The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-01-11 00:00:00

SICOJD LITTER.

lint—lt may seem •Uatßr that at this time of day we
should here to didoe the term wealth, coyn cselly as applied
to Notion.; lint I have been very unrteers•tul In ply mirth
If in any of the great leading writers optm the sehjert of
political crummy, a clear definition of that term is to be
round.

The vulgar notion that money of coin is any criterion of
national wealth, has beer sufficiently exploded by s.mu• of
those writers ; and yet it is remarkable that there is 11111111.
danee of passages in their works which directly gu to e4a-
blish the doctrine of the exhaustibility of national wealth,
• doctrine that could not here existed but upon the min-
ple, more extensively applied, indeed, which formed the
grotind-work of the doctrine that the wealth of • nation
COlll/li4lefl in a great degree at least of its money of coin.
Width, then, may be defined to consist of
The titmice whence all consumable goods are derived,
that is land.
241, 1 he consnmable goods that are the pmtbice of land.
it stay be said nobody disputes this—pi:Amps not; but it
is clear that very few writers, if my. lame reasoned conclu-
sive ly upon it; and it will be found of vital importance to con-
sider the land or mil of a country as wealth, because it is
apprehendid that the want of that consideration has given
birth to that doctrine, the mischiefs of which have been ail-
vi tn.! 111111 Ty first litter.
But t!ico is a thirst species of possession which, although
it catiout ',filming be correctly described as stealth, is so
esatntially the cause of wealth, that, withnnt it, it is clear
wealth could have no existence—and 11114 is the pincer of
tabour; and perhaps it would be bittern to avoid nice dis-
tinctions, and to describe wealth to consist of land, the
power ef labour, and consumable goods
Thus (Jr the wealth of a nation soil the wealth of an in-
divilual may he considered in the same light, mud as
govettied by the same principle. But here all analozy lw-
*were. them CC/We, 111111 a new principle arises which renders
every rule that is applicable to the one inapplicable to the
oner.
This principle is, as applied to individual wealth, exhausti-
bility—as applied lo minimal wealth, inexhaustibility;
and
nbeis this dive. sity is considered, it will he seen, that whilst
in.smanagement and exteavigauce may bring ruin upon the
individual by pecuniary causes, they can bring ruin upon a
country by moral causes alone. •
Exhaiistioo and alienation, an nplrlied to land, are merely
convertible II runs; for it is clear that land, whether the
possession of it he national or individual, is distally as •
subject per cc inexhaustible. But when the lineation of
aiiviation arises, it is equally dear that in respect of • 115-
l1:111 this stance of all wealth rail never be exhausted, be-
came it cat, never Ise alienated by one nation to another;
hitst iu sespect of every individual of that nal it may
he completely exhausted, because it may be alienated, or,
i.l ochre words, the soil itself, and all that it produces, 111ay
p Irons our individual to another individual, who has no
CUlllill.lll interest will. him from whom it passes.
. .

In respect of the "sower of lab our, it is almost too obtionia
to require statioo4 that it may be lest to an individual by
the want of physical qtr. sigth w herr it depends upon his
riusenlar powers, nine mural energy where it depends upon
hie inehnulion to labour, or by the want of Capital whirr it
dep. ail. upon 11w es:editing of other'', whilst it can never
be exhausted, that is, lust to a nation, because a natiou
is
era cesimroly at once its own w,•rkman, and an emoted
contiuuaince of physical attength and mooed energy.
In re.pect of consumable goods, the remaining compo-
nent part of wealth, they, according to their town' classes
or characters, novel more or less frequently require to be se-
m. no al, as will to nations as individoals; bat, if the pi on-
e: pie afore stated be correct, it is almost absurd to spend
Loom in proving, that by a thousand accidents any given poor.
too oo of coossiniable gouda, however large, may pass (tom in.
elm lual possession, either by perishing, or being esbana!rti
is naoo or alienation before that event, without the pineal.
halt., of their loss being sopplieJ to that individual; whilst
by no ACridtlit in the orditiory course of things, air short of
the dim.o'ution of that eternal law by which the willow'
anal its suil subsists, VW itscomminable goorla(w Inch, in truth,
foam the quantum of the consumable goods belonging to
every ii.Msioletal in it be lost by alienation, or the lelltlVA.
time of thaon prevented when they perish or are exhaust-
eel by noir ; because there exist no person or set of persons
to whom the possession of this quantum of consumable goods
can be delivered, and because by no accident, short of that
joist ailserted to, can nature lose her powers of production,
or the ten %coley of mankind to cultivate those powers be
tiotale tai eerie.

Ihi p 416094, without attempting more than a mere
otothiw, will be illustrated in the remaining Letters, ill
whit h 1 propose to treat, in the same manner, of the prin-
ciple upon which it is 'stetted that the wealth of a coontry
rail he taihausted by the operation of its debt and cause-
-111141 al taxes.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

PARIS PAPERS.

PARIS, SAWt ART 6.

Lt is said that M. de Chishrol, Under-Secretary
of State to the Moister of tlic Interior, has given
in his resignation. It is added, that all the places
in the Office of the limier-Secretary of State will
b. 'oppressed, moil replaced by grand divisions,
which will take the title of Direction-Generale.—
There will he one for Among the prrsons
who vr:Il he called to fill these impnrtnot
are mentioned the State Couusellurs Canto' sod
Camille Jordan. - .

We are amulet! that the new Mini4ter of the In-
terior proposed to revive the ',oldie exhibitiwi of
the priocipal products of French industry. It
eve, tic! that a totninittee hav been appointed
by
his Excellency to regulate the execution of tins

irri.jvct.
Letters from Rochefort, of the 314 Derenibt r,
0181 r•, that " the expedition fOT Chinn, ow" sochored
in the mall of the of Aix, composed of tlw
Kole% ship% en flute, the Rhone and the Dnrunee
I» or the point of setting, sail. That for the
gal, consistitig of the doiy+ Le nra, L.a C/•.-
scale, La Nradaise, La Brcloane, LI Prudence,
rad there, le 111 the same road. Some I:rethink-

_~~