well sigh and exclaim, "Oh, oh, the wooing o't!" We cannot say that the Baxendale horizon was as clear of cloud as when we first beheld it, though young life made the homestead joyous, and Christian trust and principle kept its atmosphere serene. It was well-known that there was an enemy in ambush who could sound the note of alarm at any time.

Not often did Mr. Baxendale have those terrible fits, the first of which had so shocked Alice Hetherington; but even at intervals of six months, when hope had almost become presumptuous, the warning was again given, and Mrs. Baxendale knew but too well that the shock never passed without leaving some trace on the once quick intelligence, as well as on the nervous system. The best medical advice was sought, and her own scientific insight and skill were no doubt greatly in the sufferer's favour; but she became more anxious for the boys to complete their education and to establish themselves, than she would have been under ordinary circumstances. Her own health was failing, though she kept that knowledge, as much as possible, to herself; and there were certain contingencies with the property which did not tend to give Mr. Baxendale the free-and-easy mind in which doctors said was all his hope; but that might bring calamity upon the heels of calamity. The truth was, that only a few years ago, he had made a bad investment of the greater part of his property, and then mortgaged his land very heavily, in the hope of redeeming it by degrees, but the work of redemption had not

proceeded very far. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Mrs. Baxendale knew Whom to call upon in the day of trouble, and knew also that He had bidden her to "take no thought for the morrow," and in "quietness and assurance was her strength."

Mr. Hetherington, self-consumed as he was at times with the anxiety about Alice, whose letters were short, unsatisfactory, and but few and far between, spoke so little of her in the home circle, that Mrs. Hetherington and her mother imagined he thought very little abou her. Yet, though he was a man who could not unbosom his griefs, he sometimes, by a chance word, gave Mrs. Baxendale the key to a great deal that was passing in his mind, and he always found he was better for it, because she seemed to communicate to him some of her strong, calm trust.

During his residence in Ripplethorpe, the yearly angler for trout did not visit the little beck, and Seth Micklethwaite had ceased from the expectation of ever seeing him again. However, such is the strength of habit, that the September after the Hetheringtons had left for another scene of labour, the doctor returned to the "Royal Oak," and this time he was destined to make an acquaintance who had been too callow for his notice when he last angled there.

However, we must not tarry too long with our Ripplethorpe friends, but see how the two years have passed with acquaintances elsewhere and so let us take ourselves to Highchester: yes and come round to Ripplethorpe by Paris.

HERE is a good deal of very vague talk at the present time about "self-made men.' Certain giants in science, literature, or art are singled out and "lionised" as those who have made reputations or fortunes, by the force of their own unaided industry. It may, on the contrary, be safely asserted that no really great man was ever "self-made." Provilence seems to have taken the utmost pains to ender such impossible. Let us, for argument's sake, assume, however, that a self-made man is possible. What is the notion underlying the erm? It is that this man, the hero of our little hour, has, independently of all extraneous Assistance, without any help whatsoever, by his wn innate force of character, provided himself with every requisite, and climbed successfully he numerous "rounds" in the ladder of forune or of fame, until, away above his fellows, between them and a clear sky, he stands on his ofty pinnacle, admired by all the world; it is hat our hero owes thanks to none-has been horoughly independent. It seems to us that he nearest approach to a "self-made man nderneath the sun is to be found in the backFoods of America or the interior of Africa, in he person of our friend, the Red Indian, or the Makololo, and yet even he does not come up to ar ideal of independence, for it is supposable hat he for a season, like ourselves, hung at ome fond mother's breast.

Have we ever imagined what independence of ur fellow-creatures really implies? Suppose hat we were so idiotic as to set out with the roud purpose of becoming perfectly independent, eally "self-made men." It is, of course, as he "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table "" says,

a great deal better to be made in that way than ot to be made at all"-yet the making would, ve fear, be a very sorry matter. To begin with ur clothing: we really do not know the length f time it would take us to make even a single uit. It would require at least a week to proluce a coat, even suppose we found the material eady woven on some sheep's back; the vest and he "unmentionables" would occupy another week fully, and most likely would be unseemly after all our trouble. It makes us shudder to Chink of the shirts (both linen and flannel), of the socks and boots which, by dint of tremendous

exertion, would, at length, be forthcoming. We fancy that then all attempts at producing a beaver hat would be judiciously abandoned, and a conviction that we could go bare-headed, like a charity boy, would become strong within us. Taste and curiosity might perhaps lead us to try the manufacture of a watch and chain-and it is probable that after months of patient labour the watch would not, for any practical purpose, be better than Paul Dougherty's time-piecewhich consisted of a turnip and a cricket in it. Yet suppose the suit finished, and that it proved. as durable as the raiment of the Israelites, which lasted forty years the next concern would be about a dwelling-place. Think of the Herculean task of building a house, from the drain to the chimney-pot; of cutting out doors and fitting in grates; of providing the household stuff, from the state-bed in the stranger's room to the cradlein the corner; from the pottery in the servant's pantry to the old china on our lady's sideboard; from the saucepan to boil the baby's meat (that is, if a "self-made man would be bothered with babies, or would ever think of cradles and saucepans) to the spit to roast the Christmas turkey :-the exploits of Theseus and Hercules would dwindle into insignificance beside such as these! And then, when the house would be finished, and let us hope" water-tight," at what a cost of time and labour would a few manuscripts be gathered by us, to be called in compliment, a library! after which prodigious exertion, it would be the smallest satisfaction imaginable to be able to sit down and tell our wife (if unfortunately we had one), that she had married a "self-made man." "Your self-made man," says the Autocrat, "whittled into shape with his own jack-knife, deserves more credit, if that is all, than the regular engine-turned article, shaped by the most approved pattern, and French-polished by society and travel. But as to saying that one is every way the equal of the other, that is another matter."

Providence abhors a self-made man, just as Nature, according to the old philosophers, abhors a vacuum. Laws surround us of such a character that absolute independence is impossible. None can live by himself any more than to himself. What an individual could provide by distracting his mind with the idea of perfect independence, would only be laughed at in the markets of the world. The arrangement under which we live.

is wholly at variance with such isolation; the government that obtains in the world is that each should act cut a peculiar part, suited to his tastes and talents, and in lieu thereof should receive out of the market a certain proportion of the necessaries, decencies, and, perhaps, luxuries of life. By admitting the truth, and acting upon it, that he is a unit in a multitude, a tiny part of a vast whole, a little wheel in a vast machine, he secures an amount of sustenance and enjoyment that would be utterly beyond his reach on the independent system. How wide the truth, if we would only think of it, "It is not good that the man should be alone!

Yet it is supposable that men will sometimes blind themselves to all this, and force themselves or others to struggle after the impossible independence. Men have acted thus often. The slave-owner in the Southern States of America used to compel his dependents to provide themselves with everything they required-to build their huts, to grow and cook their food, to make their clothing, and swing their hammocks; and the poor creatures, "self-made" by compulsion, had to trail on a miserable existence, largely exiled from the decencies, not to mention at all the luxuries of life with which the world outside was stored. The world recognised in slavery a grievous, an inhuman wrong-and Providence put a period to it in the agonies of civil war.

Now we have dwelt upon the absolute impossibility of independence in this world, and upon the folly of pursuing, as individuals, such a phantom, that our readers might the more clearly see the kindred and wider folly of such a pursuit on the part of nations. If Providence abhors a self-made, perfectly independent and isolated man, believe me, He abhors as much a self-made, isolated nation. The nation that attempts to be self-contained, that fancies it can supply all its wants, irrespective altogether of its neighbours, must in the end perish. If Providence has given to no single man facilities for producing all that he requires in the way of necessaries, decencies, and luxuries, He has, be assured, given facilities for producing all needful things to no single nation. The world has been laid out upon the principle of unity and dependence. It is a single estate, not a multitude of estates. It has corn-fields, and tea-gardens, and vine-lands, and forests of oak and pine. The tropics generally are intended to produce the world's spices and fragrant fruits; America, to produce cotton and Indian corn; China, to fill the world's tea-cups; Hindostan, to furnish indigo and rice; Poland and the temperate zone to fill the world with wheat; France, Italy, and the Mediterranean coasts, to give us grapes and oranges, figs, citron, and almonds; while such a country as England affords pasture for cattle, and brings out the elements of manufactures

from its mines. from its mines. If we study the world and its powers of production we are compelled to the conclusion that God has framed

"Mankind to be one mighty family

Himself our Father, and the world our home."

But this great central truth nations may neglect—yes, are neglecting daily. So blind are many nations, even now, that they are struggling after independence and isolation-as if anything but the curse of God could rest upon such conduct.

Now let us suppose an extreme case, that the evil of national isolation may be laid bare. Suppose that Britain determined to do without China, and to raise her own tea, instead of importing it. It is extremely probable that it would require more than all the agricultural labourers in Britain to keep, by home production, our cups as full of tea as they are at present. And then we should be in the proud position of having tea produced at home-of having a few manufactures, sufficient perhaps to buy bread and butter to take to our tea, but nothing more. We would have the satisfaction of being perfectly independent of China; but this would be a small comfort if it led to a ceaseless round of bread, butter, and tea, to a ceaseless clatter of beggarly cups and saucers. It would be impossible, we admit, for a nation to be so blinded to its own advantages as to act in such a manner. The instinct of John Bull for "roast beef and plum-pudding" would soon tumble down the arrangements by which the nation, in the pride of its heart, expected to become independent of China.

Yet what does not exist in such extravagant form as that which I have supposed, exists in many countries at this hour, and until very lately existed in civilised England, in modified forms. It was once thought that it would be the ruin of the land if other nations were allowed to sell in the English market corn at a cheaper rate than the English farmer could produce it from the worst land under tillage; it was once thought that it was for the national interests to raise all the food of the people in our island-home, and if possible, some to export for other nations-and so, in the interests of native agriculturalists, as it was imagined, a tax was placed upon all foreign grain sufficient to bring it up to the high price at which alone corn could be produced from England's worst tillage, while a bounty was allowed on exported grain to enable the English to undersell, if possible, the foreigner in his own market. We need not fatigue our readers with statistics about the gradation in the Corn Laws from very early times down to 1849; if any of them are curious upon the point they can refer to Adam

mith's Digression on the Corn Trade and orn Laws-" Wealth of Nations," Bk. iv., ch. 5, id McCulloch's excellent supplementary note ereupon. It is only the principle involved in e arrangement that concerns us. Under the sane idea, then, that independence and tional advantage are identical, the laws of ngland were so framed as to prohibit the to prohibit the troduction of cheap corn into the English arket by those nations that could grow it sier than we. Providence had given peculiar cilities to Poland, to America, to France and her continental states for the production of ead-stuffs, but rather than be beholden to ovidence, especially when he chose to sail der a foreign flag, England preferred at vast to raise her own supply of corn. This s the false patriotism which for many a ary and disastrous year had its home in lightened England-a kindred patriotism sts among other nations to this hour; and at the noble science of political economy 3 demonstrated, is the folly, the absurdity, , the crime, of such a course of conduct. hat Lord Grenville wrote in the way of prot to the Corn Law of 1815, may be quoted h advantage here:-"We cannot persuade selves that this law will ever contribute to duce plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price. long as it operates at all, its effects must be opposite of these. Monopoly is the parent scarcity, of dearness, and of uncertainty. cut off any of the sources of supply, can y tend to lessen its abundance; to close inst ourselves the cheapest market for any imodity, must enhance the price at which we chase it; and to confine the consumer of a to the produce of his own country, is to ise to ourselves the benefit of that provision ch Providence itself has made for equalising man the variations of climate and of sons.'

let it was not till the famine of 1846 in and had reduced the system of the body tic and cleared its mental powers, that the ion was convinced of the utter folly and ardity of refusing the foreigner's cheap a. Cut off from the granaries of the world the protective system, isolated by the free of this boastful nation, was it to be woned at that, when the internal supply most denly failed, stark famine should stare muldes in the face? It was Providence assertHis claim by the unmistakable thunder of gment. To my mind the famine of 1846 ns one very important application of those n words in the Proverbs, "Because I have led," and had Providence not been calling on the nation to accept of His mercy and

In McCulloch's edition of the "Wealth of Nations," p. 523.

goodness through foreign channels?" and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsels, and would none of My reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." (Prov. i. 24-27.) Not till the day of famine would the Legislature listen to the voice of reason and of justice, and allow the corn trade to be free. They tell us constantly that "love is blind "-and self-love, by which we here mean "selfishness," is most certainly. Famine forced a better policy upon the country. What has been the experience of more than thirty years' free trade in corn? Have the landlords been ruined by a fall in rent? No, but a merciful and undeserved compensation has come about, and the rearing of live stock upon the inferior lands, combined with the wonderful instinct for roast beef, pork and mutton, on the part of the manufacturing population, has led to the rents becoming higher than in the palmiest days of protection, and demonstrated that when Pro vidence is followed even by compulsion, men find themselves on the path of plenty and of blessing.

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It has been noticed by Macaulay in his Essay on Milton, that, as civilisation advances poetry almost necessarily declines." And it is curious and interesting to observe how the very highest. wisdom is often found in an early, and, as some men would say, an unenlightened age. It would seem as if in the simple, early prime, when the eye of man is full of poetic and tender feeling, he is wont to alight upon the deep principles of eternal right and justice, to which advancing science and civilisation are compelled to come. There were two Englishmen, Sir Hugh Willoughby and Captain Richard Chancellor, who, in 1553, set out upon a voyage of discovery-and they received from the English Government of the day a letter which, for breadth of view and wisdom would, as Mr. McCulloch says, "Do no discredit to the statesmen of our own time." It begins by setting forth the disposition to cultivate the love and friendship of his kind, implanted by the Almighty in the heart of man,-the consequent duty of all, according to their power, to maintain and augment this disposition-and the conduct of the king's ancestors in this respect, which had ever been "to shewe good affection to those who came to them from farre countries." It then proceeds as follows:

"And if it be right, and equity, to shewe such humanitie to all men, doubtlesse the same ought chiefly to be shewed to merchants, who, wandering about the world, search both the land and the sea, to carry such good and

profitable things as are found in their countries to remote regions and kingdomes; and again to bring from the same such things as they find there commodious for their own countries; both as well that the people to whom they goe may not be destitute of such commodities as their countries bring not forth to them, as that also they may be partakers of such things whereof they abound. For the God of heaven and earth, greatly providing for mankinde, would not that all things should be found in one region, to the ende that one should have need of another; that by this means, friendship might be established among all men, and everyone seek to gratifie all. For the establishing and furtherance of which universal amitie, certaine men of our realme, moved hereunto by the said desire, have instituted and taken upon them a voyage by sea into farre countries to the intent that, between our people and them, a way may bee opened to bring in and carry out merchandise, desiring us to further their enterprises. Who, assenting to their petition, have licensed the right valient and worthy Sir Hugh Willoughby, Knight, &c., according to their desire, to goe to countries to them heretofore unknown, as well to seeke such things as we lacke, as also to carry unto them, from our regions, such things as they lacke. So that hereby not only commoditie may ensue both to them and to us, but also an indissoluble and perpetual league and friendship. We, therefore, lesire you, kings and princes, and all other to whom there is any power on earth, to permit unto these, our servants, free passage by your regions and dominions; for they shall not touch anything of yours unwilling to you. Consider you that they also are men. If, therefore, they shall stand in neede of any thing, we desire you, of all humanitie, and for the nobilitie which is in you, to aide and help them with such things as they lacke. Shewe yourselves towards them as you would that we and our subjects should shewe themselves towards your servants, if, at anie time, they shall passe by our regions."*

Here, then, in a letter three hundred years old, written by men actuated by devout religious feeling, we have all the wisdom to which science has brought us in the matter of freedom of trade. With an eye for Providence, and a conviction of the soundness of what has been called "the golden rule," these men have put into a nutshell the wisdom that has at length been elaborated out of the struggles of centuries. I cannot here forbear quoting the language of Mr. Gladstone, given in a speech at Glasgow some years ago. He says:"Thirty years ago this country, like all other countries in the world, was overspread with a

* In McCulloch's edition of "Wealth of Nations," pp. xxv.-vi.

network of what was called the protective system; and I cannot describe that protective system more truly or more concisely in any other words than by saying that it appears to be an elaborate contrivance, by means of which, under the mask and notion of doing good, s nation devises a most ingenious instrument for robbing, plundering, and impoverishing itself. There was barely a trade, with the exception of the cotton industry, that did not suppose itself to be more or less interested in this pretended protective system. That is now, like an evil dream, passed away, is a thing of the past; and all that remains to be done, with certain exceptions, which I hope will soon disappear—and we shall be thankful for the escape we have had-is to endeavour to induce the other countries in the world to confer on themselves the same advantages which we have been happy enough

to secure.

"With certain exceptions, which I hope will soon disappear," says Mr. Gladstone; and it is well for us to note this-for we have as yet in this land only an instalment of free-trade. While any customs or excise duties remain, trade is still a prisoner-and it seems most likely in the course of years that our taxation shall be all direct, and that the indirect system shall be given over. Then the people, having the whole bill before them, having every item set down directly, will cry, "Out" upon Govern ment corruption and Government sinecures; the expenses of Government will then be most narrowly watched-and a happier commonwealth shall rejoice over trade being really and fully free!

But it is not for us to pause over the pay ment of the balance of freedom to the hitherto badly used trade-let us assume that the progressive wisdom of the country has afforded, as it assuredly will ere long afford, a perfect freedom of trade; we are to grasp if possible the ethical or moral bearing of the whole, and lif the economic subject into the high region of eternal truth. If we succeed in this, we shall have accomplished something, so far as we are aware, not directly attempted by any economist.

it as

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It may as well be premised at this point that certain fierce attacks have been made upon the science of political economy by the late Thomas Carlyle, and others of his school, such as John Ruskin, the great art critic. Carlyle sneers at the dismal science," and speaks, even in his last production, the brochure on the Reform Bill, "Shooting Niagara-and After ?" of freetrade as "free-racing, ere long with unlimited speed in the career of cheap and nasty. Ruskin, in his economical effusions, the mos remarkable illustration of late years of the danger of a fish leaving its native element,