for the advancement of national riches, to overlook the more essential objects of the Political Union." Here, the writer has pointedly marked the tremendous error of writers, of schoolmen, of statesmen, and of the people of all nations, namely, that in an eager pursuit of the attainment of riches or wealth, they have deserted the true standard; they have lost the right way; they have neglected and despised the essential element Union Political Union. All have fallen down, in abject prostration of body, mind, and spirit, before the old idol, the Calf of Gold. It is this idol that, Midas like, they have loved and worshipped. I will again direct the attention of my reader to the sound philosophical declaration which I quoted in my last chapter from the work of the French Economist, M. Say. By this passage of his writings he declared that, after all the investigation that has been applied to the science of Social and Political Economy, this truth is evident, namely, that all things are abundantly provided for the use of man in the natural sphere, and that it is within the province of man to develope and use these things rightly in order to insure that sufficiency which is desired and so greatly needed. The fact of there being ample sufficiency provided within the sphere of nature for satisfying all human want, and that this sufficiency has to be acquired by means of just courses of labour and of social action, or just exchanges of the productions of labour, is plainly and forcibly declared to us in the holy writings. The first instance is supplied in the Old Testament, and the second is supplied by our Lord in his New Testament, and that by means of adducing the words of the Old Testament. In the first instance, which is contained in the book of Deuteronomy, it is declared to have been necessary that the hearts and minds of the people of Israel should be put on trial, in order to ascertain whether their love of social truth was such as to incline them to fulfil the law, or the commandments of God. In the second instance a demand was made of our Lord that, for the purpose of relieving his hunger, he should disregard the ordinary social courses, and create the element of bread by means of a supernatural process. The words used on both occasions are the following: :- "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Our writers on Political Economy would here exclaim that this is too obscurely expressed, too recondite, too transcendental, for the gross mind of man to deal with or to comprehend; that they cannot extract from it any practical meaning. But I maintain that these, and all such assertions, are merely symptomatic of that weakness and that infidelity to the cause of truth prevailing with those who resort to them, which render these men incapable of dealing with the subject scientifically and practically. The words here made use of, which are, "that man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," comprehend nothing more than that true and just course of social action to which I have so often had occasion to refer, and which constitutes that great problem of Political Economy which every writer on the science professes-professes that he intends, and that he is able, to solve. They who undertake to write on Social and Political Economy, undertake to discover and to explain those courses of social and commercial action that are true and just; and, those courses which are true and just, must, of necessity, be contained in the laws and commandments of God, and, hence, in the words that proceed out of the mouth of God. If the writers have any doubt of their power of accomplishing the required solution, they ought to abstain from appearing before the world as labourers, -- writers, and instructors, in that field of science which comprises the truth and virtue of all social and political life. But our professed dealers in the science of Political Economy have not been content with evincing a desire, and making an attempt, to keep their subject distinct from all the leaven of religious truth. They have gone much further than this. For, whenever they have been brought to see that the social doctrines contained in the Holy Writings are diametrically opposed to the doctrines enunciated and advocated by themselves, they have proceeded to treat the doctrines of the Bible not as doctrines founded on, and derived from, the original and continuing, or the eternal constitution of things, but as doctrines merely of a primitive, unenlightened, and bygone, era; as doctrines merely applicable to, and connected with, a contracted, obsolete, and defunct, economic system, a system wholly unsuited to that enlightened condition of the human mind and taste, to those expanded wants and requirements, and to that advanced and progressive civilisation, which now prevail amongst the people of the several nations of the world. It is, as I have so often declared, from the influence and operation of this confused mass of misconception of the subject, and of error issuing from this misconception, as well as from the self-idolisation of writers, that the noble science has to be rescued. CHAP. XII. The amount of changes or improvements in the circumstances of nations shown to be determined and limited by that increase of wealth, or capital, called profit. When changes are made which exceed this increase of the general capital, or stock, of a nation, injury is inflicted on some members. HAVING shown the great principle from which all true or just social combination is derived, and on which the good physical condition of man, in all nations and in all ages, must ever rest, I will proceed, in the next place, by means of the continued and correct application of this principle, to define what constitutes and determinates the precise degree of advancement which may be made in the development and modification of natural materials by the talent and ingenuity of man inciting labour to assume further and more varied divisions and subdivisions of employment. The definition thus proposed, involves, therefore, an explication of the law of progress, a law which shall be applicable not alone to that incipient condition of man which I have already adduced, but applicable, also, to every other condition that may thereafter arise. Upon reverting to the origin of that system which I have constructed, it will be discerned respecting the first element and action of a social character involved in it, that the superabundant production which was procured by A, became an available matter, a matter of advantage, or a matter of profit, to him when B, presenting another commodity in exchange for it, the exchange of commodities was agreed upon, and thus demand was both constituted and instituted. So, likewise, in the case of B. Thus, it is evident, that the superabundant production of A and B, when made available or valuable to them, by the action of joint demand, or by their co-operation as fellow-labourers, that is, their profit or increase, marked out and determinated the degree of advancement that could be made as regarded A and B. So, again, in the formation of a third division, or the admission of a third member. The increase of means or capital, the addition made to the preexisting capital, which increase or addition is called profit, marked the precise amount of improvement that might be undertaken and accomplished. The third division having been effected, or established successfully, and an increase taking place in all, the aggregate of this increase, which is the general profit, constituted again the new fund by means of which a further advancement was to be made; and, I contend, that the principle here developed and applied, must continue its operation throughout any given series of exchanges or changes. Just so much as is here laid down may be done, more cannot be done. Thus, it has been established, that capital, or that general stock of commodities which constitutes the means of maintaining population, should have precedence of population, because a matter for sustaining must precede the matter to be sustained by it. In this all-essential order should things be kept-capital, or means, preceding population. The increase of capital, then, or, as it is termed profit is an exact indication or measure of the extent of the power of improvement and change. If this law of degree, as issuing from the general body of capital should be observed, the operation involved would be also the additional observance of the law of proportion applicable to each commodity in its separate character, or each division and subdivision of employment; and, by this working, a correct system would be in operation, exemplifying the |