The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1842.

LITERATURE.

EDINBURGH REVIEW, No. CL.
Longman, London, 1842.
Foremost among the great prose writers of the
seventeenth century, stands Thomas Fuller—a
man whose works, after having achieved as ex-
tensive a popularity as was- compatible with the
turbulent character of the age in which they were
written, have of late years fallen into a state of
comparative oblivion. Few now care to read the
" Holy War ;" and the few who do, read it, we
suspect, rather as a task than as a matter of in-
clination. The "English Worthies" is scarcely
treated with more respect, yet where shall we

find a work fuller of fancy, wit, information—

though not of a very comprehensive order—or
quaint and various imagery ? The truth is, the
genius of Fuller is anything but the genius of the
present day. It has hardly indeed one point in
common with it. It is as far removed as possible
from decorous common-place, and taxes thought
even in its wildest wit, wherein is often couched
the subtlest wisdom. The majority of us now
read almost exclusively for amusement; and
books to be popular with us, must be devoid of

distinctive character, just as men who aspire to
be attractive in society, must have nothing
marked or out of the way about them, whether
as regards manners or modes of expression. Ori-
ginality has lost its charm in our eyes; else
wherefore is it that Mr. Carlyle, one of the most
original of modern thinkers, has been struggling
upwards of twenty years against unmerited neg-
lect; and is even now—whatever his admirers
may say to the contrary—read and appreciated
only by the select Few ? The great drawback to
Fuller's popularity in the present day is, we ap-
prehend, not so much the themes he discusses, as
the manner in which he discusses them. We
resent his exuberant wit and fancy, as quaintness
conceit, impertinence, and what not; though
this wit and this fancy formed the delight of our
ancestors. And well may such have been the
case, for Fuller's vivacity is a fountain that never
dries up. Even where, to a superficial reader, it
may seem forced and far-fetched, it is as cordial
and natural as the man himself. Indeed in all
his works, the head takes its cue from the heart
—the understanding is delighted to borrow its
best hints from the sensibilities. Of few contem-

porary writers can this be said, with the excep-
tion, perhaps, of Sir. Thomas Browne, whose
works correctly mirror his shy, dreamy, sensitive,
and moody—not to say hypochondriacal—nature.
The works of Fuller seem to have been penned

under the cheering influence of a sunny southern
atmosphere; his thoughts are buoyant, mercu-
rial, though by no means deficient in strength
and robustness; and his animal spirits never de-
sert him, even in the remotest regions of phan-
tasm and speculation. In Sir Thomas Browne,
on the contrary, we everywhere trace the influ-
ence of a chilling, northern climate. His ideas
struggle through cloud and gloom into imperfect
sunshine; he is fond of reminding us or death
and the grave; takes prodigious pains to assure
us.that life is but a span; and even goes out of
his way to find fault with the great mystery of
procreation, and to vent such idle sneers, as that
woman is but "the rib and crooked piece of
man I", We can imagine him writing his curious
and erudite "Religio Medici" with a pen dipped
in a November fog. In their personal habits not
less than in the structure of their minds, a
marked difference exists between these two ce-
lebrated contemporary writers. Browne was a
recluse student, of shy and nervous temperament,
averse to social intercourse, and living, in a fan-
tastic world of his own, wholly apart from the
bustling, every-day world about'him. The strife
of parties, the fierce religious differences which
convulsed all England, even the great Civil War
itself; made no impression on him. He swore
neither by King nor People—;by High-Church-
man nor Puritan—but pursued the even tenor of
his way, unfettered and unbiassed by aught of
political prejudice or religious schism. He seems
to have regarded life as a sort of dream, from
which he should only wake in death. For
Fuller this dreamy, secluded mode of existence
had no charm. Though he read and wrote much,
and thought more, yet he loved the stir and
bustle of society. He was of the world, worldly;
but his practical shrewdness never blunted his
fine sense of humanity. In times of great temp-
tation to aspiring spirits—and Fuller was by no
means without ambition—he preserved his cha-
racter-unsullied. Too moderate for the Royalists,
too little of a fanatic for thp Patriots, he yet con-
trived to extort the respect of both parties; and
the chaplain to the Royal army found, after the
King's death, one of his most efficient friends in
the'chaplain to the Lord Protector. Like Sir
Thomas Browne, whom in this point only he re-
sembled, he was a firm believer in witchcraft.
This, however, is scarcely an impeachment of
his sagacity, for witches were the bugbears of his
day ; and it falls to the lot of few great men to
be, like Milton, wholly beyond.their age.
In the Number before us, there is a clever
biographical sketch of Fuller, whose sole fault is,
that it is too enthusiastic in its panegyric. The
author of the " English Worthies" was certainly
not a prodigy of wit, as the Reviewer intimates;
for quaintness and conceit are not wit, though
with many readers they are apt to be mistaken
for it. We mean not, however, to deny that Ful-

_
ler possessed this quality in a high degree, for
his eccentric pages are often lighted up with
flashes of the brightest wit; but the grotesque-
ness of his ideas and the ferility of his imagina-
tion are still more remarkable. Of all the prose
writers of the seventeenth century he is the one
who most startles by the unexpectedness of his
thoughts, and the language in which he developes
them. The perusal of his works acts as a sort of
shower-bath on the reader's mind. Though not
acquainted with the whole, yet we have read the
majority of them with attention, and—with the
the solitary exception of Sir Thomas Browne's
sublime " Urn-Burial," the fifth chapter of which
is the finest piece of prose composition in the lan-
guage—know no contemporary writings that can
be compared to them. We are aware that we
may be here reminded of Milton ; but we must
plead guilty to the bad taste of never being hav-
ing been able thoroughly to relish his prose Trea-
lises, notwithstanding the spletidid passages in
which they abound. To return to our theme.
From the Reviewer's biographical sketch, we
learn that Thomas Fuller was born in Northamp-
tonshire in the year 1608. At twelve years of
age he was sent to Cambridge, and after taking
the usual degrees, was appointed minister of St.
Bennet's, where he soon became a popular
preacher. In 1631 he was made Prebendary of
Salisbury, about which time he perpetrated a
volume of small poesy, of which the less said the
better. All literary young men write verse; it
it is the weakness of their age ; but in none, save
the gifted Few—alas, how few 1— does the poeti-
cal temperament ever rise superior to the force
of adverse circumstances. With Fuller it was
otherwise; he continued through life a poet,
though his ablest works were all written in prose.
In 1638 he became a Benedick, but his wife died
a year or two after marriage, and then he repaired
to London, where he obtained the Lecture-
ship cxf -the Savoy. In 1640 he pUblished his ce-
lebrated " Holy War," which immediately pro-
cured him botn money and fame. In the fol-
lowing year he preached.in Westminster Abbey,
on the anniversary of the King's inauguration;
and soon after, refusino• to take an oath to the
Parliament, he repaired to Charleo at Oxford,
by whom he was well received. At the siege of
Exeter, where he was present, he was of great
assistance in stimulating the courage of the loyal
citizens. After the death of the King, and the
entire overthrow of the Royalists, Fuller ma-
naged to keep on terms with the dominant
party ; and on the Restoration was appointed
chaplain extraordinary to Charles the Second.
This was his last appointment, for in 1661, just
as he had obtained a Mount-Pisgah view of a
Bishopric, he died—greatly, no doubt, to his
mortification, for never did man enter with
keener relish into all the social enjoyments of
life. In person Fuller was stout—" inclined to
corpulence," as he hiinself has told us. His phy-
siognomy was exceedingly prepossessing. He
bad light, flaxen hair ; bright, blue, laughing
eyes; and a frank open expression of counte-
nance. The Reviewer thus alludes to one of the
most prominent features of his intellect :
As the temperament of Fuller was most cheerful,
and a pledge for the innocence of his wit, so he jested
by what may be called a necessity of his nature—on all
subjects, at all times, under all circumstances. Wit in
one or other of its multitudinous shapes, was sure to be
the attire of his thoughts and feelings. With the kindest
heart in the world, he could not even recite a cala-
mitous story without investing iti with a tinge of the lu-
dicrous. It would seem as if a jest were the • natural
expression of all emotion ; and that be is no more to be
wondered at for mingling his condolence and his lamen-
tations with merriment, than are other men for accom-
panying them with tears and sighs. An epitaph in his
hand would have been a sort of epigram not free
from grotesque humour ; and his ordinary pulpit dis-
courses must, we are convinced, have often contained
passages which severely tried the gravity of his audience.
In confirmation of all we have said, we may remark,
that he actually finds it impossible to suppress his viva-
cious pleasantry even in the most tragical parts of his
histories," and tells the most rueful tidings in so droll
a manner as sets all gravity at defiance. One or two
odd specimens we cannot refrain from laying before the
render. He thus recounts a " lamentable accident" which
befel a congregation of Catholics at Blackfriars
" The sermon began to incline to the middle, the day to
the end thereof ; when on the sudden the floor fell down
whereon they were assembled. It gave no charitable
groan beforehand, but cracked, broke, and fell
Many were killed, more bruised, all
wauariuninAgcostitut.

frighted. Sad sight, to behold the flesh and blood of
different persons mingled together, and the brains of one
on the head of another ! One lacked a- leg ; another an
arm •, a third, whole and entire, wanting nothing but
breath, stifled zn the ruins." Was ever such a calamity
so mirthfully related ? But one of-the most singular
instances of the peculiarity in question, is contained in
his account of the capture and execution of the principal
conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot.
" Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive
Sciences" is an able, analytical notice of one of
the profoundest scientific works of the day. The
Reviewer is often severe on the subject of his
criticism, but on the whole he does it justice. He
particularly condemns Mr. Whewell's "passion
for coining new words," and, alluding to his use
of the strange term " Idiopt," slily observes,
" it is a term not wanted, and is one which, when
submitted to the eye of a compositor, will in-
fallibly part with one Of its most essential let-
ters." In " Ruppell's Travels in Abyssinia, "
the Reviewer speaks with becoming respect of
a very entertaining, not to say instructive, work.
We have been diverted by the following anec-
dote :—" Constancy and fidelity are not to be
found among the Abyssians. Ruppell saw at
Ategrat a female only seventeen years of age,
who had been seven times diVorced, and was on
her way to Gondar to be married for the eighth
tithe! " What an inordinate appetite for matri-
mony this young lady must have had ! " Phre-
nological Ethics" exposes in a right spirit the
absurdities of the Phrenologists, one of whom,
Mr. Combe, has, it seems, actually adduced a
case of a man's self-insufficiency having been
sensibly abated by a blow on the organ of self
esteem ! That organ having been hnoched in,
the fellim, as a matter of course, became gra-
dually modest! What an invaluable discovery
for parents is here ! No need after this of a
moral education ! A child, the instant he ex-
hibits a vicious bump, has only to have that
bump flattened by hiS affectionate father with a
poker, to be made as virtuous as needs be. We
suppose this is the reason why Irishmen are so
proverbially bashful. Before their organ of Im-
pudence can have had time fully to develope itself,
it is knocked in by a shillelagh in a faction fight !
The " Pictorial History of England" is a lengthy
and elaborate notice of one of Mr. C. Knight's
most recent publications. In this notice the Re-
viewer assures us that ourpeasantry were happy
and thriving under the Anglo-Saxon dynasty—
an assertion which we must take leave to doubt,
for how could they be happy—no matter how
rude or ignorant-.who dared not call even their
thoughts their own ? We are always sceptical
as respects the happiness of uncivilised tribes,
especially where-the distinctions of grade are so
broadly marked, as was the case in England
during the reign of the Saxon Kings. The pea-
sant was then but a mere serf; and slavery is in-
compatible with happiness, unless indeed the
slave can find music in the clank of his chains.
In remarking on " Lord Alvanley's Pamphlet
on the State of Ireland," the Reviewer leans
with great favour to his Lordship's plan of pay-
ing the Irish priests, and remarks that the wis-
dom of such a scheme might be illustrated by
the successful result of similar measures in
Canada, Belgium, and Prussia. He adds, with
reference to Lord De Grey's system of policy,
" with higher pretensions of impartiality than
ever were •put forward by his predecessors, he
has acted more slaviShly than any of his prede-
cessors ever did, in, the spirit of that exclusive
and anti-national party by, whom he is sur-
rounded. The object of- .the article entitled
" Financial Measures cf the Late, and Intentions
of the Present, Ministr34 is to show that by the
change of Government the country has gained,
in the first place, an addition of five millions to
the national debt; secondly, the probable impo-
sition of additional taxes to the amount -of three
millions a year; and thirdly, the continuance of
monopolies and protections, by which commerce
will remain crippled, and manufacturers will be
exposed to new obstructions from hostile tariffs."
We close our remarks- IV an extract from an'
agreeable review of Mr. Catlin's recent work on
the North American Indians :

On the banks of the Missouri, two hundred miles be-
low the fort, Mr. Catlin landed among the tribe of the
Mandans, with whom -.he. lived some. time ; being by
the grace of his mysterious art, in high veneration
among them, admitted to all their ceremonies, treated
as a brother by the highest medicine men'—in fact
taking the degree of Doctor among them, or, in their
own phrase, Big double medicine.' These Mandans are,
or rather, as we must say were, the most polished and
advanced native nation to be found in North America ;
they were milder in their manners ; received strangers
with less suspicion ; and had always been known as
' the hospitable and polished Mandans.' Mr. Catlin's
account of this people is exceedingly picturesque—ex-
hibiting a mode of life which could by no possibility be-
come what an European would call civilized—but yet
dignified and agreeable ; rich, with all necessary and
many luxurious articles of existence ; and. well adapted
to call into exigtiene, and rear to perfection, thOse
powers of mind and body which their position de-
manded. Witness their careful system of instruction for
their children, who are every morning trained in all the
discipline of Indian warfare ; all armed with a small bow
and grass arrow, and distributed into two armies, who go
through the manoeuvres of a battle. When any one is
struck by an arrow he is obliged to fall, and the con-
queror rushing up snatches. away his' mimic scalp-lock,
which he exhibits afterwards in proof of his victory.
Witness, too, the appalling ceremonies requisite for the
youths who wish to be numbered among the " braves ;"
—in which the aspirants, after four days' fasting and
watching, are subjected to a course of voluntary torture,
the half- of which .no European could survive ; but
whose extremity only tests the young Mandan's powers
of enduring, and assigns the station he is to hold among
the warners. Every year this ceremony is performed,
at the period when the willow leaf first -buds—for no
other record of the seasons is kept than such tokens of
nature—and forms part of a grand solemnity,- supposed
by Mr. Catlin to,bear some allusion to their traditions of
the fall of man and the deluge ; in Which a representa-
tion of the evil spirit rushes into their village, and after
the powerful rod of the chief medicine
whole exhibition being accompanied by dances.
is paralysed and
true rxyapni e
the
leby
his powers of destruction

CORN-LAWS AND • EMIGRATION.
COLONEL TORRENS.
We bad prepared, some days ago, a brief and slight
nNoot.i ce
IV."
inee
hlother Torrens' pamphlet,
m atter has
preventedc called h te
n sns "Budget,using,
Since then, the
,work has attracted so much attention
from our Liberal Contemporaries, who latterly have gone
with us for repeal of the Corn-laws—the commendatory
twaddle of the Herald had no weight with us—that.
we have been induced to reconsider the pamphlet, and
must now express our satisfaction that, by the non-pub-
lication of our brief notice, we are enabled to place a
more extended analysis of Colonel Torrens' principles
before our readers.
Colonel Torrens, it must be remembered, has latterly
been a leading Emigration Commissioner, which has
probably given a bias to his mind. At any rate, he now
prefers schemes of emigration, that are at least profitable
to Commissioners, to the simple plan of doing justice to
the people, which can be profitable only to the commu-
nity at large. The presentproduction is "A Letter to the
Right lion. Lord Stanley on Colonization, considered as
a Means of Removing the Causes of National Dis-
tress ;"—it controverts some of the doctrines of the
Anti-Corn-law party, and has for its declared ob-
ject to prove that the repeal of the Corn-laws
would not remove the national distress, and that
" the application of the true principles of coloniza-
tion affords the appropriate remedy." We should have
done our best to refute the assumptions and conclusions
of this pamphlet before, had we not considered them—
till taught another lesson by the kindred writing of the
Chronicle and the Globe—to be so transparently fallacious
as to be unworthy of a lengthened notice.
The Gallant Colonel begins by bestowing on the advo-
cates of Corn-law repeal some concessions they do not
ask. He concedes that in the present state of foreign agri-
culture, England could obtain large supplies of foreign
corn at lower prices than those at which it can, in ordi-
Gwo?trrnm agricultureen tlesn
onto tt
or ebset
ordi-
nary years, be produced at home; and that, were Eng-
land to abolish restrictions on i_mo,vrp..eoorruetraatmibooanrl ,iis,oehttehsd,e,ar Statesnd thforeignat
Anti-Corn-law party and ofioicitatr:niFesicouppitounreen, tesornof, systematic
parts of the
emigration igtrhaetisoen doirrecstiemdilbarr
or rather
_ cheap in. all
agriculturistsdfi
ioet
food,
tddh, ,
the then
ohttheinla would be
b aiefv
e,
:boot
abundant
nde
fdogaCrrneooti
wrg:n
world, and more abundant and cheaper in Englandthan it
can, in ordinary
extended abroad that we years, get a
much greater or a much cheaper supply than at present.
that whether other States relaxed their
They say, too,
now is; but they do not say
hostile tariffs or not—though as some of them grew from
Our Corn-laws, it is likely they would—the abolition of
our own restrictions, though the tariffs remain as they now
are, would cause a great exportation of manufactures to
pay for the food which would be imported. With the cus-
tomary ostentation of princely pretended alms-givers,
who prefer generosity to justice, the Gallant Colonekin
fact, misrepresents our demands, while he graciously pre-
tends to concede them, and deliberately withholds, on an
. assumption of his own that he knows_ our wants better
than ourselves, those rights which we in fact claim, and
mean, we can tell Colonel Torrens, to have. •
The first of these assumptions is, that in " ordinary
years the agriculture of the United Kingdom yields
supply of corn all but sufficient for home consumption."
• The conclusion from that assumption is, " import a large
quantity of foreign corn, and the immediate consequence
will be, that a large quantity of British corn must cease
to be produced." The assumption is false in fact, and if
• true in fact, would not warrant the Gallant Colonel's
conclusion.
The importation of wheat alone into this country dur-
ing the four years endhig with 1840 was 6,326,553
quarters. If we add 2,000,000 quarters for 1841, we
shall have 1,665,310 quarters as the average, import
for the last five years, or about one-tenth of the whole
quantity of wheat consumed. A deficiency of one-tenth
the Colonel calls an all but sufficient supply for home
consumption." But the public is
P—nfully aware that
during those five years a great portion of the working
clas4o in this country have been very insufficiently fed.

The lower classes are still more painfully aware, that
during those years they have suffered very great priva-
tions, as to clothing and fuel, and various enjoyments,
in consequence of the dearness and scarcity of food, and
that many of their relatives and friends have actually

been starved out of existence; yet, for the sake of build-
ing up an argument in favour, of transporting the peo-
ple by the action of the Government, and against the
repeal of the Corn-laws, the Gallant Colonel assumes that
the people had, even without the corn imported, an all but
sufficient supply of food, the produce of our own agri-
culture.

The Gallant Colonel, drawing his inference from 1835
and 1836, may say that the last five are not ordinary
years; but through the long period of fifty years Eng-
land has continually imported considerable quantities of
food, and the people, particularly in Ireland, have at the
same time been under-fed. The very cheap years
1835 and 1836 are extraordinary years, and the
last five years, as any person may satisfy him-
self by casting a glance over the quantity of corn
imported every year for the last fifty years, much more
deserve the character of ordinary years than the cheap
and abundant years, which are very few and far be-
tween. In fact, in those fifty years there were only
three in which wheat was not imported. Moreover,
we are justified in taking the latter years, because, since
1835, the population has increased,
and the produce,
which might have been all but sufficient in 1835, is not
all but sufficient in 1841, which is the essential point.
The assumption, therefore, that " the agriculture of the
United Kingdom yields a supply of corn all but suffi-
cient for home consumption" is false in fact.
If it were true in fact, it would not warrant the Co-
lonel's assumption that " import a large quantity of fo-
reign corn, and the immediate consequence would be that
large quantity of British corn must cease to be produced:
That implies that the demand for corn would remain
stationary, and is not susceptible of increase ; for if the
demand increase, it may take up all the corn now grown in
the empire, and the largest possible quantity that can be
imported. The cultivation of corn in England is part of
a system of agriculture which extends over a period of
four or five years, and it would require at least that time
before the most extensive importation could much de-
crease the quantity grown at home. But we have already
seen that the people are under-fed, the certain conse-
quence, therefore, of abundance and cheapness would be,
that more food would be consumed though not a soul was
added to the population. At the same time, nothing is
more certain than that with abundance and cheapness
population increases very fast—so fast, it is said, that no
increase of food can keep up with it—consequently a
great additional demand for food would arise. The Co-
lonel's conclusion is not, therefore, just. The supposi-
tion that a large quantity of British corn must cease to
be produced were a large quantity of foreign corn im-
ported does not represent a probable future hypothetical
fact.

Colonel Torrens may possibly say something about an
efficient demand, meaning that there must be besides
_ . _ .

stomachs craving for food the means to pay for it. It is,
however, certain that foreign corn will not be given to
us. None, therefore, will be imported unless it can be
paid for. Will there be means to pay for it, and also
for that which is grown at home ? Now Col. Torrens
tells us, at p. 86, that all commerce is barter, and, of
course, the commerce between town and country, as well
as the commerce between different political States, is bar-
ter. The means, therefore, of paying for agricultural
produce is the produce of manufactures which is bar-
tered for it. At this moment the complaint of our ma-
nufacturers is, that they cannot find a market for their
goods. They produce more than they can barter for
food. The people at home do not consume their goods,
and they cannot export them with a profit. They want
to barter their goods for food, and the law will not allow
them. In that fact lies the proof, that there will be
means to pay for an increased quantity of food as well as
stomachs to crave for it.

To make up the proof, indeed, Colonel Torrens is an
excellent auxiliary. A great part of his pamphlet is
taken up in proving that the supply of manufactured
goods, and power of supplying them, has increased much
faster than the demand, or the supply of agricultural
produce; and all the arguments on which he delights to
dwell in favour of our unlimited power to manufacture,
are all proofs on the principle that all commerce is bar-
ter, tliat with the increase of craving stomachs, which
is certain, there will be an increase of the means of rea-
sonable and just payment for any quantity of food, how-
ever great, which can be imported from abroad and
grown at home.
Is Colonel Torrens, however, so very blind as not to
see that both assumption and conclusion involve a petitio
principi ? Both are drawn from circumstances which
exist under the present Corn-law, and which would not
exist were that law abolished. hi, adinary years, that
law keeps down the population, by disease and death, to
a number somewhat above the number which, the agri-
cultural produce of the country can sustain. Population
is, in fact, annually cut down to the law-limited supply
of food, instead of the supply of food being made co-
extensive with the possible increase of population. Col.
Torrens may well, therefore, assume that in ordinary
years population will not get much ahead of our own
supply. The impious law will not allow it. A modern
theory says, be as industrious as men may, let them im-
prove never so much in skill and ingenuity, let them aug-
ment their productive power to any conceivable limit,
they never can supply food enough for the rapid and ever
more rapidly increasing children of men. In spite of
this theory an impious law cuts off our supplies of food,

annually starves the people down to the short quantity it
will allow them to get, and Colonel Torrens is
the man to kindly defer to this law and its
consequences, and assumes them as the basis of a great
system of future policy. He lays it down as a first or
natural principle, that our own agriculture yields an all
but sufficient supply, and that were a larger supply made
accessible to our people they could not consume and pay
for it. When men professing to be profound thinkers,
and devoting their ripened years to discussion and me-
ditation, can embrace such a transparent fallacy, we need
neither wonder at the " conceit" of Scotch parsons, nor
blame the rash Chartists for false assumptions and er-
roneous conclusions.

The object of Colonel Torrens' pamphlet is to reason
against the expected advantages.of a free trade in corn,
by showing that the power of producing manufactures in
England exceeds the demand for them abroad, and con-
sequently that the repeal of the Corn-laws would not re-
lieve the distress of the people. To prove this very
large and very important proposition, which would show
that England was destined to suffer for all time from a
plethora of productive power, Colonel Torrens does not
go beyond our own country and our own times; and,
what is more singular, does not go beyond a period dur-
ing which the Corn law has been in existence :
."rhe data," he says, "from which I have argued, are

furnished unfortunately by the history of the cotton ma-
nufacture of the country. After the first great improve-
ments in the cotton trade were effected, a considerable
period elapsed before the reduction in the cost of pro-
ducing goods was followed by a corresponding increase
in their supply and diminution in their price." " This
prosperous state of trade might have continued to the
present day, provided the capital and labourers employed
in foreign countries in raising, for the British market,
the cotton wool, and the other raw produce, which are
at once the equivalent and the component parts of the fi-
nished goods, had increased in an equal ratio with the
increase which took place in the capital and labourers
employed in the cotton manufacture. This unfortunately
was not the case. There was a rapid increase in the fo-
reign demand, but there was an increase still more rapid
in the supply."
This discrepancy between the increased supply in Eng-
land and the lesser increased demand, is the main
pillar of all Colonel Torrens's building. But this dis-
crepancy took place under the Corn-law and other re-
strictive laws, which, by prohibiting all the free impor-
t idea into England of the flour of North America, and
the sugar and coffee of South America, prohibited all
the commerce which would have taken place by the
barter.of those commodities, and lessened, pro Canto, the
demands of America. Mr. Cripps justly. said, in his
communication to Sir R. Peel—" The United States of
America take as large a quantity of our manufactured
goods as they can pay for : if we could increase their
means of payment, we could safely increase our exports
to that country. At present, their shipments of cotton,
tobacco, ashes, &c., do not furnish a sufficient supply of
bills to meet the payments for our manufactures. The
consequence is, that merchants are now remitting from
thence in gold."
Curl Colonel Torrona, or- any-other persun,' say -that
the lessened demand of America, in comparison to our
power of production, is not caused by those restrictivelaws,; and can he say that the demand would not have
been fully equal to, and even greater than, the supply had.]
the demand not been extinguished by our own laws ?
Colonel Torrens's supposition " that the markets of
America for English goods should remain stationary,"
while the supply of them should be increased, is as wild
a dream as ever entered the head of a visionary. The
Gallant Officer, in fact, tell us, when his object is to
prove that emigration will not lessen the resources
of England, that the capital which has been trans-
planted from England to America " occasioned a vastly
augmented demand for labour in the mother country."
In no country do capital and labour increase so fast as
in the United States, and that they have not been directed
to raising raw produce for our manufacturers is clearly
the consequence of our Corn and other restrictive laws,
which have prohibited the sale of their articles in our
markets. _ _

The wants of the Americans, constituting a market for
our goods, have increased with the rapid multiplication
of the people. It would seem, indeed, that the wonder.
fully productive power of England, consisting of ma-
chinery, and the rapid developement of population and
capital in the United States, arising from their abun-
dance of soil and raw materials, were as exactly adapted
to each other as the wing of the bird to the air, and the
fin of the fish to the sea ; but Corn• laws, and such like
enactments, have marred this beautiful harmony, and
turned all nature into discord. The true market of
America is the want of her ever-increasing population,
to which no bounds can be set. And while their de-
mands would increase under a free trade, fully equal to
our productive power, the employment given to our
population would enable them to consume more ; and
our productive power, which Col. Torrens, with Mr.
Owen's eyes, looks on as excessive, would be doubly
taxed, and would rather fail, we believef than otherwise,
to answer the demands, did not new inventiona come to
its help.
The observed discrepancy...then between our productive
power and the demands of foreign countries, which has
become manifest under the Corn-laws, is the consequence
of those laws, and the elaborate pamphlet of the Gallant
Officer rests on a complete petitio principi. It begs the
whole question, and assumes the effects of the Corn-laws
as the data of its arguments, u if they were natural,
necessary, and unavoidable circumstances. To us it ap-
pears no better than silliness to infer, because the de-
mand from America bas not kept pace with our power to
produce, under the system which has prohibited the
growth.of that demand, that the same discrepancy Would
exiat with free trade, and that the Goyernment would