a human being. It was evident that some one had been buried in the place, and covered with a thick layer of lime, (quick lime,) as is generally done in times of pestilence of earthquakes, and other similar events. The bones were removed; the pit filled up; the lime mixed and scattered abroad, and the surface again smoothed. When Billing was now brought back to the place the phenomena did not return, and the nocturnal spirit had for ever disappeared." This story created prodigious attention at the time; and the learned, as well as the unlearned, gave it sundry very frightful interpretations. The character of the narrator raised it above all suspicions of untruth. When it came to the ears of Reichenbach, he inferred at once that the effect might have been the result of natural and physical causes. He knew that a dead body was the seat of an infinite number of chemical decompositions and changes; he knew that quick-lime in a pit had affinities for various organic matters, which would give rise to slow fermentations, &c.; and he knew, finally, that rain-water, filtering through the earth, would contribute to excite the chemical working. He concluded, therefore, that a luminous appearance must result from the chemical action, and that sensitive organizations would be likely to detect its presence. In pursuance of his theory, he contrived to bring a highly sensitive person, by night, into a church-yard. The result more than justified his anticipations. His patient saw delicate waving lights issuing from several of the graves; without form or shape, it is true, but rising some spans above the surface of the ground, and in one instance four feet. On other occasions the same phenomena were exhibited. The appearance was that of a luminous mass, intermediate between a fog and a flame; and was more vivid over new graves than old ones. Thus we find, as Prof. Gregory remarks, that many superstitious tales are susceptible of a clear and scientific explanation, so that the wonders of second-sight and ghost-seeing lose many of their marvellous qualities. But a more important application of his discoveries has been made by Reichenbach, to the theory of Digestion and Respiration. As he had demonstrated, to his own satisfaction, that every chemical action evolved the new magnetic force, he suggests that Digestion, which is but a longcontinued chemical action, may supply the whole human system with the new power. And he urges the same view in respect to Respiration, explaining in this way the radiation of polarized light, &c., from the ends of the fingers. Liebig, as all our scientific readers know, had before derived the motive force of the human system from Digestion, and its heat from Respiration, maintaining, at the same time, that both were the result of chemical action. Reichenbach imagines that his own researches have conducted him to the same end; and that his having arrived at the result by a different route, there is a strong probability that the theory of Liebig will be sustained triumphantly by subsequent teachings of Nature. Such is a hasty outline of the important inquiries of a distinguished philosopher in a new direction. We shall make no comment upon them, as they speak for themselves; but we cannot refrain from the single remark, apropos of the spirit in which the Mesmeric developments have been received hitherto, that scientific men should not be overwise, lest the progress of research very soon compels them to eat their own words, in shame and confusion of face. CROPS OF EUROPE. THE greatest triumphs of statesmanship have ever been exhibited in the gradual vindication of sound principles, through the successful operation of laws enacted in accordance with their spirit. In the lapse of ages, and in the changes of the conditions of men, the objects of legislation have been gradually varied. When the power of the sovereign was exerted, and his utmost capacity was necessary, to maintain himself amidst turbulent and independent barons, it was not to be supposed that the happiness of the masses of the people would be the object nearest to his heart, even if enlightened wisdom had truly pointed out the means of attaining it. Under such circumstances, popular favor would be courted only to sustain the sovereign against the power of the barons. When the latter became thoroughly subjected, their interests coincided with those of the crown, and the whole sought, in the plunder of the people, through monopolies, special privileges and exactions, to extend their power and wealth. The theory was not to allow the people to acquire wealth and strength, but to force all their earnings into the treasury of the government, with the view to disburse it through the dependants and employeés of the executive. Large expenditure was the essence of government-the trump-card of kingcraft. It is at this day the sheet-anchor of the French king, who, with his employeés, form a class entirely distinct from the French nation. The situation of affairs is embraced in a few words. The population of the nation is 35,000,000. These pay to the government $265,000,000 per annum, in taxes, &c. With this sum, the government supports and pays 932,000 officials and dependants holding office at its will and pleasure, besides 400,000 troops and gens d'armes, and 60,000 marines; total, 1,392,000. Of the officials, 200,000 are the electors of France!! They draw from the government $84,375,000. This system is very simple. Thirty-five millions are taxed and oppressed every possible way, for the purpose of preventing them from acquiring wealth, and, consequently, strength. If any particular interest or class becomes prosperous, its revenues are drawn into the treasury by arbitrary means, or its interests insidiously injured. Charles V. governed the Netherlands by ruining the wealthy nobles. The most dangerous vassals of the crown were ruined by expensive embassies. William the Silent and Count Egmont were sent on missions that cost some 300,000 florins, of which the crown refused to pay anything. Every year, wealthy Spanish nobles made their appearance at Brussels; and the fortunes of the hospitable Flemings were exhausted in the profuse expenditures which their generous emulation, in entertaining the wealthy strangers, excited. The present French king vies with the wily Charles in his Machiavelian policy. Thus, the customs department employs 27,595 officials, at an expense of $5,625,000 per ann., and they seize annually some $200,000 of goods, and collect $21,000,000 of revenue, of which cotton, iron and coals, the materials of manufactures, pay $11,596,000. The pretence of this system is to "encourage French industry." The hollowness of such a pretence the absurdity of such a theory, is self-evident, and is submitted to, only because the electors! are supported by the proceeds of the system. The number of persons employed to prevent importation is nearly equal to those engaged in manufactures. The system is apparent, in the following figures of the expenditures of three governments: Population. Army & Navy. Debt. Civil List. Total. England... $28,000,000. .80,000,000.. .$150,000.000.... $15.000,000....$245,000,000 France......35,000,000 860,844... 4,944,083.. The The civil expenditure of France is six times that of England, and nearly twenty times that of the United States; and it has been constantly increasing for the last fifteen years. The skill of a finance minister consists not, as an uninitiated person would suppose, in contriving means to carry on the government cheaply and within its means, but how to extract the greatest sums from the people, and to expend them in the manner best calculated to strengthen the government. For long centuries this was the English system; and to compel the people to work for the few in the most plausible manner, was the problem. The funding system, aided by wars, offered the means. The wars of Napoleon prolonged the subjugation of the people a quarter of a century at least. A monied aristocracy of 300,000 holders of government stock was created, and they have received from the working many, since 1815, the incredible sum of $4,500,000,000 in actual cash, paid them annually for interest, and the debt is no nearer extinction now than then; so far from it, the debt, £800,000,000, which was then worth but 60 per cent., or £480,000,000 in money, is now worth the whole sum. value of property has been constantly increasing and that of labor decreasing. This debt has been a great instrument of impoverishment; but the "protective system" has lent its efficient aid to the same purpose, until the "starved and badly-clothed" population has become almost proverbial for its poverty. England, indeed, under the vigorous industry of the AngloSaxon race, has become a garden, and teems with abundance, in proportion to which the actual taxes levied by the government are light, when compared with those of some other countries, where the profits of industry can afford less to the rapacity of government officers. The laboring many have had, however, too little interest in that abundance. An intelligent race, ever "impatient of taxation," under the spread of knowledge and the extension of suffrage, have learned to resist the oppressions of the government and its dependants. It is a curious fact, that the protective laws were destroyed by a prime minister-himself the creature of manufactures, to benefit which those laws were passed, and that the popular free trade leader is also a manufacturer. When a man rises in a representative government from among the people to the head of affairs, he courts popularity among the people to sustain him against privileged interests, in the same manner that the crown in olden times granted rights to the people and cities, to sustain itself against the barons. The manufacturing interest, driven by competition to seek the largest sales for its wares, discovers that all burdens must be removed from the people, that their earnings may be appropriated in a greater degree to the purchase of goods, instead of paying taxes to the government, and pampering aristocrats. The minister seeks popularity, and the manufacturer extended markets, by the same means, viz., the emancipation of the people. It was the system of oppression that threw the whole expense of the English debt, government and military establishments, upon the articles consumed by the people, rather than upon the property holders. The $250,000,000 expended by the British government, grew directly out of the cost of every necessary article consumed by every inhabitant of Britain. He who had but a sufficiency of food and clothes, paid as much towards the support of government as the millionaire; and the increasing cost of all articles of food and clothing was annually diminishing the quantities he consumed. The effects of this were seen in the deficient revenue of the government and the declining home markets of the manufacturers. Both these interests required that the people should consume greater quantities of food and raiment, that the former might obtain more revenue and the latter larger markets. Thus, the real interests of the people came at last to be recognized as those of the government, and the protective system was thrown to the winds. In the long struggle which commercial principles have been obliged to sustain against the theory of protection, they have been denounced as "Utopian," as "chimeras," "untried experiments," and other contemptuous epithets have been lavished upon them, to prevent the grand experiment of their trial from vindicating their soundness. When, in 1842, through the operation of the public mind in Great Britain, a sagacious minister took the helm of state, he boldly struck into a new track, and staked the reputation of a long life of usefulness upon the soundness of free trade principles. The distress of the nation, and the perils of the government, were seen to grow out of this great fact, viz., that those who produced the national wealth consumed too little of it. All the laws theretofore enacted tended to protect capital against labor, to shield property from those burdens which industry was required to sustain unaided. The government announced its intention of promoting the consumption of necessaries, both imported and of domestic growth, among the people, by all means in its power. It adopted the means which, according to sound principles, would effect that result. Having put those principles into active operation, it necessarily follows, that, if they were correct, the condition of the people should be improved, and the consumption of all articles of food and manufacture enhanced. The government returns show that more food and more goods had been consumed, per head, by the people of Great Britain in 1846, than ever before, and consequently that the "Utopian" principles of free trade are sound, when the object is to enhance the happiness of the people. To understand the economical condition of Great Britain and the position of the United States in relation to it, it becomes necessary to look back at the state of affairs, when the policy of that government was altered in 1842, the changes which the minister then proposed, and the results which he anticipated would flow from them. If we find that the existing state of affairs justifies his anticipations, and that increased consumption and improved trade have followed the measures he proposed to produce them, then the soundness of the principles upon which those measures were based, becomes evident. Simultaneously with the adoption of free trade principles in England, the United States reverted to the protective principle which had been abandoned in 1832. And we shall find that while the prosperity of England has advanced in the same period, has that of the United States retrograded; that the only gleams of prosperity which have illumined the land, are but the reflection of the liberal commercial legislation of Great Britain. In the financial statement of the minister, March, 1842, the fact of the deficit, and the many expedients that had been resorted to, to remedy it, were dwelt upon at large. He remarked, "Shall I then, if I must resort to taxation, levy that taxation upon the articles of consumption-upon those articles which may appear to some superfluities, but which are known to constitute almost the necessaries of life? I cannot consent to any proposal for increasing taxation on the great articles of consumption by the laboring classes of society. (Cheers from both sides of the house.) I say, moreover, I can give you conclusive proof that you have arrived at the limits of taxation on articles of consumption. I am speaking now of articles of luxury, which might be supposed not to constitute the consumption of the laborious classes; and I advise you not to attempt taxation, even upon those articles, for you will be defeated in your expectations of revenue." He then adverted to the fact, that an increase of 5 per cent. on dutiable goods under the former government, had failed to enhance the revenue, while an increase in assessed taxes had more than realised the estimates. "I compare the complete failure of the taxes on consumption, and the complete justification of the taxes upon something analogous to property-I find in the one case the estimate was verified, I find in the other it was disappointed. (Hear, hear.) These are the results I feel it my duty to bring before the committee; but my immediate object was to adduce a proof that you had arrived for purposes of revenue at the limits of taxation upon articles of consumption. (Hear, hear.) Then I say, making abatements on account of the depression of trade, I do not think any man can resist the conclusion which I draw, that to lay 10 per cent. additional on customs and excise, will end in nothing but failure and disappointment." The imposition of a 3 per cent. tax upon incomes was then proposed, conjointly with a modification of the tariff, with the view to enhance the consumption of the taxed articles. "If I take the case of salt, for instance, I find that, since the reduction of duty, salt has been consumed in a variety of ways in which its use was never before contemplated. On account of chemical discoveries and improvements, in consequence of the application of science to manufactures, salt now enters into a variety of products. The ground upon which the abolition of the duty was strongly urged, was the importance of facilitating the supply of salt to the working classes." In the May following, the tariff came up for revision in the house, and the minister took the occasion to go at large into his commercial views. Every modification proposed was with the view of enhancing the consumption of necessaries by the poor, as follows: "It is said that we are subjecting the manufacturers of this country to competition with labour, which can be had on the continent on more favorable terms, and that we are bearing with undue hardness on that interest. Now, I wish to consider fairly the force of that objection. My answer to that is, in the first place, that we have reduced in a very material degree the price of the necessaries of life. I will take the article of corn. The duty on the import of foreign wheat during the present week is, I think, 13s. a quarter. If the old law had been still in force, it would have been about 27s. I say there has been a very material reduction in the duties on the import of foreign corn, and that any man who will compare the duties payable this day on foreign oats, barley and wheat, with those which would have been payable if the old law had been in force, must admit that there has been a very great diminution. I will now take the article of meat. What is the existing law ou this subject? I find that the importation of beef, fresh or slightly salted, is absolutely prohibited, and the case is the same with regard to fresh pork. The proposal we make is, that provisions of this class shall be admitted at a duty of 8s. a cwt. Lard, an article important in the consumption of the poor, as well as for manufacturing purposes, is now subject to a duty of 8s. a cwt.; we propose to admit it at a duty of 2s. I find that salted beef is at present subject to a duty of 12s. per cwt., or 14d. per lb.; we propose to reduce its amount to 8s. a cwt. Hams are subject to a duty of ll. 8s.; we propose to reduce it 100 per cent.-to 14s. Live animals, such as oxen, calves, sheep, and hogs, which are now absolutely prohibited, we propose to admit at rates of duty which are supposed by some to be extravagantly low, but which, I trust, I shall be enabled to show will inflict no injury on the agricultural interest, although they will afford a security against any undue increase of the price of beef. I do feel confident of being enabled to show, that by the removal of prohibition as to these articles, and the permission to import live animals and fresh beef, the agriculturist will have no reason to complain (hear, hear;) on the contrary, that he will derive benefit from the change. I said, that with respect to corn, live animals, and beef, it cannot be denied that her Majesty's government have proposed important changes. I will take the case of fish; on salmon, which is now prohibited, we propose a duty of 10s. the cwt. But it is said we remove the duties from fish which enter into the consumption of the rich, while fish consumed by the poor are prohibited, or only admitted at a high duty. Let us look at that species of fish in which the poor are most interested-the herring. Surely we propose an important |