State Liabilities as above, Grand Total Stock Debt, This table gives us a result of $279,388,760 of debt, bearing an annual interest of $14,491,678, payable by 17,063,353 people. This is equal to about $16 per head. This does not appear large, and if owed within the country, so that it was paid through the agency of the government by one class of citizens to another class, from whom it should be re-distributed in the operations of trade through the whole mass, the country as a great whole would suffer no diminution of wealth. The result would be only to accumulate wealth in the hands of the stockholders, at the expense of the payers. This was the case with the old war debt of the United States, that was mostly owned in this country. For near twenty years $10,000,000 per annum was collected by the federal government, and paid out to citizens in all sections of the country without creating distress or difficulty. The present debts of the states are of entirely a different character; a large portion of the whole amount was borrowed abroad, but never really came here. The proceeds of the stocks were brought over in the shape of manufactured and consumable goods, and bank credits on this side were all that was ever applied to the objects for which the loans were created. $279,388,760 5 1-5 $14,893,832 17,063,353 Those bank credits, issued upon the security of those who consumed the imports, have now passed from circulation, leaving the people almost without a currency, and with small exports, to find $14,000,000 worth of produce or specie wherewith to meet the foreign demand for interest. The debts of the southern and southwestern States, whose products are nearly all exported, and consist of cotton, tobacco, and rice, amount $75,127,113, bearing interest $4,441,410. to The exports of these States amounted in 1841, to $68,917,151. The debt is not all due abroad, but there are sums due for subscriptions to company and other stocks, equal perhaps to the debts owned at home. Hence all the interest may be presumed to be remitted. Now it needs but small reflection to perceive, that so large an amount cannot be remitted yearly without impoverishing the country, The whole export of domestic produce in 1841 from the United States, was $106,000,000; of this amount, $15,000,000, or 14' per cent. is to be paid for interest. This will be far more than the profits on the export. It amounts to 85 cents on every barrel of flour, and $4,25 on every bale of cotton. It is very evident that it cannot be paid. It may be done for a short time by the help of paper credits, but distress and bankruptcy will inevitably follow. According to official reports, $20,000,000 of the debt of Pennsylvania is owned abroad, and also about $22,000,000 of the late National Bank stock, making $44,000,000, to which may be added about $20,000,000 of other stocks. The State paid 5 per cent. per annum, and the banks 8 per cent., until their failure. These make an annual sum of near $4,300,000, which was for years remitted abroad by the citizens of Pennsylvania, equal to $2,50 per head, for which no equivalent whatever is received. It is true, that by the operation of the paper circulation of the United States Bank, the burden of the remittance was spread over the citizens of other States. For instance, if the United States Bank had a remittance of $2,000,000 to make for its own dividends and those of the States, it would come into the New York market and pay out its paper promises for bills, which bills would be remitted, and the paper circulate a long time in other States. If the bank itself wanted money, it would sell fictitious bills in Wall street for bank paper, and immediately draw the funds and carry them to Philadelphia, as was the case in August, 1839, when the conspiracy to break the New York banks was in operation. This operation of bank paper in paying the interest, is that which supports the debt of Great Britain. The annual interest on the debt is near $150,000,000, which is paid in bank notes. These notes are paid out by the recipients in the course of business to other citizens, by whom they are again paid into the Treasury in the shape of taxes. Thus the Government actually pays nothing. It gives to its creditors pieces of paper which entitle them to demand from the producers in goods and produce, the amount of their claim upon the Government. There are two hundred and eighty-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-one persons who receive dividends to the amount of $150,000,000 per annum, and there are twenty-six millions of people who pay taxes to the amount of $300,000,000 per annum, about one half of which goes to stockholders, and the remainder to the court and government expenses. The capital of the Bank of England is £11,015,100, which is a debt due by the government, consequently the circulation of the bank to that extent is a government liability. The bank circulation is £20,000,000, and there are £30,000,000 of exchequer bills in circulation. Now the only way in which the taxes to the government are paid, is by returning to it its own liabilities, which liabilities it re-issues to its creditors. These obtain for them real wealth from the producers, who are obliged to give them back to the government for taxes. The operation is therefore merely to transfer from twenty-six millions, the produce of their industry, to the extent $150,000,000 per annum, to two hundred and eighty-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-one other individuals, their fellow-citizens. The result is, that the mass are wretchedly poor, while the few are immensely rich, We may here trace the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few, by constructing a table of the progress of the British debt and its money value, as follows: DEBT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Money Value of Bank Circulation. Stock. of 920,730 currency, the price of stock fell nearly 4 per cent., showing how severe were the drafts upon the resources of the country at that time. At the close of the war commenced that accumulation of wealth in the hands of the stockholders, which has advanced the money price of stocks 62 per cent. The money value of the debt now is £735,649,751, and the value of the same amount of stock in 1816 was £456,967,990, showing an increase of wealth in the hands of the two hundred and eighty-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-one stockholders equal in money to £278,681,761. This is not all, however; because, owing to the rise in the value of the stocks, the government have been able to reduce the interest £2,355,845 by conversions. This represents a capital in 3 per cents. of £77,742,885, which, added to the above difference, makes a sum of £356,424,646, or at $4,80 the pound, equal to $1,710,083,630, or the value of the whole products of the United States for two years. Suppose this mass of wealth could now be taken out of Great Britain and carried to France, what would remain? Twenty-six millions of paupers. Had the debt been contracted abroad and the interest annually remitted, a sum equal to £780,000,000 would have been sent out of the country. The difference between this sum and the increased money value of the stock, which is £343,585,356, constitutes what the stockholders have expended in their living, and averages about £45 each per annum. From these figures it is very evident that England would have been destroyed before the termination of the war, if her debt had been due abroad. As it is, she presents two extreme classes, the very rich, and the very poor, whose interests are entirely antagonist, and they are as much opposed to each other, as if they occupied different countries. It may be supposed, that the money value of all other property has increased in the same proportion as stocks. The reverse, however, is the fact, as evinced in the official returns of exports. These are always expressed in two values, the one official, and the other the real, or declared value. The official value was fixed in 1680, and now expresses only comparative quantities. A comparison of these with the real values, shows the money value of labor at different periods, as follows: EXPORTS OF GREAT BRITAIN IN 1816 AND 1841, SHOWING THE OFFICIAL AND If the declared value in 1841 had borne the same proportion to the official as in 1816, it would have been £135,608,254, whereas it is but £51,634,623, showing a depreciation in money value of 62 per cent. of all the products of Great Britain, while the money value of stocks in the same time increased about 62 per cent. The stockholders have become rich by the double process of an increase in the value of their own property, and a decrease of the value of that which they purchase. The holder of government stock for £1,000 could, for instance, in 1816 procure seventy-three tons of pig iron for it; he may now get three hundred and thirteen tons for the same stock; his wealth has, there 227 23 fore, actually increased 450 per cent. Again, the 289,751 stockholders who received £30,000,000 in 1816, can now procure for the same money more than double the quantity of the produce of labor that they could then. This is the natural consequence of the accumulation of property in their hands. The increase of their wealth does not increase their powers of consumption; it diminishes, however, the ability of the payers of that wealth to consume. Hence, although 10,000,000 people have been added to the population of Britain, the distributive portion of wealth has constantly decreased. The people have produced more than they were able to consume. The surplus products are given to the stockholders, The Confessions of Saint Augustine. Boston: E. P. Peabody. 1843. 12mo. pp. 285. We are surprised that this should be the first American Edition of the Confessions of Saint Augustine, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of the Fathers of the Church. But we need not say that we welcome its appearance in a neat form, and so cheap that it comes within the means, we were about to say, of even the poorest. If it shall find an enlarged circulation, we shall regard it as a proof that our people are becoming really more profound, more ready to look into things to the very bottom, than they have heretofore been. The mass of our countrymen seem to have been mere newspaper readers, and not even readers of the solid and really excellent essays which appear from time to time in even the poorest of our newspapers; but of the mere anecdotes, and short editorial paragraphs and notices. An article requiring close consecutive thinking for three seconds and two thirds of a second, has appeared quite too much for their patience. The effect of this impatience and haste on the part of readers, has been very bad on our writers. Our writers have become superficial, afraid to utter a profound thought, lest they should fail to be comprehended, or to discuss a serious subject, lest they should fail to arrest attention. Worse than all this, they have not dared to write at their ease, with the calm strength and majesty of repose. They have felt obliged to be con stantly striving to strike the bird while on the wing. Hence, they are always uneasy, always afraid the reader will escape them. Hence, they write in an exaggerated and unnatural style, straining always after immediate effect. This style has passed from the newspapers into our periodicals, into our books, and even into the pulpit. It is not enough that a man reasons clearly and earnestly on the great themes of God, Eternity, the human soul, Duty, Righteousness: he is a dull preacher, unless he can contrive some way to entertain. The truth and importance of his views, clearly and earnestly set forth, will not answer his turn. He must surprise; he must please; he must touch a cold heart, and arrest a fleeting attention, and all without any labor on the part of his hearers. The circulation of such books as this of Saint Augustine, if people will read them, will soon cure this evil, and induce the community to demand profound thought as well as dazzling rhetoric. Moreover, this is a great book. Saint Augustine, as a man, may almost rank with such men as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, while, as a Christian bishop, we can hardly deny him the Divine illumination and authority of an inspired Apostle. In these Confessions we see the workings of a great mind, a greater heart, and a noble and devout soul. We see no cant, no mock humility, but a man conscious of his own relative greatness and worth as a man, bowing in true humility, which is man's highest glory, before his Maker, and confessing himself freely and without reserve. Here we see the spiritual facts and views which have given to the doctrines since termed Calvinism, and which are now termed evangelical, their immense power over the human mind and conscience; and we may say, that he who has not read Saint Augustine, is altogether unable to comprehend either the doctrines or the history of the Church. We give our thanks, then, to Miss Peabody for sending out this edition of the Confessions, and we hope it will be an introduction to a more intimate acquaintance by our public with the old Fathers of the Church. This edition of the Confessions is made up, in part, of an old translation, it is uncertain from whom, and from the translation recently made by Dr. Pusey. The old one is the richest, and has something of an antique air of majesty and strength, which comports well with the piety and tenderness of Saint Augustine. We should have been glad to have had the volume accompanied by Dr. Pusey's Notes, but that would have swelled the size and price of the volume too much As it is we welcome it. The Age of Gold, and other Poems: By GEORGE LUNT. Boston: William D. Ticknor. 1843. 12mo. pp. 160. The Age of Gold of which Mr. Lunt sings, (for we still talk of the singing of poets, who perhaps may never have even hummed a musical note in all their natural lives), is not that primitive period of universal good and happiness, of which a dim traditionary memory seems to haunt the heart of the human race. It is our own modern age of money-worship, the evils of which would be considerably mitigated, if it were a little more literally an age of real gold, and not of lying paper. He writes with a calm didactic justness of reasoning and sentiment, though this theme does not breathe any very glowing inspiration into his lyre. But the age is after all not quite so bad as Mr. Lunt thinks it. Matters are indeed in rather a confused and chaotic condition, natural to a transition stage in the progress of civilisation such as we are now actually passing through. But the east is gradually brightening with the coming dawn, however cheerless may seem the grey and chilly twilight of the actual moment. The leaven of the Spirit of Christianity in the dull lump of society was never working so strongly or so widely, as we see it now in all directions,-though this is no occasion to expatiate on this idea. As both a favorable specimen of the poem, and for the sake of the tribute to the sacred memory of the individual referred to in it, we quote the following extract, together with the accompanying note to it: "Yet glowing hearts there are, whose generous aim Burns through the earthly dross with purer flame, As day flings living sunshine all around, Such his, the stranger youth, on Luxor's plains, strown, |