"that mixture of virtue and vice which does not affect the ori 66 ginal principles of social union, will always be most happy " where it is most exposed to observation. Even the worst na"tures will become happier. They will have less hope of gra"tifying their evil propensities; they will have greater induce"ment to restrain them; and the restraint imposed by necessity "will become habitual and easy. Those who cannot govern "themselves ought, for their own happiness, to be subjected to "the authority and observation of others." On the other side, The Rev. J P——, Edinburgh, deposed, that B― and he attended the classes in the college together: that the boys about the college treated him as a fool, and that his impression at this time was that B had been born a fool. He has observed no change on his faculties, and considers him still as an imbecile person. insurance-broker, considers him as a weak-minded man. PB- mind. merchant, had a fixed impression that B was silly in his Mrs. P, 17, Crosscauseway, considers him as altogether an imbecile and weak person, and incapable of managing his own affairs. R- K writer, deposed, that his general impression was that B was crazy. Dr. A, Dr. W— F and Dr. G-W B- was highly imbecile and deficient in understanding. all reported that The sheriff of Edinburgh gave in a report to the same purpose; and the court held him to be imbecile, and refused his petition for recal of the curatory under which he had been placed." nesses. It is impossible to read these contradictory statements without surprise; and an unreflecting mind might suspect want of discernment or candour on the part of the witBut, in the first place, this case shews us how extremely vague the notions are which ordinary thinkers attach to the word faculties; and, in the second place, the fact revealed by phrenology, that some faculties may be diseased or deficient, while others are entire, removes every difficulty. We have seen B, and can testify that his head presents a great development of language, lower individuality, acquisitiveness, secretiveness, conscientiousness, and cautiousness; while the organs of the reflecting faculties, although distinctly marked, are decidedly deficient in size. Hence, the witnesses who had attended to the manifestations of his faculty of language alone, deposed that he was an excellent scholar. The shoemakers and tradesmen who had sold him goods, having found that, under the influence of his powerful acquisitiveness, he drove a hard bargain, swore that he was a shrewd and siccar man. The presbytery of Haddington, at his first examination, which was confined to the languages, were pleased with his appearance: but the moment the manifestations of the reflecting faculties were required in a sermon, his deficiencies of understanding appeared, and the presbytery accordingly rejected him. The medical gentlemen, and the sheriff who attempted to reason with him, pronounced the same opinion. Phrenology is thus not only a key to the whole case, but affords the only means of reconciling the apparent contradictory statements of the witnesses, who were, in fact, above suspicion. The individual now alluded to, appears to us to possess the sentiments and perceptive faculties in a sound state, and an average degree; and his reasoning powers are rather deficient in strength than deranged. We have heard that his case is under appeal to the House of Lords, and we look with considerable interest for their decision. ART. XI.-Report of the Select Committee, appointed to take into Consideration the Laws relating to the Salt Duties, and the means of remedying the inconveniencies arising therefrom, with their Observations and Opinion.-1st June, 1818. THOSE who have never thought of salt but when they have chanced to miss it in their soup, may be somewhat roused to hear us say, that, whether as a production of nature, an element in the physical condition of man, or a subject of political economy, it furnishes a topic which, in interest as well as importance, will yield to none to which we could devote our pages. The vast abundance in which salt is stored in every quarter of the globe is not explained, in the arrangement of creation, by the mere appetite of man and beast to consume it as an accessory to nutriment of inexplicable gratefulness,-by the desire, amounting to rage, of some races of men and species of animals to devour it with intense enjoyment *, and still less by its applicability to many of the manufactures of a refined age. The swarms of the ocean alone explain the exhaustless stores of salt in the earth, and point to an adequate employment of them. But for this grand preservative, that profusion of food would only mock us, as, in many a fathomless league of life, it encircles our shores. There was design when the vast antiseptic supply was given to meet the incalculable demandwhen salt was created an element of the universe-when it was piled in rocks and mountains,—stored in caverns-stratified deep in the bowels of the earth, perhaps the deposit of the ocean of chaos,-aud, in the brine of the ocean, spread over three-fourths of the globe. In all its sources of rock-salt, salt springs, and circumambient sea, there is certainly no region on earth where salt is in such abundance as in and around our own island; and, on the other hand, there is no country whose seas are more alive with nutritious fish. That these advantages are cultivated immeasurably under their capabilities, is the consequence of great errors in our country's economy. The fisheries afford a subject to which we look forward as a future inquiry ;-the salt laws are enough for our present purpose. We premise a few words on the natural history of salt as in some degree necessary to the political economy of this discussion. The African missionaries inform us, that the natives often pretend to embrace Christianity with the view of receiving a handful of salt. Such converts invariably relapse, and offer again to return, if salt be given to them. The common salt of commerce is either natural rock-salt, purified from other substances found mixed or combined with it, or the saline residuum, after evaporation by heat, of natural saltsprings, and of sea water. Rock-salt is to be found in most regions of the globe, either in mountainous masses or subterraneous strata; which last, when worked, are called salt mines; such as those of Cracow in Poland, and Cheshire in England, both considered inexhaustible. In Europe, salt in rocks or strata exists in England, Spain, Austria, Styria, Hungary, Transylvania, Poland, Switzerland, Bavaria, Savoy, and Calabria. In Asia, it is found in Siberia, Asia Minor, and India. In Africa,-in the Desert of Lybia, and in the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis. In America, both North and South, it is abundant-in the elevated regions of Peru, at the height of 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The thickness of a subterraneous stratum is often immense. In the mine of Torda, in Transylvania, it is from 180 to 240 feet. At Colopen, it is 300 feet; at Northwich, in Cheshire, the upper stratum varies from 60 to 90 feet in thickness, but the lower has not yet been perforated, although mined to the depth of 120 feet. In several of the countries above named, entire mountains are composed of salt. At Cardona, in Valentia, there is a mountain of that description, three miles in circumference and 500 feet high; another in the province of Lahore, in India, of nearly the same size; and one of stupendous magnitude is said to have been lately discovered in Louisiana. Where there are salt-rocks, and beds, or strata, there are usually brine-springs. Salt-lakes, too, of great size, are to be met with in Asia, Africa, and America, some of them, as in Africa, on the summits of mountains. The immense interior accumula. tion of salt in Chili manifests itself by all the known indications of lakes, springs, and rivers-for in Copiapo there is a great river named Salado, from the extreme saltness of its waters, rising in the Andes, and disemboguing in the Pacific Ocean. Upon the banks of this river the salt crystallizes in great purity. Surface salt, crystallized, is found in purity, lying six feet deep, in a valley in the Andes, nearly fifteen miles in circumference, the produce of salt-springs. In England, brine-springs are found in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, and Worcestershire. That of Droitwich, in the last-named county, is the strongest, and so copious, that although an immense quantity of salt is made, nine-tenths of the water are allowed to run to waste. These springs were known to the Romans under the name of Salina. When the sun is powerful, salt is made from sea-water by natural evaporation, and in much greater purity than when rapidly made, as in a colder climate, by artificial heat. The excellence of the bay-salt of Spain and Portugal-made in shallow ponds in sheltered bays-is the best proof of this truth *. Such is the abundance of that useful substance, salt, which pervades the earth, and may be viewed as not less enduring than the globe itself. We come now to inquire in what manner our own country has availed itself of its large share of this bounty of nature. It does not look well, a priori, that salt is the only article of general consumption in this country, of which the quantity exported greatly exceeds that consumed at home +. The total value of our annual exports of home produce and manufactures does not amount to L. 40,000,000, whereas the amount raised by taxes alone exceeds L. 50,000,000. The consumption of salt at home ought much to exceed the exportation; the salt laws, by inverting the result, are the cause of an anomaly in our political economy. We trust we shall be able to shew how matters may be put on a better footing. The salt laws have been three times, in our remembrance, brought under the consideration of a select committee of the House of Commons. The first was in the year 1801; the second in the year 1817, with reference to the use of rock-salt in the fisheries; and the last was in the year 1818, when the Report, the title of which is prefixed to this article, was made. All these committees, as well as every committee appointed on the herring-fishery, have agreed in condemning the salt duties. The committee of 1818 reported, "that the repeal of the salt duties "would be productive of the most important advantages to all "descriptions of persons in this kingdom, and that the present "state of the income and expenditure of the united kingdom "alone prevented them from instructing their chairman to move "for leave to bring in a bill for such total repeal." They concluded by giving it as their opinion," that the consideration "of this subject should be resumed early in the next Session of "Parliament." It, nevertheless, has not been resumed. *The principal work in England for extracting salt from brine-springs is at Droitwich. The sea-water salt works are on the coast of Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. In Scotland, salt is made from sea-water alone, with refuse coal, which would otherwise be lost. The number of refineries of rock salt in England is 23. The number of all other makers of salt in England does not exceed 160. (Append. to Salt Laws, Report 1801, p. 8.) The salt makers in Scotland are in number 29. In the year ending 5th January, 1816, the quantity of salt exported from England was 11,378,965 bushels, (see Append. to Salt Laws, Report, 1818, p. 221.) and it has always exceeded 6,000,000. Whereas the total annual quantity consumed at home, exclusive of the fisheries, does not much exceed 2,000,000, (same Report, p. 217.) The quantity delivered for the fisheries is about 1,500,000 bushels annually. Same Report, p. 18. But though, in the present situation of our income and expenditure, a total repeal of the salt duties appears to be almost next to impossible, it may yet be worth while to inquire, whether a revenue, equal in amount to that now derived from them, may not be produced by reducing them so low as that the duty may be paid for salt used in the fishery, and every thing else to which its use is applicable, free from every regulation or restriction, or any interference whatever with or on the part of the excise. To make this inquiry is our present purpose, and with reference to this it will be necessary to state, 1. The amount of the duty at present levied in each of the three countries which compose the United Kingdom. 2. The consequences arising from the difference of its amount in each. 3. The effects of the duty, and of the regulations that have been made to protect the revenue; and, lastly, the manner in which they may be obviated, and a revenue raised equal to that derived from the present duties, with a duty not much exceeding the amount that is now levied in Ireland *. 1. The first duty on home made salt imposed in England was in the year 1694, when one penny and a half-penny per gallon was granted for three years †, and this duty was made perpetual by an act passed two years afterwards ‡. Threepence halfpenny were added in the year 1698 §. The amount of the duty was thus fivepence per gallon, or three shillings and tenpence per bushel, at the period of the union with Scotland; by the 8th article of which it was provided, that "all foreign salt " which shall be imported into Scotland shall be charged at the "importation there, with the same duties as the like salt is now "charged with being imported into England, and to be levied "and secured in the same manner. But Scotland shall, for "the space of seven years from the said union, be exempted "from paying in Scotland for salt made there, the duty or ex"cise now payable in England; but from the expiration of the "said seven years shall be subject and liable to the same duties "for salt made in Scotland as shall be then payable for salt made "in England, to be levied and secured in the same manner, and "with proportional drawbacks and allowances as in England, "with this exception, that Scotland shall, after the said seven 66 years, remain exempt from the duty of 2s. 4d. a bushel In order to prevent the possibility of smuggling salt, it would be desirable to make salt exported liable to the same duty with salt used for home consumption. But, from the low price of salt abroad, any duty whatever upon exportation would amount to a prohibition. Accordingly, all duties of customs or excise on the exportation of salt were repealed by 57 Geo. III. c. 49. § 61. +5 W. and M. c. 7. § 9 and 10 W. III. c. 44. 7 W. and M. c. 31. 5 Anne, c. 8. |