the doctrine of rent.* I will state it in as brief a compass as perhaps is possible. In a new colony, having a slender population, the natural order in which the arable land is taken up must be this: in the first stage of the process, none but the best land will be cultured; which land let us class as No. 1. In the second stage, when population will have expanded, more wheat, and therefore more land, being wanted, the second best will be brought into culture; and this we will call No. 2. In the third stage, No. 3 will be used. And so onwards; nor can there reasonably be any deviation from this order, unless through casual error, or else because occasionally an inferior soil may compensate its intrinsic inferiority by the extrinsic advantage of lying nearer to a town, or nearer to a good road, or to a navigable river, &c. By way of expressing the graduations of quality upon this scale, suppose we interpret them by corresponding graduations of price: No. 1, for the production of a given quantity (no matter what), requires an outlay of 20s.; No 2, for the same quantity, requires 25s.; and No. 3, which is very perverse land indeed, requires 30s. Now, because 20s. paid the full cost of No. 1, then as soon as the 25s. land is called for by the growing population, since in the same market all wheat of equal quality must bear the same price, which price is here 25s., it follows that a surplus 5s. arises on No. 1 beyond what the cost of culture required. For the same reason, when No. 3 is called for, the price (regulated of necessity by the most costly among the several wheats) rises to 30s. This is now the price for the whole, and therefore for No. 1. Consequently, upon this wheat there is now a surplus of 10s. beyond what the culture required; and upon No. 2, for the same reason, there is a surplus of 5s. What becomes of this surplus? It constitutes RENT. And, amongst other corollaries, these two follow: first, that the lowest quality of land under culture, the last in the descending scale, pays no rent; and, secondly, that this lowest quality determines the price for the whole; and the successive development of advantages for the upper qualities, as the series continues to expand, always expresses itself in successive increments of rent. As here, if No. 4 were taken up at 35s., then rent would immediately commence on No. 3, which would pay as rent the difference between 30s. and 35s.-viz., 5s. No. 2 would now pay 10s., and No. 1 (I am happy, on its owner's account, to announce) would pay 15s.

Well, this is that famous doctrine of RENT, which drew after it other changes, so as, in fact, to unsettle nearly all the old foundations in political economy. And that science had in a manner to pass through the Insolvent Court, and begin the world again upon a very small remainder of its old capital. What I wish to observe upon it in this place is, that this doctrine takes effect, not merely upon arable land, but also upon all mines, quarries, fisheries, &c. All these several organs of wealth involve within themselves a graduation of advantages, some yielding more, some less, some still less, on the same basis of cost. Now, before California entered the gold-market, to what quarter did Europe look for her chief supply of gold? Ancient gold, melted down-some of it, no doubt, gold that had furnished toilet equipages to Semiramis, and chains of decoration to Nimrod or the Pharaohs, entered largely into the market. But for new gold, innocent gold, that had never degraded itself by ministering to acts of bribery and corruption, we looked chiefly to Russia. I remember an excellent paper, some four years back, on these Russian goldmines in the chains of the Ural Mountains. It was in a French journal of great merit, viz., the Revue des Deux Mondes; and, to the best of my remembrance, it reported the product of these mines as being annually somewhere about four millions sterling. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that the whole of this product rested on the same basis of cost.

* Very grievously, I suspect myself here of plagiarisin from Moliere. In one of his plays, Mons. Y. says to Mons. X. You understand Greek, I believe?' To which Mons. X. replies- Oh, yes, I understand Greek perfectly. But have the goodness, my dear friend, to talk to me as if by chance I did not understand Greek.'

There can be no doubt that the case which I have just imagined as to wheat had its exemplification in these goldmines. No doubt there are many numbers in the scale which are not worked at all nor could be profitably worked, unless science should discover less costly modes of working them. But, even as things now are, with many parts of the scale as yet undeveloped, it is certain that a considerable range of numbers, in respect of costliness, is already under culture. Suppose these (as in the wheat case) to be Nos. 1, 2, 3. Then, if California or Australia should succeed in seriously diminishing the cost of producing gold, the first evidence of such a revolution would show itself in knocking off No. 3 in the Ural mines. Should the change continue, and in the same direction, it would next knock off No. 2. And, of the whole Ural machinery, only No. 1 would at length survive; or, in other words, only that particular mine, or particular chamber of a mine, which worked under the highest natural advantages, producing a given weight of gold at a cost lower than any other section of the works, producing, suppose, an ounce of gold at the cost of 13 ounces of silver, when elsewhere the same quantity cost 14 ounces, 141, &c. Always, therefore, any bona fide action of California upon the cost of gold, would show itself, first of all, in a diminishing supply from Russia. But, then, for a considerable time, this increased supply from California, having Russia to pull against, would so far neutralise and counteract any sensible impression that otherwise it might produce in Christendom. This would happen even if the product of California had really been 10 millions sterling for the first three years, and 15 millions for 1850-that is, 45 millions in all. According to my own view, as already explained, it is not likely that California could reduce the cost of gold, except for the first year or two: after which the cost would travel the other way, not by decrements, but by increments sure, if slow. No greatly increased quantity of gold could continue to flood the gold-market, unless the cost were seriously reduced. The market of Europe would repel it; and this discouragement would react upon the motives of the productive body in California. But were it otherwise, and supposing the cost reduced by 8 per cent., or, in round terms, from its present mint price in London to 70 shillings an ounce, a stimulus would be thus applied to the consumption of gold for various purposes, which, in defiance of the lowered natural price, would quicken and inflame its market price. It is clear, from what has already happened in the United States and in France, that gold would enter more largely into the currencies of nations. It is probable, also, that a very large quantity, in the troubled condition of the political atmosphere throughout Europe for many years to come, will be absorbed by the hoarders of Christendom. Certainly I do not deny, that unexpected discoveries of gold-fields, apparently inexhaustible, have been made, and almost simultaneously made, in regions as remote from each other as some of them are from ourselves. In several quarters of the American continent, both north and south, in the Sandwich Islands, in Africa, in New Zealand, and, more notoriously (as regards impressions on Europe), in Australia (viz., in the island of Van Diemen, but on a still larger scale in the continental regions of Victoria and Port Phillip), gold is now presenting itself to the unarmed and uninstructed eye upon a scale that confounds the computations of avarice. There is some trick in all this,' is the natural thought of every man when first hearing the news. He wonders how it was that many people did not read such broadcast indications twenty years ago. That thought raises a shade of suspicion upon the very facts in limine. And next, as to the construction of the facts, a misgiving comes over him, that possibly there may be too much of a good thing. Many people remember the anecdote connected with the first importation of Brazilian emeralds into Europe. This happened at an Italian port,

The supply furnished by Borneo, upon what data I know not, is often rated at one million sterling. So that the two great annual influxes of gold do not apparently exceed five millions sterling. But all this must give way, or must be greatly lowered in cost, before any great impression could be produced by California,

viz, Leghorn; and the jeweller, in whose trade none but Oriental emeralds were as yet known, struck with admiration at the superior size of one offered to him by a stranger, bought it for a very high price, upon which the stranger, exulting in his good fortune, displayed a large trunk full of the same jewels. But, on this evidence of their abundance in certain regions of Brazil, the jeweller's price sank in the ratio of 7 shillings to 25 guineas. At present, however, the public mania travels in an opposite direction. The multiplication of gold is to go on at a rate accelerated beyond the dreams of romance; and yet, concurrently with this enormous diffusion of the article, its exchangeable value is in some incomprehensible way to be steadily maintained. This delusion is doubtless but partially diffused. But another, equally irreflective, seems to prevail generally, viz., that, under any circumstances whatever, and travelling towards whatever result, the discovery must prove a glorious one in respect to the interests of the human race. And the rumour of other and other similar discoveries, in far distant regions, equally sudden, and equally promising to be inexhaustible, is hailed as if it laid open to us some return of a Saturnian age. Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna, I, on the contrary, view this discovery as in any event almost neutral with respect to human prosperity, but in some possible events as likely to be detrimental. Fighting, with Mr Cobden's permission, will go on for millions of years yet to come; and, in pure sympathy with the grander interests of human nature, every person who reads what lies written a little below the surface, will say (as I say), God forbid that it should not. In that day, when war should be prohibited, or made nearly impossible, man will commence his degeneration. But if we change not (as change we never shall) in respect to our fighting instincts, we shall change, if the gold fable prospers, a good deal as to the fashion of our arms. Like Ashantees, not a corporal nor a private sentinel but will have a golden hilt to his sword, and a golden scabbard. Still, as people to be plundered by marauders in the nights succeeding to a great battle, we shall not rate much higher. A pound of gold more or less will make a little difference. I consider it no object,' will be said by the plunderer. And, even if buried in a golden coffin, we stall not be more worth looking after by the resurrectionman; but on a morning parade, under a bright sun, we shall be far prettier to look at. Such would be the upshot if the gold fable were realised.

Seriously, let us calculate the probable and the possible in the series of changes. What I infer from the whole review, taken in combination, is, that in one half the anticipations in respect to the revolutions at hand are vague and indeterminate, and, in the other half, contradictory. One may gather from the arguments and the exultations taken together, that some dim idea is entertained of the California supplies uniting with the previous supplies (from Russia and Borneo especially), and jointly terminating in the result of making gold in the first plentiful, and then (as an imaginary consequence) cheap in relation to all other commodities. In this one reads the usual gross superstition as to the interaction of supply and demand. The dilemma which arises is this: California does, or does not, produce her gold at a diminished cost. If she does not, no abundance or redundance could be more than transitory in its effect of cheapness; since the more she sold on the terms of selling cheaper, and producing no cheaper at all, which is the supposition, the more she would be working for her own ruin. But, on the other hand, if she does produce at a diminished cost, which is the only ground of cheapness that can last, then she drives Russia effectually out of the market-No 3, 2, 1, in the inverse order illustrated above; and the effect of her extra supplies is simply to fill up a vacuum which she herself has created. At least that will be the final effect to the extent of five millions sterling per annum. But if she and Australia jointly should really supply more than this sum, it does not follow that, because produced at a lower cost, this extra supply will command an extra market. The demand for gold is limited by the fixed and traditional uses to

which it is applied. Mr Joe Smith, the prophet of the Mormons, delivered it to his flock, as his own private and prophetic crotchet, that the true use of gold, its ultimate and providential function on this planet, would turn out to be the paving of streets and high-roads. But we poor non-Mormonites are not so far advanced in philosophy as all that; and, unless we could simultaneously pave our roads with good intentions, which (it is well known) are all ordered for another place, we have reason to fear that the trustees of every road, the contractors and the paviers upon it, would abscond nightly with as much high-road as they laid down in the day. There are at this moment three openings, and perhaps no more, for an enlarged use of gold, in the event of its becoming materially cheaper. Many nations would extend the use of gold in their currencies. Secondly, the practice of hoarding-once so common, and, in Oriental lands, almost universal, but in Europe greatly narrowed by the use of paper currencies, and by the growing security of property-will for many years revive extensively under the action of two causes: first, under the general political agitation of Europe; and, secondly, under the special doctrines of communism, so avowedly friendly to spoliation and public robbery. La proprité-c'est le vol, is a signal held aloft for all Christendom to take care of their pockets. The fine old miser, therefore, of ancient days, brooding night and day over his buried gold, will again revolve upon us, should gold really become cheap. Finally, the embellishment of human persons by gold trinkets, ornaments, and the more lavish use of gilding in the decoration of houses, furniture, &c., would further enlarge the new demand. But all this only in the case of a real cheapness. And, even if that were realised (whereas hitherto there are no signs of it), this unfortunate check to the extended use of gold would inevitably arise intermittingly: the diminished cost of production, by the supposition, reduces the price of gold-that is, reduces the natural price. But, in the meantime, every extra call for gold, on the large scales supposed, would instantly inflame the market price of gold, and virtually cancel much of the new advantage. This counteraction would again narrow the use of gold. That narrowing would again lower the market price of gold. Under that lowering, again, the extra use of gold would go ahead. Again the extra cheapness would disappear, and consequently the motive to an enlarged use. And we should live in the endless alternations, hot fits and cold fits, of an intermitting fever.

But, on my view, there will arise that preliminary bar to such a state which I have already explained. In the earliest stage of these new gold-workings, one and all, the result will be this-a tendency to lower the producing cost of gold; and this tendency will, in the second stage, be stimulated by the aids of science: and thus, finally, if the tendency could act long enough, the price would be lowered in the gold markets of the world. But this is an impossibility, because, before such an effect could be accomplished, the third stage of the new diggings would reverse the steps, tending continually to increase the cost of gold, as the easy surface-gathering was exhausted. The fourth stage would recede still further from the early cheapness, as the mining descended, and had to fight with the ordinary difficulties of mines; and the fifth stage would find the reader and myself giving up all thoughts of sporting gold tables and chairs, and contentedly leaving such visions to those people who (according to the old saying) are born with a gold spoon in their mouths.'

LION-HUNTING IN AFRICA. HAVING long had a fancy to try my courage against a lion, and hearing of an immense old animal of that species who had made his appearance in the country of the Smauls, I travelled in that direction. Upon my arrival, I learned that he was in Bourdif, near Batuah. Scarcely was my tent erected at the foot of the mountain, when I was informed that he had reached Aures. For ten whole days I travelled upon the traces of the beast, accomplishing in

that period a hundred leagues, without seeing anything of him save his foot-marks. At length, during the night of the 22d of August, I had the satisfaction of hearing his voice.

side.

I had established my tent in the valley of Ourten. The valley being well covered with trees and underwood, and traversed by one single path, it was easy to reconnoitre the lion's footsteps, and follow them to his den. At six in the evening, I alighted from my horse upon an elevation that commanded the surrounding country. I was accompanied by a native and my spahis, both of whom were loaded-the one with my carabine, the other with my old musket. The lion roared among the underwood in the twilight, as I had expected and hoped; but, instead of coming towards us, he once more set off, in a western direction, and at such a rate as rendered it impossible for us to overtake him. I therefore turned back at midnight, and established myself at the foot of a tree, planted upon the pathway along which the lion had proceeded. The country in this place was clear and cultivated. The moon shone brightly, so that we could watch his approach on every Fatigued with a hunt of several hours' duration through a difficult country to traverse, and hoping little from the night's adventure, I ordered my spahis to keep a good look-out, and composed myself to sleep. I was just dropping into a dose, when I was pulled softly by the flap of my cloak. Raising my head, and looking in the direction silently indicated by my faithful follower, I perceived two lions seated side by side at about a hundred steps distant, and on the very path where I lay. The moon illuminated the whole space between us and the lions. Fortunately, we were in the dark shadow cast by the thick foliage of the tree, which extended about ten paces round its roots. Thus the spahis and I were secure from observation, but the Arab lay snoring in the open moonlight. Doubtless, it was he who had drawn upon us the attention of the lions. My spahis would have awakened him, but I motioned to him to refrain, persuaded that after the action the poor fellow would be proud of having unconsciously served as a bait. I then prepared my arms, and placed them against a tree, in readiness for the encounter that I expected would

ensue.

The lions now began to approach; but, though the ground was quite open, I never caught sight of them but when they raised their heads to assure themselves that the Arab was still there, so well did they profit by a stone, a tuft of grass, or other small object, to render themselves nearly invisible. At length the bolder of the two arrived, creeping upon his stomach, within ten paces of me and fifteen of the Arab. His eyes were fixed upon the latter with such an expression that I began to tremble for him. The second came forward also, and remained upon the watch four or five paces behind the first. They were both full-grown lionesses. İlevelled my carabine at the first, and she rolled to the foot of the tree with a horrible roar. The Arab was scarcely awoke, when a second shot killed the animal upon the spot. Re-assured as to the safety of my man, I now looked towards the second lioness. She was standing upright, about fifteen paces off, watching the proceedings. I took aim; she seated herself. I fired, and she rolled over, uttering a loud roar, and then rose and fled towards a field of maize that bordered the pathway. Upon approaching the spot, her groans warned me that she still survived, and I gave up the design of entering the plantation during the night to search for her.

As soon as day dawned, I examined the effect of my third shot, and found nothing save a bloody track, that led from the plantation to the wood beyond. The wounded lioness had evidently disappeared. I sent the one that I had first shot to the neighbouring garrison, where an entertainment was given in her honour, and returned to my former post of observation.

Some time after sunset, the lion himself, the original animal of whom I had come in chase, began to roar; and, in place of quitting his den, remained there all night crying. Convinced that the wounded lioness was with him, on the

morning of the 25th, I sent two Arabs of the neighbourhood to examine the cover. They returned, without having dared to approach him. This night and the next were made horrible with roarings and cries through mountain and wood. On the 27th, I caught and muzzled a young goat, and took my way towards the mountain. The den was situated in a most inaccessible spot. I managed, nevertheless, by crawling sometimes on my hands and knees, and sometimes with my face to the ground, to approach it. Having noted certain indications, I unmuzzled the goat, and bound it to a tree. There now ensued the drollest panic among the Arabs who carried my arms. Finding themselves in the immediate neighbourhood of the lions, perceiving their scent, and confused by the cries of the terrified goat, they appeared disposed to take to their heels in all directions. I begged them to be calm, and gave them their choice of climbing a tree or mounting a rock. They decided at length to remain near the goat. We had kept quite still for a quarter of an hour, when the lioness appeared, looking round with an astonished air. I fired, and she fell without a struggle. The Arabs kissed my hands in congratulation; and, for my own part, I believed the animal quite dead, when she suddenly rose, as if nothing were the matter, and bared her glittering teeth. One of the Arabs, who had ran at the shot, found himself within six paces of her. Seeing her rise, he grappled the lower branches of the tree to which the goat was fastened, and disappeared amid its foliage like a squirrel. lioness meanwhile expired, struck to the heart by a second shot. The first ball had pierced the nape of the neck without breaking the bone.

The

This beast was destined, like the former one, to vary the ordinary of our soldiers. I passed the night in listening to the roaring of the lion, but did not succeed in encountering him-the death of his two companions causing him to quit that part of the country entirely. At length I thought I might as well do the same, determining to return another year to the beautiful valley of Ourten.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE WASP.

IN point of interest, the wasp yields, we must allow, to the bee, but to the bee only. To it, as well as to the ant, it is closely allied-all three belonging to the class called by entomologists Hymenoptera, that is, insects provided with four unequal membraneous wings. There are a great variety of wasps, some of which are social, that is, they live in communities, like the honey-bee, while others are solitary. We purpose bringing examples of both kinds before our readers, and shall first speak of the common wasp, which must be familiar to every one who reads this article.

In their general economy, social wasps differ very materially from bees-each colony of the former being founded by one female wasp, unaided and alone; while, in the latter, each bee takes its share of work, directed by the queen-bee, whom they all treat with the most profound respect, and who wanders about attended by a numerous train of retainers, ever ready to obey her commands, and anxious to anticipate her slightest wish. Very different is it with the queen-wasp. No matter how numerous a colony may be, none but a few females, say eight or ten, survive the winter. Each of these becomes the foundress of a new and distant colony. Will our readers accompany us, while we follow one of them in her arduous undertaking.

However perfect the nest may be in which our heroine has passed the winter, she invariably deserts it at the first moment of returning consciousness, after her long winter's sleep, probably not liking the mournful associations connected with it, as in the end of the previous autumn it was the scene of a dreadful carnage; for at this season the wasps always massacre the young grubs, thinking this more merciful than allowing them to die of starvation, as they must otherwise inevitably do, being unable to lay by a store, and fruit is not to be had in winter, at least