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The time may not, however, be distant, when both classes may be induced, or compelled, to admit with Verri, that la libertà 'è il miglior rimedio contro gli sbalzi del prezzo, e contro la 'fame.'

Mr Bentham, in one of his best and earliest works, that upon Usury, has not stated his argument more ably than the economists of Naples and Piedmont,-Galiani and Vasco. The reasoning of the latter is so close, and is carried on with such a mathematical rigour of proof, as to claim the peculiar attention of those who feel apprehensive that a free trade in money would lead to the foreclosure of all mortgages, rather than to a fall in the interest of money. I. L'uso del denaro ha nel comun com'mercio un prezzo come ogni altra cosa venale;-II. Il prezzo 'd'ogni cosa venale non è arbitrario ma determinato del con'fronto del bisogno de' ricercatori con quello degli esibitori ;III. Da questo confronto adunque sarà anche determinato il prezzo dell' uso del medesimo, ossia l'usura ;-IV. Quanto più libera sara la contrattazione de' mutui, tanto sarà maggiore il ' numero, e più cospicua la premura delle esibizioni;-VI. Dunque quanto saranno i contratti de' mutui più liberi tanto minore 'sarà l'usura.'

We are reluctantly compelled to omit any notice of the remarks of Ricci on Population and the Poor Laws, and shall conclude this article by a few words in reply to the parallel drawn by M. Pecchio, between the Political Economists of England and of Italy. The author does not exhibit, in this part of his work, his usual acuteness and candour. He contends that the attention of our writers is directed rather to the wealth than to the happiness of nations. He imputes to them a deficiency in those enlarged and philosophic views, which embrace higher objects than the increase of production and of consumption. He objects to the want of profound political disquisitions, moral precepts, or historical deductions. Now, with the utmost respect for Mr Pecchio, we conceive that our countrymen have judged rightly in separating subjects in themselves distinct; subjects to be discussed in a different manner, and on different principles. Our writers take much for granted, that an Italian economist is called upon to demonstrate; the benefits of freedom; the good consequences of a representative government, and of unshackled discussion; the advantages of moral education, and of the diffusion of knowledge; the necessity of a cheap and simple administration of justice; all these are assumed by our writers as admitted truths, and are not made the basis of a treatise on currency, or of the corn laws. What M. Pecchio calls the Philosophy of Political Economy, may be bought too dearly at the expense of exact

ness and precision. It is said that some ancient author, in describing the qualifications of an architect, recommends that, in the first place, he should be a good lawyer, in order to decide on the title of the lands, on which he proposes to build. On the same principle, some of the Italian economists carry us back from Adam Smith to his first namesake; acting somewhat too literally on the advice of the Comte A. Hamilton, to begin by the beginning. Mariana opens his history, by informing his readers of the arrival in Spain of Tubal, the son of Japhet, the first settler: Asi lo 'sienten y testifican autores muy graves;' and Lope de Vega states, in one of his sonnets, that no Spaniard is satisfied unless a drama is brought down, from the creation, to the day of judgment. It is thus with the Italian economists. Indeed M. Pecchio himself admits this as the besetting sin of his countrymen : 'Sono rimontati alla creazione del mondo per parlare di monete 'hanno accatastato erudizione ad erudizione citando Ebre, i Persi 'ed Assiri, Greci e Romani, Salomone, Platone, Cicerone, et • Bacone. Altri declamano come predicatori dal pulpito. Con questo difetto le opere crescono di volume, la verità si annega ' in un mare di parole, il linguaggio rimane vago e indefinito; ' e la deficienza nelle idee generali e nelle definizioni protrae e • lascia oscure le questioni.'

We do not mean to restrict the political economist to the mere consideration of dry statistical tables, finance accounts, or custom-house returns. We admit that he may incidentally refer to all the most enlarged and general principles; and that he ought always to bring his reasoning to a moral and a political test. These considerations must ever be auxiliary to sound and just reasoning in his peculiar science. But even when confined within narrower bounds, he may still rest satisfied, that if he discovers, promulgates, and defends truth, he cannot fail to promote the cause of human virtue and happiness. Deeply impressed with the importance of his duties, conscious of the influence which the subject of his studies exercises on the interests of society, he is bound to lay down principles and collect facts with a conscientious precision, to reason with a careful exactness, and to avoid all that savours of intolerance and dogmatism. We cannot find a more beautiful and eloquent description of his functions and duties than that of Filangieri,

'Who was himself the great sublime he taught.'

If the modern political economist cannot hope to fill up the masterly outline so powerfully traced, he should, at least, fix his mind upon it as a model of excellence, worthy of his approval and imitation. Il filosofo deve essere l'apostolo della verità

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non l'inventore de' sistemi. Finchè i mali che opprimono l'uma'nità non saranno guariti; finchè gli errori, ed i pregiudizi, che Eli perpetuano, troveranno de' partigiani; finche la verità conosciuta da pochi uomini privilegiati sarà nascosta alla più gran < parte del genere umano; finchè apparirà lontana da' troni, il • dovere del filosofo è di predicarla, di sostenerla, di promuoverla, d'illustrarla. Se 'i lumi ch'egli sparge non sono utili pel suo • secolo e per la sua patria lo saranno sicuramente per un altro secolo, e per un altro paese. Cittadino di tutti i luoghi, contem6 poraneo di tutte le età, l'universo è la sua patria, la terra è la 6 sua scuola, i suoi contemporanei e i suoi posteri, suoi discepoli."

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ART. III-Journal of a Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, crossing the Andes in the Northern Provinces of Peru, and descending the River Maranon, or Amazons. By HENRY LISTER MAW, Lieut. Royal Navy. 8vo. London: 1829.

M R MAW informs us, that on his return home, some friends advised him to publish his Journal, as containing an account of what they justly considered an arduous and interesting expedition. We approve of this advice, and accede to his claim, that, having composed and published his work without literary experience, or pretensions of any kind, and solely on the ground of having performed a remarkable journey, he shall be exempted from any severe critical ordeal. Although, therefore, the volume might afford room for animadversion, both as to composition, the objects of enquiry, and the judgments pronounced upon the facts reported, such discussions are here abstained from. We content ourselves with making the most of the materials furnished, seemingly with complete good faith; and shall endeavour, by means of them, to give our readers some idea of those immense and unfrequented regions through which he passed.

We find nothing in Mr Maw's details regarding Lima and Truxillo, requiring any particular notice. At the latter place he was joined by an English gentlemen of the name of Hinde, who had been some years in Peru in a mercantile capacity, and who accompanied him during the rest of his journey. From Truxillo they proceeded to Caxamarca, the seat of the regal palace of the Incas, and theatre of the calamitous downfall of their dynasty. Of the palace a few stones only remain. Two speculators lately attempted to drain the hot springs, into which, it is believed,

the golden throne of the Incas was cast in the catastrophe of their empire; but they sought in vain to reach the bottom of the boiling abyss. Caxamarca is seated high up the Andes, on a pampa, or plain, having an English aspect, and producing very fine wheat, which is here made into excellent bread.

On ascending the second Cordillera of the Andes, the travellers saw many traces of ancient Peruvian cultivation, and the indications of a considerable population, in districts now entirely desolate. This confutes the doctrine of some modern advocates of Spain, that the lot of the Indians was improved, at any rate, not deteriorated, by the subversion of their native empire. That the population has been reduced from ten to two millions, as is here averred, must however be a matter of mere conjecture.

From the summit of the second Cordillera the travellers looked down upon the Maranon. Nothing, Mr Maw conceives, can exceed the grandeur of this scenery, which, however, he does not attempt to describe. The stream, sixty yards wide, was seen rushing from between two lofty mountains, whereon rested a brilliant rainbow, which spanned the abyss.

After being benighted, and forced to bivouac in the woods, they crossed the Maranon by a ferry, and proceeded by a laborious ascent to the summit of the third Cordillera, the most elevated ridge in this part of America. It does not, however, rival either the white and awful pinnacles which tower above the plain of Quito, or some others which we shall presently notice. There was no snow; the vegetation was that of the hilly tracts of England, and the thermometer stood at 50°.

The travellers did not at first descend the Maranon itself, but crossed to the Guallaga, its middle and less ample branch. Their route lay through the Montana,-a rough, broken tract, buried beneath such a wild luxuriance of trees and flowering shrubs, that scarcely a cliff was left uncovered. After severe toil through almost impassable roads, they reached Moyobamba, capital of the Maynas, or district on the Guallaga, considerably more fertile than that watered by the Maranon. Cacao, indigo, Jesuits' bark, grow wild; sugar and coffee may be raised to the greatest advantage; cotton is so plentiful as to be used in common bagging, but for which flax might be advantageously raised. fine white wax is produced by bees that lodge in trees, compared to which the tree-wax, to which so much importance is attached by Estalla, (Viagero Universal, vol. xxi.,) is said to be held in little esteem. Gums, barks, balsams, dyes, in great variety, are drawn from the forests; but these, and generally the other productions, are said to exist in higher perfection on the

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banks of the great western stream of the Ucayali, which claims to rank as the primary branch of the Maranon.

From Moyobamba the travellers proceeded along high ridges, inferior, however, to those which bordered the great river, and through which glimpses began to appear of that unbounded plain which reaches across America to the Atlantic. The tracks which led along these successive ranges are described as exceedingly rugged, and as furnished with very slender means for the passage of travellers. In one place, a path was cut through a long barrier of rock, but so economically, that though there was room for a mule, it behoved the rider to throw his legs over the animal's neck, to avoid being crushed between its sides and the rock. The paths through the Montana seemed formed upon the principle of avoiding levels, and not shunning even the most perilous heights. So slender was often the deviation from the perpendicular, as to leave no safe mode of proceeding but by lying flat on the mule's back, trusting completely to his guidance.

Before quitting the Andes, we shall lay before our readers some interesting information respecting another part of this remarkable chain, from a Memoir by M. Humboldt, very recently published.* This Memoir is founded upon observations communicated to him by our countryman, Mr Pentland, who, being attached to the Peruvian embassy, was impelled by the love of science to solicit a mission into Upper Peru, (which we must now call Bolivia,) a region hitherto very little explored. Here he surveyed the great lake of Titiaca, on whose islands and shores were found remarkable monuments of the ancient Peruvian dynasty. He visited La Paz, Oruro, Potosi, and Chuchisaca, the seat of the Bolivian government. But his most important observations respect the extraordinary height of the Andes in this part of Peru. He measured the two loftiest peaks, Illimani and Sorate, compared with which it appears that Chimborazo itself must hide its diminished head. M. Humboldt warrants Mr Pentland's capacity to make barometrical measurements with accuracy. In this way he determined, at 15,951 and 12,760 feet respectively, the height of two stations; whence, being at a convenient distance from the two peaks, he could carry on trigonometrical measurements with advantage. The result gave,

*Mémoire sur les Travaux Géographiques et Géognostiques de M. Pentland dans le Perou Meridional. Par M. A. De Humboldt. (Annales des Voyages) Paris, October, 1829.

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