ime to put a stop to this mischievous absurdity,
and, I fear me, of our own making."

Away they went, and I put up my remaining translations from Catullus,
took down a book, read awhile, and then meditated this letter to you.
And now, my dear Eusebius, when you publish it in Maga, as you did my
last, folk will say--"Why, what is all this about? _Horae Catullianae!_ It
is no such thing." Be it, then, I say, what you will. Do you think I am
writing an essay?--no, a letter; and I may, if I please, entitle it, as
Montaigne did--"On coach horses," and still make it what I please. It
shall be a novel, if they please, for that is what they look for now: so
let the Curate be the hero,--and the heroine--but must it be a love
story? Then I won't forestall the interest, so wait to the end; and in
my next, Eusebius, we will repeat Catullus for the play, and say with
the announcing actor, "to conclude with an after-piece which will be
expressed in the bills."

My dear Eusebius, ever yours,

AQUILIUS.

LESSONS FROM THE FAMINE.

The two great parties into which the country was divided on the subject
of our commercial relations with foreign states, maintained principles
diametrically opposite on the effects to be anticipated from the
adoption of their respective systems. The Free-Traders constantly
alleged, that the great thing was to increase our _importations_; and
that, provided this was done, government need not disquiet themselves
about our _exportations_. Individuals, it was said, equally with
nations, do not give their goods for nothing: if foreign produce of some
sort comes in, British produce of some sort must go out. Both parties
will gain by the exchange. The inhabitants of this country will devote
their attention to those branches of industry in which we can undersell
foreign nations, and they will devote their attention to those branches
of industry in which they can undersell us. Neither party will waste
their time, or their labour, upon vain attempts to raise produce for
which nature has not given them the requisite facilities. Both will buy
cheaper than they could have done if an artificial system of protection
had forced the national industry into a channel which nature did not
intend, and experience does not sanction. We may be fed by the world,
but we will clothe the world. The abstraction of the precious metals is
not to be dreaded under such a system, for how are the precious metals
got but in