mar, St. Clair, and Wayne; and other matters con- nected with the Indian relations of the United States 11. Bishop M'Ilvaine's Baccalaureate Discourse. 12. Bishop M'Ilvaine's Thanksgiving Sermon. 13. The Bishop White Prayer Book Society. ERRATA.-On page 21, line ten from bottom-for "Deinotheriums with jaws I. ANCIENT WRITING AND THE TRANSMISSION OF BOOKS. History of the Transmission of Ancient Books to modern times; or, a concise account of the means by which the genuineness and authenticity of an- 1. Report of the arguments of the Attorney for the Commonwealth, at the trials of Abner Kneeland, for 2. Reflections on the Law of Libel, in a Letter addressed to "A Member of the Suffolk Bar." By 3. American Quarterly Observer, No. V. Art. 7. The Periodical Press. III. PRESIDENT DAY ON THE WILL. An Inquiry respecting the self-determining Power V. CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALr. Cortion by Chancellor Kew) 1. An Eulogy on the Life and Character of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, etc. By HORACE BINNEY. 2. A Discourse upon the Life, Character, and Services of the Hon. John Marshall, etc. By Jo- A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, with a Preface on the Germanic Tongues, a Map of Lan- guages, and the Essentials of Anglo-Saxon Grammar. By the REV. J. BOSWORTH. VI. WAYLAND'S LIMITATIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY. 362 378 2. Memoirs of Goethe, written by himself. 3. Characteristics of Goethe, from the German of Falk, Von Müller, etc., with notes, original and trans- 15. Olshausen on the New Testament. 16. Historical Sketches of the Old Painters. 18. Ripley's Specimens of Foreign Literature. 19. St. Real's Conspiracy against Venice. 21. General History of Civilization in Europe, 22. Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. 23. Kingsley's Historical Discourse. THE NEW YORK REVIEW. No. V. JULY, 1838. ART. I.-Principles of Political Economy. Part the First: of the Laws of the Production and Distribution of Wealth. By H. C. CAREY, Author of an Essay on the Rate of Wages. 8vo. pp. 342. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard. 1837. THE name of our author is one not to be brought now for the first time before the American public. He has already taken his stand among the independent thinkers and able writers on the science that comes most home to the prosperity of our common country. In saying this, however, we are far from pledging ourselves to an agreement in all his theoretic reasonings. Our January number bore the title of Mr. Carey's "Essay on the Rate of Wages," prefixed to the article upon "Trades' Unions." The absorbing interest of that great practical question admitting at the time of but brief reference to the works by which it was introduced, we propose now, at greater leisure, to make good the debt of courtesy then unpaid, by a more direct and full examination of the politico-economical opinions of our author, as exhibited in both his earlier and later volumes. And as we deem it more just towards an author, as well as respectful, and certainly find it in the present case much more accordant with our feelings, to ascertain the points in which we agree, before we part company through difference of sentiment, we shall proceed now to take that course. In the first place, then, we like greatly, the tone and spirit with which Mr. Carey enters on the examination of these questions. His opinions are no tame transcript of the judgment of others, but the free genuine sentiments of a mind that needs not the staff of authority to lean upon. They bear, however, a higher stamp; they are the sentiments of a candid and well-balanced mind-one that seeks the truth, and through truth the public good. Pursued in this spirit Political Economy becomes such as our author ever exhibits it-not the disorganizer of society, but its conservative and perfecting principle-not holding up to view the social system in the false light of Jacobinical philosophy, as founded in monopoly, sustained by power, and operating to partial benefit; and thus arraying in hostile interests the poor against the rich, and the laborer against his employer; but on the contrary as a universal, however necessarily an imperfect, good—as the nurse of peace and the mother of plenty-the cradle of the Arts and the rewarder of Industry-showering blessings upon all within its golden circle-but most of all upon those whose labor is their only barter for the comforts of life, inasmuch as to the social system are they alone indebted for the multiplication and cheapening of those products of industry, which in rude and early times were attainable only by the wealthy. In Mr. Carey's Essay on Wages, this forms the great scheme of his argument-demonstrating from the facts of our own as well as other countries, that the wages of labor practically rise with the progress of society- that is, whatever be their monied estimate, still that relatively to the cost of the laborer's comforts they are in advancing proportion. This same principle he again embodies among his fundamental laws of the science in the present volume: "XXIII. That with every improvement in the quality of labor the quantity of commodities to be divided is increased. That this increased production is attended by the power on the part of the laborer to retain a constantly increasing proportion of the commodities produced. He is, therefore, constantly improving in his condition."- p. 339. While assenting to the general principle here laid down, we have two objections to the law as thus stated.-In the first place, its emphatic assertion of "proportion" is both illogical, we think, and unnecessary. It neither follows from the premises of his argument, nor is it necessary to its conclusion: "amount" and not "proportion," is the hinging point of the question. But again, the law is laid down in too sweeping terms. It is true, for instance, with regard to all the results of manufacturing and |