"_Clapham Common_, July 18, 1828.--An ingenious and benevolent, but injudicious book, which is a good example of the difficulty of forming plans for the service of mankind. To the author, an accomplished recluse, a lettered enthusiast of no vulgar talent or character, I owe the cultivation of a sense of the beautiful in poetry and eloquence, for which at the distance of near half a century I feel a lively gratitude. It was written by _William Ogilvie_, Professor of Humanity in King's College, Aberdeen. I even now recollect passages of his Translation of the 4th Book of the Eneid.--J. MACKINTOSH." I have found a corroboration of the estimate above given of this person, by another of his countrymen, James Ogilvie (who appears to have been an itinerant teacher of oratory in America) in a volume of _Philosophical Essays_ published in Philadelphia in 1816. Speaking of a gifted native of Scotland of the name of McAllester, settled in the far west, near Bard's Town, and lamenting that he should choose to bury his talents in obscurity and indolence, the writer says: "He came nearer to the character of a scientific sage than any human being the narrator has ever known, with the exception of _William Ogilvie_, Professor of Humanity in King's College, Old Aberdeen, Author of a profound original 'Essay on the Right of Property in Land.'" The book itself is, in some respects at least, well worthy of attention, and especially at the present moment, when the subject it embraces presses itself upon all men's consideration. On _emigration_, for instance, Ogilvie has some anticipatory views: thus he observes with truth: "To increase the prosperity and the happiness of the greater number, is the primary object of government, and the increase of national happiness must be the increase of national strength. Is it not then the duty, and perhaps also the interest of every legislature in the West of Europe to promote the emigration of its less opulent subjects, until the condition of the lower classes of men at home be rendered nearly as comfortable as the condition of the same classes in the new settlements of North America?"--Pp. 50, 51. Just now, when the Property Tax is to receive the mature consideration of the legislature, the following passage, which also anticipates the public feeling as expressed lately by an influential part of the press, deserves to be cited: