CONVERSATION I.

INTRODUCTION.

ERRORS ARISING FROM TOTAL IGNORANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF ITS PRINCIPLES. DIFFICULTIES TO BE SURMOUNTED IN THIS STUDY.

MRS. B.

WE differ so much respecting the merit of the passage you mentioned this morning, that I cannot help suspecting some inaccuracy in the quotation.

CAROLINE.

Then pray allow me to read it to you; it is immediately after the return of Telemachus to Salentum, when he expresses his astonishment to Mentor at the change that has taken place since his former visit; he says, "Has any misfortune happened to Salentum in my absence? the magnificence and splendour in which I left it have disappeared. I see neither silver, nor gold, nor jewels; the habits of the people are plain, the buildings are smaller, and more simple, the arts languish, and the city is become a desert.' -"Have you observed," replied Mentor with a smile, "the state of the country that lies round it?"" Yes," said

B

Telemachus; "I perceive that agriculture is become an honourable profession, and that there is not a field uncultivated."- -" And which is best," replied Mentor,

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a superb city, abounding with marble, gold, and silver, with a steril and neglected country; or a country in a state of high cultivation, and fruitful as a garden, with a city where decency has taken place of pomp? A great city full of artificers, who are employed only to render manners effeminate, by furnishing the superfluities of luxury, surrounded by a poor and uncultivated country, resembles a monster with a head of enormous size, and a withered, enervated body, without beauty, vigour, or proportion. The genuine strength and true riches of a kingdom consist in the number of people, and the plenty of provisions; and innumerable people now cover the whole territory of Idomeneus, which they cultivate with unwearied diligence and assiduity. His dominions may be considered as one town, of which Salentum is the centre: for the people that were wanting in the fields, and superfluous in the city, we have removed from the city to the fields."

Well-must I proceed, or have I read enough to convince you that Mentor is right?

MRS. B.

I still persist in my opinion; for though some of the sentiments in this passage are perfectly just, yet the general principle on which they are founded, that town and country thrive at the expense of each other, is quite erroneous; I am convinced, on the contrary, that flourishing cities are the means of fertilising the fields around them. Do you see any want of cultivation in the neighbourhood of London? or can you

name any highly improved country which does not abound with wealthy and populous cities? On the other hand, what is more common than to observe decayed cities environed by barren and ill-cultivated lands? The purple and gold of Tyre during the prosperity of the Phoenicians, far from depriving the fields of their labourers, obliged that nation to colonise new countries as a provision for its excess of population.

CAROLINE.

That is going very far back for an example.

MRS. B.

If you wish to come down to a later period, compare the ancient flourishing state of Phoenicia with its present wretchedness, so forcibly described by Volney in his travels.

CAROLINE.

Has not this wretchedness been produced by violent revolutions, which during a course of ages have impoverished that devoted country, and does it not continue in consequence of the detestable policy of its present masters? But in the natural and undisturbed order of things, is it not clear that the greater number of labourers a sovereign should, after the example of Idomeneus, compel to quit the town in order to work in the country, the better that country would be cultivated?

MRS. B.

I do not think so; I am of opinion, on the contrary, that the people thus compelled to quit the town would not find work in the country.

CAROLINE.

And why not?

MRS. B.

Because there would already be as many labourers in the country as could find employment.

CAROLINE.

In England that might possibly be the case, but would it be so in badly cultivated countries?

I think it would.

MRS. B.

CAROLINE.

Do you mean to say, that if a country which is ill cultivated were provided with a greater number of labourers, it would not be improved? You must allow that this requires some explanation.

MRS. B.

It does so, and perhaps even more than you imagine; for you cannot well understand this question without some knowledge of the principles of political economy.

CAROLINE.

I am very sorry to hear that, for I confess that I have a sort of antipathy to political economy.

Are

you sure that political economy?

MRS. B.

you understand what is meant by

CAROLINE.

I believe so, as it is very often the subject of conversation at home; but it appears to me the most

uninteresting of all subjects. It is about customhouses, and trade, and taxes, and bounties, and smuggling, and paper-money, subjects which I cannot listen to without yawning. Then there is a perpetual reference to the works of Adam Smith, whose name is never uttered without such veneration, that I was induced one day to look into his work on Political Economy to gain some information on the subject of corn, but what with forestalling, regrating, duties, drawbacks, and limiting prices, I was so overwhelmed by a jargon of unintelligible terms, that after running over a few pages, I threw the book away in despair, and resolved to eat my bread in humble ignorance. So if our argument respecting town and country relates to political economy, I believe that I must be contented to yield the point in dispute without understanding it.

MRS. B.

Well, then, if you can remain satisfied with your ignorance of political economy, you should at least make up your mind to forbear from talking on the subject, since you cannot do so to any purpose.

CAROLINE.

I assure you that requires very little effort; I only wish that I was as certain of never hearing the subject mentioned, as I am of never talking upon it myself.

MRS. B.

Do you recollect how heartily you laughed at poor Mr. Jourdain in the Bourgeois Gentilhomme, when he discovered that he had been speaking prose all his life without knowing it?-Well, my dear, you fre