she might learn the course of the trial, or if that should be refused, that the children at least might be permitted to see his majesty. The newspapers were refused; but the children were allowed to see their father, on condition of being separated entirely from their mother. To this privation, however, the king was too generous to expose her.

The circumstances immediately preceding and attending the execution of the unhappy monarch are known to all:-we cannot deny ourselves the satisfaction of transcribing the tribute paid by his daughter to the greatness of his conduct during his rigorous cap tivity. During his confinement, he displayed the highest piety, greatness of mind, and goodness;-mildness, fortitude, and patience, in bearing the most infamous insults, the most horrid and malignant calumnies; christian clemency, which forgave even his murderers; and the love of God, his family, and his people, of which he gave the most affecting proofs, even with his last breath, and of which he went to receive the reward in the bosom of his Almighty and all-merciful Creator."

After the death of Louis, the persecutions of his family became every day more rigorous. A decree of the Commune, that the dauphin should be separated from his mother and the princesses, gave rise to a scene of affliction, which is described with the most touching simplicity.

"As soon as the young prince heard this sentence pronounced, he threw himself into the arms of his mother, and entreated, with violent cries, not to be taken from her. The unhappy queen was stricken to the earth by this cruel order. She would not part with her son; and she actually defended, against the efforts of the officers, the bed in which she had placed him. But these men would have him, and threatened to call up the guard and use violence. The queen exclaimed, that they had better kill her than tear her child from her. An hour was spent in resistance on her part, in threats and insults from the officers, in prayers and tears on the part of the two other princesses. At last they threatened even the life of the child, and the queen's maternal tenderness at length forced her to this sacrifice. Madame Elizabeth (the king's sister)

and Madame Royale dressed the child, for his poor mother had no longer strength for any thing. Nevertheless, when he was dressed, she took him and delivered him into the hands of the officers, bathing him with her tears, foreseeing, possibly, that she was never to see him again."

The only pleasure the queen now enjoyed was, seeing her child through a chink as he passed from his room to the tower: at this chink she used to watch for hours together. The barbarity with which the dauphin was treated has no parallel. He was committed to a man of the name of Simon, a shoemaker by trade, then one of the municipal officers. To this inhuman wretch, the boy's crying at being separated from his family, appeared an unpardonable crime-and he soon impressed him with such terror that he did not dare to weep. Simon, to insult the miseries of the unhappy sufferers through the voice of this belov ed child, made him every day sing at the windows the Carmagnole, and other revolutionary songs; and taught him the most horrid oaths and imprecarions against God, his own family, and the aristocrats. "The queen fortunately was ignorant of these horrors. She was gone before the child had learned his infamous lesson. It was an infliction which the mercy of Heaven was pleased to spare her.' While this unfortunate boy remained under the care of Simon, his bed had not been stirred for six months, and was alive with bugs, and vermin still more disgusting. His linen and his person were covered with them. For more than a year he had no change of shirt or stockings! every kind of filth was allowed to accumulate about him, and in his room. His window, which was locked as well as grated, was never opened, and the infectious smell of this horrid room was dreadful. He never asked for any thing, so great was his dread of Simon and his other keepers. He passed his days without any kind of occupation. They did not even allow him light in the evening. This situation affected his mind as well as his body, and it is not surprising that he should have fallen into the most frightful atrophy.

But we must forbear to indulge farther in these melancholy details, earnestly recommending to our readers the perusal of the journal itself. The queen and Madame Elizabeth, a prin

cess distinguished by her virtues and piety, were successively dragged from the Temple to the Conciergerie, and thence to the scaffold.-The dauphin, though originally of a vigorous constitution, fell a victim, at the age of ten years and two months, to the studied barbarity of his treatment.

We have to regret that these memoirs are not continued after the dauphin's death, though Madame Royale (now the Duchess of Angouleme) remained in the Temple six months after that event, exposed alone to the persecutions and insults of her enemies. She was released on the 11th of December, the seventeenth anniversary of her birth, to experience vicissitudes no less wonderful, though happier in their issue, than those through which she had already passed.

Whatever opinion may be entertained of the principles which led to the revolution in France, no diversity of sentiment can prevail with regard to the atrocities of the Revolutionists. It will ever remain a problem in the history of mankind, that a people distinguished by their refinement, should have become all at once equally distinguished by their barbarity;-that a people almost singular in their attachment to monarchy, should, under the reign of the best of their monarchs, have forgotten their loyalty and allegiance ; and, in the wildness of republican frenzy, have sought to annihilate every thing connected with a government, for which, but lately before, they thought it all their glory to live and to die. The poison administered by their philosophists might, perhaps, vitiate the principles of the whole mass of the community; the corrupt example of a court might have diffused through all ranks its pernicious influence; but will these causes account for the violence of their revolutionary fury, unless we suppose, that the force of the revulsion, which burst asunder all their former political associations, tore up at the same time all the good principles of their nature, and drove them from the excess of admiration and devotion, to the opposite extreme of contempt and hatred?

The translation, conducted on the most correct ideas, combines, very successfully, the simplicity of the original with the purest English idiom. The translator has occasionally elucidated the text with notes, which will be

found very useful to those who are not intimately acquainted with the early history of the French revolution.

On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. By DAVID RICARDO, Esq. Murray, London; Blackwood, Edinburgh. 8vo. 1817.

THE science of political Economy owes its rise to the eighteenth century. Many facts, and several of the principles which now enter into treatises on that subject, had been previously ascertained, but it was reserved for Stuart, Turgot, Smith, and other eminent men of the last age, to combine them into one consistent and harmonious whole, and to analyze, in a much more accurate manner than had ever been done before, the sources of wealth, and the laws which regulate its distribution among the different classes of society. Since the publication of the Wealth of Nations, political economy has been greatly improved. great work, by shewing its infinite importance to our best interests,-by proving that no legislative measures could be adopted clashing with its principles, but what must be vitally injurious to the community at large,

That

and by successfully exposing many absurd theories, enactments, and practices, hitherto looked upon as the acmè of genius and wisdom, contributed in a very high degree to draw public attention to the science of which it still continues the brightest ornament. More lately, the profound and original inquiries of Mr Malthus have cast a new light on many subjects, which had either been entirely neglected, or only cursorily noticed by Dr Smith; while the extraordinary events of the last twenty years have enabled us in various instances, to try the deductions of theory by the touchstone of experience. The suspension of cash payments at the bank of England, with the subsequent depreciation of our currency, and derangement of the exchanges, rendered us much better acquainted with the theory of banking and money. And amid all the complicated evils arising from our general factitious system, the orders in council, the corn laws, and such like measures, have at least served to bring under our view a variety of unprece dented phenomena in economics, and by interesting the public, and giving

rise to much animated discussion, have conspired to disseminate and improve

the science.

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Among the writers who have signalized themselves in these discussions, Mr Ricardo holds a distinguished place. -His Essay on the " High Price of Bullion," first clearly pointed out the circumstances regulating the amount of circulating medium in all commercial countries; and his Essays "On the Profits of Stock," and on Currency," develope principles of the utmost importance, and abound in views equally just, novel, and ingenious. Such being the case, a more than ordinary interest must be excited by the appearance of the work before us, in which this able economist has explained his opinions respecting some of the fundamental doctrines of the science, and in which, as it appears to us, he has established some highly important principles, and rectified many prevailing errors.

Nothing has contributed in a greater degree to perplex and confuse the investigations respecting the principles of political economy, than the confounding together of what Dr Smith has termed value in use, and value in exchange. Air is extremely useful; it is not possible to exist without it; but as it can be had at pleasure, as all can acquire it without any exertion, it has no exchangeable value. Utility, then, as Mr Ricardo has observed, is not the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essential to it. If a commodity were in no way use ful,-in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.

"Possessing utility, commodities derive their exchangeable values from two sources: from their scarcity, and from the quantity of labour required to obtain them.

"There are some commodities, the value of which is determined by their scarcity alone. No labour can increase the quantity of such goods, and therefore their value cannot be lowered by an increased supply. Their value is wholly independent of the quantity of labour originally necessary to produce them, and varies with the varying wealth and inclinations of those who are desirous to possess them.

"These commodities, however, form a very small part of the mass of commodities daily exchanged in the market. By far the greater part of those goods, which are the

objects of desire, are procured by labour; and they may be multiplied, not in one country alone, but in many, almost without any assignable limit, if we are disposed to bestow the labour necessary to obtain them. "In speaking then of commodities, of their exchangeable value, and of the laws which regulate their relative prices, we mean always such commodities only as can be increased in quantity by the exertion of human industry, and on the production of which competition operates without restraint.”

In the early stages of society, the exchangeable value of these commodities, or the rule which determines how much of one shall be given in exchange for another, depends solely on the comparative quantity of labour expended

on each.

"The real price of every thing," says Dr Smith, "what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. What every thing is really worth to the man who has acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it, or exchange it for something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can impose on other people. * * * If, among a nation of hunters, for example, it usually cost twice the labour to kill a beaver which it does to kill a deer, one beaver should naturally exchange for, or be worth, two deer. It is natural, that what is usually the produce of two days', or two hours' labour, should be worth double of what is usually the produce of one day's or one hour's labour."

That this is the only real foundation of exchangeable value seems indisputable; and hence it follows, that every increase in the quantity of labour must augment the value of that commodity on which it is necessarily expended, as every diminution of that quantity must proportionally lower its value.

It may perhaps be thought, that although this is the case in early stages of society, in an advanced state it would be different; but Mr Ricardo has shewn that, in all cases, commodities vary in value conformably to this principle. It is of no consequence among how many hands the labour of making a pair of stockings is divided. If the aggregate quantity is on the whole either diminished or increased, the exchangeable value of the stockings will fall or rise in proportion.

From what we have already stated, a most important consequence, first pointed out by Mr Ricardo, necessarily

1

We have here supposed, for the sake of perspicuity, that the value of money was invariable, but whether it is rising or falling has no effect on these conclusions. Like every other commodity, the exchangeable value of money varies as the labour of producing it is increased or diminished.

It does not follow, from the very important principles which Mr Ricardo has with so much talent and ingenuity endeavoured to establish, that wages may be increased in one country, though they should remain stationary in others, without any mischievous consequences being experienced. If the wages of labour in Great Britain, from the effects of taxation,from the operation of the corn laws, or from any other cause,-are higher than in any other country of Europe, the profits of stock must be proportionally lower. Hence, there is an inducement to remit capital abroad to where it will yield a larger return; and although capitalists, as well as other men, have a natural repugnance to remove to foreign countries from the land of their fathers and their friends, yet, as Mr Ricardo has justly observed, "There are assuredly limits to the price, which, in the form of perpetual taxation, individuals will submit to pay for the privilege merely of living in their native country."

The vast number of English families which have emigrated to the continent since the peace, is a too convincing proof of the accuracy of this statement; and until the weight of our taxation is diminished, and the profits of stock rendered as high, and the expense of house-keeping as cheap, in this country as on the other side of the water, the tide of emigration will continue to roll on.

Besides adventitious causes, such as taxation, &c. which may raise the wages of labour and lower the rate of profit, Mr Ricardo lays it down as a general principle, that in every country the profits of stock must be diminished according as it becomes more difficult to raise food. If corn, or manufactured goods, always sold at the same price, profits would be high or low, in proportion as wages were low or high. But although corn rises in price because more labour is necessary to produce it, that cause will not raise the price of manufactured goods, in

the production of which no additional quantity of labour is required. "If then," says Mr Ricardo, wages continued the same, profits would remain the same; but if, as is absolutely certain, wages should rise with the rise of corn, then profits would necessarily fall."

Mr Ricardo had already developed this principle, though more concisely, in his " Essay on the Profits of Stock," and had successfully applied it to shew the folly of restricting the corn trade; for, by forcing us to have recourse to land of a very inferior quality for our supplies of food, the restrictive system necessarily lowers the profits of every kind of stock throughout the country, and increases the desire to transfer capital abroad.

Mr Ricardo has also given a satisfactory, and in many respects an original, view of the nature of rent, and of the effects of taxation. As our limits, however, will not permit us to enter on these topics, we earnestly recommend our readers to have recourse to the work itself, which contains much valuable and profound discussion, as well on these as on subjects to which it has not been possible for us even to allude.

Mr Ricardo's style is simple and unaffected; but there are some parts of his work in which, perhaps, he is a little obscure, and others in which there appears too much of controversy. Of all the writers on Political Economy, M. Say stands unrivalled for perspicuity,-for natural and luminous arrangement,-and for instructive and elegant illustration.

Bingley's Useful Knowledge; or un Account of the various Productions of Nature, Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal, which are chiefly employed for the use of Man. 3 vols 12mo. London, Baldwin & Co. 1817.

THIS work well entitles its author to rank among the friends of youth. It is really what it pretends to be, a repository of useful knowledge, containing a clear and interesting account of many of those productions which are useful to man in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms.

That part of it which treats of animals has been executed on a plan