208 Notes of the' Month on [FEB. 



were in favour of the bargain, being- principally directed by cerain flat-fish, 

 who, having always been in the habit of creeping to the bottom, which they 

 justly said was a mere continuation of the shore, possessed some experience 

 of the measure, and declared that by such a treaty food would be obtained 

 cheaper and better, and more abundant. The treaty was accepted. The 

 beavers entered, dammed the stream, and preyed upon the fish. But whether 

 the fish derived much advantage from the reciprocity on their part, remains 

 yet to be discovered." 



Yet with all this hoodwinking Canada thrives. England has more land 

 than she can sell even with the help of her joint-stock companies; and we 

 may make Jonathan a present of the swamps, the rocks, and the pine- 

 barrens, for a thousand years to come. 



The universal argument for the increase of public salaries within the 

 last few years, has been the rise of price in the articles of life, &c., &c. 

 But whatever may have been that rise, the rise in the value of the cir- 

 culation, or the difference between the value of the war paper, and the 

 peace coin, is much more than an equivalent. Notwithstanding which, 

 amounting as it does to little less than four per cent, on every guinea, 

 the rise of salaries must be seen to be believed. It has been shewn from 

 official returns, that in 1797 the whole expense of the Treasury was 

 44,000, and that in 1828 it was 80,000 ; that at the former period 

 the Foreign-office cost 34,000, and in the latter 65,000 ; the Colonial 

 office, at the same periods respectively, 9,000 and 39,000. The half- 

 pay and salaries in all our public departments (the pay of army, navy, 

 and ordnance, of course, not included), was in 1797 1,370,000, and in 

 1827 2,780,000, as nearly as possible two to one ; while the number 

 of persons employed in the said departments had increased from 16,000 

 to 22,000 only, or in the proportion of 11 to 8. Having disposed of the 

 question of value given, the next is, that of value received. Have our 

 Statesmen within the last ten years, been wiser, or more active, personages 

 than in 1797? or have they had weightier interests to manage, or a more 

 formidable enemy to combat ? We had then War ; France in hostility, and 

 Napoleon at its head. We have since had Peace, and nothing to contend 

 with except the Hunts, Watsons, and other mob-leaders. Captain Swing 

 lias at last entered the lists ; and he has been a tough antagonist. But 

 still, w r e think Napoleon's opposers and conquerors as well deserved their 

 pay as the Peels or Dawsons, let their prowess be what it might. But 

 those things have had their day, and must have their conclusion. 



Mr. Sadler has just appeared in the controversial field again, by a 

 pamphlet entitled " A Refutation of an Article in the Edinburgh 

 Review." The article was a bitter attack on his treatise on the <c Law 

 of Population." The pamphlet fully substantiates its title, by taking to 

 pieces the reviewer's arguments, and shewing their misapprehensions and 

 omissions. But it does more : availing itself of the censuses of the 

 foreign populations lately published, it supplies a large quantity of 

 additional and highly important illustration to the general principle of 

 Mr. Sadler's system, and completely establishes his victory, by shewing 

 that, as Bacon said so long since, " repletion is an enemy to generation ;" 

 the more fully peopled a country is, the less rapidly the rate of popula- 

 tion increases. 



Of the science, the force, and the importance of the treatise on the 



