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    p hysical ; he sees in human nature a capacity for this improvement , and for the enjoyment of the happiness consequent thereon . Not having before his eyes the fear of an excessive population , * pressing on the subsistence fund /—deploring the present heavy lot of the labouring

    classes , and comparing it with the increased and increasing facility of production , he thinks , like the Useful Knowledge Society , that ' the labourers being Tnany , they ought to be lightly tasked' 4 wielding and rejoicing in the perfected forces of nature ^ managed and controlled by that which distinguishes man from all other animals—his reason . *

    These opinions our author has long declared . He has , at various times , given to the world his reflections ; and always , as at present , in the spirit of mild earnestness and overflowing kindliness . Convinced of the perfectibility of the human character , he thinks , naturally enough , that its advancement can be secured only by the prevalence of circumstances very different from those which at present prevail , —and his speculations turn directly to the system known as cooperative .

    In this work , the united interests principle is blazoned forth in two handsome-looking octavo volumes , got up in a style of elegance , decorated with well-executed engravings , and fitted for a place either in the library or the drawing-room . It should be premised , that the Hampden of the nineteenth century has noc onnexion whatever with him of the seventeenth ; and , indeed , his pursuits , and his turn of mind , being eo totally dissimilar , we are at a loss to

    divine the motive for choosing a name , which , at first sight , seems as if it meant something . The work consists of the sayings and doings of three friends , who , having made up their own minds as to the deformity of the existent systems , resolve to leave no stone unturned in order to promote similar convictions in the minds of others . They therefore , singly or in company , seek the presence , and claim the attention of the magnates of the land ; and the 4 colloquies' that ensue , form the staple

    of the work—not the whole of it—for there is a Bort of rambling stoTy threaded through it , to which the various scenes are appended , so as to form a continuous , though not a very connected narrative . Such a plan gave great latitude to the author , and the successive incidents embrace conversations with Dr . Howley , then Bishpp of London , Dr . Chalmers , the Duke of Wellington , Lords Brougham and Eldon , sir "R . Peel , Messrs . M'Culloch , Malthus , Hume , and Attwood , cum rnvltis

    aliis ; and the style of the intercommunications may often vie with that of Landor in his ' Imaginary Conversations / Each , chapter is devoted , with more or less of defined intention , to some branoh or division of ' the Errors and Improvement of Society . * With Dr . Howley the subject discussed is the increase of crime ; with Malthus , it is the theory of population ; with lord Brougham , it is national education ; with Southey , the subject is a defence of the system of united interests , in answer to some remarks which occur in the

    Colloquies' of the laureate . A visit to Manchester elicits some harrowing descriptions of the factory-lab our of young children . The author of the Revolt of the Bees , ' too , feels himself obliged to imagine the existence of a community of equally-participating producers ; such a society is represented by an interesting character , —Vela , a Peruvian Results of Machinery , p . 194 .

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    Critical Notices . 743

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    3 G 2

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 743, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/69/