: used and so onwards. Nor can there reasonably be any deviation from this order, unless through casual error, or else because occasionally an inferior soil may compensate its intrinsic inferiority by the extrinsic advantage of lying nearer to a town, or nearer to a good road, or to a navigable river, &c. By way of expressing the graduations of quality upon this scale, suppose we interpret them by corresponding graduations of prices: No. 1, for the production of a given quantity (no matter what,) requires an outlay of 20s.; No. 2, for the same quantity, requires 25s.; and No. 3, which is very perverse land indeed, requires 30s. Now, because 20s. paid the full cost of No. 1, then as soon as the 25s. land is called for by the growing population, since in the same market all wheat of equal quality must bear the same price, which price is here 25s., it follows that a surplus 5s. arises on No. 1 beyond what the cost of culture required. For the same reason, when No. 3 is called for, the price (regulated of necessity by the most costly among the several wheats) rises to 30s. This is now the price for the whole, and therefore for No. 1. Consequently, upon this wheat there is now a surplus of 10s. beyond what the culture required; and upon No. 2, for the same reason, there is a surplus of 5s. What becomes of this surplus? It constitutes RENT. And, amongst other corollaries, these two follow: first, that the lowest quality of land under culture, the last in the descending scale, pays no rent; and, secondly, that this lowest quality determines the price for the whole; and the successive development of advantages for the upper qualities, as the series continues to expand, always expresses itself in successive increments of rent. As here, if No. 4 were taken up at 35s., then rent would immediately commence on No. 3, which would pay as rent the difference between 30s. and 35s.-viz., 5s. No. 2 would now pay 10s., and No. 1 (I am happy, on its owner's account, to announce) would pay 15s. Well, this is that famous doctrine of RENT which drew after it other changes, so as, in fact, to unsettle nearly all the old foundations in political economy. And that science had in a manner to pass through the Insolvent Court, and begin the world again upon a very small remainder of its old capital. What I wish to observe upon it in this place is, that this doctrine takes effect, not merely upon arable land, but also upon all mines, quarries, fisheries, &c. All these several organs of wealth involve within themselves a gradu ation of advantages, some yielding more, some less, some still less, on the same basis of cost. Now, before California entered the gold-market, to what quarter did Europe look for her chief supply of gold? Ancient gold, melted down-some of it, no doubt, gold that had furnished toilet equipages to Semiramis, and chains of decoration to Nimrod or the Pharaohs, entered largely into the market. But for new gold, innocent gold, that had never degraded itself by ministering to acts of bribery and corruption, we looked chiefly to Russia. I remember an excellent paper, some four years back, on these Russian gold-mines in the chains of the Ural Mountains. It was in a French Journal of great merit, viz., the "Revue des Deux Mondes;" and, to the best of my remembrance, it reported the product of these mines as being annually somewhere about four millions sterling. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that the whole of this product rested on the same basis of cost. There can be no doubt that the case which I have just imagined as to wheat had its exemplification in these gold mines. No doubt there are many numbers in the scale which are not worked at all nor could be profitably worked, unless science should discover less costly modes of working them. But, even as things now are, with many parts of the scale as yet undeveloped, it is certain that a considerable range of numbers, in respect of costliness, is already under culture. Suppose these (as in the wheat case) to be Nos. 1, 2, 3. Then, if California or Australia should succeed in seriously diminishing the cost of producing gold, the first evidence of such a revolution would show itself in knocking off No. 3 in the Ural mines. Should the change continue, and in the same direction, it would next knock off No. 2. And, of the whole Ural machinery, only No. 1 would at length survive; or, in other words, only that particcular mine, or particular chamber of a mine, which worked under the highest natural advantages, producing a given weight of gold at a cost lower than any other section of the works, producing, suppose, an ounce of gold at the cost of 13 ounces of silver, when elsewhere the same quantity cost 14 ounces, 141, &c. Always, therefore, any bona fide action of California upon the cost of gold, would show itself, first of all, in a diminishing supply from Russia.* But, then, for a consid data I know not, is often rated at one million ster *The supply furnished by Borneo, upon what ling. So that the two great annual influxes of gold do not apparently exceed five millions sterling. erable time, this increased supply from Cali- | next, as to the construction of the facts, a fornia, having Russia to pull against, would misgiving comes over him, that possibly so far neutralize and counteract any sensible there may be too much of a good thing. impression that otherwise it might produce Many people remember the anecdote conin Christendom. This would happen even if nected with the first importation of Brathe product of California had really been 10 zilian emeralds into Europe. This hapmillions sterling for the first three years, and pened at an Italian port, viz., Leghorn; 15 millions for 1850—that is, 45 millions in and the jeweller, in whose trade none but all. According to my own view, as already Oriental emeralds were as yet known, struck explained, it is not likely that California could with admiration at the superior size of reduce the cost of gold, except for the first one offered to him by a stranger, bought year or two after which the cost would it for a very high price, upon which travel the other way, not by decrements, but the stranger, exulting in his good fortune, by increments sure, if slow. No greatly in- displayed a large trunk full of the same creased quantity of gold could continue to jewels. But, on this evidence of their abunflood the gold-market, unless the cost were dance in certain regions of Brazil, the jewelseriously reduced. The market of Europe ler's price sank in the ratio of 7 shillings to would repel it; and this discouragement 25 guineas. At present, however, the pubwould react upon the motives of the produc- lic mania travels in an opposite direction. tive body in California. But were it other- The multiplication of gold is to go on at a wise, and supposing the cost reduced by 8 rate accelerated beyond the dreams of roper cent., or, in round terms, from its present mance; and yet, concurrently with this enormint price in London to 70 shillings an ounce, mous diffusion of the article, its exchangeaa stimulus would be thus applied to the con-ble value is, in some incomprehensible way, sumption of gold for various purposes, which, in defiance of the lowered natural price, would quicken and inflame its market price. It is clear, from what has already happened in the United States and in France, that gold would enter more largely into the currencies of nations. It is probable, also, that a very large quantity, in the troubled condition of the political atmosphere throughout Europe for many years to come, will be absorbed by the hoarders of Christendom. Certainly I do not deny, that unexpected discoveries of gold-fields, apparently inexhaustible, have been made, and almost simultaneously made, in regions as remote from each other as some of them are from ourselves. In several quarters of the American continent, both north and south, in the Sandwich Islands, in Africa, in New Zealand, and, more notoriously (as regards impressions on Europe), in Australia (viz., in the island of Van Diemen, but on a still larger scale in the continental regions of Victoria and Port Philip), gold is now presenting itself to the unarmed and uninstructed eye upon a scale that confounds the computations of avarice. "There is some trick in all this," is the natural thought of every man when first hearing the news. He wonders how it was that many people did not read such broadcast indications twenty years ago. That thought raises a shade of suspicion upon the very facts in limine. And But all this must give way, or must be greatly lowered in cost, before any great impression could be produced by California. to be steadily maintained. This delusion is doubtless but partially diffused. But another, equally irreflective, seems to prevail generally, viz., that, under any circumstances whatever, and travelling towards whatever result, the discovery must prove a glorious one in respect to the interests of the human race. And the rumor of other and other similar discoveries, in far distant regions, equally sudden, and equally promising to be inexhaustible, is hailed as if it laid open to us some return of a Saturnian age. Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. I, on the contrary, view this discovery as in any event almost neutral with respect to human prosperity, but in some possible events as likely to be detrimental. Fighting, with Mr. Cobden's permission, will go on for millions of years yet to come; and, in pure sympathy with the grander interests of human nature, every person who reads what lies written a little below the surface, will say (as I say), God forbid that it should not. In that day, when war should be prohibited, or made nearly impossible, man will commence his degeneration. But if we change not (as change we never shall) in respect to our fighting instincts, we shall change, if the gold fable prospers, a good deal as to the fashion of our arms. Like Ashantees, not a corporal nor a private sentinel but will have a golden hilt to his sword, and a golden scabbard. Still, as people to be plundered by marauders in the nights succeeding to a great battle, we shall not rate much higher. (it is well known) are all ordered for another place, we have reason to fear that the trustees of every road, the contractors and the paviers upon it, would abscond nightly with as much high-road as they laid down in the day. There are at this moment three openings, and perhaps no more, for an enlarged use of gold, in the event of its becoming materially cheaper. Many nations would extend the use of gold in their currencies. Secondly, the practice of hoarding-once so common, and, in Oriental lands, almost universal, but in Europe greatly narrowed by the use of paper currencies, and by the growing security of property-will for many years revive extensively under the action of two causes: first, under the general political agitation of Europe; and, secondly, under the special doctrines of communism, so avowedly friendly to spoliation and public robbery. La propriété-c'est le vol, is a signal held aloft for all Christendom to take care of their pockets. The fine old miser, therefore, of ancient days, brooding night and day over his buried gold, will again revolve upon us, should gold really become cheap. Finally, the embellishment of human persons by gold trinkets, ornaments, and the more lavish use of gilding in the decoration of houses, furniture, &c., would forther enlarge the new demand. But all this only in the case of a real cheapness. And, even if that were realised (whereas hitherto there are no signs of it), this unfortunate check to the extended use of gold would inevitably arise intermittingly: the diminished cost of production, by the supposition, reduces the price of gold Seriously, let us calculate the probable and the possible in the series of changes. What I infer from the whole review, taken in combination, is, that in one half the anticipations in respect to the revolutions at hand are vague and indeterminate, and, in the other half, contradictory. One may gather from the arguments and the exultations taken together, that some dim idea is entertained of the California supplies uniting with the previous supplies (from Russia and Borneo especially), and jointly terminating in the result of making gold in the first plentiful, and then (as an imaginary consequence) cheap in relation to all other commodities. In this one reads the usual gross superstition as to the interaction of supply and demand. The dilemma which arises is this: California, does or does not, produce her gold at a diminished cost. If she does not, no abundance or redundance could be more than transitory in its effect of cheapness; since the more she sold on the terms of selling cheaper, and producing no cheaper at all, which is the supposition, the more she would be working for her own ruin. But, on the other hand, if she does produce at a diminished cost, which is the only ground of cheapness that can last, then she drives Russia effectually out of the market-No 3, 2, 1, in the inverse order illustrated above; and the effect of her extra supplies is simply to fill up a vacuum which she herself has created. At least that will be the final effect to the extent of five millions sterling per annum. But if she and Australia jointly should really supply more than this sum, it does not follow that, because produced at a lower cost, this extra supply will command an extra market. The demand for gold is limited by the fixed and traditional uses to which it is applied. Mr. Joe Smith, the prophet of the Mormons, delivered it to But, on my view, there will arise that prehis flock, as his own private and prophetic liminary bar to such a state which I have alcrotchet, that the true use of gold, its ulti-ready explained. In the earliest stage of mate and providential function on this planet, would turn out to be the paving of streets and high-roads. But we poor non-Mormonites are not so far advanced in philosophy as all that; and, unless we could simultaneously pave our roads with good intentions, which that is, reduces the natural price. But, in the meantime, every extra call for gold, on the large scales supposed, would instantly inflame the market price of gold, and virtually cancel much of the new advantage. This counteraction would again narrow the use of gold. That narrowing would again lower the market price of gold. Under that lowering, again, the extra use of gold would go ahead. Again the extra cheapness would disappear, and consequently the motive to an enlarged use. And we should live in the endless alternations, hot fits and cold fits, of an intermitting fever. these new gold-workings, one and all, the result will be this-a tendency to lower the producing cost of gold; and this tendency will, in the second stage, be stimulated by the aids of science: and thus, finally, if the tendency could act long enough, the price would be lowered in the gold markets of the | cheapness, as the mining descended, and had world. But this is an impossibility, because, before such an effect could be accomplished, the third stage of the new diggings would reverse the steps, tending continually to increase the cost of gold, as the easy surfacegathering was exhausted. The fourth stage would recede still further from the early to fight with the ordinary difficulties of mines; and the fifth stage would find the reader and myself giving up all thoughts of sporting gold tables and chairs, and contentedly leaving such visions to those people who (according to the old saying) are "born with a gold spoon in their mouths." THE NEW CABINET. THE following notices of the new Ministers may just now interest many readers. They are extracted from four very useful books of reference just published: EARL OF DERBY.-Edward Geoffrey Stanley, Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe, county palatine of Lancaster, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, and an English Baronet; son of Edward Smith, 13th Earl, by his cousin, Charolette Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Geoffrey Hornby and the Hon. Lucy Stanley; born in 1799, succeeded his father July 2, 1851; married in 1825, Hon. Emma Caroline Wilbraham, daughter of Lord Skelmersdale. The Earl is a Privy Councillor, and a Deputy-Lieutenant of the county Lancaster. His entrance on official life was as Under-Secretary for the Colonies during a portion of the Goderich administration.In 1830 to 1833 he was Chief Secretary for Ireland, from 1883 to 1834 he was Secretary for the Colonies. Again, from 1841 to 1845 Lord Stanley held office as Secretary for the Colonies under the administration of the late Sir Robert Peel. On the introduction of the Corn Bill into the Cabinet in 1845 his Lordship retired from Sir Robert Peel's Government, and since that period has been the staunch supporter of what is styled the agricultural interest." In February, 1851, Her Majesty placed the administration of the country in Lord Stanley's hands-a trust which, however, His Lordship returned to his Sovereign on the following day. His Lordship was summoned to the Upper House in 1846 as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe, (the second title of his late father,) having previously represented Preston from 1826 to 1830, Windsor from 1830 to 1831, and North Lancashire from 1832 to 1834. 66 land published, while yet a minor, his first Work, called "Vivian Grey." In 1831, he found the nation in all the excitement of the Reform agitation. Anxious to obtain a seat in Parliament, entertaining a Tory-party hatred of the Whigs, then in the ascendant, and not naturally illiberal, Disraeli determined to consult the temper of the times; and, accordingly, in becoming a candidate for the borough of Chipping Wycombe, he put forward a strong case against the Whigs, in the form best calculated to secure the suffrages of the Radical party. He lost the election in two contests, the Radicals apparently distrusting their candidate. In 1835, when the Conservative party had been restored to office, Disraeli became a candidate for the borough of Taunton, and was elected. His subsequent career is elsewhere described. EARL OF HARDWICKE.-Charles Philip Yorke, Viscount Royston and Baron Hardwicke, in the Peerage of Great Britain, son of Vice-Admiral Sir Joseph Sidney Yorke, K. C. B. (half-brother to third earl,) by Elizabeth, daughter of James Rattray, Esq., of Atherstone; born in 1799, succeeded his uncle, as fourth earl, 1834; married the previous year, Susan, daughter of first Lord Ravensworth. The Earl is Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotolorum of the county of Cambridge, one of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, a Captain in the Navy, F. R. S., D. C. L., and was formerly a Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen. EARL OF LONSDALE.-William Lowther, county Westmoreland, Baron Lowther, of Whitehaven, county Cumberland, in the peerage of the United Kingdom; and a Baronet; son of William, first Earl, K. G., by Lady Augusta Fane, daughter of John, ninth Earl of Westmoreland; born 1787, summoned to the house of Peers, in the barony of Lowther, in 1841; succeeded his father in the higher honors, 1844. The Earl is a privy councillor, Lord-Lieutenant of the counties and Vice-Admiral of the coasts of Cumberland and Westmoreland, LieutenantColonel of the Westmoreland Militia, and F. R. S.; has been a Lord of the Admiralty, and of the Treasury, Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, Treasurer of the Navy. Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and Postmaster-General. EARL OF MALMESBURY.-James Howard Harris, Viscount Fitz-Harris, of Heron Court, county Southampton, and Baron Malmesbury, of Malmesbury, county Wilts, in the peerage of Great Britain; son of James Edward, second Earl, by Harriet Susan, daughter of Francis Bateman Dashwood, Esq., of Well Vale, county Lincoln; born 1807; succeeded his father, 1841. His Lordship is grandson of the distinguished diplomatist, who received the Peerage for official services, and of whose "Diaries and Correspondence" he is editor. England's Trust;" "The Spanish Match of the 19th Century," and other poems. RIGHT HON. SIR E. B. SUGDEN.-Sir Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, LL.D., second son of Mr. Richard Sugden, of Duke-street, St. James's; is author of several legal works of the highest authority; in 1807, was called to the bar at Lincoln's inn, and in 1808, published his treatise on "Powers," which he subsequently enlarged; from 1817 till his elevation to the bench, he devoted himself solely to the Chancery bar; was made a King's Counsel in 1822; was Solicitor-General from June 1829 till 1830, and in 1835 became Lord Chancellor of Ireland, an office which he resigned about three months after his appointment, and which he subsequently held from 1841 to 1846; is well known for the alteration he effected in the law relating to contempts of Court. SIR JOHN SOMERSET PAKINGTON, BART.— court, Worcestershire, by the daughter of Sir H. Perrot Pakington, Bart., of Westwood. Born at Powick-court, 1790. Assumed the name of Pakington on becoming heir to his maternal uncle, Sir J. Pakington, Bart., 1830. Chairman of the Worcestershire Quarter Sessions since 1834. DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND.-Algernon | Son of William Russell, Esq., of PowickPercy, Duke of Northumberland, D.C.L., F. R.S., second son of the second Duke, by his second wife, third daughter of Peter Burrell, Esq., of Beckenham, Kent. Born 1792; married 1842, eldest daughter of the second Marquess of Westminster, (she was born 1820); succeeded his brother in the dukedom, 1847, having previously been created Baron Prudhoe; became a captain R.N. in 1815; appointed Constable of Launceston Castle, 1847; is patron of twelve livings. THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY.-James Brownlow William Gascoigne-Cecil, D.C.L., Marquess of Salisbury, son of the first Marquess, by the second daughter of first Marquess of Downshire. Born 1791; married, first, 1821, daughter and heir of Bamber Gascoigne, Esq., on which occasion he assumed the name of Gascoigne (she died 1839); secondly, 1847, the second daughter of the fifth Earl De La-Warr (she was born 1824); succeeded his father in 1823; is Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex. High Steward of Hertford, and Colonel of the Herts Militia; was appointed Major of the South Herts Yeomanry Cavalry, 1847; patron of eight livings. LORD JOHN JAMES ROBERT MANNERS.Second son of the fifth Duke of Rutland, by the daughter of the fifth Earl of Carlisle. Born 1818; married, 1851, Catherine, only daughter of the late Colonel Marlay, C.B. Educated at Eaton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Is author of a 'Plea for National Holidays;" "What must the English Catholics do?" "Notes of an Irish Tour;" " RIGHT HON. JOHN CHARLES HERRIES.Eldest son of the late Colonel Herries, who was distinguished as among the first to set the example of raising volunteer companies during the late war; is brother to Major General Sir William Lewis Herries, K.C.H., Chairman of the Audit Board. Was educated at the University of Leipzig; was private secretary to Mr. Perceval during the greater part of his administration; was Secretary to the Treasury from 1823 till September, 1827, when he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, an office which he filled till January, 1828; was Master of the Mint from 1828 till 1830; and President of the Board of Trade from February to November, 1830; was Secretary at War from December, 1834, to April, 1835. SPENCER HORATIO WALPOLE.-Second son of the late Thomas Walpole, Esq., of Stagbury Park, Surrey, and Lady Margaret, youngest daughter of the second Earl of Egmont. Born 1806; married in 1825, Isabella, fourth daughter of the late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval. JOSEPH WARNER HENLEY.-Son of Joseph Henley, Esq.; born 1793; married 1817, daughter of the late John Fane, Esq., and Lady Elizabeth Fane. |