pectation, that the science of political economy will be greatly advanced by University professorships. Much good may accrue from them, however, indirectly, by their having the effect of dispelling the prejudices against the study prevailing among those who are destined to become the territorial proprietors and legislators of the country; prejudices partly arising from the notion that its conclusions are hostile to the truths of religion, partly from the dry, repulsively abstruse, and apparently uncertain character of the study. It was with a view to combat these prejudices, and to remove the erroneous impressions in which they have their origin, that Dr. Whately was induced to offer himself as a candidate for the Oxford Professorship, recently founded by the munificence of Mr. Henry Drummond, who has by this enlightened application of his wealth, entitled himself to the gratitude of his country. By accepting the endowment of a Pro'fessorship of Political Economy, the University,' Dr. Whately remarks, may be regarded as having borne her public testimony against the existing prejudice; and as having thus rendered an 'important service to the public, independently of the direct be'nefits resulting from the cultivation of the science.'

'I trust,' adds the learned Prelate, that before many years shall have elapsed, the views of the University in accepting, and of her public-spirited Benefactor in founding, the Professorship, will be to a considerable extent realized;-that idle prejudices against the science will be done away by a distinct view of its real character;-and that there will be no one who will not be ashamed of employing, much more of deliberately recommending, (as some have ventured to do,) undefined language, and a loose style of reasoning, in a subject in which the most careful accuracy of expression is most especially called for. The time is not, I trust, far distant, when it will be regarded as discreditable, not to have regularly studied those subjects, respecting which, even now, every one is expected to feel an interest-most are ready to adopt opinions—and many are called on to form practical decisions.' pp. ix—xi.

By undertaking the novel duties of this not very inviting appointment, Dr. Whately, and his predecessor, Mr. Senior, (the first professor on Mr. Drummond's foundation, and now Professor of Political Economy in the King's College,) have honourably evinced their public spirit and their ardent desire to promote the advancement of liberal knowledge. Mr. Senior commenced his labours with two lectures (delivered in Easter Term, 1828) on the subject of Population; in which it appears to have been his object, to vindicate the political mathematics of Malthus from the practical conclusions to which his principles lead, by means of some ingenious distinctions, which he afterwards admits, in correspondence with Mr. Malthus himself, to be in great measure verbal. After having shewn a disposition to enter the lists with the

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East India College Professor, he seems to lose confidence in his own powers, and to succumb under his authority. The next year, Mr. Senior delivered three lectures on the cost of obtaining money, and on some effects of private and Government paper money,'-a topic not very happily adapted to a university audience. In Easter Term, 1830, he chose for his subject, The 'Rate of Wages;' and the three lectures were published, with a preface on the causes and remedies of the present Distresses.' These lectures are characterized by little originality, and certainly throw no very strong light upon the main question: they exhibit, in fact, a perplexity arising from the very modesty of the Author. Mr. Malthus, in apologizing for venturing to controvert the accuracy of Mr. Ricardo's principles, expresses a feeling of deference similar to what, we cannot but think, must have hampered Mr. Senior. 'I have so very high an opinion of Mr. Ricardo's ' talents as a political economist," he says, and so entire a con'viction of his perfect sincerity and love of truth, that I frankly own, I have sometimes felt almost staggered by his authority, while I have remained unconvinced by his reasonings. I have thought that I must unaccountably have overlooked some essential point, either in my own view of the subject, or in his.' This kind of doubt is both creditable and salutary to one who is but feeling his way into an intricate inquiry which is as yet new to him. The thoughts flow clearer from having met with such obstructions in their channel. But a man must throw aside the trammels of pupillage, before he can with advantage become a teacher. The greatest service, perhaps, that Mr. Malthus has rendered to the science, is by his confutation of those very reasonings by which he was staggered. Mr. Senior is evidently far from being reconciled to many of the tenets of the school to which he has attached himself; for he is disposed to reject some of the very conclusions which naturally and logically flow from the theories he has adopted. But, as has been remarked by an American Reviewer, who has examined his Lectures with much acuteness,' while he rejects the conclusion out of deference to facts, he retains the premises from respect to authority.'

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Dr. Whately adopted a safer, and at the same time a more useful course, by commencing his labours in this new field with lectures of a character avowedly and strictly introductory. These lectures are eight in number. The first four are occupied with a vindication of the science, and an exposure of the mistakes and prejudices prevailing with regard to its nature and tendency. In the fourth lecture, its connexion with Natural Theology is briefly adverted to, as affording illustration of the Divine wisdom displayed in the provisions for the existence, the well-being, and the progress of Society. And here, the learned Lecturer, not unforgetful of his higher character as a religious teacher, takes occasion

to advert to the grand and overwhelming difficulty which crosses, in some direction or other, every branch of human inquiry, how devious soever from what may seem its native region, and to which many would wish to confine it. It meets us alike in physical science, in intellectual philosophy, in economical, and in metaphysical inquiries. Now it assumes the shape of physical evil, of disease, aberration, and suffering; now that of moral disorder, depraved tendency, or degraded nature. It is like a fissure running deep through successive strata, and evidently distinct from their natural formation ; -a rent produced by some awful convulsion, but extending to the very foundations of the social system.

In every part of the universe,' remarks Dr. Whately, we see marks of wise and benevolent design; and yet, we see in many instances apparent frustrations of this design; we see the productiveness of the earth interrupted by unfavourable seasons,-the structure of the animal frame enfeebled, and its functions impaired, by disease,—and vast multitudes of living beings exposed, from various causes, to suffering and to premature destruction. In the moral and political world, wars and civil dissention,-tyrannical governments, unwise laws, and all evils of this class, correspond to the inundations, the droughts, the tornados, and the earthquakes of the natural world. We cannot give a satisfactory account of either ;-we cannot, in short, explain the great difficulty, which, in proportion as we reflect attentively, we shall more and more perceive to be the only difficulty in theology, the existence of evil in the Universe.

But two things we can accomplish; which are very important, and which are probably all that our present faculties and extent of knowledge can attain to. One is, to perceive clearly, that the difficulty in question is of no unequal pressure, but bears equally heavy on Deism and on Christianity, and on various different interpretations of the Christian scheme; and consequently can furnish no valid objection to any one scheme of religion in particular. Another point which is attainable is, to perceive, amidst all the admixture of evil, and all the seeming disorder of conflicting agencies, a general tendency nevertheless towards the accomplishment of wise and beneficent designs.'

pp. 114-116.

In the ensuing lecture, Dr. Whately examines the hypothesis which supposes mankind to have emerged from barbarism, and gradually to have raised themselves to the higher stages of civilization; and he shews, that all the historical evidence of which a negative position is susceptible, is against the supposition, putting aside the testimony of Scripture. No savage tribe appears ever to have risen into civilization, except through the aid of others who were civilized; and there is every reason to conclude, that all savages must originally have degenerated from a more civilized state of existence. The true origin of civilization, then, must have been Divine instruction. Not that a knowledge of all

the arts of life was divinely communicated to the first race of mankind; but the state in which they were placed, was such as at once enabled and incited them to commence and continue a course of advancement, and was therefore far removed from what is called a state of nature, that is, the unnatural, denaturalised state of barbarism. Agreeably to this view of the subject, sanctioned as much by historical fact as by Scripture, it is uniformly found, that society must have been brought up to a certain starting-point of civilization, analogous to that in which the first generation of mankind appears to have been placed, before the tendency to advancement comes into operation. But, that point being attained, the causes which tend to the gradual increase of 'wealth in a ratio even greater than the increase of population, and to the growth of all that we call by the collective name 'Civilization, are thenceforward at work; with more or less certainty and rapidity, according as the obstacles are less or more powerful; and no boundary to the efforts of these causes seems 'assignable.'

In the Sixth and Seventh Lectures, the Author traces the progress of civilization from what may be viewed as the primitive condition of society; rude, but not barbarous; in possession of the simplest and most essential arts, a certain degree of division of labour, and a recognition and tolerable security of property. He shews how diversity of production, arising from the division of labour, would lead to more and more frequent exchanges; till barter would naturally be superseded by the employment of the sign and pledge of commodities; that is, money. He next examines how far the progress of society in wealth, and the progress of knowledge, are in themselves favourable to moral improvement, or the reverse. 'The presumptions,' it is remarked, are on the 'affirmative side.'

For, in the first place, there is one antecedent presumption, from what we know of the divine dispensations, both natural and supernatural. I am aware, what caution is called for in any attempt to reason à priori from our notions of the character and designs of the Supreme Being. But in this case there is a clear analogy before us. We know that God placed the Human Species in such a situation, and endued them with such faculties and propensities, as would infallibly tend to the advancement of Society in wealth, and in all the arts of life; instead of either creating Man a different kind of Being, or leaving him in that wild and uninstructed state, from which, as we have seen, he could never have emerged. Now if the natural consequence of this advancement be a continual progress from bad to worse,-if the increase of wealth, and the development of the intellectual powers, tend, not to the improvement, but rather to the depravation, of the moral character,-we may safely pronounce this to be at variance with all analogy;—a complete reversal of every other appointment that we see throughout creation. And it is completely at variance with the re

vealed will of God. For, the great impediments to the progress I am speaking of, are, war and dissention of every kind, insecurity of property, indolence and neglect of providing for ourselves, and for those dependent on us. Now God has forbidden Man to kill, and to steal; He has inculcated on him gentleness, honesty, submission to lawful authority, and industry in providing for his own household: if, therefore, the advancement in national wealth, which is found to be, by the appointment of Providence, the result of obedience to these precepts if, I say, this advancement naturally tends to counteract that improvement of the moral character, which the same God has pointed out to us as the great business of this life, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion, that He has given contradictory commands;-that He has directed us to pursue a course of action, which leads to an end the very opposite of what we are required to aim at.

In the next place, it may be observed, that, as the tendencies towards selfishness and rapacity-cruelty-deceit-sensuality-and all other vices, exist in all mankind in every state of society; so, the counteracting and restraining principles, of Prudence, Morality, and Religion, will have the less or the more sway, (speaking generally, and taking a society in the mass,) according as each community is less or more advanced from a state of rude and barbarian ignorance. Savages, it should be remembered, and all men in proportion as they approach the condition of savages, are men in respect of their passions, while, in intellect, they are children. Those who speak of a state of nature, i. e. of uncultivated nature, as one of pure and virtuous simplicity, and regard vice as something introduced, imported, and artificial, are ignorant of what they might learn from observation, and even from consciousness, as well as from Scripture-the corruption of human nature. The actual existence of this-the proneness, i. e. of Man to let the baser propensities bear rule over Reason and Conscience, and to misdirect his conduct accordingly-this corruption, or original-sin, or frailty, or sinfulness, or whatever name it may be called by, is, I say, in respect of its actual existence, not a matter of Revelation, (any more than that the sun gives light by day,) but of experience. What Revelation does teach us, is, that it is not to be accounted for merely by bad education, unwise laws, excess of artificial refinement, or any such cause, but arises from something inherent in the human breast; inasmuch as we have before us the recorded case of those who fell from a state of innocence, when none of those other causes existed.' pp. 179-183.

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After adducing some further considerations in support of this cheering belief, that, as a general rule, advancement in national prosperity must be favourable to moral improvement, and pointing out the causes which have led to the opposite opinion; the Author sums up his argument in the conclusion, that as the Most High has evidently formed society with a tendency to advancement in 'national wealth, so He has designed and fitted us to advance, by ' means of that, in virtue, and true wisdom, and happiness. Such is the apparent design of a bountiful Providence, although, hither