1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



677 



rail- ways. The whole is accomplished 

 in a workman-like manner, and illus- 

 trated with competent engravings. 



On the Distribution of Wealth, &c. By 

 the Rev. Richard Jones, A.M.So little 

 satisfaction have writers upon Political 

 Economy wrought of late years, not- 

 withstanding the peremptory tone gene- 

 rally assumed by them, that we need 

 not wonder new books start up every 

 day, to set the very important matters 

 they discuss in a clearer light. The 

 truth is, undoubtedly, that the subject 

 in its full compass is yet comparatively 

 little understood, or their conclusions 

 would correspond oftener with facts than 

 they do. Writers are impatient to ad- 

 vance to conclusions beyond the warran- 

 ty of their evidence. Content with a 

 few facts that stare every body in the 

 face, they scarcely think it worth the 

 pains to bother about matters that re- 

 quire toil and patience to ascertain, 

 and thus risk assertions which have no 

 other basis than their own addled hypo- 

 thesis. They prefer a little authority 

 and abundance of conjecture to all that 

 the history of the world can furnish. 

 Mr. Jones takes a different course, and 

 like a man of common sense, and uncom- 

 mon discretion, betakes himself to the 

 enlargement of his premises, before he 

 ventures upon universal conclusions 

 for unless they be of universal appli- 

 cation they are worth nothing. 



The produce of labour must be distri- 

 buted, every body allows, in some pro- 

 portion or other, wholly amongst the 

 owners of land, of capital, and of labour 



or more technically, into rent, profits, 



and wages ; and under these heads Mr. 

 Jones proposes to class his collections 

 and his conclusions. The volume before 

 us the first portion of his work is oc- 

 cupied solely with the subject of rent ; 

 and a large space in it is taken up with 

 a survey of the circumstances under 

 which land is held and cultivated in 

 every quarter of the globe. Much va- 

 . luable information is accumulated, not 

 elsewhere brought together, within the 

 same pages ; and the result is, that the 

 theories of Ilicardo and his school, on 

 this topic, have obviously not a leg to 

 stand upon. They are "wholly conjec- 

 tural, and with them may be swept away 

 many of the gloomy axioms that, with 

 a certain class, have ruled their thoughts, 

 and influenced their actions, to the dete- 

 rioration of two-thirds of the population 

 of the country. 



Rent, exclaim these philosophers par 

 excellence, exists because soils differ in 

 quality, and for that reason only. Were 

 all soils of equal fertility, there could 

 be no rents at all, and rents can only 

 increase through increasing that diffe- 

 rence by extra cultivation. But not in 



one-hundredth part of the world is rent 

 obtained at all, in the sense of the Eco- 

 nomists. It is in England only it is chiefly 

 so obtained, and here, solely because 

 somebody thinks it worth his while to 

 pay it. The soil is the landlord's, by 

 political right, and he will let nobody 

 have the use of it without some return. 

 It is then because others want the 

 land, that he gets rent ; and one man 

 gets more than another, sometimes be- 

 cause his land is better than others, and 

 often from circumstances peculiar to the 

 neighbourhood. 



Again, according to the same philoso- 

 phers, an increase of rent, so produced, 

 must be accompanied by a decrease in 

 the productive powers" of agriculture, 

 and by a proportionate reduction in the 

 gains of the productive classes. Of 

 course the interests of the landlords is 

 thus eternally opposed to those of all 

 others. They must grow rich at the 

 expense of capitalists and labourers ; 

 and this is taken as a law of nature, and 

 the Economists are perpetually urging 

 governments to accelerate the precious 

 accomplishment. But this decreasing 

 effect just in proportion as nations mul- 

 tiply, and civilize, and economise their 

 industry is a mere assumption ; and 

 besides it involves a second assumption 

 equally groundless, that labour is sup- 

 ported exclusively by funds saved from 

 income. But is not that portion of in- 

 come which is actually spent, spent upon 

 labour just as much, or what comes to^ 

 the same thing, upon the productions of 

 labour ? 



And then again, as to population, is it 

 not mere assumption confounding all 

 common sense -that the more numerous 

 a people becomes, the more incapable 

 they are of providing for themselves ? 

 Certainly, if a given number, no matter 

 how small, is to monopolize the soil, 

 and rather let lands go waste than allow 

 others to occupy them then all that 

 come in addition must starve ; but not 

 because they cannot provide for them- 

 selves, but because political institutions 

 preclude them from the chance and the 

 means. In short, the whole aim of this 

 pseudo-school of philosophy is to make 

 the world believe that the laws of man 

 are universally laws of nature, and of 

 course immutable. 



To analyse Mr. Jones's volume re- 

 quires more space than we have at our 

 disposal ; but we recommend the perusal 

 of it heartily, as a book less of specula- 

 tion than of fact as one of sound sense 

 and no sophistication. Profits and wages 

 will follow in future volumes, when the 

 author, with the largest materials he 

 can gather before him, proposes to dis- 

 cuss the sources of equitable taxation. 

 We have but one that of property, 

 which should also govern the elective 



