and I were set down to our little dinner, one simple dish of veal-collops, without any notice, the Queen walked into the dining-room, and said, I must not be angry with my servant, for she would come in, and that my dinner smelt so well, she would partake of it with me. I was both delighted and confused with the honour conferred upon me. Miss Port very readily resigned her place, and became our attendant. The Queen honoured my humble board, not only by partaking of it, (which she did to make me go on with my dinner,) but commended it very much. Soon after the clock struck four, her Majesty said she would resign her place; for she came to see me on purpose to prevent my venturing out in the evening, lest I should catch cold before my journey. REMARKS ON THE SUPPOSED HABITATIONS OF COLUMBUS, PETRARCH, AND BY BARON VON ZACH. JUDAS ISCARIOT. M. ROBIN, a French writer, published at Paris in 1807, in three volumes, a narrative of Travels in the interior of Louisiana, West Florida, Martinique, and St. Domingo. In the last-mentioned island, which he visited in 1802, he saw the ruins of a deserted mansion, surrounded with thorn-bushes, shrubs, and nettles. While resting upon these rains, he did not fail to make some highly philosophical reflections on the perishable nature of all human things. On considering the fate of many great men, he was filled with profound pity, and his indignation vented itself in vehement censure of the ingratitude and injustice of mankind. But what mansion was it that occasioned these grave meditations? Ah! replies M. Robin with a sigh, it was the habitation of Christophoro Colombo. It belongs to the learned historians and biographers of the illustrious and unfortunate conqueror of the new world to discuss and decide the question, whether he ever had inclination or leisure for building castles in St. Domingo. During his first visit he erected a small wooden fort, which in his second voyage he saw in ashes, surrounded by the mutilated carcases of thirtyeight of his companions whom he had left behind. At the time of his third voyage he found the colony in a state of confusion and actual insurrection; he had then to struggle against the most virulent spirit of persecution. In his fourth voyage, Colombo was received with specious friendship by the traitors, Ovando and Varros, and soon obliged to betake himself to flight, and to quit, with all possible expedition, the foriner theatre of his glory, but then of his Whoever adversity and humiliation. possesses a merely superficial acquaintance with the memorable history of the NEW MONTHLY MAG. NO. 80.* discovery of America, would be exceedingly puzzled to tell at what time Colombo could have resided in this noble mansion, which is situated in a retired and beautiful valley. The inhabitants of St. Domingo*, however, unanimously assured M. Robin that this mansion had belonged to Christophoro Colombo. It is not improbable that this building may be in the same predicament as Petrarca's chateau at Vaucluse, which the inhabitants of this charming valley never fail to point out to the curious traveller. Yet Petrarca no more dwelt in a chateau at Vaucluse than Colombo The in the island of St. Domingo. building, seated on a lofty rock, which is shewn as the residence of Petrarch, belonged to the bishops of Cavaillon and lords of Vaucluse. The modest dwelling of the swan of the Sorgue was, on the contrary, a simple peasant's cottage, which he somewhat improved to commodious. This render it more house experienced the same fate as Colombo's little fort in St. Domingo. On Christmas-day, 1335, it was first plundered, and then set on fire, by a band of robbers who had for some time previous haunted the vicinity of Vaucluse. Not a vestige of it remains, because the stones were applied by the inhabitants of the valley to other purposes; nevertheless, out of a hundred travellers who visit Vaucluse from respect to the memory of Petrarca and Lanra, at least ninety-nine believe they have seen the *The town of St. Domingo was built in 1494 by Bartolomeo Colombo, Christopher's brother, but it was not the same place that M. Robin visited. The ancient town found ed by Bartolomeo was completely destroyed by a most tremendous hurricane in 1502. It was situated on the east bank of the Ozama, whereas the present town stands on the west bank of that stream. 2 M VOL. XIV. 266 Habitations of Columbus, Petrarch, and Judas Iscariot. [Sept. 1, dwelling of the philosophic poet, just as M. Robin believed he had seen that of the great navigator. Of Petrarca's residences, his house at Arqua, near Padua, is the only one still standing, and this cannot certainly be considered as a chateau. A French proverb says, A beau mentir qui vient de loin-in plain English, He who travels far may lie as much as he pleases. But a person has no occasion to go very far to be entitled to the privilege of retailing wonders. At Corfu the people shew a house in which, according to their account, Judas Iscariot resided. They tell you at the same time that the stones of which it is built could never be dispersed; for if any of them be carried away even to the distance of one hundred leagues, it soon returns to its former place. Of course this house need not apprehend the fate of Petrarca's at Vaucluse. To the tales which occasioned the preceding observations may be added a few authenticated facts respecting Christophoro Colombo. A dissertation by Gerolamo Serra, Francesco Carrega, and Domenico Piaggio, in the third volume of the Memorie dell' Academia delle Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Genova nel 1814, leaves no doubt whatever as to the native country of this navigator. The statements of those respectable academicians are perfectly satisfactory, and after such convincing proofs as they have adduced, farther evidence seems unnecessary. Another document, hitherto unknown, has however been recently brought forward; and as the circulation of the work in which it appears may perhaps not extend for some time beyond the limits of Italy, a brief notice of it is subjoined. M. Bianchi, in his Osservazioni sul Clima, sul Territorio, e sulle Acque della Liguria maritima (Genoa, 1817-1818, 2 vols. 8vo.), informs us, that in the archives of the town of Savona is preserved the will of a certain Niccolo di Monleone G. Giovanni, which was deposited on the 20th of March, 1472, with Luigi Moreno, the notary. In this instrument Christophoro Colombo, son of Dominico, is named among the witnesses who were present at the transaction, and described as a Genoese-vi é qualificato per Genovese. Christophoro was born in 1445, and was consequently at that time 27 years old. This will may possibly contribute to elucidate some circumstances of the life of Colombo, especially as his biographers possess but very meagre particulars concerning this period. Christophoro first went to sea as a youth of fifteen, with an expedition bound to Naples in 1460; from that time we lose sight of him, and we know nothing more than that he became captain of a ship, frequented the northern seas, was in several naval engagements, and saved his life by swimming near Lisbon, where we again find him in 1474, and where he wrote the wellknown letter to Paolo Toscanelli of Florence. This was, of course, two years subsequent to the date of Mouleone's will. In 1475 Colombo alarmed the coasts of the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas with a fleet. Sabellico calls him Archipirata illustris; but it is not known for certain to which Colombo he alludes, as there were two other admirals of that name before Christophoro. We shall dwell no longer on this point, as we had no other object than on the one hand to produce a new proof that Christophoro was a native of Genoa, and to shew on the other, that on the 20th of March, 1472, he was at Savona and not at seaa fact that may be of some use to future inquirers. It has just been observed that there were two admirals of the name of Colombo, one of whom was nephew to the other, and who were known before Christophoro acquired celebrity. Besides these there was a third, who was neither a Genoese nor Piedmontese, nor even an Italian, but a Frenchman. This Colombo was vice-admiral of France, during the reign of Louis XI., and the same who in 1479 took eighty, Dutch vessels and carried them into the ports of Normandy. Respecting this officer the learned and acute Leibnitz fell into a temporary error, by confounding him, in his Codex Juris Gentium diplomaticus, with our Christophoro. This mistake he corrected in the Supplement to his Codex published in 1700, under the title of Mantissa Codicis Juris Gentium diplomatici, after it had been pointed out to him by his correspondent, Nicholas Thoynard, a learned French philologer, antiquary, and historian, who died in 1706. The The real name of the French vice-admiral, which is sometimes spelt Coulomb, at others Coulomp and Coulon, was Guillaume de Caseneuve. surname Colombo was probably only a nom de guerre, assumed by him, as was customary in those times, to place him. self on an equality with his formidable colleague in the Mediterranean, the Archipiruta illustris. The term Pirata was not then considered as any disgrace. Latrocinium maris illis temporibus gloriæ habebatur, says Justin, Hist. lib. 43; and we may ask, are not similar notions prevalent, even at the present day, in regard to conquerors either by sea or land? LETTERS TO MR. MALTHUS, ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND PARTICULARLY ON THE GENERAL STAGNATION OF COMMERCE. LETTER I. BY M. SAY. SIR, EVERY person who takes an interest in the new and interesting science of political economy, will certainly read the work with which it has lately been enriched by your talents. You are not one of those authors who claim the attention of the public, without having any information to communicate; and when the importance of the subject is added to the celebrity of the writer, when the question in debate is that momentous one to civilized society, namely, what are its means of existence and enjoyment? the curiosity of readers will undoubtedly be excited in an extraordinary degree. : I shall not attempt, Sir, to add my suffrage to that of the public, in pointing out the just and ingenious observations in your book; the undertaking would be too laborious. Nor shall I here discuss with you some points, to which, I think, you attach an importance which does not belong to them I should be sorry to annoy either you or the public with pedantic disputes. But, I regret to say, I find in your doctrines some fundamental principles which, if admitted under the imposing sanction of your authority, would occasion a retrograde movement in a science of which your extensive information and great talents are so worthy to assist the progress. In the first place my attention is fixed by the inquiry, so important to the present interests of society: What is the cause of the general glut of all the markets in the world, to which merchandize is incessantly carried to be sold at a loss? What is the reason that in the interior of every state, notwithstanding a desire of action adapted to all the developements of industry, there exists universally a difficulty of finding lucrative employments? And when the cause of this chronic disease is found, by what means is it to be remedied? On these questions depend the tranquillity and happiness of nations: and since this discussion tends to their illustration, I have not thought it unworthy of your attention, or that of the enlightened public. Since the time of Adam Smith, political economists have agreed that we do not in reality buy the objects we consume, with the money or circulating coin which we pay for them. We must in the first place have bought this money itself by the sale of our produce. To the proprietor of the mines whence this money is obtained, it is a produce with which he purchases such commodities as he may have occasion for: to all those into whose hands this money afterwards passes, it is only the price of the produce which they have themselves created by means of their stock in lands, capital, or industry. In selling this, they exchange their produce for money; and they afterwards exchange this money for objects of consumption. It is then in strict reality with their produce that they make their purchases; it is impossible for them to buy any articles whatever to a greater amount than that which they have produced either by themselves, or by means of their capí tals and lands. From these premises I had drawn a conclusion which appeared to me evident, but which seems to have startled you. I had said, "As each of us can only purchase the produce of others with his own produce as the value we can buy is equal to the value we can produce, the more men can produce the more they will purchase. Thence follows the other conclusion, which refuse to admit that if certain goods remain unsold, it is because other goods are not produced; and that it is production alone which opens markets to produce. you I am aware that this proposition has a paradoxical appearance which creates prejudices against it; I know that common prejudices are more likely to support the opinions of those who maintain that there is too much produce, because every body is engaged in creating it: that instead of constantly producing, we ought to increase unproductive consumption, and devour our old capitals instead of accumulating new ones. This doctrine has indeed appearances in its favour it may be supported by are guments; and may interpret facts in its favour. But, Sir, when Copernicus and Galileo first taught that the sun (although it was daily seen to rise in the east, ascend majestically to the meridian, and decline at evening in the west) never moved from its station, they also had to contend with universal prejudice, the opinion of antiquity, the evidence of the senses: yet ought they to have renounced the demonstrations resulting from sound philosophy? I should wrong you, were I to doubt of your answer. To proceed. When I advance that produce opens a vent for produce; that the means of industry, whatever they may be, when left to themselves, always tend to the objects most necessary to nations, and that these necessary objects create at once new populations and new enjoyments for those populations, all appearances are not against me. Let us only look back two hundred years, and suppose that a trader had carried a rich cargo to the places where New York and Philadelphia now stand; would he have sold it? Suppose then that, after escaping the hazards of the climate, he had succeeded in founding there an agricultural or manufacturing establishment; would he have there sold a single article of his produce? No, undoubtedly. He must have consumed them himself. Why do we now see the contrary? Why is the merchandize carried to, or made at Philadelphia or New York, sure to be eventually sold? It seems to me evident that it is because the cultivators, the traders, and now even the manufacturers of New York, Philadelphia, and the adjacent provinces, create or procure there some produce, by means of which they purchase what is brought to them from other quarters. Perhaps it will be said that what is true with respect to a new state, may not be applicable to an old one. There was in America room for new producers and new consumers; but in a country which already contains more producers than sufficient, additional consumers only are wanting. Permit me to answer, that the only true consumers are those who on their side produce, because they alone can buy the produce of others; and that unproductive consumers can buy nothing, unless by means of the value created by those who produce. It is probable that ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth, when England was not half so populous as at present, it has been found that the number of hands exceeded the quantity of labour; I desire no other proof than the poor laws of that period, the consequences of which constitute one of the most dan gerous diseases of England. The prin cipal object of those laws is to furnish work to the unfortunate who cannot obtain employment, They had no en ployment, in a country which has since been able to employ twice or thrice the number of workmen. What is the reason, Sir, however unfortunate the situation of Great Britain may now be, that much greater quantities of goods are now sold there than in the time of Elizabeth? Whence can this arise, unless from the fact that the produce of that country is now greater? One man' produces an article which he exchanges. for another article produced by his neighbour. The means of subsistence being greater, the population has increased, yet every one has been better provided for. It is the power of pro ducing which makes the difference between a country and a desert; and the nore a country produces, the more it is populous, advanced in civilization, and provided with the necessaries of life. You will probably not object to this observation which appears so obvious; but you deny the consequences which I draw from it. I have advanced that whenever there is a glut, a superabundance of several sorts of merchandize, it is because other articles are not produced in sufficient quantities to be exchanged for the former; and if those who produce the latter could provide more cf them or of other goods, the former would then find the vent which they required: in short, that the superabun dance of goods of one description arises from the deficiency of goods of another description. You, on the contrary, assert that there may be a superabundance of goods of all sorts at once; and you adduce several facts in favour of your opinion. M. Sismondi had already opposed my doctrine; and I am happy to quote here his strongest expressions, that I may not deprive you of any of your advantages, and that I may answer: you and M. Sismondi at once. "Europe," says that ingenious author, has in every part arrived at the point of possessing industry and manush facturing power superior to its wants." He adds that the consequent accumula tion and incumbrance begins to affect the rest of the world. In reading the commercial reports, the journals and accounts of travellers, we see on every side proofs of the superabundant pro duction which exceeds consumption; of the manufacturing industry which is proportioned, not to the demand, but to the capital which speculators wish to employ; of that mercantile activity which impels the merchants in crowds to every new market, and exposes them by turns to ruinous losses, in every branch of commerce from which they looked for profit. We have seen merchandize of every description, but above all that of England, the great manufacturing power, abounding in all the markets of Italy in a proportion so far exceeding the demand, that the merchants, to regain a part of their capital, have been obliged to part with them at a loss of a fourth or a third, instead of any profit. The torrent of commerce repelled from Italy, flowed upon Germany, Russia, and Brazil, and soon found in those countries similar ob stacles." "The latest journals announce similar losses in new countries. In August 1818, they complained at the Cape of Good Hope that all the warehouses were filled with European merchandize, which, although offered at lower prices than in Europe, could not be sold. Similar complaints were made in June at Calcutta. At first a strange phenomenon had been seen, that of England sending her cotton goods, &c. to India, and consequently succeeding in working cheaper than the half-naked people of Hindostan, by reducing her workmen to a still more miserable existence. But the direction thus capriciously given to commerce did not last long. At this time English manufactures are cheaper in the Indies than in England. In May, it was found necessary to re-export from New Holland European merchandize which had been carried thither in excessive quantities. Buenos Ayres, New Grenada, and Chili, are sending back goods in a similar way. them by very long credits, and facilities of every kind for the payments, which they receive by instalments and ni goods of every description." EA TUJOVSE There are no facts which present themselves to us in so many places, and so many forms, as the disproportion between the means of consumption and the means of production the inability of those who produce to abandon their industry, because it is in a declining condition, and the certainty that their numbers are never reduced but by failures. How does it happen that philosophers refuse to perceive what meets the eyes of the vulgar in every! direction?" M. "The error into which they have: fallen arises entirely from the false prin ciple that production is the same thing as revenue. Mr. Ricardo, following M Say, thus repeats and confirms it. Say has proved in the most satisfactory manner,' he says, that there is no ca pital, however considerable, which can not be employed, because the demand for produce is limited only by the pro duction. No one produces any thing but with the intention of consuming or selling it; and nothing is ever sold but for the purpose of buying some ] other article of produce, either of im mediate utility, or calculated to contribute future production. The producer therefore becomes the consumer of his own produce, or the purchaser and con sumer of the produce of some other person. Upon this principle," says M Sismondi, "it becomes absolutely im possible to comprehend or explain the most established fact in the history of commerce, the glut of the markets* I must remark, to those who attach great and decisive importance to the facts which M. Sismondi justly regrets, that those facts are indeed conclusive, but against himself. The quantity of English merchandize offered for sale in Italy is! too great, because there is not sufficient Italian produce suitable to the English market. A country can purchase only what it can pay for, since, if it were not to pay, people would soon be tired of "Mr. Fearon's journey in the United selling to it. Now in what articles do States, concluded only in the spring of the Italians pay the English? with oils, 1818, presents the same spectacle in a silks, and dried raisins and besides manner still more striking. From one those and a few other articles, if they extremity of that vast and prosperous would still acquire English produce," continent to the other, there is not a in what form are they to pay for them ? village where the quantity of merchan: In money! But they must first get this dize offered for sale is not infinitely suallar " perior to the means of the buyers, al- ! Nouveaux principes d'Economie Pol-!! though the merchants labour to allure tique, de Sismondi, tom. I. p. 337. 3277 G |