knocked off for the benefit of the maxim of Dr. Franklin. In spite of the American tables, shewing the deaths to fall short of the births by one half, in spite of every reasonable probability of children not dying so frequently in America, nothing can rescue half the born from this inevitable deduction. Accordingly, a comparative statement is presented of the numbers in the United States in 1800 and 1810, which, upon the usual premises, is supposed to be decisive in proving the extent of immigration.

"The whole White population," says Mr. Booth, "of the United States in 1800, was 4,305,971: these in ten years would be diminished by a fourth.” -Mr. Place continues: "All of them would be upwards of ten years of age in 1810, and granting this deduction of one-fourth, there would remain 3,229,479. Mr. Booth cuts off the 29,479, saying, 'It is very improbable that more than 3,200,000 should be alive in 1810. But the actual census was 3,845,389, giving a surplus of 645,389 of those above ten years of age, which can be accounted for in no other way than by emigration."

Mr. Place remarks upon this plausible statement:

"The number of White persons above ten years of age, in 1800, according to the census, was

"Mr. Booth says the number of the same description of persons in 1810, ought to have been.

Admitting, by his own account, a clear addition to that part of the population which was above ten years of age, of

2,871,021

3,200,000

328,979

"Here, then, we have Mr. Booth endeavouring to prove that, if not a single emigrant had set his foot in the country during these ten years, the population above ten years of age would have increased 328,979." p. 121.

Now, if so vast an augmentation took place in ten years, of the numbers of grown persons, as 328,979, we may safely assume the additions of such as were under ten years of age, to have amounted to a still larger number; and thus, even according to Mr. Booth, (whose estimate of the value of life in America is so erroneous) the fact is manifest, that a considerable increase takes place by procreation alone.

No small portion of Mr. Place's book is appropriated to the discussion of Mr. Godwin's opinions regarding the population of England, which he assumes to have been but slightly augmented during the last five centuries. "How this number could have been either produced or maintained amidst the terrible disasters of preceding ages, Mr. Godwin gives himself no trouble to inquire."-Place, p. 181.

Mr. Place, however, has entered upon the inquiry with industrious attention, and has taken a comprehensive survey of the state of this country from the Roman invasion downwards to the present time; subdividing it into seven historical periods, marking the circumstances which would influence the progress of population, and comparing the evidence of its increase or decrease.

After some quotations from Saxon writers (assisted by the authority of Mr. Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons) Mr. Place takes as the amount of the population at the Norman conquest 2,000,000, and then proceeds to examine the probabilities of their arriving at the amount of ten millions in 1339, the period at which Mr. Godwin asserts England was as populous as at present.

The state of the kingdom up to that time is shewn to have afforded no probability of an increase in the population; on the contrary, every check that bad government, intestine wars, famine (which in the reign of Edward II. afflicted the nation several years), wretched husbandry

system, the want of roads and means of communication, the celibacy of the priests and nuns, the slavery of the common people, and some other depopulating causes, could oppose to increase, was prevalent during this period.

The next period brought under review by Mr. Place is from 1339 to 1485, during which there happened severe and destructive wars, and the great plague of 1348. Notwithstanding which it appears by tables quoted from Mr. Chalmers*, that the population in 1377 was 2,353,203. Whether, at the close of the civil wars in 1485, the population was reduced somewhat below its amount in 1339, is not of much consequence since if it were, there are causes sufficient to account for the reduction without abandoning the doctrine of the power of increase.

The ensuing period embraces the interval between the accession of Henry VII. 1485 and the Revolution in 1688. Mr. Place thinks many parts of this interval were less unfavourable to population than those years which preceded it, and adduces sundry facts in support of his opinion: p. 220. The reign of Charles I. and subsequent years were highly discouraging to increase; but Mr. Place does not grant that it was retarded.

We are conducted, finally, to the consideration of the period extending from 1668 down to this present time; and the causes which have operated upon the increase of the population are distinctly, and we think, forcibly stated. The cessation of the great plague (which happened in 1665), the discontinuance of celibacy by the monks and nuns, the absence of civil wars, the diffusion of wealth over a larger surface, and the accumulation of capital, concurred in affording ample encouragement to the principle of population. Then follows a lengthened dissertation on the debated point; Mr. Godwin always maintaining the decrease, and propping up his theory with Dr. Price, whose alarms concerning the decline of the numbers of man are truly contemptible. Mr. Godwin denies the fidelity of the returns as exhibited in the two census's of 1801 and 1811 of the British population, which were

He says, the enumeration of 1801 was below the truth, from the motives to concealment which acted upon the males at that time. This deduction he thinks amounted to a number which Mr. Place shews to be equal to one half of the males between 20 and 60 years of age. Mr. Place admits that some effect might have been produced by this concealment upon the returns, but observes, that

"Had it operated to a very great extent, the number of females would have greatly exceeded that of the males, which was not the case, the excess of females in England, Wales, and Scotland, being only 42,062."

The number of houses (inhabited) were, by the returns to parliament

in 1801

......

in 1811

1,870,476 2,101,597

"The causes which have been noticed, as tending in some degree to make the returns in 1801 rather lower than they ought to have been, can none of them be assigned for the concealment of houses: and yet to make Mr. Godwin's argument worth any thing, upwards of 200,000 houses must have been concealed."-Place, p. 240, 241.

Mr. Place then exposes the unfair use made of Mr. Rickman's tables by Mr. Godwin, and closes the seventh chapter with a pretty complete proof of the greater rapidity of increase in the English population than in the Swedish.

The eighth chapter treats of the improvement in the value of life, which has taken place in England within the last sixty years, and which the testimony of several documents, together with the opinion of some respectable writers, seems to warrant Mr. Place in advancing. The actuaries of the principal life-insurances of the metropolis confirm the fact; and Mr. Place has not neglected to bring forward many material facts in corroboration of the decreased mortality of this kingdom, especially in the great towns. P. 254, et seq.

The ninth chapter gives a short but comprehensive sketch of the condition of the people in Ireland as influenced by the fluctuation of the means of subsistence. The case of Ireland offers a striking illustration of the connexion between an increased population and the increase of subsistence. There the spade cultivation enabling the poor to produce potatoes readily, the population multiplies up to the provision; insomuch that, when a bad crop happens and the means of subsistence fall short, the seed potatoes are consumed. Of course the poverty and disease that ensue destroy large numbers, and so relieve the pressure against the means of subsistence, for a while; but the evil returns, and ever will return, unless means be devised for maintaining more equality betwixt the population and the capital. The inspectors appointed to examine and report upon the condition of the people in Ireland after the fever in 1816, 1817, and 1818, all concurred in ascribing the disease and its mortality to bad nourishment in consequence of the failure of the potatoe crops. They likewise observed that the population had been rapidly increasing.

As this increase was encouraged, not by an augmentation of capital, but by the facility of raising just enough by the labour of the peasant to maintain himself and family upon potatoes in an average year; so the disappointment of the return to this labour in the event of a deficient crop naturally engendered want and famine.

The suggestion of Mr. Godwin, relative to spade cultivation, would have the effect of encouraging population in proportion to the facility of procuring present subsistence. But as the production of mere labourers would not accumulate, but be applied to the immediate support of their families, food would not be provided as fast as children would come into the world, and an unpropitious season might bring utter starvation to the miserable victims of this precarious mode of life. Mr. Place lays down the fundamental principles of political economy in opposition to this doctrine, and enforces them with a passage quoted from the author of "The History of British India,"* than which, no

* Article "Colony" in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

thing can be more explanatory of the effects of stimulating the production of food to the exclusion of all other commodities.

Considering the suggestion of spade cultivation therefore as pernicious, or at least unprofitable, and nowise adapted to ameliorate the condition of the working classes, some other means of averting the desolating evils of vice and misery, or, which is the same thing, placing the bulk of the people in a better condition, must be sought. To this end it should be distinctly understood, that wherever a large proportion of the lower or labouring classes suffer from extreme poverty, it is because there exists a greater quantity of persons dependant for subsistence on labour than the capital of the country is capable of employing. That in order to procure to the labouring classes a tolerable share of the produce of the country, the competition for employment must be diminished, for it is impracticable to attempt forcing the accumulation of capital so as to keep pace with population.

This adjustment of labour to the capital which is to set it in motion, constitutes then the chief remedy by which the baneful effects of a redundant, and consequently impoverished, population can be averted. The mode in which this remedy shall be brought to bear with most efficacy, forms the subject of consideration in the sixth chapter of Mr. Place's book, section 2d.

In the foregoing remarks we have endeavoured to state the main points on which Mr. Place meets Mr. Godwin, and in our opinion refutes him. On the means for preventing superabundant population, which our author has suggested, we decline entering for the present.

THE SPECTRE BOAT, A BALLAD.

BY T. CAMPBELL.

Light rued false Ferdinand, to leave a lovely maid forlorn,

Who broke her heart and died to hide her blushing cheek from scorn.
One night he dreamt he woo'd her in their wonted bower of love,

Where the flowers sprang thick around them, and the birds sang sweet above.
But the scene was swiftly changed into a church-yard's dismal view,
And her lips grew black beneath his kiss from love's delicious hue.
What more he dreamt, he told to none; but shuddering, pale, and dumb,
Look'd out upon the waves, like one that knew his hour was come.
'Twas now the dead watch of the night-the helm was lash'd a-lee,
And the ship rode where Mount Etna lights the deep Levantine sea;
When beneath its glare a boat came, row'd by a woman in her shroud,
Who, with eyes that made our blood run cold, stood up and spoke aloud.
Come, Traitor, down, for whom my ghost still wanders unforgiven!
Come down, false Ferdinand, for whom I broke my peace with Heaven!—
It was vain to hold the victim, for he plung'd to meet her call
Like the bird that shrieks and flutters in the gazing serpent's thrall.
You may guess, the boldest mariner shrunk daunted from the sight,
For the spectre and her winding-sheet shone blue with hideous light;
Like a fiery wheel the boat spun with the waving of her hand,

-And round they went, and down they went, as the cock crew from the land.

To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine.

ON GARRICK'S DELIVERY OF A PASSAGE IN SHAKSPEARE. SIR,-As any thing which tends to throw a striking light on the spirit of one of Shakspeare's most celebrated passages can scarcely be uninteresting to the majority of your readers, you may, perhaps, not object to afford me a page or two, for a few remarks on a suggestion thrown out by a writer in your last number. In the paper on Mr. Matthews's new entertainment, it was stated, that that exquisite artist had given an imitation of an imitation (—" the shadow of a shade"-) of Garrick's manner, when he spoke the celebrated soliloquy in Richard the Third, "Now is the winter of our discontent," &c. This excited my curiosity towards the subject, and induced me to pay particular attention to the imitation in question; and as the witnessing of it has had the immediate effect of totally changing my previous feelings on the point, I am tempted to offer a few words in justification of the opinion which, in common with your contributor, I now firmly adhere to.

It is not less remarkable than true that a whole generation shall frequently remain for years together in the possession of one undisputed, and as they seem to think, indisputable opinion, on a given point; when suddenly a single touch of the Ithurial spear of inquiry shall discover to them that they have been all along cherishing a decided and palpable error. I anticipate that nothing less than this will soon be the case with regard to the spirit of that celebrated passage to which I am now directing your readers' attention. I will place the passsge before them, and then briefly state why I think so.

"GLOSTER-Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that loured upon our house,
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our stern alarms are changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful inarchings to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged War has smoothed his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,―
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute."

66

our

Now, can any reader peruse the above passage, and reflect for a moment on the character and situation of him who utters it, and then say that it should be delivered in a low, gloomy, thoughtful, muttering tone, and with a bitterly contemptuous and ironical turn of expression? Who is the speaker? and of what is he speaking? Is it not upon house" that the "clouds" have till lately "lowered?" Is it not our brows" that are now "bound with victorious wreaths?" And are not Ambition and Glory the gods of the speaker's idolatry-the only gods— the gods to whom he sacrifices, with a gay and reckless hand, every obstacle that stands in his way? Who is it too, that has brought about this " glorious summer?"-who, but the "sun of York;" the Plantagenet; by a relationship to whom the "high-reaching" Gloster "looks proudly on the crown;" and which crown, but for the late successes that he is contemplating, he might in vain have hoped to compass? And with all these considerations playing, shifting, and