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iittle or no tendency to enrich the partios more 

 ' immediately concerned. Nor, according- to him, has 

 it ever had any effect in extending the quantity of 

 torn grown ; so that it can have no operation in se- 

 curing the country against a scarcity in the event of 

 a war with the grain countries of America or Eu- 

 rope. Mr Malthus, on the other hand, maintains, 

 that it not only produces both these effects, but that, 

 unlike other bounties, it occasions an actual reduc- 

 tion in the price of grain to the community at large. 

 Dy arguing upon its principle, he has endeavoured to 

 shew that it must have a tendency to enrich the land- 

 proprietor and farmer in a similar manner, and nearly in 

 a like proportion, as other bounties affect the interests 

 of the export merchant and manufacturer; and, by a 

 statement of facts as well as argument, he asserts its 

 beneficial result, in having greatly extended the til- 

 lage and consequent produce of the country, as well 

 as in having considerably reduced the average cur- 

 rent prices. The just conclusion appears to us to 

 be, that while, with Dr Smith, its effects on the ge- 

 neral society must be regarded as no better, in a com- 

 mercial point of view, than those of other bounties 

 on exportation : its political expediency, in having 

 extended the tillage of the country, must, on the 

 other hand, be conceded to Mr Malthus. He is 

 right, we think, in asserting its tendency to enrich 

 the parties more immediately concerned, in the same 

 manner as the bounties upon manufactured commodi- 

 ties exported ; but we are far from being convinced 

 of its efficacy in lowering the average prices in the 

 home market. We must not omit to add, that al- 

 though this acute and intelligent writer has defended 

 the principle of the corn bounties, he is by no means 

 a friend to this or any of the doctrines of the mer- 

 cantile system. " If throughout the commercial 

 world," says Mr Malthus, whose liberal philoso- 

 phy has shed a ray of light through the gloom of 

 prejudice which still envelopes his native, as well as 

 its sister university, "if throughout the commercial 

 world every kind of trade were perfectly free, one 

 should undoubtedly feel the greatest reluctance in 

 proposing any interruption to such a system of ge- 

 neral liberty ; and, indeed, under such circumstances, 

 agriculture would not need peculiar encouragements. 

 But under the present universal prevalence of the 

 commercial system, with all its different expedients 

 of encouragement and restraint, it is folly to except 

 from our attention the great manufacture of corn 

 which supports all the rest. The high duties paid 

 on the importation of foreign manufactures, are so 

 direct an encouragement to the manufacturing part 

 of the society, that nothing but some encourage- 

 ment of the same kind can place the manufacturers 

 and cultivators of this country on a fair footing. Any 

 system of encouragement, therefore, which might 

 be found necessary tor the commerce of grain, would 

 evidently be owing to the prior encouragements 

 which had been gi\vn to manufactures. If all be 

 free, I have nothing to say ; but if we protect and 

 encourage, it seems to be folly not to encourage that 

 production which, of all others, is the most import- 

 ant and valuable." 



The term bounty, it may further be observed, is, 

 in common speech, sometimes applied to those pre- 

 miums which are occasionally given by the govern- 



ment, but more frequently by certain public-spirited Bourbon. 

 societies, for the encouragement of extraordinary v~ 



ingenuity and skill in particular departments of the 

 arts. But there is little dan :;< ,-r of confounding this 

 application of the word with its proper and more 

 important one. The premiums so bestowed are of 

 inconsiderable amount, and can never engage the 

 public attention as a matter of national expenditure. 

 They cannot be regarded as having the least effect 

 in disturbing the natural tendency to a balance in 

 the employment of the general capital. And econo- 

 mists are agreed, however opposite the systems they 

 may have adopted, that the money so expended is 

 beneficial to the commonwealth, (j. n. ) 



BOURBON, or MASCAHENIIAS, an island in the 

 Indian ocean, lies in S. Lat. 20 52', and E. Long. 

 55 30', about 100 miles W.S.W. of Mauritius, and 

 370 east of Madagascar. When first discovered by 

 the Portuguese, it received the name of Mascaren- it s name, 

 has ; but this was afterwards changed by the French 

 into Bourbon, and, during the revolution, into Reuni- 

 on, which, in the servility of adulation, sunk in that of 

 Bonaparte. Its form is nearly circular, and, when 

 seen from a distance, it appears to rise gradually from 

 every side to a high-peaked point near the centre, 

 the altitude of which is estimated at 9,000 feet above 

 the level of the sea. It is 38 leagues in circumfe- 

 rence, when following the principal windings of the 

 coast ; and its greatest diameter, from Pointe des Ga- 

 lets to Pointe de la Table, is 14 leagues. 



This island is composed of two volcanic mountains, Composed 

 the Gros-Morne, and the Volcano; the latter ofoftwovol- 

 which still exercises its tyrannical devastations, and ca " i<: . 

 is perpetually emitting either flame or smoke. The m 

 Gros-Morne, which lies towards the north, and which 

 is of the greatest dimensions, has long ago ceased its 

 eruptions; but every feature of the surrounding coun- 

 try, rapid rivers running deep between perpendicular 

 ramparts, and impeded in their course by immense 

 rocks numerous craters basaltic prisms, often dis- 

 posed in regular colonnades various beds of lava, 

 and deep vallies and ravines, all indicate the terrible 

 physical revolutions to which it has formerly been 

 subject. Ages, however, have passed since the 

 northern parts of Bourbon have been freed from the 

 ravages of subterraneous fires. Its bleak surface 

 has been converted into a fruitful soil by the action 

 of the atmosphere, and the industry of man ; and rich 

 plantations of coffee, and immense corn fields, now 

 adorn the plains, which were formerly covered witk 

 liquid lava. But towards the south, the country 

 becomes sterile and scorched, from the great scarcity 

 of springs, and its proximity to the volcano; and the 

 Pays Brule, or bur/it land, extending over a surface 

 of 12,300,000 square toises, is one continued desert. 

 Bounded on the south by the ocean, and rising with 

 a lofty ascent, it is terminated on the north by the 

 burning dome of the volcano. Its barren and fuligi- 

 nous aspect, and the dreary solitude which reigns 

 around, without a habitation to break the uniformi- 

 ty of the prospect, presents a frighttul picture of de 

 solation. Since Bourbon was first known, the volca- Volcano, 

 no has never ceased to disquiet its inhabitants ; and 

 from actual observations since 1785, it has been as- 

 certained, that it regularly vomits lava, at least twice 

 every year, and that in nine of these eruptions, the 



