from one motive, is, according to this new fyftem of ethics, vicious, when proceeding from another! A parifh confiable, we fhould, no doubt, be told, by thefe fame reafoners, when he informs againft thefe who profane the Sabbath within the limits of his diftrict, is doing his duty, and therefore is praifeworthy; but that duty is not the effect of choice, but of compulfion; he is obliged to ferve the office to which the duty attaches. Befides, in cafes of information, under penal ftatutes, the conftable is just as likely to be ftimulated by the profpect of emolument, as any other informer. The office of conftable, too, we know, is, very frequently, ferved by fubftitute, which fubftitute is paid for his fervices; and, in that cafe, even the pretext of a difference between the conftable and any other informer is removed. "Thofe who are impelled to fuch a task by motives of perfonal intereft have no claim, indeed, to honour; but confidering that, without the aid of fuch perfons, the laws would often be a dead letter, their usefulness, nay, their abfolute neceffity, fhould, at least, thelter them from reproach. Their teftimony, indeed, on account of the motives by which they are actuated, is generally admitted to ftand in need of confirmation; but when it is prope.ly conti med, so as to enable a jury to pronounce a verdict of Guilty, its effect is to valuable, that all, who take a comprehenfive view of the subject, muft furely rejoice that fuch means are to be found; to effectuate the moft important object of civil government, the administration of justice." So n ceffary an inftrument of justice, indeed, is the informer found to be, that in fome cafes, and thofe of a nature highly penal, the legiflature have thought proper to make his unfupported evidence fufficient to convict the offender. We could here cite, if it were neceftary, more inftances than one, in which a common informer has rendered very important fervices to the community, by fecuring the poor confumer against the frauds of the opulent trader. The laft charge against the fociety that we fhall notice is, that a combination of that kind is an unjuftifiable interference with the duty of magiftrates." But it is rather extraordinary, that although the fagacious fatirifts of the fociety have made this notable difcovery, the magiftrates themselves, who, we fufpect, would be the first to refift any encroachment of their rights, or any interference with their duty, have not found it out. They probably concur with the fociety in thinking, that "fo far from interfering with the duty, or encroaching upon the provinces of the magiftrate, they render him the moft valu able aftance, and enable him the more effectually to exercise his functions, by giving him information refpecting offenders, whom, otherwife, he might never be able to difcover." This is certainly the cafe; but when it is added, that it is the appropriate province of magiftrates to act upon cafes which are brought before them, and that, in fo doing, they are fufficiently occupied, without feeking for violations of the criminal law;" though we admit the truth of the firft part of the statement, we must enter our protest against the last; for certainly it is the duty of magiftrates, of police magiftrates at least, 66 and and indeed, of all magiftrates who have officers at their command, to feek for fuch violators; or, to fpeak more correctly, to employ their officers in the detection of public offenders against the law. The Seventy-two convictions for breaches of the fabbath, alluded to above, were the refult of informations by officers fpecially charged by the magiftrates, to seek for fuch violations of the law. But the fact is, that offenders are fo numerous, that it is utterly impoffible for any civil force which the magiftrates can command, to detect a hundredth part of them; fo that, but for informers of fome defcription or other, the laws would, in numberless inftances, be violated with impunity, to the vaft injury of individuals, and to the great interruption of public juftice. Even the extraordinary refources, in the chief engines of police, men and money, poffeffed by the chief magiftrate of Bowftreet, and employed with as little advantage to public morals as poffible, and which would be productive of ten-fold good, if they were duly diftributed among the different police officers of the metropolis; even these resources, we fay, would, if properly applied, be utterly inadequate to the accomplishment of this object, in a single district, without other affiftance. We are happy to find, that the fociety have been uncommonly active, and uncommonly fuccessful, in the detection and punishment of a description of offenders, whofe occupation is particularly ruinous to the lower claffes of fociety, but who carry it on with fuch fecrecy as to render detection extremely difficult. We mean, perfons who take illegal insurances in the lottery, or have private lotteries, and little goes. They have been the means of convicting no leís than fifty-fix of thefe offenders, of whom ten were principals, and the reft agents. To those who are acquainted with the very great difficulty of obtaining proofs against principals of this defcription, and indeed against the agents, this must appear an extraordinary exertion of activity, zeal, and perfeverance. By this means they have rendered a very effential service to the community. The clofing appeal to the upper claffes of fociety, is animated, eloquent, and impreffive. May it produce the defired effect! So long as this affociation fhall perfift in the fame line of proceeding which it has hitherto pursued, it cannot fail to fecure the approbation and fupport of the best part of the British community. As averfe as any man can be, from every thing which has a tendency to the introduction of puritanism, in any form or fhape; as ftrongly indifpofed, as the most candid of our modern reformers, to fanction or commit any act of undue feverity, or to impofe any harsh or unneceffary reftraint on our fellow-fubjects; anxious to fee the true fpirit of Chriftianity operate, in its natural way, to the diffufion of chearfulness, and to the spread of virtuous fatisfaction; abhorrent of inquifitorial measures of every defcription; and detefting all invafion of domeftic privacy: Did we perceive any of these effects likely to be produced by the proceedings of the Society for the Suppreffion of Vice, we should be the first to deplore their mistaken virtue, and mifguided zeal; but though we have watched them with an attentive, an inquifitive eye, (and fhall ftill continue fo to watch them,) we have hitherto discovered nothing of the kind. They have done much good, and prevented much evil. Their claim to our applaufe, therefore, is refiftlefs, and we give it, not heartily, but cordially. Financial and Political Facts of the Eighteenth and prefent Century; with comparative Estimates of the Revenue, Expenditure, Debts, Manufactures, and Commerce of Great Britain. By John M'Arthur, Efq. Fourth Edition, with an Appendix of useful and interesting Documents. The whole revifed, corrected, and confiderably enlarged. 8vo. PP. 400. Miller. 1803. WE E have to apologize to the author, as well as to our readers, for having fo long neglected to notice this new and enlarged edition of a work fo well entitled to the most serious attention of all who feel a deep intereft in the profperity and welfare of the British empire. It is with much fatisfaction that we find our own opinion of its merits, delivered foon after the appearance of the first edition,* and again, on the publication of the third, fanctioned by the concur rent approbation of the public; an approbation not obtained by those adventitious aids which a spirit of party fo frequently affords; but refulting exclufively from a firm conviction of the accuracy and importance of the facts which the work exhibits, and of its extreme usefulness in the conveyance of correct notions on questions of great confequence, and in the correction of talle principles and estimates of ignorance and prejudice. Befides the additions introduced into the body of the work, we have a new introduction to the prefent edition, of fixty pages, the fize of a moderate pamhplet. Here the author fuccefsfully combats an affailant, who, it appears, had recently attacked him, and who, though posfeffing many excellent qualities, and much information of a particular kind, feems unable to bear a rival or competitor, in the fcience of political economy. But if he be fully determined to ftand alone and unfupported, we advise him to limit his lucubrations to his newlydiscovered science of moral arithmetic, in which, we venture to affure him, he will meet with no competition, but reap, fingle and unaided, all the (undivided) honours which may refult from the invention of purfuit of it. His first effay, indeed, in the application of this new science, was not very well calculated to encourage him to proceed to farther researches; and we are curious to learn by what rule of that arithmetic the inftability of the peace which was avowedly founded on it, is to be proved or explained. That peace produced an addition, to our enemy's refources; a fubtraction from our own confequence; See ANTI-JACOBIN REVIEW, Vol. VIII. P. 315. a divifion divifion in our councils; and a multiplication of our difficulties; it has been found bad in practice, and deftructive of our intereft But this is the language of common arithmetic, and, of course, not applicable to the higher clafs of arithmetic difcovered by Mr. Chalmers. The impediments, however, which we have indicated, though fufficient to deter an ordinary mind from the pursuit of a fcience apparently fo unprofitable, will probably only ferve to ftimulate to increased exertions, a gentleman who feems to prefer the moft barren foils for the exercise of his skill, and to whom difficulties only impart additional courage. Tu ne cede malis, fed contra audentior ito, is the noble motto which he has evidently adopted, and that he may not want opportunities for acting upon it, he frequently folicits what others reject, and courts what others defpife. We have offended Mr. Chalmers, it feems, by our commendations of Mr. M'Arthur's book; and have, thence, been the innocent means of drawing down his animadverfions and cenfures on the author, whom he accufes of having Stolen fome facts from his "estimate" refpecting this depreffion and fubfequent increase of trade during a war. But let Mr. C. fpeak for himself, "I was the first who disclosed to the public, that in every war there is a point of depreffion in trade beyond which it does not decline, and from which it gradually rifes beyond the extent of its former greatness." This "confoling difcovery" appeared in Mr. C.'s Eftimate, publifhed in 1794; and he fays it has been adopted with great complacency as his own," by Mr. M'Arthur, in the following paffage: It is no lefs curious than interesting to obferve, that in every war fince the revolution (except the prefent and the war of 1756), our exports, compared with an equal number of years in the preceding peace, were always confiderably diminifhed, but that foon after the return of peace, the value of exports rofe beyond their former level." "But," adds Mr. Chalmers," theft is always dangerous! In order to conceal his purpose, he invalidates his own remark, and any difcovery, by excepting the wars of 1755, and 1793. The former hoftilities depreffed the value of cargoes from 12,599,112l. to 11,708,815l. and the late war from 24,905,200l. in 1792, to 20,390, 180l. in 1793Such are the fairness and accuracy which the public may expect from fuch writers." Now, it will be admitted by all, that it behoves a writer who thus directly charges another with unfairness and inaccuracy, to be particularly fair and accurate in his own ftatements. How far Mr. Chalmers has been fo, we fhall leave Mr. M'Arthur to fhew, after premifing, that he declares, in a note, that he had never feen Mr. Chalmers's arithmetic, from which he is accused of having ftolen this wonderful difcovery, until the fecond edition of his own work was nearly fold! "Mr. Chalmers, with wonderful fagacity, difcovers a point of depression in trade at the beginning of every war; and proves an undoubted and infignificant propofition by quoting the official value of exports the firft years of the wars of 1756 and 1793, and comparing them with the preceding years of peace! "If Mr. Chalmers will for once liften to facts with forbearance and temper, I could tell him that it required no fupernatural talents to announce to the world fo fimple a truth. And may his mind, if not already too much perturbed by the praifes bettowed on his cotemporaries, derive every comfort from this confoling difcovery! Weak minds indeed will be astonished, that among the crowd of writers on commercial and political subjects, who from time to time have given their opinions to the world, no one thould have hitherto had fufficient fagacity to dicover fo obvious a fact. A propofition indeed so self-evident, that any fchool-boy who glances his eye at the table of exports in the Appendix may readily perceive. But why did Mr. Chalmers ftop fhort in edifying his readers, without affigning causes for this point of depression in trade at the commencement of every war? Was it because the charms of his difcovery would have vanished, fince the causes are as obvious as the effects? Are they not produced by the commercial world being struck with a panic at the commencement of every war? Do not many merchants go out of the freighting bufinefs? Does not a temporary ftagnation of trade take place, and do not bankruptcies frequently enfue, &c.? "Let me now afk any unprejudiced reader by what perverfion of ideas can Mr. Chalmers make a coincidence of my fentiments with his, even in the mutilated paffage he has quoted from the Financial Facts? and on what、 principles can he juftify the unqualified cenfure he has beftowed? I have faid, page 30, former edition, and retain in the present, page 26, 'It is no lefs curious than interefting to observe, that in every war fince the Revolu tion (except the present, and the war of 1756), our exports, compared with an equal number of years in the preceding peace, were always confiderably diminished; but that foon after the return of peace the value of exports, after experiencing fome fluctuations, rofe beyond their former level.' Here Mr. Chalmers with fome degree of cunning stopped fhort without giving the context, which the reader will find by turning to the proofs and illuftrations of my propofition inserted in a note on the very next page; where, by eftimating the annual average exports for three, four, or five years in peace and in war, at different periods during the century, I have most incontrovertibly proved my propofition, and that with the exception of the war of 1756 and 1793, the exports were invariably lefs, than in the preceding peace. "Proofs of the Exceptions made in my Proposition as inserted in the third Edition, and retained in this. "The annual average of exports for five years in the war of 15,989,552 13,908,479 £. 1,991,073 "Page 31 third edition, and page 27 of the present. "The |