The southern press., 1850-11-02


richest community in the world at home, and
send forth AN offspring that has become the
richest in the West and South---tlat such q
State should be selected as subject Of reproaeh,
commiseration, or reform is one OF the most ex-
trayagant folies of the age. So much for the
Boyle county hypothesis. The wealth of Nir-
ginia does not result from depopulation, for she
has not been reduced in population, nor does it
proceed from the exhaustion of her soil, for it il
} now of greater value than ever. This paradoxi-
cal proposition of {" Justice" seems to have been
borrowed by him from Osgood Mussey; and as
this gentleman has given us very coplous COM
/, parison between the intellectual qualities of
Northern and Southern men, in which he mag
unanimously attributes To the formerrgorous dis
eipline, great exaetEess, and an exclusive capa-
city to "cypher out" things, may be pardoned
for illustrating the peculiar genius of Northern
men, by presenting the argument of that gentle
man, who is indeed most favorable specimen
4 of the North a7s ,"E@aE. @#
/ In page 27 he says: B" .
4 "The censns shows that V rginia is deficient
in population. Mr.. Fisher himself admits ()
that her citizens, having worn ont the soil, are
removing to the richer lands of the newer States.
Yet this very deficiency is one of the accounting
causes for the large 'proportionate average
stationary even, without dminution, the average
increase is precisely in the same ratio as the
number of citizens decrease--there are fewer to
average it among But the higher average de-
monstrates no increase in the aggregate wealth.
If there are ten merchants III a country village,
four of whom sell out to the other six, the
average wealth of the merchants OF that village
will be increased 40 per cent. without the addi-
ton OF dollar to this aggregate wealth; and IT
would be absurd to instance the higher average
as an illustration of the rapidly increasing pros
perity of that village. Yet an average Of this
character is the foundation of the whole argu-
mcnt attenuated throughout the whole essay, by
which Mr.. Fisher asserts the superiority of the
Southern system and the great increase OF Vir-
ginia in prosperity" ..4. -. ...'... ...' -
Now there is "cyphering" for you from the
land of "rigorous discipline" and great "eyact-
ness" It does not happen to occur to him that
in this business transaction the four merchants
who buy out the six have to pay for what they
buy-and that if this were done, the average
capital or wealth Of the merchants in the village
remained precisely the same as before, instead
of being increased forty per cent Yet this is
the sort of argument that caT tivates the reason
of the editors of the Cincinnati Gazette and the
Cincinnati Globe. This argument, however
was overdone even for Justice" He, however
adopts the conclusion and attempts to sustain ii
| by the Boyle county hypothesis, in which he is
too liberal to transfer the lands without pay, but
allows fifty cents an acre for them! Enough OF
this humbug If they had known what they
meant and how to state it, and had merely in
sisted that if the poor Of the community move
out and the rich remain, that the average wealth
Of the persons composing that State would be
greater than before, nobody would have ques-
toned it, but that would have been OF no use
for them in this argument, for as the emigrants
take their property or the value OF it away, it
would reduce the aggregate wealth OF the com
niunity directly by the amount so taken, and in
directly BY the fall in real estate from the offer
of so much of it for sale and by the abstraction
7 of so much active capital. But as the aggregate
wealth Of Virginia has mol been diminished, nor
that of any other Southern State, the argument,
which they have made so bungng an attempt
to make, fails altogether.
| come now TO one OF the most important to-
pics of this inquiry-thc relative merits Of agri-
culture on the one hand and commerce and man
ufuctures on the other, az sources Of wealth !;
and here the writer of "Justice and myself d-
verge as widely from each other as in anything
else. | assert that agriculture is more produc-
tive and profitable than either of the others.
"Justice" says "The uhole industrial history Of
t nations is refutation Of Mr.. FPS. theory" Not
single nation In any age cline, rel ying sole
o ly, or mainly on agriculture, has become d,stn
o gushed for its wealth; while in every period
= nations have risen to the highest pitch of opu
= lence, who have owed their eminenee mainly and
t in some cases exclusively to their commerce and
manufactures" He says that borrow my doc
trine from the French economists, who, a hun
. dred years ago, maintained that agriculture is
the source Of wealth" Now rs that is not my
doctrine, but that agriculture Is the most pro-
ductive Of the three great departments OF civil
, lied pursuit. he is totally mistaken rs to the or
t gin of my views.
n "justce" commences his argument by com
S pairing Ireland with England. The former has
: in proportion to her population ''sx times as
much of her industry and capital devoted to agri-
h culture rs England" and, as he says, according
$ to my therory of the creation of wealth, ought
to possess much larger portion oft than Eng
t land. But Ireland ought to be one of the
wealthiest countries in the world, according to
the theories of Justice" There is a large pop
uaton, great production, and even great wealth
on a small area-and above all there is free la
bor There is, besides, the immediate neighbor-
hood of immense commerce and manufactures
nearly all the conditions prescribed by "Justice"
for great national wealth. And yet now Jus
tice" presents Ireland to me as the first or the
last of the poorest nations in the world What
a beautiful commentary of his philosophy. The
reason why Ireland, though agricultural, is not
as prosperous as England is explained by my
doctrines. The population is so dense as not to
have land enough to support them with any
thing else than potatoes even in favorable sea-
sons. The people cannot have large tracts as
at the South. Besides owing to the vicinity of
the great Cities the actual landhoders of Ireland
are abSenees--not, rs in the South, resident on
their farms and plantations.
But when the Irish go to the manufacturing
or commercial towns, Glasgow, London, Boston,
or New York, they 60 to swell the bills Of NOR
taliW. When they engage in agricultural pur-
SUITS North or South, they succeed well enough
If, however, agriculture in Great Britain be 50
much less profitable than commerce and manu-
fnctWes, how does it happen that the agriculture
of England and Wales, with only one person en-
gagged in it for two in the others, is richer than
both the others and produces more every year.
} The total production of Great Britain is E37O- :
OOD OOO and tho nuricultu a of EnDIuDJ ,nI