pendence of agricultural employments-and the whole has been wound up by deprecating the folly and insanity of seducing the Arcadian cultivators of the soil into the business of manufacturing, so destructive to their health, their morals, and their happiness. This objection, like a thousand other common places, has been almost universally assumed, and freely admitted without demur or scruple. Even the friends of manufactures have hardly dared to doubt its correctness, barely lamenting it as one of the many serious evils inseparable from society in its present state. And had it not been for the investigations of a recent writer (Colquhoun) it might have continued for another century to lead mankind astray. But even if these views were correct as regarded the overgrown manufacturing establishments in England, and some other parts of Europe, they would be inapplicable here; as the best friends of manufactures in this country have confined their views to the home market generally; and in so wide a country as this, if the manufacturers were degraded and oppressed by men of great wealth in one district, they would be able to resort to establishments in another, of which, were manufactures duly protected, there would be numbers in every quarter of the union; and, at all events, the western lands would afford an asylum for the oppressed, and a safeguard against oppression. The most eminent statistical writer in Europe at present is probably Colquhoun, author of the "Police of London," and various other important works, bearing the strongest marks of profound research, deep penetration, and philosophical inquiry. This writer has published a curious and important table of the population, offenders, and paupers of every county in England, which settles this important point forever, and which we annex. The character of the author and the authenticity of the work, forbid all appeal from its authority, and cannot fail to remove the doubts of the most sceptical. Comparative View of nearly an equal Population in one part of the Middlesex Kent Surry 269,043 199 36,138 Stafford Essex 226,437 144 38,337 Devon 239,153 91 96 22,510 250,809 141 36,904 Lincoln 208,557 58 18,845 160 Norfolk 208,190 210,431 109 36,110 Durham 160,361 27 15,307 159,311 105 37,076 Cornwall 188,209 45 12,853 Wilts 185,107 75 42,128 Salop 167,639 79 17,306 Hampshire 219,656 147 32,581 Worcester 139,330 51 18,896 Nottingham 140,350 74 9,806 Northampton 131,757 42 20,534 Leicester 130,081 47 19,154 Northumberland 157,101 38 14,304 Derby 161,142 39 13,167 Cumberland 117,230 18 8,445 Dorset 115,819 38 15,783 Bucks 107,444 33 19,050 Berks 109,215 62 22,088 Cambridge 89,346 40 11,294 Oxford . 109,620 38 21,025 Hereford 89,191 31 11,779 Herts 97,577 43 13,348 Monmouth 45,582 20 4,479 Westmoreland 41,617 6 4,615 15,356 4 1,338 South Wales, North Wales, 6 counties, 252,785 28 28,131 4,491,846 1509 453,953 perism throughout England, which we also annex Colquhoun furnishes another table, of the state of pau ties. Coun 5. In Cumberland, Cornwall, Lancaster, Yorkshire, the number of pau- population. Per cent. on the 4. In Lincoln, Northumberland, Stafford, and North Riding of Yorkshire 3. In Derby, Middlesex, and Rutland 8 (less than 1-12) pers in each 100 of the population 7 (less than 1-14) *Colquhoun on Indigence, p. 72. 9 (above 1-11) 4 Bedford, Chester, Somerset, and Westmoreland 10 -(1-10) - 12 (under 1-8) 9 Cambridge, Devon, Hereford, Huntingdon, Surry, and Worcester 13 (above 1-8) 14 (above 1-7) 4 Gloucester, Leicester, Southampton, and Warwick 2 Norfolk and Northampton 2 Essex and Suffolk 1 Buckinghamshire 1 Oxfordshire 1 Berkshire 2 Sussex and Wiltshire 12 Counties in Wales, averaging 15 (above 1-7) 16 (under 1-6) 17 (above 1-6) 18 (above 1-6) (1-5) 20 21 (above 1-5) 23 (nearly 1-4) 9 (above 1-11)* On the first of these tables he makes the following pointed and decisive remarks: 'From this comparative statement,' it appears, that contrary to the generally received opinion, the numbers of paupers in the counties which are chiefly agricultural, greatly exceed those where manufactures prevail!!! Thus in Kent and Surry, where the aggregate population is 576,687, there appear to be 77,770 paupers; while in Lancashire, where the population is 672,731, the paupers relieved are only 46,200.❜t He has not compared the two descriptions of the population on the subject of crimes. But the contrast in this respect, it appears, is equally unfavourable to the agricultural districts. However, as manufactures are spread throughout the kingdom, and as all the counties partake to a certain degree of the double character of agriculture and manufactures, it is impossible to institute a general comparison. But it will answer every valuable purpose of testing the truth or falsehood of the prevailing opinions, to take a view of six counties, three decidedly agricultural, and three as decidedly manufacturing. * Colquhoun on Indigence, p. 265. F + Idem, 273. In the three manufacturing counties, there is only one offender for every 2500 people, whereas, in the agricultural, there is one for 1600; whereby it appears that the latter districts have above fifty per cent. more criminals than the manufacturing, in proportion to their population. This is a strong and decisive fact. In the three manufacturing counties, the paupers are only eight per cent. of the population; whereas, in the agricultural, they are about fourteen. We are tempted to cast a further glance on this table, and to call the attention to a more striking comparison. Yorkshire contains a greater population than the three specified agricultural counties, and yet has far below half the number of offenders, and not two-thirds of the number of paupers. Yorkshire Norfolk, Kent, and Surry Population. Offenders. Paupers. 858,892 245 77,661 850,038 572 120,477 This result may appear extraordinary and paradoxical. But a very slight reflection on the subject will remove all the paradox, and enable us to account satisfactorily for the existing state of things. Idleness is as much the parent of poverty and guilt, as industry is of independence and vir tue. In agricultural districts, there is a very large proportion of the labour of the women, and a still greater proportion of that of the young people, wholly lost. The latter waste a great part of their early years in total idleness and in the contraction of bad habits. Hence arises a fruitful source of pauperism and guilt. These statements, independent of their overwhelming bearing on the present question, may have another very important advantage. They serve to display, in strong colours, the danger of trusting to mere assertions, unsupported by facts. There is not in the whole range of political eco nomy, a dogma that has been more universally received, or appeared more plausible than the one here combated, now unequivocally proved by the best authority in Europe, to be not only not true, but the very reverse of truth. II. Interference with Commerce. Among the opponents of the manufacturing system, were formerly great numbers of those citizens, engaged in commerce, who appeared impressed with an idea that in proportion as manufactures are patronized and extended, in the same proportion commerce must be impaired. Hence a degree of jealousy has been fostered among the commercial, of the manufacturing class of our population, as if there were a great hostility between their respective interests. The most enlightened merchants at present are convinced of the errors of these views. It is not difficult to prove, that they rest on as sandy a foundation as the superior purity and freedom from pauperism of the agricultural districts. It will not, we trust, be denied, that in every community, the greater the variety of pursuits and employments, the greater the field for exertion, and the less danger of rivalship, or of any of them being too much crowded. Hence an obvious consequence of the destruction of so many manufacturing establishments, as, during the war, were in 'the full tide of successful experiment,' has been to divert the capital and industry engaged in them to commercial pursuits, whereby the latter are so much overstocked as to narrow or almost destroy all chance of success. wharves, our coffee houses, and the assignments in our newspapers, fully prove that commerce is overdone, and that it has unfortunately become a most precarious profession. Whereas, were manufactures properly protected, commerce would be relieved from the superfluous portion of citizens who pursue it, and who, by the eagerness of their competition in the markets, domestic and foreign, destroy each other's chances of success. Our Another source of indemnification to commerce for any disadvantage it might suffer from the patronage of manufactures, would be the trade in various kinds of raw materials imported from foreign countries for the use of the manufacturers.* * An intelligent citizen, who has carefully examined the entries into the port of Philadelphia, assures us that the tonnage employed |