fourth's time, the lawyers had invented the method of breaking entails by recovery, but the act of parliament allowing a fine to be a bar to the iffue in tail, did not pafs till the reign of Henry VII. Our very fenfible author proves that neither law, the principles of reafon, nor the nature of property, give any fanétion to entails; that entails are deftructive to all improvements of landed estates, and that the argument in favour of entails, of a man having aright to difpofe of his own property as he pleafes, is a downright abfurdity, because the property after his death, when it devolves upon other perfons, ceafes to be his. By what rule then, of natural reafon, (fays our advocate) can any man give away a thing, the gift not to take place till after he has no more right or property in the thing given? Our ingenious advocate, after urging many other ftrong arguments against entails, attacks the pamphlet we have already mentioned, intitled, "Confiderations upon the Policy of Entails," and we think with great fpirit and juftice. His antagonift admits that one fifth of the lands in Scoland are entailed. Very intelligent men, replies he, have told me, that, in their opinion, there is much more. But I have no data for making the calculation myself, fo as to come at any certain conclufion. We can judge better of the progrefs of entails. Between the year 1685, and this prefent year 1765, there have been put in the register 485 entails. I have not examined their dates; but I prefume, many of the earliest of them, are thofe made foon after the Restoration; fo that the whole number may be the produce of about a century. If a medium were to be taken by an equal divifion, this would allow 97 entails for each period of 20 years. But that is not a proper method of calculation, for the number of entails ought annually to decrease, in proportion as the quantity of free land is annually diminished by entailing : that feems undeniable. But what is the fact? Have they decreased in that manner? Quite the contrary. In the first 20 years after the act paft, the number of entails put in the register $ 74. In these last 20 years it is near double, being no less than 137. Take this along too, that the first zo years of the record ought to contain (for I have not examined the dates of the deeds) most of the old entails, made long before the act paffed. This clearly proves, that the fashion of making entails grows more and more prevalent: their progrefs encreafes, and their number multiplies. If you doubt thefe facts, look into our long records, thofe bills of mortality of the lands of Scotland. We have reason, therefore, to fear, that, if the practice of entailing do not receive fome check, we may foon fee our whole lands put into this fort of mort-main. I mean not by this the is E 2 י fmalleft smallest reflection against any of the gentlemen whose names are upon this lift, as if any confideration whatever could induce them to follow a practice difadvantageous to their country. Far otherwife! for they think with you, that they do right; and the prefent queftion is, whetheir their opinion be well or ill founded? The gentlemen who chiefly entail, are the proprietors of great estates; and as fast as they acquire more land, they put it into the fame fituation. Others again, who have finaller fortunes, although they disapprove of entails in general, yet they are led to follow the fame measure, from a principle of felf-defence. They forefee, that their pofterity may be tempted for a high price, or influenced under circumftances, to fell their eftates. They entail, therefore, to prevent their antient, though fmall inheritances, from being swallowed up, and funk in the opulent eftates of their neighbours. To ftop this mischief of engroffing of land, I have heard a remedy proposed, which I acknowledge to be a desperate one, namely, to have an act of parliament, at once entailing in perpetuity the whole lands of Scotland, to the prefent poffeffors and their heirs. This would,. at least, have the effect to prevent a great many small eftates from being engroffed, and would, in fome fort, preferve from annihilation, that clafs of people, which I mantain to be the true ftrength and real fupport of liberty; I mean the middling gentry, and the proprietors of small portions of land. But this remedy, as I faid, is a desperate one, and only not quite fo bad as the disease.' He next proceeds to fhew the miferable state of England, and Scotland likewife, when the lands were engroffed by the great lords, and gives many reafons, drawn from law, civil policy, and the difpofitions of human nature, why perpetuities of entails fhould be abolished. In the second part of this pamphlet, the merchant takes up the argument againft entails, and he fhews to a demonstration, that they are the destruction of industry in general, and even of population. The advocate for entails contends, that if they were fuffered to die out in Scotland, the land property in that country would fink in its value upon a fale; that the value, and confequently, interest of money would rife; that money would be withdrawn from commerce to purchafe land, and thereby commerce would be hurt; and, laftly, that exportations would decreafe, and home confumption and importation would increase. His opponents answer those objections upon very solid principles. They fhew that, tho' entails were limited according to the propofed alteration, they muft die off gradually, and they could occafion no fudden glut of land in the market, and that the intereft of the buyers, and not that of the fellers, is to be be confulted in mercantile cafes They obferve, that gentlemen who come from the Eaft and Weft Indies with money lay it out in land, and perhaps add a third more value to it by improvement; thus improved, the land is ready to be fold again for a greater fum, brought in like manner from abroad. They then fhew that the very reverse of the rife of money, and its intereft, would happen, if the propofed alterations would take place, because the money brought in from land would be employed in commerce, and thereby increafe induftry, which is the national stock of riches; and that there is no greater danger of the proprietor of lands being extravagant, than the proprietor of money. As to the establishment of entails in Scotland in 1685, our excellent advocate against them concludes thus: • God forbid that those times fhould ever be cited for princi ples of law or of government. It seems then to have been a measure to make Scotland rather a military than a commercial country, that it might be a conftant nursery for foldiers, a refource for raifing and keeping up a 'ftanding army, fhould there be occafion for humbling or overawing that spirit of liberty which already panted for a Revolution. Nothing could more promote fuch a reafure than the act concerning entails. Take a view, Sir, of the fet of laws that were produced in the fame year 1685; ftatutes declaring, That the concealing the demand of a fupply for a forfeited perfon, though fuch supply be not given, is treafon : That the hearers at field-conventicles hould be punished with death and confifcation: That in matters of treason, judicial confeffions, though not made in presence of the affize, should yet be legal evidence to the affize.— Which is a direct repeal of the act of 1589, a Magna Charta of our liberties in Scotland! In that fame year 1685, was paffed alfo, the act obliging all perfons whatever to take the Test under fuch penalty as the privy council fhould think fit.- -The very act for preferving the game, and enacting, That no man fhould be qualified to thoot a partridge, unless he had an eftate of L. 1000 Scots a-year valued rent, manifefts, that the intention was, to reduce defpotifm to a fyftem, by extending it from rank to rank in a regular fubordination.. Such are the ftatutes of the year 1685, all of the fame family, fif ters-german, if f if I may be allowed the expreffion, of this notable ftatute concerning entails. The articles of grievances presented to king William, fhortly and properly characterize the legislation of that time, "That moft of the laws enacted in the parliament, anno 1685, are impious and intolerable grievances.' And it may be obferved, That, in order to give all these arbitrary penal laws their full effect in enlarging the power of the crown, the Act for entails took care to provide, That E 3 nothing nothing therein contained fhould prejudge his majefty, as to confifcations and other fines. We . Perpetuities, therefore, deferve no fort of favour in any respect, and it is worthy of the enlarged and liberal fentiments of these times, to abolish them by an exprefs law. owe it to ourselves, to our families, to commerce, and to public liberty.' We have been the more diffufe in our account of this pamphlet, because the principles upon which it is compofed equally affect both parts of the nation, and are not, like that of the Confiderations which it anfwers, chiefly calculated for Scotland. We have likewife reafon to believe that the affair will, with the firft opportunity, come under a parliamentary difquifition; and therefore were willing to give,the public, in this part of the island, fome idea of fo important a controversy, especially as the pamphlet itself was printed at Edinburgh. V¦I. Specimens of abbreviated Numbers; or, an Introduction to an entire new Species of Arithmetic: calculated in a more especial Manner for the Compting- House and public Offices, particularly the Cuftoms, Exchequer, and Excife: The Principle being founded on a new Method of finding the Decimal for any Coin, Weight, or Time, &c. &c. by one fingle Multiplication only, without the Use of a Vulgar Fraction. And also (on a Method hitherto undifcovered) of finding the Intereft of any Sum, at any Rate, and for any Time: by one fingle Multiplication, not exceeding three Figures, without the Affiftance of Statings, or Reference to Tables: Reducing the whole Body of Arithmetic (fo far as it relates to general Calculations) to a Synopfis confined to the four firft Rules of Arithmetic: The Whole founded on a Principle" hitherto unattempted, and now first offered to the Public. By Wm. Wefton. Pr. 45 TH Marth. 800. HE art of arithmetic has been treated upon fo often, and by perfons fo well qualified in this branch of science, that fcarce any farther improvement can reafonably be expected; for in the works of thofe celebrated authors, Wingate, Cocker, Hatton, Ward, Hill, &c. we certainly find all that is ufeful, both with regard to vulgar and decimal fractions. What can poffibly then be discovered in either of thefe, of confequence fufficient to become the fubject of an entire treatise thereon, we confefs ourselves at a lofs to conjecture. However, as' Mr. Wefton affures us, the intention of this publication (defigned as a prodromus to a future work upon the fame subject) is to explore new paths and point out fuch methods as our forefathers do not appear to have known;' we are of opinion, a few extracts from it will be fufficient to enable the reader to form a proper eftimate, both of the abilities of the author, and the utility of the intended work. In the preface, pag. vi. Mr. Wefton fays, The concife method of valuing, being joined with the brief method of finding the decimal, renders the discovery perfect, and the general rule given in this work for finding the intereft of any fum, at any rate and for any time, exceeds every thing hitherto published upon that head.' We fay the fame; for, as the multipliers at page 4 are all, except one, viz. the multiplier for any number of fhillings, erroneous, and the error in excess, it certainly follows, that as multipliers, they will produce more than any true method hitherto made use of. Pag. vii. In reality, it is hard to fay to what the power of these numbers can be restricted, or to what they cannot be applied.' Very true, it is fo; for as the operations by the mul tipliers or factors do already exceed every thing hitherto published on that head;' what may not be expected from the application of the fquare, cube, or other affigned power of the factors themselves! In the body of the work our author gives the following table of factors to be ufed as multipliers, for the reducing any coin, weight, measure, time, &c, into a decimal fraction, by one fingle operation only. Avoirdupois weight, the integer an hundred weight. Multiply by 893 to find the decimal of any number of pounds. 558 any number of ounces. 349 any number of drams. Troy weight, the integer a pound. Multiply by 834 to find the decimal of any number of ounces. 417 any number of dwts. any number of grains. Coin, the integer a pound fterling. Multiply by 5 to find the decimal of any number of fhillings. 417 1042 any number of pence. • Time, confidered as a calendar year of 12 months. Multiply by 275 to find the decimal of any number of days. 834 any number of months. any number of weeks. GENERAL RULE. Multiply the given coin, weight, &c. by the given factor, as in whole numbers, and the product is the decimal, placing E 4 4 your |