ment of trade calls an increased number of workmen into existence, without a corresponding developement of agricultural power, although the goods may thereby be rendered cheaper, the rise in the price of grain must diminish the workman's capability of subsisting upon his necessarily reduced wages. Artificial gratifications are, indeed, multiplied for the wealthy classes, but the condition of the lowest is brought nearer to starvation.

On the other hand, if we admit that the earth in Europe does not as yet produce the half nor the third of its abstract possibility, we know that it does and ever must produce as much as the skill and capital of the respective countries allow. In England it produces even more: for the operation of Corn Bills enables the capitalist to employ his means upon ungrateful soils, whose return would not repay his interest, if things were left to their natural course. The price of grain, then, as far as concerns internal commerce, must necessarily determine the quantity of manufactured goods which can be produced; since all must have essentials before any one can permanently enjoy superfluities. For otherwise, on the one hand, poor-rates must exhaust the superfluous wealth of the country, to maintain the struggling manufacturer; or on the other, the manufacturer must perish, and with him the means of creating superfluities. This chain of reasoning, which I find Mr. Say admits in his third letter, completely and entirely overthrows the theory of indefinite produce. The subject is, however, susceptible of still further developement. The value of all manufactured produce must be regulated by the labour it requires for its production, or it will cease to be produced. The utility, however, or the relation of produce to the organization of the species, is very different, in different articles. Alimentary articles may be indefinitely increased by diminishing the cost of production within the limits of the possible growth of the raw material; because the supply regulates the demand. Articles of sensual gratification, such as tea and tobacco, may be nurtured into universal consumption, and follow closely the ratio of production of corn. But admitting every theoretic facility of lowering prices, the power of consuming articles of wearing apparel, and their consequent utility, will be placed within narrower bounds; and still more so that of baubles, confectionary, &c. But in proportion as industry satisfies wore and more completely the real wants of a nation, the more it will be driven for fresh exertions to such branches of manufacture. Now to suppose that any circumstances could induce the same general consumption of superfluities, as is made of articles of primary necessity, is utterly Utopian. When, therefore, population is carried to its uttermost stretch, if we suppose on the one hand a degree of foresight sufficient to prevent the generation of paupers, and on the other an improvement in manufacture

capable of clothing and housing perfectly the whole numbers which the earth's fertility could maintain, that population would not continue its exertions to satisfy capricious wants: it would become idle, poor, and would dwindle. and would dwindle. It would be reduced to the state of those countries, in which nature produces spontaneously in too great abundance. On every account, therefore, indefinite productive power is impossible.

But, however this may be, whether man can, or cannot produce too rapidly for his necessities, an unproductive consumption cannot remove the embarrassments which violence, or the impertinent interference of legislatures induce in trade. Whatever is consumed unproductively, is wasted; and the same ends might be produced by flinging the goods into the sea, at the national expense, as by consuming them without any return. The nonproductive consumer can consume only the proportion which he receives from the producer, either in rent, interest, or taxation. If he consumes less than his income, he accumulates capital, and interest falls. With the fall of interest, a fall in the price of goods takes place, and consumption is promoted. If he spends his full income, in the course of nature he will soon be impoverished; either by an increase of family, or by those accidents which are inseparable from life. With the fall of the capitalist, money becomes scarce, and interest high; and the affair is much worse, when the non-productive consumer expends his capital in the absurd notion of increasing consumption, and by that of benefiting trade.

With respect to the converse of this proposition, that a total abstinence from consumption would be total ruin, and that, therefore, consumption is itself a good, it is to be observed, that enjoyment being the end of labour, if mankind refused to enjoy, they must cease from their exertions, and must perish by starvation. But because men till the earth that they may eat corn, it does not follow that they should eat it totally, seed and all: but the saving of the capitalist is the seed of the next year's commercial harvest. The glut of a market arises from the production of an article in greater quantity than that country can consume at a vendible price. If a country could consume five million pairs of stockings, at five shillings a pair, it would take off more than the value of ten millions at two and sixpence; for not only would many who went barefooted purchase at the cheaper price, but those who wore coarse stockings would now buy them fine. But this operation is excluded from the proposition, because, to constitute a glut of the market, we suppose that the manufacturer cannot afford to lower his prices without ruin, nor the consumers to lay out more money on the article. If then the capitalist, to accommodate the market, purchases and consumes the second five millions at the higher price, his wanton

and capricious expenditure would indeed diminish the stock in hand pro hac vice, but it would impoverish the market for future manufacturers; and if they continued to manufacture at the same rate, their embarrassment would be greater than ever.

A knowledge of the realities of life proves but too plainly that capitalists are habitually prone to this extravagant expenditure. Not having the trouble to labour, in order to make money, such persons are rarely acquainted with its value. They know not how much can be done with a given sum; and having more than enough for their wants, they indulge their caprices: but for caprice there is no applicable measure. Hence people with the greatest means of riches are generally embarrassed, and few large estates continue long undipped or unshackled. Of this truth the condition of Ireland affords a decisive proof. Without commerce or manufacture, this country is divided into large estates inordinately rent-charged, and paying a double tithe and a heavy imposition of taxes. Hence nearly the whole rental of this devoted kingdom is wasted in wine and pleasure-horses, and a host of other non-productive consumptions. The landlords, instead of increasing their capitals, are rarely out of debt; and the tenant, getting but his cabin and potatoe from the soil, is incapacitated from saving. Here there is not, as in England, a large portion of the earth's revenue turned back upon itself, and consumed in improvements, manure, and drainage. Here there is no accumulation for the support of fresh labour, the whole nearly of the earth's fertility is divided between the landlord, the clergy, the tax-gatherer, and the exciseman; the merchant and manufacturer simply maintain themselves in existence, but are totally prevented from increase or multiplication, and the cultivator of the soil is poor, naked, and ignorant. A nation, like an individual, must become rich or poor by the proportion its expenses bear to its means. Parsimony and industry alone beget riches; and extravagance and idleness are the necessary forerunners of ruin, to communities alike and to individuals. The fallacy seems to be in the notion that mere circulation produces wealth; and that, therefore, the more money is circulated, the more trade is benefited: whereas the utility of circulation resides altogether in the presupposed gain; while, in fact, the circulation may be, and is often attended by loss. If all consumed more than they produced, universal starvation must ensue if all refused to consume, there would be no possibility for labour. The balance to be observed between the two will be found in the reality of human interests, and the activity of human passions: it must, therefore, be left unrestrictedly to society; and M. Say's remark against preaching in works of political economy is just and well founded. The love of enjoyment is fixed in the human heart; and society will always consume, unproductively, as

much as it ought: the necessity to subsist, on the contrary, will equally act upon the species, and compel men, for their mere maintenance in their own rank of life, to make a sufficient œconomy, where the class of professedly unproductive consumers, clergymen, lawyers, money-changers, players, physicians, and above all, those who live upon taxation, do not eat up the entire superfluity of the community.

The sum, then, of this dispute seems to be, that nations may, independently of all controulable circumstance, produce faster than they can consume certain particular articles: that the great staples which by the peculiarities of soil and climate nature has assigned to a nation, may be worked up more rapidly than is necessary to gratify the actual wants of the species; but that this evil is immeasurably increased by a vicious distribution of wealth and power, by absurd taxation, and by commercial restraints: that in either of these cases, increasing artificially natural expenditure serves only to increase the evil: and that lastly, the safest, the best, nay the only efficient remedy, is to reduce to its minimum the obstructions which arise out of false combinations; and, in imitation of the bees, to expel from the political hive all those drones who insist upon living on the public industry.

M.

AN ACCOUNT OF A NEW RELIGIOUS SECT

DISCOVERED IN INDÍA.

In the second Report of the Calcutta Committee of the Church Missionary Society, there is an Account of a new Religious Sect in India, called the SAUDS; they are said to bear a great resemblance to Quakers. The following are some partieulars respecting them :

"In March, 1816, I went with two gentlemen from Futtehgurh, on the invitation of the principal persons of the Saud sect, to witness an assemblage of them, for the purpose of religious worship, in the city of Furrukhabad, the general meeting of the sect being that year in that city. The assembly took place within the court-yard (Daulan) of a large house. The number of men, women, and children, were considerable we were received with great attention, and chairs were placed for us in front of the Deurhee, or hall. After some time, when the place was quite full of people, the worship commenced. It consisted solely in the chanting of a hymn, this being the only mode of public worship used by the Sauds. At subsequent periods I made particular enquiries relative to the religious opinions and practices of this sect, and was frequently visited by Bhuwanee Dos, the principal person of the sect, in the city of Furrukhabad. The following is the substance of the account given by Bhuwanee Dos, of the origin of his sect:--

"About the Sumbut year 1600, or 177 years ago, a person named Beer,bh,an, inhabitant of Beej,basur, near Narnoul, in the province of

Dehli, received a miraculous communication from Ooda Dos, teaching him the particulars of the religion_now professed by the Sauds---Ooda Dos, at the same time, gave to Beer,bh,an marks by which he might know him on his re-appearance: 1st. That whatever he foretold should happen. 2d. That no shadow should be cast from his figure. 3d. That he would tell him his thoughts. 4th. That he would be suspended between heaven and earth. 5th. That he would bring the dead to life. Bhuwanee Dos presented me with a copy of the Pot,hee, or religious book of the Sauds, written in a kind of verse, in the Tenth Hindee dialect, and he fully explained to me the leading points of their religion. The Sauds utterly reject and abhor all kinds of idolatry, and the Ganges is considered by them with no greater veneration than by Christians, although the converts are made chiefly, if not entirely, from among the Hindoos, whom they resemble in outward appearance. Their name for God is Stutgur; and Saud, the appellation of the sect, means---servant of God. They are pure deists, and their form of worship is most simple, as I have already stated. They resemble the Quakers, in their customs, in a remarkable degree. Ornaments and gay apparel of every kind are strictly prohibited; their dress is always white. They never make any obeisance or sulam. They will not take an oath, and they are exempted in a Court of Justice; their asseveration, as that of the Quakers, being considered equivalent. The Sauds profess to abstain from all luxuries, such as tobacco, paun, opium, and wine. They never have nauches, or dancing. All attack on man or beast is forbidden; but, in self-defence, resistance is allowable. Industry is strongly enjoined. The Sauds, like the Quakers, take great care of their poor and infirm people. To receive assistance out of the punt, or tribe, would be reckoned disgraceful, and render the offender liable to excommunication. All parade of worship is forbidden. Secret prayer is commended; alms should be unostentatious; they are not to be done that they should be seen of men. The due regulation of the tongue is a principal duty. The chief seats of the Saud sect, are Delhi, Agra, Jypoor, and Furrukhabad, but there are several of the sect scattered over the country. An annual meeting takes place at one or other of the cities above-mentioned, at which the concerns of the sect are settled. The Magistrate of Furrukhabad informed me that he had found the Sauds an orderly and well-conducted people; they are chiefly engaged in trade. Bhuwanee Dos was anxious to become acquainted with the Christian religion, and I gave him some copies of the New Testament, in Persian and Hindoostanee, which, he said, he had read and shewn to his people, and much approved. I had no copy of the Old Testament in any language which he understood well; but as he expressed a strong desire to know the account of the creation as given in it, I explained it to him from an Arabic version, of which he knew a little. I promised to procure him a Persian or Hindoostanee Old Testament, if possible. I am of opinion that the Sauds are a very interesting people, and that an intelligent and zealous missionary would find great facility in communicating with them."