1899.) 
partment. Nor does the disposition 
of thé writer, although he comments 
with much severity on his lordship 
and his works, seem to be unfriendly 
to his author, We really think he 
means to reform the delinquent, if he 
could; but, in our apprehension, it is 
of little avail to desire Lord Byron to 
emulate Shakspeare, and to multiply, 
like him, the scenic shadows of human 
nature; or to recommend to him the 
fertility and good humour of Walter 
Scott. Who would think of asking 
Fuscli to paint like Wilkie? or of re- 
questing Lerd Byron himself, as some 
critics have done, to come home and 
attend to his business in the House of 
Lords, where perhaps he might, in 
time, become permanent chairman of 
committees. We must accept him 
according to his nature,—limited in 
power, but intense in its action,—con- 
centrated, vehement, and eccentric; 
in some things inimitable, in many ex- 
cellent, in others reprehensible. 
The sixth article, Agricultural Dis- 
tress, is drawn up with perfect inde- 
pendence, and we entirely acquiesce 
in the sonndness of its principles. 'The 
interests of all classes,—growers and 
consumers,—are identified with the 
freedom of the corn-trade; and the 
only difficulty consists in letting down 
the country from its artificial state to 
that firm basis on which alone its pros- 
perity can be permanent. There is 
one observation of the reviewer we 
must notice; he seems to undervalue 
the effect of taxation. Now, though 
taxes are not the sole, we contend 
they are the chief cause of the farmer’s 
distress. A delusive mode of esti- 
mating the pressure of taxes is fre- 
quently resorted to by ministers and 
their adherents, in taking the amount 
of direct taxation, for a correct mea- 
sure of the degree in which the culti- 
yator is affected by the public bur- 
thens. Nothing can be more erro- 
neous; if taxes operated in this way, 
they would truly form only a drop in 
the sea of agricultural difficulties : but 
we will show the contrary. Direct 
_ taxes, which enhance the expenses of 
cultivation, are obviously injurious ; 
but we contend that taxation univer- 
sally falls more exclusively on agri- 
eulture than on other branches of indus- 
try. First, manual labour enters more 
largely into the produce of agriculture 
‘than of manufactures. A piece of 
‘broad-cloth or cotton is chiefly wrought 
The Edinburgh Review, No. 72, 
\ 
$1 
out by the aid of machinery, but a 
quarter of wheat can only be produced 
by the labour of man: hence all taxes 
on consumption, as excises, &c. by 
augmenting the price of labour, are 
peculiarly oppressive to agriculture. 
Secondly, taxes that do not fall on ne- 
cessaries, indirectly affect agriculture, 
by rendering an effective reduction in 
rent and tithe incompatible with the 
support of public burdens. We con- 
clude, therefore, that there is no tax 
the repeal of which would not, pro 
tanto, afford agricultural relief, inas- 
much as there is no tax that does not 
tend either to augment the cost of 
production, lessen the power of con- 
sumption in the people, or oppose the 
pret of revenue derived from the 
soil. 
We must be rather brief with De- 
mosthenes, which forms the seventh arti- 
cle, and another long and learned dis- 
sertation on Greek eloquence. The 
writer seems literally in love with his 
subject, though we confess we do rot 
participate in all his enthusiasm for 
the ancients. We think with the Abbé 
Auger, they were partly babillards; 
and certainly the coarseness and per- 
sonality of some of their famous ora- 
tors, in which charges of cowardice, 
bribery, and ruffianism, are directly 
made, would hardly be tolerated at 
this day by the pot-wallopers of pa- 
lace-yard. We may be deficient, it is 
true, in taste and learning, when we 
avow our admiration is more for the 
moderns than the Greeks and Ro- 
mans. Their institutions were too 
warlike and ferocious for us; and we 
cannot help thinking that one of the 
greatest improvements mankind are 
destined to attain, is. to explode the 
iflusion of military glory, which formed 
the beau ideal of the ancient common- 
wealths. The article, notwithstand- 
ing, evinces both taste and eloquence, 
and we have heard it highly extolled 
by some Oxford scholars. 
Comparative Productiveness of High 
and Low Taxes forms the next subject, 
in which we think, from the example 
of Ireland, and the progress of Various 
English duties, the main proposition, 
that an increase of taxation is not 
always followed by an increase of re- 
venue, nor a dimmution of taxation 
by a diminution of revenue, is fully 
established. The public is much in- 
debted to the Edinburgh Journal for 
the attention paid to these subjects ; 
m 
