peculiar if not the only province "partes mimum tractare secundas." Art. 19. The School-boy; with other Poems. By Thomas Cromwell. Crown 8vo. pp. 98. 5s. Boards. Rivingtons, &c. 1816. If we consider that, when these poems were composed, the author was but little past the age, and had enjoyed little more than the experience, of a school-boy,' we must not deny to them that partial degree of approbation which is due to the character and merits of good school-compositions. At so early an age, indeed, it would be unreasonable to require the accuracy of taste and judgement which belongs only to the experience of riper years; yet a becoming degree of diffidence at such a time of life might very naturally have been expected; and we confess our surprize that the modesty incident to youth did not induce the author to retain his compositions in that form in which, as we are told, they have already received the partial applause of private friends.' Had Mr. Cromwell been contented to wait until years and study had improved the verses of the school-boy' into the strains of the poet, we cannot but think that his readers would have been equally gratified, and his own vanity have chanced to meet with less disappointment. POLITICS. Art. 20. Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the War; as it is, since the Peace. By George Chalmers, F.R.S. S.A. Egerton. 1817. 8vo. pp. 100. 2s. 6d. As on former occasions, Mr. Chalmers here stands forwards to shew, by the evidence of official documents, that we have no reason to be discouraged, and that our present sufferings are the inevitable consequence of a change from war to peace. After a long preamble, he proceeds (p. 26.) to treat of the Poor and their Laws,' and then of Agriculture,' with the successive acts of parliament that have been passed during many years for inclosing, draining, dividing, &c. Coming, in the third place, to our 'Manufactures and Shipping,' he gives (p. 49.) a curious table of the progressive increase of our exports from 1700 to 1760; following it up with other statements of the same kind, one of which we lay before our readers. A The object of this and of a variety of other extracts from public 'documents is to manifest that we have proceeded in a state of gradual improvement, notwithstanding all the burdens of war. similar course of reasoning is pursued (p. 67.) with regard to Scotland, and next with respect to Ireland; the whole concluding with observations on our Finances, and on the potent operation of the sinking-fund. We We are at all times gratified with a reference to official documents; and we should be much pleased with Mr. C.'s mode of reasoning, had he not unluckily a disposition to look always to one side of the question, and to omit certain important considerations, such as the progressive fall in the value of money; -a fall which, during the present age, has been so serious as to cause a most material difference in the relative import of arithmetical statements. We must object, also, to a certain quaintness of style, and a predilection for pedantic expressions; such as (p. 31.) the effluxion of the first fourteen sessions;' (p. 32.) continued to reduplicate their acquisitions;' (p. 38.) parochial and urban improvements,' &c. 6 Art. 21. A Plan for reducing the Poor's Rate, by giving permanent Employment to the labouring Classes; with some Observations on the Cultivation of Flax and Hemp; and an Account of a new Process for dressing and preparing Flax and Hemp, without Water-steeping or Dew-retting. By Samuel Hill, Esq. 8vo. 1s. Harding. 1817. Mr. Hill proposes to accomplish the relief of the poor by instituting parish-manufactories, in which all who wish for employment or relief may be set at work; and which should be totally distinct from parish poor-houses, and should consist of establishments for dressing flax and hemp, as well as for spinning and weaving the thread and yarn. All the processes preparatory to spinning are rendered so simple by the use of the patent machinery as to require no instruction, and very little strength; and therefore women, children, and aged persons may be employed on them. The farther employment now proposed, viz. spinning and weaving, would meet the wants of the class who are most destitute, the silk-weavers of Spitalfields and the cotton-weavers in general; while very little capital would be required, and any vacant building might be rented for the purpose. Mr. H. then proceeds to give (pp. 12, 13.) an account of the patent machines for preparing flax and hemp, with calculations of the cost of the raw material, the spinning &c.; all of which shew that the new process is greatly superior to the old method of preparing the fibre of the flax for separation by fermentation and decay, the effect of which was to destroy the useful qualities of the plant in every other respect. He subjoins a few observations on the plan of cultivating flax and hemp, and maintains that the late improvements are such as will remove the objection hitherto made to its culture by land-holders and their tenants. Art. 22. Arguments in favour of the Practicability of relieving the able-bodied Poor, by finding Employment for them; and of the ⚫ beneficial Consequences of such Employment both to the Morals of the Poor and the national Wealth: addressed to the Committee on the Poor Laws. By Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart. M.P. a Member of the Committee. 8vo. pp. 40. Is. 6d. Longman and Co. 1817. Sir E. Brydges is already well known to the public, and to our readers, both as a poet and by his various writings on public topics, particularly P 4 particularly with regard to the poor; one of his tracts on which we noticed in Vol. lxxii. p. 433. Having been a member of the late Committee on the Poor-laws, his attention was closely devoted to the subject; and the result is his production of a plan for finding employment for the poor by giving additional extent to our agricultural labours. The great apparent objection to such augmentation is the want of an adequate market: but this, says Sir E. B., (p. 11.) does not hold with reference to the increase of corn, because the demand will quickly follow the supply, inasmuch as consumption regularly increases with the means of subsistence. We should in that case have more manufactures, more tradesmen, more merchants, more in short of every class who consume the fruit of the farmer's labours; and, on the faith of this principle, Sir Egerton proposes (pp. 24, 25.) the adoption of several measures, compelling the farmers to find work for the unemployed husbandmen of their respective parishes: which he follows up by a project for taxing wages to a small extent, (a thirtieth,) in order to provide a fund for the poor-rates in lieu of the present unequal and oppressive mode of collection. No doubt can be entertained of the truth of the fundamental principle in all these suggestions: but the propriety of its application to this country, particularly in its actual state, is a very different matter, Sir E. B. seems to forget that we are obliged in self-defence to keep our corn at a higher rate than our neighbours; and he overlooks also the extra-expence at which any farther quantity must be raised in a country in which the good land is already very generally in cultivation: but, without dwelling on these considerations, we must object in toto to any thing in the shape of compulsion, being satisfied that the ultimate issue of such measures must be either unavailing or prejudicial. The essence of our constitution demands that coercion should appear only when it is unavoidable; and nothing is more surprizing or more gratifying to foreigners who visit England than the absence of government-interference. Recent circumstances have obliged us to suspend, for a time, a part of this valuable peculiarity: but the returning activity of trade gives reason to hope that we shall soon be restored to the unrestricted enjoyment of our constitutional rights. The same encouraging prospect affords a ground of expectation that the poor-rates will be materially lessened, and time given for devising means of relief, without resorting to any expedients of an arbitrary or unnatural description. Art. 23. A View of the Nature and Operation of Bank-currency; as connected with the Distresses of the Country. By W. T, Comber; Author of "An Inquiry into the State of national Subsistence," &c. 8vo. pp. 54. Is. 6d. Sherwood and Co. 1817. The work mentioned in the title-page of this pamphlet was reviewed at some length in our sixtieth volume; and we then took occasion to commend the disinterested views of the author, while we regretted his extraordinary prolixity, and his disposition to diverge into topics which bore but a remote connection with the object of discussion. discussion. We are sorry to perceive that neither our admonition nor the lapse of time has been sufficient to accomplish the cure of this unlucky propensity; Mr. C. exhibiting at present, en miniature, almost all the faults displayed en grand in his former publication. He begins by reasoning very properly on the tendency of warexpenditure to raise prices, not in a simple but in a geometrical ratio, because the loan of one year operates to enhance commodities for the next, and to render larger sums progressively necessary for the discharge of similar services: but he carries the argument too far when he alleges that commodities were kept back to any considerable extent in anticipation of a rise; and that our distresses were in a great degree owing to the withdrawing of banking-accommodation. We also dissent from him in the apprehension that the sinking-fund will continue to operate so long as to cause an unnatural fall in the rate of interest; being convinced that ministers will embrace the first favourable opportunity of encroaching on this fund, and of putting an end to some of our most injurious branches of taxation. This will become practicable whenever the revenue shall materially exceed its present amount; of which, if we may judge from the improving state of our manufactures, we have already a tolerable prospect. It would be superfluous to enter farther into an analysis of Mr. Comber's views and suggestions; and we take leave of him with the admonition which it so frequently falls to the lot of a reviewer to give to an author; viz. that he would do well to study his matter thoroughly, and to reduce it into plainer language, before he presents it to the public. Art. 24. We cannot congratulate this writer on a prospect of success in his attempts to accomplish an improvement in our financial regulations, since it seems very questionable whether he himself comprehends the object of his elaborate reasonings. The principal features of the tract are a disapprobation of the existing corn-laws, and the demand of an unrestricted trade: but the latter is urged amid such overflowing rhapsodies, and in so diffuse and ill-arranged a manner, that not one reader in twenty will have patience to travel to the end of the pamphlet. Occasionally, as at p. 36., a good remark occurs, and most desirable certainly would it be that circumstances permitted the free introduction of foreign corn: but our burdens are too heavy to admit of such a measure without the utter ruin of the great body of agriculturists. This subject was very fully discussed in parliament in the spring of 1815; and those who are desirous of re-investigating it will find it eligible to refer to a record of these debates, instead of taking up such incoherent pamphlets as the present. Art. 25. A Glance at the State of Public Affairs, as far as relates to the Influence of Money and Finance on Manufactures and Commerce. Commerce. By a Friend to all. 8vo. pp. 90. 35. Sher wood and Co. 1817. This pamphlet is of a very mixed character; the author discovering, on particular occasions, (pp. 51. 63. 86. 89.) judicious views respecting matters of money and commerce, but destroying the effect of his reasoning by a tedious diffuseness and a total want of method. These faults may be partly owing, as stated in a prefatory notice, to an unavoidable absence from home at the time when it became necessary to send the MS. to the press: but the proper course on such an occasion would have been to postpone the publication. Authors are, in general, too impatient to give the result of their labours to the world: seldom considering that, though their production and its subject may appear of first-rate importance to them, they form only a part of the vast numbers of works and of topics which occupy the public mind; and that a well digested performance will be attentively received even after the interval of the highest interest is past. In the pamphlet before us, it is a matter of no small difficulty to discover the wish or the object of the writer: but he is evidently adverse to the doctrines brought forwards seven years ago by the Bullion-Committee; and he regrets that ministers, on the suspension of hostilities in 1814, fixed a specific limit to the exemption from cash-payments enjoyed by the Bank. That measure, he says, spread a general alarm obliging the Bank to narrow its discounts; and forcing countrybankers to call in the very considerable sums which they had advanced to farmers and land-holders. In our opinion, however, the chief cause of the mischief is to be found in the sudden depretiation of agricultural produce, and the inadequacy of farming capital. -With regard to another important point, the utility of a sinking-fund, the writer adopts the opinion of Dr. Hamilton; an opinion which our readers will find developed at considerable length in our seventy-first volume. On the whole, we cannot advise this author to appear again before the public until he shall have both re-considered his principles and re-cast his composition. Art. 26. Observations on the Importance of Gibraltar to Great Britain, as the Means of promoting Intercourse with the States of the Mediterranean; particularly with Morocco; to which is added a Description of the part of Spain immediately connected with Gibraltar. By Christopher Clarke, Captain in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. 8vo. pp. 114. 3s. Hatchard. 1817. Captain Clarke is a very desultory writer; his pamphlet containing not merely observations on Gibraltar and the adjacent parts of Spain, but a variety of remarks connected with our general policy, the government of India, the intercourse of our colonies, and even the improvement of the empire of Morocco. To crown all, he concludes with a copy of verses in praise of Gibraltar, and has the kindness to promise his readers a comprehensive work on the state of Spain at the accession of Ferdinand VII.; where, if he continues to indulge his propensity à divaguer, we may expect a range of topics and a list of quotations to which all those that figure in the pages of the present pamphlet will be mere trifles. He is acquainted - 15 - |