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NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. LXXII.

JULY, 1831.

ART. I.-The Laws of Population and Wages. 1. Two Lectures on Population, delivered before the University of Oxford in Easter Term, 1828. By NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR, late Fellow of Magdalen College, A. M., Professor of Political Economy. To which is added, a Correspondence between its Author and the Rev. T. R. Malthus. Svo. pp. 90. pp. 90. London. London. 1828. 2. Three Lectures on the Rate of Wages, delivered before the University of Oxford in Easter Term, 1830; with a Preface on the Causes and Remedies of the present Disturbances. By the same. 8vo. pp. 62. London. 1830. 3. Three Lectures on the Cost of obtaining Money, and on some Effects of Private and Government Paper Money, delivered before the University of Oxford in Trinity Term, 1829. By the same. 8vo. pp. 103. London. 1830.

The author of these works appears before the public under the imposing character of Professor of Political Economy in the University of Oxford. This Professorship is a recent establishment. It was founded by the munificence of a private gentleman, Henry Drummond, Esq., upon a plan, as far as we are informed, before untried. The Professor is appointed for five years, and is bound by the charter to publish annually one or more of his lectures. He is not eligible for a second term. One object of this arrangement is understood to be that of obtaining successively from the same chair, a developement of the different, and in some respects contradictory theories,

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which prevail in different circles respecting some of the leading points in the science. It was also probably supposed, that, as the acceptance of a Professorship of this description would not be understood to involve an abandonment of other pursuits, a competent person might be secured at less expense than would be necessary on the usual system. Without inquiring at present whether the new plan be or be not on the whole an improvement, we have no hesitation in saying, that we know of no way in which the required amount of funds could have been employed with better effect for the advancement of knowledge, and the permanent satisfaction and reputation of their owner, than in founding this Professorship. We cannot but hope that the example may serve as a guide to the liberality of some of the munificent patrons of learning in this quarter of the Union, where there is yet no establishment devoted exclusively to instruction in this most important subject.

Mr. Senior, the first Professor on the foundation of Mr. Drummond, and whose term of service has, we believe, already expired, appears to have exhibited an industry and zeal in the discharge of his duties, which is creditable to himself, and may be thought to afford a favorable comment on the results of the new plan. His labors, though conducted with a laudable spirit, do not, however, strike us as of any great importance to the science; but as they have attracted some attention in this country, and have even been republished in extenso in some of our best newspapers, it may be proper to give them a passing notice. We shall take the different works in the order in which they were published, and first, the Two Lectures on Population.

The causes that regulate the state of population and the effects that result from its increase and diminution, have been for many years past regarded, and with justice, as among the most interesting questions in political economy. The objections to the theory of Malthus on this subject have been repeatedly stated in this journal, and we have, on the same occasions, submitted to the consideration of our readers, what we consider as a more correct opinion.* The principles of Malthus were never, we believe, very generally adopted in this

*See our reviews of A. H. Everett's work on Population, Vol. XVII. 288; of McCulloch's Political Economy, Vol. XXV. p. 112; and of Phillips's Manual of Political Economy, Vol. XXXII. p. 215.

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