spiritual friends, who ministered consolation to him on gospel grounds, were ever welcome. All comfort offered him in view of death, not drawn from the Scriptures and from the cross of Christ, was distasteful to him, and was positively rejected. To the inquiry, made by an aged Christian friend, who came from Amsterdam to visit him in his last illness, whether his faith in God and Jesus Christ remained firm and steadfast to the end, he gave an emphatic affirmative response-the last, it is thought, that he uttered with full consciousness. On the 18th December, 1831, in his seventy-sixth year, after a short illness, he peacefully and gently breathed his last. Thus closed his long, laborious, and eventful life. His remains were deposited, on the 22d, beneath the great church in Haarlem, beside those of his beloved companion, in the vault of one of the pastors, both of whom were his sincere and faithful friends. We shall not attempt in this article any further delineation of the character of this great man, nor estimate of his works, or of the services which he rendered to the cause of letters, science, and religion, but shall afford our readers the pleasure of listening to the gifted Willem de Clercq, since gone to his reward, who was a personal friend and admirer of Bilderdijk: "Where much existed to praise and to admire, there could not be wanting, also, the depravity which is found, on this polluted earth, in connection with all that is great and sublime. Have we caused the light to appear, the shadow is also there; it is there for our instruction, that we should also here acknowledge, that in his gifts God must be glorified, not man, who, in connection with all his acquired excellencies, ever continues to exhibit the primitive lineament of sin, which he brought with him into this world. . . . . If, then, his poetry affords proof of what the grace of God accomplished for him, it exhibits likewise proofs of the apostacy and sin, as all nature, which we admire, and which yet preaches to us the humiliating truth, that we are dust. And yet, notwithstanding this acknowledgment, we take leave of our poet with the assurance that he rests from his labour, and that He who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, will also confess him, by whom he, though in weakness, was confessed with steadfast .... courage, and in the midst of many trials. The praise of cotemporaries is of short duration; the applause of posterity uncertain; the laurel wreath of the poet fades; but he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life." ART. VI.-Principles of Political Economy, with some of their applications to Social Philosophy. By JOHN STUART MILL. In two volumes. Boston: Charles C. Little, and James Brown. WE preface this article with the title of this great production, not because we design to review it, or to avow our acceptance of its doctrines. From some of them we dissent. We refer to it in this way, because we are indebted to its profound and masterly discussions relative to money and credit, for the suggestion of some important facts and reasonings, in the analysis of these subjects, to which we now introduce our readers. In proportion as men emerge out of a state of pure barbarism, and make any approaches towards civilization, they spontaneously adopt what is known as "division of labour." That is, instead of attempting to produce all the various commodities they need, each by his own labour, they severally devote themselves to the production of some single, or at most, few articles. Of these, each produces a larger quantity than he needs for his own use, and in some way seeks to exchange the residue for other desired articles, of which others, in his own or other countries, have produced a surplus, which, in its turn, for like reasons, seeks a reciprocal exchange. This process of division of labour goes forward in increasingly minute subdivisions, as civilization advances, until, to form the point of a pin, or the eye of a needle, becomes the exclusive occupation of a life. In this way, of course, the skill and efficiency of labour are immensely increased, and its products multiplied beyond calculation. Out of this plenty and variety of products, so immensely surpassing the few necessaries for bare subsist ence, which the savage is able to fabricate and collect in his hut, arise the wealth, power, comfort, luxury, elegance, and refinement, that distinguish civilized nations. Out of all this division of labour, and in proportion to its extent, arises the necessity of exchanging its products. So trade and commerce are commensurate with the productiveness of human labour, and the advance of civilization. But it is demonstrable, both from the nature of the case, and from history, that this exchange can take place only in a very limited and inconvenient way, without that medium of exchange, which, whether able to define it or not, every child understands, under the name of money. Simple barter is an awkward and cumbrous operation, and involves so many difficulties, that, left to it alone, exchange, and consequently division of labour, with all its benefits, would speedily be arrested. The simplest example will show this. A tailor desires some nails to repair his house, or a hat for his head. How can he make garments that shall be of the precise value of these or other articles he needs? Or if he could, how rarely would he find a person having nails or hats to sell, who would want exactly such garments? As each may readily see for himself, this example is a type of all others. Hence the rudest nations, who have advanced a step beyond a pure state of nature, have found the necessity of some medium of exchange. Various substances more or less precious have been adopted for this purpose, in the ruder stages of society; but, in proportion to the advance of civilization and intelligence, the nations, with a unanimity scarcely paralleled on any other subject, have recognised the two substances known as gold and silver, or the precious metals, as alone suitable to fulfil this function. The reasons for this, which may be called the universal judgment of our race, are urgent enough to explain it. And yet, when men differ so largely on other subjects, affording no greater room for reasonable debate, this remarkable unanimity. of the commercial world on this momentous subject, may be ascribed, in part, to a higher than earthly guidance. For, so far as exchange and commerce among nations are important, they are immensely facilitated. by a uniform medium of exchange, and measure of exchange able value. That substances suitable for such a medium exist, and have so evinced themselves to the mind of the race as to secure a practically universal adoption, is a special manifestation of the divine goodness. Only one step further on the part of man, is necessary to secure the full consummation and benefit of this uniformity in the substances they recognise as money. This is a uniform standard of coinage and nomenclature of coins among all nations. Whenever national pride and isolation so far melt away before the cosmopolitan forces of commerce and Christianity, as to furnish international coins and currency uniform for the whole world, this will greatly lubricate the machinery of trade, and remove much of the friction which still impedes exchanges between the nations. The reasons why the precious metals constitute the fittest material for a medium of exchange, and measure of relative value, are, First, their great value in proportion to their bulk and weight. Value, in the sense of political economists here intended, implies two things; first, that it be what men deem really important and desirable to possess. Whatever labour anything may have cost, even that spent upon the Great Eastern or the Atlantic cable, to the amount of millions, the product is of no value, except as it is something important and desirable to men. Secondly, that which has value, in our present sense, must also cost labour to acquire it. The amount and difficulty of this labour are the precise measure of the value of its products. Thus pure air and water are in the utmost degree important and desirable to men. Yet they have no value, i. e., economic or exchangeable value, where it costs no labour to obtain them. In cities, where pure water is obtained by costly aqueducts, and on ship-board, where it costs labour to place and keep it, it has its price, and a proportionate exchangeable value. Two elements then enter into exchangeable value-intrinsic utility and desirableness, together with the necessity of labour in order to production or acquisition. These properties combine remarkably in the precious metals, and this, in connection with the most diminutive weight and bulk. Aside from their use as money, they have ever been coveted by men for purposes of art, ornament, comfort, and luxury; and as symbols of social dignity, rank, and power. This intrinsic utility and desirableness form an indispensable requisite, else they would have no exchangeable value. Bits of marble, shaped and polished in the form of coin, at whatever cost, would not serve for money, because they are of insignificant worth or use to men for any other purpose. Or if they were of use, but were as free to all without labour as the air we breathe, they would not serve for money. It is, moreover, requisite that this value be compressed within small weight and bulk, in order to fulfil another requisite in the medium of exchange, which is, 2. Portability. This requisite is so obviously necessary as to need no elucidation. A substance having the weight and bulk of iron, in a given value, would be impracticable as an ordinary medium of exchange, where civilization has developed any considerable progress in manufactures and commerce. 3. Divisibility into small equal quantities, and their multiples, without considerable labour or loss. In this way the amounts required for exchange may be varied indefinitely, as circumstances require. They may be easily and exactly computed, and the values of all other commodities readily reckoned and denominated in the amount of coin for which they will exchange. This requisite rules out precious stones, which have some of the other most essential properties of money. 4. Durability is another essential property in the substances used for money. That which would easily wear, or waste, or decay, or tarnish, would speedily sink in worth and desirableness, and would thus fail to be a uniform standard of value. This is one of the most important characteristics of money, and belongs eminently to the precious metals. 5. As closely connected with, and necessary to the last, something like uniformity in the actual or relative cost of production, i. e., labour requisite to obtain them, from age to age, is necessary to their uniformity of value. This has been a remarkable property of the precious metals. The two chief exceptions have been the great increase and cheapening of the production of silver, especially consequent on the discovery and working of the Mexican and South American mines; and of gold, after the late discoveries of it in California and Australia. We do not, however, consider that this materially altered their relative, if it did their actual cost of production. By this we |