twenty millions of pairs of boots and shoes are manufactured here every year, employment being thus given to nearly fifty thousand persons. The manufactures of cabinet, tin, and wooden ware, of hats, caps, and bonnets, soap and candles, paper and leather, employ over twenty-two thousand hands, and the value of the annual product exceeds five millions of dollars. Of course, a large portion of these products is sent to the other States. We say nothing of the much larger manufactures of cotton, wool, and iron, because a part of these goods are exported, though the home market for them s more considerable than the foreign. The other commodities are better illustrations of the principle which we seek to illustrate, namely, that the aggregate national product is greater when the national capital is widely distributed than when it is concentrated in a few hands, because the aggregate consumption is greater. The productive part of this consumption leads to the increase of the national wealth, the unproductive part is an index of the general well-being of the community.

But the subject is an endless one, and we cannot pursue it further without trespassing unreasonably on the patience of our readers. In what we have written upon it, both now and on former occasions, our object has been, not merely to point out the peculiar causes of that frightful anomaly in the history of civilization, the present social condition of Great Britain and Ireland, but to show by contrast the working of our own institutions, and the reasons which all the inhabitants of this country have for being satisfied with their lot. Among the English writers who have recently discussed this theme, Messrs. Laing and Thornton have paid more attention to facts, and Mr. Mill to principles. Though we cannot agree with the latter in all his speculations, and object particularly to his uncompromising defence and broad application of the theory of Malthus, we gladly acknowledge our obligations to him for much instruction on this particular subject, and for what is, on the whole, unquestionably the ablest, the most comprehensive, and the most satisfactory exposition of the whole science of political economy that has appeared since the days of Adam Smith. His book ought to take its place by the side of The Wealth of Nations in the library of every well-informed man, both in the Old and the New World.

ART. VI. The Life and Correspondence of the RIGHT HON. HENRY ADDINGTON, first VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH. By the HON. GEORGE PELLEW, D. D., Dean of Norwich. London: John Murray. 1847. 3 vols.

8vo.

THE name of the late Lord Sidmouth is familiar to all who are conversant with the annals of Great Britain for the last sixty years. His life, commencing in 1757, just before the accession of George III., and extending to almost fourscore and ten years, embraces one of the most important eras in the history of the world. For the magnitude and variety of its events, deeply affecting, as they already have done, and are still destined to do, the social and moral condition of mankind; for the host of distinguished personages this period exhibits, whether of kings and emperors on their thrones, of statesmen wielding the destinies of nations, of ecclesiastics, both in the highest and subordinate ranks, exerting by their learning and virtues an appropriate, or by their ambition and worldliness a questionable power; of heroes military and naval, of whom were Nelson, Napoleon, and Wellington, changing by the issues of a single battle the whole position of Europe; together with a countless host in the walks of literature and art, of science and philosophy, whom the thoughtful reader may number by hundreds, perhaps no single period in history can be selected of greater moment.

The nobleman whose life is here recorded was by his position and length of years a spectator of, and for a great portion of the time an efficient actor in, these transactions. Though confessedly inferior in genius and intellectual power to many with whom in the long course of his public career he was associated, to Pitt and Canning, to Windham, Wilberforce, Sheridan, and Fox, yet by his well-balanced mind and respectable gifts, by his industry, faithfulness, and political integrity, by his disinterestedness, firmness, and independence in the discharge of official trusts, and, crowning all, by the acknowledged excellence of his personal character, he obtained his full share of influence with his colleagues, the confidence of his sovereign, and the devoted attachment of his friends. As Speaker of the House of Commons,that office which confers the rank of the first commoner of

England, to which he was reëlected with great unanimity in several successive Parliaments, Mr. Addington acquired perhaps his highest reputation. "No Speaker," says Dr. Pellew, "ever succeeded better in commanding the attention of the House, or enjoyed to a larger extent its respect. He possessed much of that indescribable attraction of conversation, appearance, and general demeanour, which is so often observed to concentrate upon one the favor and affection of many." "We were all very sorry to vote against you," said Mr. Sheridan, addressing him in the name of the opposing party, on his first taking the chair; and when, twelve years afterwards, in the troublesome crisis of 1801, Mr. Addington reluctantly exchanged the place, where he had gathered so many laurels and won so many hearts, for the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and the consuming cares of the Premiership of England, he found, to his cost, that he had left a bed of roses for a bed of thorns. This is well exhibited by his biographer.

"A singular contrast is presented in Parliament, by the manner in which the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Prime-Minister of the country are respectively treated. The former is regarded as a person who can do nothing wrong; the latter as one who can do nothing right. All parties unite to confer honor on the Speaker; both leaders and followers lavish their courtesy upon him. But the case is generally very different with respect to the Prime-Minister, who is viewed rather as a common mark, against which every discontented person may discharge his shafts with impunity; and who has a phalanx of avowed opponents canvassing all his measures, refusing him the credit of success, imputing to him the blame of every failure, and watching all occasions to overthrow him. Mr. Addington experienced the usual treatment of Prime-Ministers at the very moment he vacated that chair, from whence, as from a land-locked harbour, he had so long viewed the storm raging in the political ocean around him, without being affected by it." During the same evening on which the grateful thanks of the House were unanimously voted to him for his conduct as Speaker, his brother was obliged to appeal to the first principles of justice in his behalf by claiming for his honorable relative, that he might not be prejudged."— Vol. 1. pp. 354, 355.

66

The period at which Mr. Addington was thus called to the ministry was one of unexampled difficulty, demanding VOL. LXVII. NO. 141.

36

high wisdom and unshrinking nerves. The workings of the French Revolution in the minds of the people in Great Britain, as well as elsewhere, diffusing sentiments unfriendly to loyalty; the rising power of Bonaparte, then fast hastening to its height; his threatened invasion in 1801, which, until the signing of the treaty of Amiens, was the subject of anxious solicitude to the whole kingdom; the whole conduct of the Peninsular war, which, from the renewal of hostilities in 1803 to the final defeat of Napoleon on the field of Waterloo, lasted full twelve years, dividing honest opinions, and furnishing in its frequent disasters and intolerable expense perpetual occasion of attack upon the ministry; the utter failure of the crown, as in the memorable cases of Horne Tooke, William Stone, and others, to obtain from juries convictions in its own prosecutions for libel and high-treason, notwithstanding the most determined efforts of judges for the purpose; and, finally, the long perplexity caused by those investigations, once and again forced upon the government, into the conduct of his queen by that worst of husbands and most selfish of princes, George IV. ;- these and other causes, aggravated at intervals by the suffering and rebellious condition of Ireland, and by the distress and riots of the manufacturing districts in England, made the work of administration, at no time easy, then especially arduous and embarrassing. Place and power, so eagerly sought, so tenaciously grasped, and with such reluctance resigned, must needs have great attractions to compensate for their heavy cares. In England, where they are bestowed at the pleasure of the sovereign, but can be held only with the concurrence of the House of Commons, that "fear of change which perplexes nations must often perplex ministers; and if, as we can readily believe upon less authority than can be shown for it, uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," the uneasiness must be shared in full proportion by the Lord Chancellor, who keeps the king's conscience, and by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who keeps his purse; but neither of whom can keep his own place, if the king's faithful or rebellious Commons withhold their sanction to any important measure. Few instances can be adduced of a ministry persisting to retain office, who could not command a decent majority in the House of Commons. For the responsible offices which Mr. Addington suc

66

cessively filled, he was qualified, as we have said, by the respectable endowments of his mind and the trainings of a thorough education. His father was Anthony Addington, an eminent physician, first of Reading and afterwards of London, whither he removed in 1754, and where Henry, his oldest son, was born. At twelve years of age, he was removed from private tuition to Winchester school, and became pupil of the assistant master, George Isaac Huntingford, known among scholars by his eminent attainments in Greek literature, by whom he was tenderly beloved, and with whom, even at that early age, "a friendship almost immediately sprang up, very unusual in parties occupying their relative position, and highly honorable to both." The friendship thus commenced continued till the death of Dr. Huntingford, then, by his own merits and the patronage of his grateful pupil, Bishop of Hereford and Warden of Winchester, in 1832.

66

Huntingford's correspondence, during that whole period of sixty-four years, breathes a spirit of devoted attachment almost surpassing that of a parent. It soared, indeed, far beyond the common height of human friendships, regarding the personal gratification or worldly success of its object as nothing, compared with the elevation of his moral character, and his advancement in truth, fortitude, self-control, and all those manly and Christian virtues which merit, if they cannot command, success. advice of such a man was of almost incalculable value to his youthful friend, its sole object being to instil into his mind noble and generous principles. The Christian and patriot are visible in every sentiment."

The

It was a distinguished happiness of Mr. Addington to have been placed thus early under such an influence, the fruits of which, as we may hereafter see, were distinctly visible through the whole course of his life. From Winchester he removed to Brazen Nose College, in 1774, and having honorably terminated his academical career, commenced the study of the law and was entered of Lincoln's Inn in 1780. In 1781, he married the daughter and co-heiress of Leonard Hammond, Esq., and immediately established himself with his young bride in a somewhat humble residence in Southampton Street, London, fully intending to prosecute his chosen profession, and quite unconscious of the events which were shortly to change his destiny. On the occasion