Mu)ilh/y Keviwv oj 'Literature, 



[.TAN. 



A much more interesting conoid -ra- 

 tion, however, at this moment is, that 

 besides the landlord and his tenant, 

 there is a third party to be taken into 

 the account the labourer. He cannot, 

 Avith any justice, be left out, and under 

 the existing poor laws, he must not be 

 left out, though both landlord and tenant 

 might wish to exclude him. Things 

 cannot longer be left to themselves ; the 

 landlord has given up the labourer to 

 the tenant ; but it is his duty, and to 

 stimulate him to the discharge of it, he 

 finds it now to be his interest to pro- 

 tect the labourer \vho cannot help him- 

 self but by violence, and to leave the 

 tenant Avho can to his own remedies. 

 Jf the tenant can no longer control and 

 grind the labourer, he Avill demand and 

 force a reduction of rent. Oh ! crv the 

 economists, you can do nothing; If la- 

 bour abounds, it must be cheap ; and the 

 loAvest labourer must be in the lowest 

 condition. That may be true but that 

 lowest condition must not be one of 

 starvation ; and more must and Avill be 

 yielded up by both landlord and tenant. 



But, after all, labour does not in rea- 

 lity superabound to the extent alleged. 

 Much of the evil is traceable to the 

 enormous size of farms, and the want of 

 capital in one person's hands for high 

 or even common farming. The conse- 

 quence is, fewer labourers are employed. 

 If farms of a thousand acres Avere split 

 into five of two hundred each, compe- 

 tent capitals would readily be found for 

 each, where one for the whole cannot ; 

 and double the number of labourers 

 Avould be profitably employed. 



On the question of tithes, which Dr. 

 Hamilton discusses at length, he is not 

 so sound, because he is not so well in- 

 formed. He was a Scotchman, and 

 knew nothing about English tithing, 

 and books are of little use in practical 

 matters of any kind. He concludes 

 " tithes fall on the proprietors chiefly, 

 if not entirely." This is never Avholly 

 true, because tithes are taken on the 

 produce, and not on the rent. Besides, 

 if it Avere true with respect to great 

 tithes, it cannot be with the small tithes 

 equally annoying. Most of the land 

 is cultivated by farmers, by tenants we 

 mean ; and none get land g'ratis. Itent 

 forms an item in the expense of cultiva- 

 tion, and so does tithe ; and both must 

 be paid, Avith the rest of the expences, 

 by the consumer. If the land be tithe- 

 free, the tenant pays more rent, and still 

 the consumer gains nothing; nor when 

 titheable does the landlord suffer. 



The chapters on Distribution and 

 Equalization of Wealth - Population 

 Paper Currency Commerce, are all 

 well discussed, and remarkable for dis- 

 tinctness in the statements. 



Family Llnrttni -- //;/< '.;/' Ilntce, lj;j 

 Major F. U. jfca<f In nolhiug h:;:> our 

 acquaintance with facts augmented more 

 remarkably than Avith respect to the ha- 

 bits of foreign countries. Half a century 

 ago, only, any extraordinary occurrence 

 Avas set down without ceremony as a 

 traveller's tale; and such a caricature 

 as Munchausen was relished as an ad- 

 mirable satire called for by the licence 

 of travellers, and calculated to check 

 their intolerable indulgences. To such 

 a pitch had grown this distrust begun 

 Avith reason, but ending with none 

 that but few had pluck enough to tell 

 of facts at once novel and singular ; 

 Dr. Shaw was afraid to tell the 

 AA'orld boldly in his narrative, that he 

 had seen M'oors eat lions' flesh, though 

 he ventured to hint at the matter in his 

 appendix. But none perhaps since the 

 days of Mendez Pinto, and he proves 

 not to have been a " liar of the mag- 

 nitude" Shakspeare makes him fared 

 worse than Bruce. He had visited a 

 strange country quite unknown to 

 Englishmen he had many extraordi- 

 nary things to tell he was of too bold, 

 perhaps of too vaunting a spirit, to with- 

 hold any of his wonders he dared the 

 world's laugh of ignorance, and Avas uni- 

 versally scouted. Dr. Johnson froAvned 

 (this must have been at the reports of 

 Bruce's confidents) ; Peter Pindar mock- 

 ed, and multitudes of others Avho had ne- 

 ver left the chimney corner, joined in the 

 general derision. Even later, many who 

 from their own experience might have 

 known better, retained their home pre- 

 judices, and laboured to confirm, what 

 they were of themselves all but able 

 effectually to confute. Lord Valentia, 

 on his return to India, coming up the 

 lied Sea, stopped at the port of Masuah 

 even he cavilled about Bruce's want oi 

 correctness, and doubted if he had ever 

 been down to the Straits of Babelman- 

 del ; while his OAvn Captain, Avho might 

 be supposed to be as good a judge of the 

 matter, adopted Bruce's observations, 

 because he had uniformly found them 

 correct. By the aid of his telescopes, 

 Lord Valencia descried the mountains of 

 Abyssinia, and upon the strength of this 

 distant vieAv, announced in the\itle-page 

 of his book his traA^els in Abyssinia, 

 and had the temerity to question Bruce's 

 veracity. Mr. Salt, his secretary, it is 

 true, made tAvo attempts to reach the 

 capital of Abyssinia, but did not get 

 more than half way ; and even he, to 

 please his superior apparently, sneers 

 at Bruce's " falsehood and exaggera- 

 tion ;" and though subsequent informa- 

 tion substantiated Bruce in numerous 

 particulars, he never had the manliness 

 to justify the man he had helped to 

 calumniate. Clarke, Belzoni, and the 



