The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE TVES77IIINSTER AND FOREIGN
QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. XC.

Two -of the leading quarterlies are here coalesced
into one very formidable publication. Their first
appearance under this combination is most favourable,
and promises largely. The single number here pub-
lished, for the October quarter of 1846, is of itself a
handsome, extensive, instructive, and miscellaneous
volume, embracing an extraordinary variety of sub-
jects in architecture, political philosophy, biography,
metaphysics, and entomology, together with the
sanatory condition and education of the people. And
beyond this there is a supplemental quantity of foreign
correspondence and criticisms upon foreign literature,
including the recent productions of Tschudi, Quinet,
and Victor Jacquemont. So much enterprise is
visible in this periodical, and that enterprise is aided
by so much wisdom and sagacity, that it cannot fail
to win for itself double the popularity it has already
acquired. It has no need of the " puff preliminary,"
or the " puff direct," or the " puff collusive," or any
other of those aids to literary hypocrisy which are
catalogued with such felicity by Sheridan. The
Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review is capable
of propitiating public favour by its own merits.
There is visible, moreover, in almost every con-
tribution an earnest anxiety to promote the true
interests of humanity and civilisation. The principles
upon which the publication was originally commenced
continue to be of the same enlarged and generous
character as heretofore. As a remarkable instance of
this we may especially adduce the paper entitled
" Repeal of the Corn-laws : Prospective Results."
In reviewing the grand political and commercial
victory whic this Parliamentary session has just
realised for the people, the reviewer avails himself of
the opportunity to deduce the natural and necessary
consequences of the great measures relating to corn
and customs duties. After commenting upon the
importance and glory of this " stainless' victory—a
victory achieved by reason over party prejudices and
class interests, a victory achieved by the middle

classes over the aristocrats and the operatives, a
victory obtained in opposition to the hostility of the
two gigantic political parties "who for centuries have
divided the power and patronage of the Government
between them," in opposition " to the supposed pe-
...

cuniary interests of the legislators," in opposition C 4 to
those whom it was designed to benefit and those whom
it was imagined it would impoverish and ruin"—after
dilating upon the astonishing circumstances of this
victory, the writer then classifies with much lucidity
its necessary and possible results :—Firstly, as to the
progress of agriculture; secondly, as to the condition
of the people ; thirdly, as to the future course and
character of our legislation ; and, fourthly, as to our
foreign relations. I. That lands cannot be thrown

out of cultivation (as many have foolishly pretended)
by the operation of these new enactments, is de-

monstrate'clon several particulars. It is shown to be

impossible, because the increasing demands consequent
upon the annual increase of the population must, ac-

cording to statistical evidence, constantly increase the
value of land in relative proportions ; because, again,
land is even now daily rising in marketable value ;
because similar forebodings have been periodically
indulged in since 1815, and have been as repeatedly
falsified by events ; because only land altogether un-
profitable can ever go out of cultivation ; and, lastly,
because the farmers will be enabled, by the removal
of protection, to cultivate their lands at less expense
than hitherto. The effect of free trade will, therefore,
be to concentrate the energies of our agriculturists, so

as to compete with the agriculturists of foreign

countries ; to cause the average produce of wheat
land in England (calculated by Professor Johnstone
at 2:.1 quarters to the acre) to approximate more to the
average produce of the Lothians, namely, from four
to six quarters; to reclaim waste lands; and to
economise space by converting meadow and pasture
into arable. 11. The effects of these glorious measures
upon the people are justly calculated as of an enormous
and propitious description. "Full employment, ample
wages, good clothing, and sufficient food," are estimated
as the most important. Upon this extraordinary and
suggestive theme, however, we must permit the
writer to speak for himself; and earnestly do we
commend the following paragraph to the consideration
of every man solicitous for the future happiness and
prosperity of his fellow-countrymen :
" When these results have been achieved, the people's
fate will be in their own hands. We shall then have
reached that social condition which philanthropists have
sighed after so long in vain, wherein physical destitution
is no longer a barrier to moral and spiritual improve-
ment ; and when the industrious classes in the commu-
nity, laying all the material means of a comfortable and
happy existence within their reach, may place themselves
in whatever position they desire and can appreciate. It
will be a critical epoch--a turning point in their and
their country's history. If they understand their right
position and their true interests ; if the objects at which
they aim shall be at once high, solid, and attainable ; if
their improved condition shall bring with it improved
desires ; if their efforts be directed to raise their class,
not to rise out of it ; they may rival the Americans in
the material, and far surpass them in the spiritual, ele-
ments of well-being ; all of them may attain the elective
franchise in towns, and many of them in the counties ;
all of them may live, as the best of them do now, in
healthy, sufficient, and respectable dwellings ; all of
them may become possessed of property, and thus ren •
der themselves safe and independent, as well as useful
members of society ; the artisans may work ten hours
without a ten hours' bill, and the peasantry again n
thTeior
part ob t
be-
come in fact—what they have long ceased to be i
lit" y
sensean and
cgoeuendt r yf
e' se pn rgi d
on
bgecoorored-
-
ain all this,
will alone
quisite ; their efforts to raise themselves to what men
ought to be will be met with rejoicing, encourage
and aid by all ranks of their country.
fon emceonnt ,
trary, their moral state should be not far enough ad-
vanced to profit by and turn to good account the im-
provement in their physical comforts ; if, as has hitherto
been too often the case, increased employment should
lead to diminished diligence, and increased power to ex-
aggerated and unreasonable caprices, and augmented
wages should only stimulate to more unlimited indul-
gence ; if they ;should still, from unworthy distrust of
their superiors, allow themselves to be made the tools of
men who live and thrive upon their follies and their
jealousies ; they will turn away and dry up the sympa-
thies of ib nse who would have helped to raise them—
they will sink anew into the miseries of frequent dis-
tress and perpetual serfdom, and throw blindly away
one of the fairest opportunities ever offered to a nation,
of realising, amid the most complicated forms of modern
civilisation, a golden age of freedom, happiness, and
peace. Everything is ready—everything is within reach
of England, if her sons are "wise in time ;" those who
have oppressed the poor are stripped of their power ;
those who have neglected them are awakened to their
duties ; those who despised them have begun to appre-
ciate and fear them ; those who looked upon them as
antagonists, rivals, and competitors, have begun to com-
prehend the great Idea of mutual identity of interests ;
and now that free trade has secured to them all the
raw materials of physical well-being, all that is further
wanting will be warAing in themselves alone, viz., tem-
perance to resist animal indulgence, knowledge to un-
derstand their interests, and discrimination to distinguish
friends from flatterers and foes."
Let every individual amongst us endeavour to pre-
pare the people for the powerful temptations to which
their passions will be subjected. If they be duly
prepared the consequences of this turning-point will
be wholly beneficial. 111. In calculating the effects
of free trade in connexion with the future course and
character of our legislation, the reviewer has felt the
temerity of his position ; he has recognised the im-
penetrable nature of a political futurity ; and has con-
fined himself rather to timorous conjectures than to
confident predictions. Amongst the more sagacious
of his observations upon this point we may specify
the sentence that " the agricultural interest will gain
political power at the expense of the landlord interest ;
and, instead of always pulling against the commercial
classes, will, in the great majority of political ques-
tions, find it wisdom to pull with them." That will
inevitably be the case, to the astonishment and
exultation of the agricultural tenants and to the ex-
cessive chagrin of the agricultural landlords. IV.
Prom the operation of free trade with regard to inte-.
national affairs, the writer coincides with Cobde-
the
most eminent political economists f'
in an icipa-ing
an universal and enduring peace. In o- -
Lie portion of
this very able article it is proposed
nat, in order to
enable such landlords as have a life interest in
their property to cultivate their land without hamper-
ing their means, they si-.Aould be allowed to mortgage,
or even to sell a portion of the estate,
the money thereby raised* to the betterdso as to apply
Such evelopment of
the resources of the remainder.an arrange-
ment we conceive would be most
_ hazardous; it
would be calculated to entail
.g e the already com-
plicated abatements to the rights of property, and
would, more seriously t:nan the reviewer seem' s to
magine, interfere with 'che law of entail. In all other
particulars, however, we regard this paper on the
prospective resu%s of free trade as abounding with
shrewd and sagacious propositions. The articles on
" £he Principles of Taxation," on the " Patronage of
Commissions," and on the " Education of the People,"
are of nearly equal and, in one or two points, of
superior merit. We have entered so largely, however,
into an analysis of the preceding contribution, that
we have altogether precluded ourselves from ex-
amining either of the last-mentioned in detail. " The
Microscope and its Revelations" is likewise an ad-
mirable performance, betokening very laborious in-
vestigation, and conveying a world of startling and
astonishing truths with delightful perspicacity. Some
of the reflections upon the wonders divulged by the
microscope almost amount to eloquence. We are
surprised to observe so much deference paid to the
authority of Borellus by the author of this exc,"
article, the veracity of Borellus being s-
dubious, and the worl, of Borellus be: intensely
the production of ug so essentially
party zealr`
upon " Arch“ An elaborate essay
with a pr- -bee. ra "( "`IS and Records," illustrated
varier "Jrusion of wood-cuts, imparts an additional
Ty,
.1, to the very miscellaneous •4.
eons contents of the
estminster Review, while-it'
I embellishment. A
review of tends considerable to its
I Baru," introduces lv Mr. Burton's " Life of
us again to t •
he In •• tzmacy of a