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THE manor of Pencarrow, in which the above spacious mansion is situated, was, at an early period, in the family of Stapleton; nearly a century later in that of Serjeaux, which ended in coheiresses. It is now the property of sir Arscot Purry Molesworth, bart. The present mansion was built about the year 1730, with stone from a quarry on the Barton estate. Borlase speaks of it as perhaps the most capacious residence in Cornwall. John Molesworth was originally from Northamptonshire, and settled in Cornwall, in the reign of queen Elizabeth: his grandson, Hender, some time governor of Jamaica, was created a baronet in 1689, with remainder to his elder brother, sir John Molesworth, (then vice-admiral of Cornwall,) and his heir male.

In the parish church is a monument of sir John Molesworth, and his lady, and the villa contains a portrait of sir Arscot

VOL. I.

Molesworth's grandfather, by sir Joshua Reynolds.

BREAKING UP. "Appropinquat ecce felix,

Nunc et gaudiorum."-Dulce Domum. YES, the season of romance, the very "bridal of the earth and sky," June, is come, and is it not, my young friends, quite a different season from that, which a little while ago served us for discourses? Black Monday with all its numerous train of mighty ills is succeeded, as the winter is, by days of promise and holiday weather; and, instead of creeping like snails unwillingly to school, ye are all of you about to throw your satchels aside, and to exchange the monotony of duty, and the wholesome shackles of study, for a mother's kisses, a father's smiles, a friend's

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"that glow

In hues of crimson, gold, and snow,"

congratulations, for your favourite play- wand'ring notes,' can still dwell about fields, your long-tailed ponies, your cricket banks of flowers bat, and your fishing rods, and in short › for all the dear realities, and long anticipated delights, of the schoolboy's garden of enchantment, dulce, dulce domum. Youth, youth! it is the season of thy jubilee, go and be happy in it. Care, and labour, and anxiety, and difficulty, and danger, may embitter the future, and why should you not be joyous ere these

do come?

How many are there "in populous city pent," that would deem it a foretaste of paradise to " break up only for a little from the struggles and agitation of business, the perpetual restlessness and anxieties of dissipation; to forget, only for a few days, nay hours, the spurns of office, and the contumely of the proud, amidst the quiet and unaffected beauties of fair nature's court, the peaceful and blooming country! How would the dark warehouse be deserted, the dimly lighted office be thinned of its drudging and daily labourers! How would the dull and little decorated lodging-now filled with scantily portioned clerks, or poorer authors, be neglected if the " holidays were come for them also, and they could revel in the daisy-sprinkled and leaf-fringed field, and by the still and clear waters, and among happy people, and in an atmosphere of kindness, till those griefs and cares which "crack the heart strings" were allayed, and they could return, with health invigorated and hope renewed, to their desks and their garrets again, and not find their occupations gone!"

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However, each has his sufferings,"all are men"

"Condemn'd alike to groan, The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own;"

and we will not frown upon the bright picture warm and lusty June has painted, because a few dark shadows-spots upon the orb of day-dwell here and there about it.

We will fancy ourselves young again, believe that time, in a kindly mood, has stood still with us, and endeavour to mingle in the sports of our children, now literally happier than kings, with the ardour of boyhood, and the elasticity of youth. But that sage mentor, Truth, backed by experience, is whispering to us that such an endeavour is vanity. Well, well, we can still fancy the raptures that younger ones feel. If we cannot, like them, ply the oar, or cast the fly, or wield the bat, or ride, or run, or leap, yet, like them, we can still "hark to the cuckoo's

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and we can still ask what mighty palace, what proud mansion can equal them in splendour; inquire what fashion or folly, or vice, or dissipation can create to rival the honest, hearty, cheering merriment, and the profitable pleasures and healthful employments of June in the country?

Come then let us give a loose to cheerfulness, and confess the influence of the time: let us fancy fruits and flowers about us, and think we look upon"One wide fair scene of beauteous rest

Brilliant and sweet, and calm and blest," and own that there is little in life brighter, fairer, or cheerer, than that season which heralds and perfects the " breaking up of schoolboys.

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LIST OF WORKS PUBLISHED. Nature and Value, crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.Pennington's Tour, 2 vols. 8vo. 11. 10.s.— Luby's Trigonometry, 8vo. 10s.-Maps and Plans illustrative of Herodotus, 8vo. 10s. 6d. 8vo. 4s.-Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 3 vols. -Conversations of Napoleon with Canova, 12mo. l. 1s.-Gesenius Hebrew Lexicon, vol. 1., 4to. 17. 4s.-Cromwell's History of Colchester, 2 vols. post 8vo. ll. 12s.-Good's Medicine, new edition, 5 vols. 8vo. 31. 15s.Self-examination in Algebra, 8vo. 10s. 6d.— Sermons by a country Curate, 8vo. 10s. 6d. -The Arabs, a tale in four Cantos, 8vo. 5s.

College Recollections,8vo. 9s.-Economist of Time, 1s.-Fairy Favours, 5s.-Little Lexicon, 24mo. 6s.

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MR. M'CULLOCH'S LECTURES.

equally remunerative at a low as at a high Level-Effect on the public Mind.

In this lecture Mr. M'Culloch continued the subject of the CORN LAWs: he combated the arguments advanced by their supporters-showed the burden which, they impose on the country-and the advantages that would result from their abolition.

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Even Mr. Malthus admits, that a free. trade in corn would afford the best preservative against dearness and fluctuation of price. The difficulties of importation have been much exaggerated by the partisans of the restrictive system; no power can prevent a nation exporting its surplus commodities: all the power of Napoleon could not prevent Russia from exporting her raw produce.

Were the ports thrown open, the expense of conveyance from foreign parts would always give to the home grower an advantage of fifteen to twenty per cent., which is a sufficient protection. At best the corn laws can only yield a temporary. advantage as well might we expect that a snow ball thrown into the furnace will not melt, as that the prices of one country can be permanently maintained above the prices of the surrounding states.

The annual consumption of wheat in England is estimated at forty millions of quarters; it follows that every additional shilling of price per quarter, caused by an artificial system, imposes on the consumers an annual burden of two millions sterling. At the lowest estimate, the nation pays a tax of TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS a year, solely on account of the corn laws. Why should the country be subjected to such an intolerable burden, solely for the benefit of the landlords?

The only two arguments in favour of the agricultural monopoly resolve into this: first, that the growers are burdened with a greater weight of taxes than the same class in other countries; secondly, that as most branches of home manufacture are favoured by restrictive laws, the landlords are entitled to similar protection.

With respect to the first assertion, it is plain, that were individuals at liberty to buy their corn at 56s. instead of 80s. or 90s. a quarter, they would have so much more money to enable them to pay higher duties on tea, spirits, or other articles of consumption: so that the duties which peculiarly oppress the agriculturist might be repealed. All taxes must either be paid out of revenue or capital, but it is plain that a mere transfer of revenue from the pockets of the consumer to that of the producer, will never augment the general ability to support taxation.

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Out of every five millions of revenue taken from the people by the operation of the corn laws, not above one million finds its way into the pockets of the landlords: the remaining four-fifths are entirely lost to the country. This, Mr. M'Culloch said, might appear a strange assertion, but it is capable of strict demonstration.

It appears from statements to the "Agricultural Committee," that in England and Wales, the average rent of land does not form more than one-fifth of the total value of the produce; the remaining · four-fifths consist of wages, taxes, expenses of seed, farming implements, &c. Such being the case, it is clear that every rise. of five shillings in price, consequent on the corn laws, yields only one shilling to the landlord; while the remaining four shillings are absolutely lost, in the extra labour, wear and tear, and other outgoings, caused by the necessity of having to resort to less fertile soils to raise the necessary quantity of national subsistence. It is obvious that the labour, thus uselessly lost in the cultivation of inferior land, might have been employed in other branches of industry, to the great augmentation of public wealth.

The argument on relative taxation is singular enough, from those who have laid the burden on themselves! Is it not enough that the people suffer a yearly evacuation of fifty-five or fifty-six millions in taxes, without suffering a second evacuation of fifteen or eighteen millions, to` enable the agriculturists to bear their share of the public burdens? It may be questioned whether the landlords are more burdened than other classes; allowing such to be the ease, an ad valorem duty of ten or fifteen per cent. would be an ample compensation.

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So nugatory had protective duties in favour of manufactures become, that the merchants of London, Liverpool, Man chester, Leeds, and other great commercial towns, petitioned parliament, in 1820, to remove entirely all restrictions on commerce. Were it otherwise domestic manufactures protected, it is no reason similar protection should extend to agriculture. The protection of manufactures does not tend to enhance prices; it does not increase the cost of production, but only draws capital into that channel of employment. By excluding foreign corn, the price is raised by resorting to inferior land, and the national capital and industry sacrificed.

Much has been said about securing a remunerative price: what is a remunerative price on one soil, may be quite the reverse on another. Some land will pro

duce thirty or forty bushels of corn, others not more than ten or twelve: hence a price that would remunerate the grower on the first description of soil, would be ruinous on the second. It is only by a free trade that prices can be made steady and remunerative, for then only such lands would be cultivated as yielded a profit. Farmers have no interest in high prices, for their rent will always be proportioned to the value of the produce; while they may be ruined by the alternation of high and low prices. Even landlords would derive a benefit; because, if prices were made steady, by throwing open the corn trade, then their rents would be steady also.

Mr. M'Culloch next enlarged on the tendency of the corn laws to alienate the public mind from the legislature, and concluded with referring to the valuable work of Mr. Whitmore on the corn trade and corn laws.

LECTURE XX.

POPULATION AND MARRIAGES.

Population proportioned to the Means of
Subsistence-Plagues, Epidemics, and
Wars-Effects of the French Revolution
-Population in new and old Countries
-Moral Restraint-Panacea for the
Working Classes.

OWING to some circumstance, a more than usual number of gentlemen had assembled this morning; probably attracted by the interesting nature of the present lecture, which refers to those circumstances which determine the increase and diminution of the human species.

Mr. M'Culloch began with remarking, that no branch of economical science is more important, nor any in which more errors and prejudices prevail, than that which relates to population. Mistaken notions, that the strength of states consists in the number of the people, have given rise, in the earliest periods, to the most hurtful legislation. The Romans rewarded and eulogized those who had the greatest number of children; while those who had none were denied the privileges of citizens. By this artificial stimulus, population multiplied beyond the means of subsistence and employment; vice, misery, and the degradation of the great body of the people, were the natural consequences.

În Great Britain, except the Poor Laws, and that countenance which is sometimes given to young people, without the means to provide for a family, to enter the married

state, there are no encouragements to population. This is as it ought to be; where there are the means, the natural inclination is sufficiently powerful to bring people together. Dr. Smith remarks, that the supply of men, like that of other commodities, will always be regulated by the demand.

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In all countries we find population keep pace with the means of subsistence : but, unfortunately, the principle of increase is so powerful, as not only to rise up to, but above the level of subsistence. great desideratum is food; the difficulty never is to bring men into the world, but to feed, clothe, and educate them when there. As a single shoot would fill the vegetable world, so 'a single pair would people the earth. Necessity-the power of obtaining food-is the only limit to the increase of the human species.

Epidemic diseases afford a striking illustration of the immense power of the principle of population; and it may be doubted whether the number of mankind would have been greater, had neither plague nor pestilence destroyed myriads of our fellow-creatures. Every diminution in number betters the condition of the

survivors, leaves more food and employ-
ment, and, by the temptation it offers to
matrimony, gives additional energy to the
Procreative power. The history of plagues
shows this. The ravages of the great
plague of Versailles were scarcely visible
a few years afterwards. Sussmilch re-
lates that one-third of the population of
Prussia was destroyed by the plague of
1710; notwithstanding this diminution of
people, the number of marriages, in the
following year, was double the average ·
All young
of the six preceding years.
men, at the age of puberty, were induced,
from the increased demand for labour,
and the consequent prospect of maintain-
ing a family, to enter the married state.

It might be thought the revolutionary wars of France would greatly diminish her population: -no such thing. By the abolition of tithes, of seigneurial rights, and other accompanying measures, the condition of the people was so much improved, that their number actually increased in spite of war and massacre, and in 1813, the population of France was three millions more than in 1790. The effects of the great plague of 1666, in London, were not visible fifty years after.

Emigration, no more than epidemics, can have no permanent tendency to keep down population. The comparatively unpeopled state of Spain has been ascribed to this cause, instead of tracing its depopulation to the vicious nature of her political institutions, which, like those of

FOREIGN SCENES AND TRAVELLING RECREATIONS.

Turkey, have kept the people in poverty and misery.

Having shown the great force of the principle of population, Mr. M'Culloch next pointed out the causes which tend to keep down the number of people to the level of subsistence.

In a rude and savage state of society, the only check to population is want of food; in a refined and more enlightened state, a less painful and more lofty principle operates, namely, that of moral restraint; or that prudential consideration, which deters men from giving birth to beings, for which there is no prospect of obtaining subsistence.

The different operations of this principle may be observed in new and old countries. In America, population doubles in twenty or twenty-five years; wages are high, fertile land is abundant, and men marry early from the prospect of rearing a family comfortably. In Europe, the market for labour is overstocked: land is dear; wages are low, compared with taxes, and the expense of living; men, to maintain their station in society, have the good sense either to marry late, or continue in a state of celibacy.

It has been thought utopian to expect much from the operation of moral restraint. This, however, is a mistake; moral restraint has already done much, and why may it not do more? The opu lent and educated act on this principle; they are careful not to marry when it will lower them in the scale of society: it is only the poor and unthinking, who ignorant of, or regardless of consequences, are the victims of momentary impulse and appetite.

It is only by giving effect to this principle the condition of people can be bettered; their condition can never be permanently improved without diminishing the supply of labour. Hence it has been objected that the tendency of moral restraint is to RAISE WAGES. Such, undoubtedly, would be the case; but if the rich will not submit to this sacrifice, what can we think of their pretended sympathy for the distresses of the people? Their benevolence to the poor must be either childish play, or hypocrisy; it must be either to amuse themselves, or to pacify the minds of the common people with a mere show of attention to their wants. To wish, as Mr. Malthus observes, to better the condition of the poor, by enabling them to command a greater quantity of the necessaries and comforts of life, and then to complain of high wages, is the act of a silly boy, who gives away his cake and then cries for it. A market overstocked with labour, and an ample

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remuneration to each labourer, are objects perfectly incompatible with each other.

Prudential restraint would enable people to enter the married state with advantage; all abject poverty would be removed, and the independence and prosperity of the labouring classes placed on an immovable basis. In despotic countries it is not likely this principle will operate. There the people are so degraded and brutalized, as to be wholly regardless of the future; to snatch a momentary pleasure, they entail on themselves years of misery.

Mr. McCulloch then quoted a passage from the "Edinburgh Review," illustrative of the state of Ireland, which we regret our limits will not allow our inserting; and, after a few more remarks, concluded with enumerating the chief parts of his discourse.

Review and Analysis.

FOREIGN SCENES AND TRAVELLING RE

CREATIONS. BY JOHN HOW ISON, ESQ.
EDINBURGH, 2 vols. 8vo.

MR. HOWISON is already favourably known as an amiable and pleasing writer of travels. He, is an author who seeks to interest the imagination as well as the understanding of his readers: he does not weary them with philosophical disquisitions, nor with theorizing on the tendency of social institutions. His forte lies in describing individuals, rather than societies, in sketching personal feelings, habits, and peculiarities, and in exciting our sympathies by graphic pictures of the exhaustless beauties and sublimities of nature. With such qualifications and dispositions, it is needless to say, that he forms an engaging travelling companion; and we are sure our readers will be much more interested in a few selections from his entertaining pages, than in any lengthened observations of our own.

The plan and execution of these volumes are formed on the model of Washington Irving's "Tales of a Traveller;" they consist of about half a score unconnected sketches or essays, in which the writer has brought together, under the heads of "Life at Sea," "Boarding-house Recollections," "A Journey in the Deckan," "Two Days at the Cape of Good Hope," "Life in India," &c. the fruits of his observations on the manners, climate, and scenery of the various countries in which he has sojourned. This mode of composing travels has its advantages; it relieves the reader from the tedium

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