock of riches accumulated through labour, it impoverishes no one; on the contrary it enriches every individual: it is the instrument of general wealth, it increases the mass of labour, and the sum of its produce, and consequently augments the resources of the laborious and the treasures of the rich."

"Modern wealth affords yet another inestimable advantage to civil society; the more it is generally diffused, the more it renders obedience light and easy, government strong and powerful, and public authority just and absolute., The rich man is every where the most submissive, the most disposed to obey