nd Present. The closing chapter is the Future, and
contains an examination of many remarkable facts now presented to our
view by our own country, produced by the existence of the unnatural
system fastened upon the world by England, and to be remedied by the
adoption of an American policy, having for its object that of enabling
men to live together and combine their exertions, instead of flying from
each other, leaving behind rich lands uncultivated, and going to Texas
or Oregon to begin the work of cultivation on the poorer ones. "With
each step in the progress of concentration his physical condition would
improve, because he would cultivate more fertile lands, and obtain
increased power over the treasures of the earth. His moral condition
would improve, because he would have greater inducements to steady and
regular labor, and the reward of good conduct would steadily increase.
His intellectual condition would improve, because he would have more
leisure for study, and more power to mix with his fellow-men at home or
abroad; to learn what they knew, and to see what they possessed; while
the reward of talent would steadily increase, and that of mere brute
wealth would steadily decline. His political condition would improve,
because he would acquire an increased power over the application of his
labor and of its proceeds. He would be less governed, better governed,
and more cheaply governed, and all because more perfectly
self-governed."

The field surveyed by Mr. Carey in the _Past and Present_ is a broad
one--broader than that of any other book of our time--for it discusses
every interest of man. The ideas are original--whether true or not, they
are both new and bold. They are based upon a great law of Nature, and it
is the first time that any system of political economy has been offered
to the world that was so based. The consequence is, that all the facts
place themselves, as completely as did the planets when Copernicus had
satisfied himself that the earth revolved around the sun.[29]

More recently, in his _Harmony of Interests_, Mr. Carey has published a
full examination of the great question of commercial policy, with a view
to show that protection, as it exists in this country, is the true and
_only_ road to free trade. He has brought to the illustration of this
important doctrine a mass of facts, greater, probably, than was ever
before displayed in support of any position in political economy. It
commences with