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are more closely connected than in the prosperity of human tribes with the soil and climate, and the physical features of the country which they inhabit; the fact is contained in the history of former nations, in the contemplation of present countries, and in the probabilities which the progressive future holds out to us in places where the change has already begun.

Perhaps there is no science of greater importance to the happiness of mankind, than that which is involved in the third consideration, and which indicates the means of creating, of keeping, and of increasing the property of each family; such is, indeed, the aim of political economy to which descriptive geography and statistics attach themselves as sources of knowledge, and as collections of facts destined to serve as a basis to the calculations necessary for practical results.

"Have," says the liberal and enlightened Baron Dupin "the riches of the two most opulent nations of Europe increased, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, by chance, and without any assignable reason, or have they, on the contrary, been developed according to a certain rule, and with a degree of rapidity which can be appreciated by calculation ?"

It is evident that researches of this kind, both by their nature and their consequences, interest in the same degree the people and the government. They indicate to individuals the proportions of their charges, and to the administration, the extent of its resources, They allow the constant and the variable part which may be remarked in the riches of a whole people to be distinctly valued, they lead to a very near determination, for the present time and for years to come, of the extent or power of increase in riches; and they offer, in consequence, the means of enlightening and of guiding the operations of individuals or of public economy, by calculating for a specific time, the results equally necessary and equally proved, of a progess which has taken place in the economies of the treasury of the State, in the resources of the natural products and in the well being of the inhabitants. If from the sixteenth century to the present day, well conducted observations had established the most essential statis

tical facts, in the number of men, or that of the heads of each race of domestic animals, as the most important productions of the vegetable or aninual kingdoms, and the value of these products compared with the price of labour and the value of money, nothing would be more easy, at the present day, than to trace the regular and the irregular movement which the productive forces of Great Britain or of France have followed. Unfortunately, we are very far from being in posses sion of such observations on the essential elements of national prosperity, and incomplete in the present time, they are still more rare and imperfect for times past.

By taking, for a guide nevertheless, the law of continuity, which acts upon the developement of social, as well as upon physical order, more satisfactory results have been obtained than might at first have been anticipated in these researches. When we consider attentively, the social state in a civilized people, we may remark on the one hand general causes of regularity of preservation and of progress, on the other, a crowd of disturbing causes; many of the latter belong to physical nature, to the intemperance of seasons, and epidemical or epizootical disorders; to want as to superabundance of nutritive products. Many other causes are attached to the passions of men, to violence, dissatisfaction, turbulence, and immorality, to theft, fraud, ignorance, error, and, in one word, to the follies, and crimes, deeds or attempts, which are or are not defined by the laws.In a nation that is on its decline, the disturbing causes exceed the causes of preservation or production, till society gets poorer and poorer and disorganises itself. Yet amid the vicissitudes of war and misfortune which terrify our imagination to look upon, Great Britain and France have advanced, for the three last centuries, in the road of social perfection, more than in any other time of which history has preserved the memory.

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It must be confessed," says Mr. Bell, to whose pages we shall turn on this interesting subject, "that there is a tendency in our ancient laws and political organization, favourable to the accumulation of property in the hands of a comparatively small number of individuals; and it has resulted from

this:-that while in no country is the soil better cultivated, the arts more advanced, manufactures more flourishing-while no where is a nobler and more skilful use made of human strength, and while no where is there so much opulence and luxury-yet, at the smallest commercial derangement, cries of distress are heard in every quarter." "There exists," says Mr. Passay, "between England and other countries in which wealth is equally ill shared, a difference which ought to be kept constantly in view. In these countries, if the people suffer without murmuring, it is because having only the ideas and the habits natural to their condition; they do not experience the evils of retrogradation, and enjoy even the advantages resulting from the gradual melioration of their industry. In England, on the other hand, the people have declined, from the effects of laws too favourable to large properties; and hence there is a discontent with regard to social order which it would be dangerous to allow to break out. The destinies of England have been delivered by her institutions into the hands of a territorial aristocracy. A small number of families excessively rich, and a multitude of poor have supplanted the classes of which the graduated property preserved harmony in all parts of the body politic." At the same time it has been observed by Mr. Dupin, "that there is another principle, the combination of capitalists, which establishes a salutary check on the tendency of wealth to concentrate in too small a number of hands; and that in practice, great proprietors are not usually found the enemies of improvements, and inventions propitious to industry and favourable to commerce. The great families of Britain-of England especially-have often themselves descended into the ranks of industry, and there acquired new claims to popularity, to esteem, and to honour, in that path, where, perhaps, their ancestors first acquired them. If a Duke of Bridgewater, a Duke of Portland, a Cavendish, or a Bedford, have constructed canals and bridges and streets, it ought not to be forgotten that British nobility owes much to the industry and enterprise of British merchants. The Duke of Leeds is a descendant of Edward Osborne, a LonVOL. I.

don merchant. A lineal ancestor of the Marquis of Cornwallis, was sheriff of London in 1878. The noble house of Wentworth was founded by a London Alderman. Laurence de Bouviers, married the daughter of a German silk mercer and settling in England, laid the foundation of the house of Radnor. An ancestor of the Earl of Dartmouth, was a skinner; the Earl of Craven, is lineally descended from a merchant tailor; and the Earl of Warwick, from the "flower of the wool staplers." The nobility of Britain, have been often charged with hauteur; but, it is the boast of our constitution, that there is nothing to prevent the humblest citizen, who shall be found sufficiently meritorious, from rising to the highest rank which a British subject can enjoy. The sentiment implied in this principle, is worthy of a free people, and deserves the imitation of every government which wishes to walk in the path of national prosperity. We do not exactly agree here with the opinion given to the causes of discontent, with regard to social order as originating in a degradation of the labouring classes, from a previous comparative affluence. The condition of the operatives in Britain, cannot be said to have ever declined but the writing and the sayings of wilful men, have taken from them that contentment, with their lot, and robbed them of that tranquillity of disposition, which was, before, their hereditary claim to peace and happiness. Those light and exquisite notions, which exercise acknowledged authority over the framework of life, are the gifts of a sensibility transmitted to our offspring-a refinement of temperament and intellect, that is undoubtedly hereditarily propagated. "In the delicate faculties of the mind,"-it has been remarked, by a most gifted writer,-" in its gentlest pleasures in its subtlest workings— in even its morbid sensibilities, we are to look for the principles which govern with power the social condition of the higher classes." That, indeed, which characterizes the higher classes of a long civilized society, and which cannot be obtained by the upstart, in a cultivated sensibility-a cultivation which is continually going on, by being undisturbed by intermixture of those who are strangers to their own refinement.

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ROMAIC LOVE SONG.

Α' γαπα με ;

Αγαπα με, σαν τ' ἀγαπῶ
Θίλε με σὰν σε θέλω,
Διατι δὲ νάρθ' ένας καιρὸς
Νὰ θες και νὰ μὴ θέλω.

Αγάπα με γιὰ τὸν Θεὸν
Κάμε για την ψυχήν σου
Και μὴ μ' άφησης νὰ γαθώ
Κ' ἐν εντροπὴ δική σου.

Ο με! και τόσον σ ̓ ἀγαπῶ,
Και δὲν τὸ φανερόνω

Κ' αν ἔχ ὡς ἄλλον τὸν σκοπὸν
Εγώ τὸν ἱσκοτόνω.

Εμίσευσες και μ' ἄφησες
Ενα γυαλί φαρμάκα
Να γενώμαι και να δειπνῶ
Ωτε νὰ πᾶς και νάρθης.

Εγώ το ζεύρεις μάτια μου,

Πως μὲν σὲ αγαπάω,

Και ἄλλην κορην σὰν ἐσὶ
Εγώ δεν προσκυνάω.

Σὰν θέλεις νὰ μὴ μὲ ἄγαπας

Πές το τῶν ὁματίων σου,

Νὰ μὴ με σαϊτευόυνε

Όταν περί ἀπεμπρὸς σου.

LITERAL TRANSLATION FROM THE ROMAIC.

Do you love me as I love you?

Do you desire me as I desire you?

For perhaps the time may come,

That you might wish me, and I would not.

Love me, for the sake of God!

Love me for the sake of your soul !

For if you let me perish,

The fault will fall on you.

Alas me ! how much I love you!

And yet I cannot convince you of it;
But if another dare look at you,
I will kill him,

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HINTS FROM HIGH PLACES.

Davus.-Nescio qui senex modò venit: ellum, confidens, catus ; Cum faciem videas, videtur esse quantivis pretî:

Tristis severitas inest in voltu, atque in verbis fides—

Simo. Quidnam adportas ?

Davus-Nil equidem, nisi quod illum audivé dicere.

Ter. And. 5. 2. 14.

Sir,

There are in every large town, I believe, more or less definitely portioned off from the rest, regions sacred to particular crafts, in each of which the one calling so predominates, that it would be considered presumptuous as well as impolitic for one of another vocation to establish himself within its precincts, and where the unlucky intruder would expose himself to the danger of the same fate, as, in days of yore, met many an officer of executive justice, that is, bailiff, within the sacred bounds of Alsatia. Within such limits the whole business of life appears to run in one channel, and man might be defined, according as you enter Paternoster-row or Lombard-street in London, or Wood-quay or George's-street, in Dublin, as, here a shoe-making or brush-making—there a money-making or book-making animal. Take the rounds of this metropolis, and enter New-row for instance. Trimming is there so exclusive and universal, that you might almost fancy yourself within the walls of St. Stephen's. Stroll into Temple-bar any week day, and the predominant business forces itself upon you at once. If you proceed from the Essex-street side, be cautious how you enter the ground consecrate to tea-cups, or you may chance to become an involuntary victim to the genius of the place, and suffer immolation beneath the ponderous wheels of a Juggernaut of china crates. As you move onward towards Westmorelandstreet, the bowl yields to the beaver, and you soon become sensible of a classification of the street passengers into two distinct species, as regards the outward man.

The first is composed of anxiouslooking folk, well-appointed in all particulars but the upper story, who are prying in at the windows as they move slowly along, evidently considering which of the labelled articles, from the "plain gentleman's" to the "top-sawyer's," will suit their features or character best. While you watch for the result of the inspection, you are shouldered by one of the other class, a fellow who has fairly made the choice, and is strutting away with the article of his selection glowing upon his head, like the helmet of Diomede, beneath the last smooth of the foreman's brush, a slight contraction of brow alone shewing that his forehead is not precisely of the same oval with the extremity of the hat-stick, and being a sufficient indication of the extra price he pays for the gratification of his vanity.

But perhaps there are few regions that are more exclusive, and certainly none more likely to be known by the readers of your Magazine, or more proper to be celebrated by the contributor to it, than that which, consisting of one straight, cold, gloomy-looking alley, first meets the gownsman of our University, as he sallies forth from under its low-brow'd portal, and passes the Bank on his progress into College green, diverting him to the right along its dark and dismal length in the direc tion of that stream of Lucilian flow, which creeps through our city with its accustomed load of everything “quod tollere velles." There he becomes at once aware that he is on classic ground.

Every window is crowded with the literary worthies of ancient and mo dern times-Hence stares old Homer, in a somewhat worn leathern jerkin,

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