would bring them better employment, social advancement, and increased importance.

Is this scheme practicable? We believe it is; for it was by means similar to those which we are now about to propose that the country became what we now see it. Since 1790 the number of emigrants who have landed in this country has exceeded five millions. These persons brought with them an average of over one hundred dollars each in cash, besides working tools, furniture, &c. It is the natural increase of these persons and their little fortunes that constitute a large part of the entire population and wealth of this country to-day. The means employed to invite these emigrants and their capital to this country were offers of increased political, social and commercial freedom and equality; in a word, more liberty and less monopoly and restraint than the laboring classes, to which they belonged, could secure in their native countries; and although our administration of justice was inferior in point of effectiveness to that which prevailed in Europe (and by the way, is still so), yet their share of the security to life, limb and property which is derived from it was much greater here than there. These offers were lived up to, and as a consequence these five millions of emigrants and their progeny compose to-day the major portion of the population of this country, and their wealth the better half of its entire capital stock.

If during a period of seventy years the importation of five millions of comparatively indigent persons, who were our forefathers, could effect such wonders, what might not the importation of a like number of comparatively wealthy persons during the period of a few short years now effect? Suppose that during the year 1866, seventy-five millions of persons, worth, on an average, two thousand dollars each, or which amounts to the same thing, one million of persons worth, on an average, ten thousand dollars each, were induced to emigrate to this country with their capital, or even to send their capital here for investment, let themselves remain where they pleased, would not such an event be the accomplishment of the very end which we

are seeking for, and would it not be followed by all the brilliant results that we have foreshadowed ?

We have, therefore, to consider what attraction there is which we can hold out to this class of persons. This part of the problem fortunately requires little deliberation. The attraction that will induce them to join us, is the same attraction which formerly induced their less fortunate compatriots to join us-only for the wealthy, these attractions must be increased in degree. The oppressed laborer from Ireland, Austria, Poland, or Hungary; the contemned artisan from London or Paris; the persecuted Jew from Spain or Portugal; or the hated Protestant from Italy, cared very little about nicely measuring the degree of liberty and security which our laws promised to afford them. The de-. gree they knew to be found here was much greater than they could secure in Europe; and this was sufficient for their purpose. With the wealthier classes the case is different. It is not personal liberty and personal security alone which they require; that they possess to a sufficient degree already. What they. want is liberty and security to property; and the country which not only secures them in personal liberty, but, in addition, offers them the most ample guarantees to property, will, in the future, as in the past, be the repository of their vast combined wealth, and the sharer of those lasting benefits which result from its use in developing industrial interests. This is what has made Venice, Holland and England, in turn, the richest and most powerful nations of the world; this is what now keeps Great Britain and France in the front rank of nationalities; this is all that sustains the wealth, power and influence of the Old World; and this is what the United States could outbid the Old World in, and for its reward grasp for itself the sceptre of national superiority and dominion.

The means are at hand, and we could use them at once. The government must drop all intermeddling with private interests and devote itself exclusively to its relations with foreign governments and with the several States of the Union, and to the perfection of our code of justice and its administration. This, we are glad to say, is the unmistakable desire of our present rulers.

All sumptuary protection or monopoly which affects the disposition of property should be repealed. The laws for the collection of debts, for determining the responsibility of fiduciary agents and co-partners, and for detecting and punishing swindlers, should be improved. The law of contract should be perfected. It will not do to stop at the measure of reform which in these respects has been accomplished in England and France. It will not do to merely copy England's noble law of Limited Liability, nor France's article of the Code Napoleon, which so completely secures the creditor against the effects of fraud. No; if we would excel those countries in social rank, we must excel them in the perfection of our system of justice to property, and when we have done this (and we can do it within a few years if we choose) the rate of interest here will not be merely lowered to five per cent., but it will be lowered to two per cent., and the country will become replete with the wealth and refinement of the civilized world.

This, then, is the phenomenon which nobody has cared to study-the ebb and flow of capital from one country to another, induced by superior liberty and security of capital. This flow is what emptied Spain of the treasure she gathered with so much sin and peril from Mexico and Peru; and this ebb is what disseminated it into the two republics of Venice and the United Provinces, where, in those days Liberty held her court. And this phenomenon is what, in modern days, has caused the treasures of civilization to accumulate in London, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Frankfort, themselves either free cities, or the capitals of large empires where the liberty and security of capital are made the special aim of legislation.

E. P.

THE EDITOR'S TABLE.

OUR SECOND VOLUME.-The present number completes the second year of the REVIEW. As compared with our first year, its success has been gratifying. Its influence for good is traceable in the reproduction of many views, advocated by it, in the

daily and weekly press, in the modification of the laws, and in other ways. Our corps of contributors has been increased by the addition of the names of Messrs. Bradford K. Peirce, Joseph A. Allen, and James K. Hamilton Willcox. The REVIEW has fully maintained the high character for scientific accuracy which, during the first year of its existence, it established; and we have the satisfaction of knowing that it is not outranked by any periodical of its kind in the country.

Contributions will, as heretofore, be welcomed from any quarter, carefully examined, and, if used, liberally paid for.

A POLITICO-ECONOMICAL SOCIETY has been established among the Government employés in Washington. This is a step in the right direction, and a sure sign of progress.

RETURN THE AUGUST NUMBER.-Those of our subscribers who do not preserve their copies will confer a favor by returning the number for August, 1866, to this office. For every copy returned in good condition, 75 cents will be paid.

CARLYLE AND MILL.-The difference between the true and the false philosopher is well illustrated by the positions of these two thinkers in regard to the Jamaica massacres. The deification of force which led Carlyle to make a hero of Frederic of Prussia, and to sympathize with the Spirit of Caste in our civil contest, has led him to take the lead in sustaining Governor Eyre's fiendish course. The chairman of the committee, on the other side, which propose to have Eyre tried for murder, is John Stuart Mill.

DEFACING NATURAL SCENERY.-A curious effect of hasty legislation is seen in a late act of the New York Legislature. The Palisades of the Hudson, and nearly all the prominent natural objects in the state, have been disgustingly defaced by inscriptions which call the attention of the poet from the beauties of the scenery to those of " Bininger's Old London Dock Gin"-which try to convert the lover of Nature into a lover of "Constitutional Bitters," and to transfer the efforts of the philosopher to solve the problems of the Universe, to the solution of the magic "S. T.— 1860-X" The legislature passed an act forbidding such defacements (which the makers, no doubt, however, think the crowning pinnacle of American art!") The immediate result of this act has been, by not providing some means of expunging the advertisements previously put up, to give to those who have committed this misdemeanor a complete monopoly of this immense means of advertising !

A surer way to prevent such Vandalism would be for all men of taste to refuse to patronize those who are guilty of such barbarism. This we heartily urge them to do.

Or allow the Attorney-General of the State to sue the perpetravors of these outrages for trespass on the lands of known or unknown proprietors, and recover triple costs against the parties, together with exemplary damages; half of which to go to the owner and half to the state.

SECRET SOCIETIES.-The extent to which secret societies exist in a community is a good test of the real degree of civilization to which that community has attained. In a high state of society, where freedom of thought and action is general, secrecy is needless and often discreditable. In a state of things where freedom has to be defended and fought for day by day, secrecy is a powerful weapon. Now this country contains nearly a dozen secret organizations with political and other objects, with several millions of members.

A LITERARY AGENCY.-The "American Educational Agency" supplies teachers with positions, and schools with teachers, for a small fee. The "Round Table," of New York, happily suggests a "Literary Bureau" on the same plan, to which authors would send manuscripts, and, for a small fee, have their merit examined and passed upon by a board of competent judges, and have them recommended to publishers, and to which the latter could send for works or writers. This is an excellent suggestion, which we hope will be carried into effect. A second board of experts would be needed, however, to report on the probable salability of work which passed the examination as to merit-a quality which does not always depend on intrinsic worth.

A NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.- Undoubtedly Jefferson's remark that the earth belongs to the generation who live on it is correct; though his inference therefrom that no government should, or properly can, last longer than thirty-four years, is hardly justified by the premises. However, it unquestionably contains the germ of a great truth-the fact that so long as a people grows its institutions must grow with it. This truth is recognized by the Constitution of New York in the provision that it shall be remodelled every twenty years. provision would be a great addition to, and improvement on, the National Constitution. Let a convention for its revision be held every fifty years from the date of its adoption, beginning in 1887, and revolution and civil war need no more be dreaded.