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the kingdom containing six families, while there are more than 57,000 houses untenanted!--Admitting however, the accuracy of these statements, and what a melancholy proof do they afford of the impoverish▾ ed condition of the country? Out of one million and a half of houses, above 800.000 are excused on account of poverty from all taxation ; and even of the remainder almost one half are so wretched as to be altogether exempted from the window-rates, and to be charged onlywith the payment of three shillings a year for the house-tax.

From a view of the manner in which this survey has been formed and conducted, it is hardly possible to imagine a measure so ill-fitted for obtaining any useful information. It appears to have been insti tuted for the mere purpose of determining a controversy; and even in this it has totally failed of its object. Whether the population of the country increases or diminishes; in other words, whether the gloomy opinions of Dr. Price are better founded than the more sanguine assertions of his adversaries, is a point which must still remain the sub❤ ject of future discussion. From these statements no accurate judgment can be formed. They leave the question involved in the same uncertainty in which they found it, and are likely to serve no other end than that of continuing the dispute among those who are more eager to maintain an hypothesis than to acquire a real knowledge of the truth.

Had the number of births and burials been given in each district during the last three or four years-- Had a separate account been taken for each year of all the children under ti e age of five years-Had the rest of the male and female inhabitants been divided into okonet classes from the age of 5 to 10 years-fr. m the age of 19 to 1 years, and so on for every five years to the extremity of life;—notont, would the actual state of the populatio.. bave i een obtained, but also tuon fur, ther information in poli i as a tanetic as would have been higely important to this country. It is to he hoped, therefore, if another survey should ever take place (and I am sure the necessity of it is not lessened by the late costly at mpt) that those who shall have the ma, nagement of it will collect, that in order to ascertant the real state of the population of the country, a more complicated process is necessary than the mere enumeration of its inhabitants.' Vol. ii. P 210.

Mr. Morgan's opinion must have great weight; yet, although implicit confidence may not be placed in the late census. the general opinion is much in favour of an increased population, The attention now paid to the subject, will, in a course of years, throw further light upon it. They who have been in the way of marking the process taken to determine the number of inha bitants in a large county-parish, wid readily conceive how little is the dependence that can often be placed on lists so ob tained.

But Mr. Morgan's merit is more conspicuous in the formation of tables, and the establishment of theorems on lives and annuities. In these he stands unrivaled; and his experience is equal to his theory. Hence the work before us contains a body of information which must be perused with avidity by every

person who is engaged in calculations on lives, annuities, or reversionary payments; and the societies formed for these purposes will look to this quarter for every thing valuable in their establishments. It is a work which needs no praise of ours to recommend it to the public; for the names of the author and the editor stamp on it a value which is seldom attained by any writings; and we shall hope that the latter will continue his useful labours, so that, at a future period, he may produce another edition, as much superior to this, as this is to all that have preceded it.

ART. IX.-An historical and political Fiew of the Disorganization of Europe: wherein the Laws and Characters of Nations, and the maritime and commercial System of Great Britain and other States, are vindicated against the Imputations and revolutionary Proposals of M. Talleyrand and M. Hauterive, Secretaries of State to the French Republic; by Thomas Brooke Clarke, LL. D. Sc. Sro. 5s. Boards Cadell and Davies. 1803.

THE publication of M. Hauterive, and the assertions of M. Talleyrand, had it professedly in view to excite the indignation of Europe against Great-Britain, and a jealousy of the power she has acquired within the last century from her maritime influence, and judicious attachment to the commercial system. To repel these insinuations, the work before us is written; and the effects of the commercial system of England are advanced in opposition to the warlike system adopted by France. By the former, Europe is proved to have been benefited; to the latter, the late convulsion is attributed. There cannot be a doubt, in any rational mind, on the comparative merit of these two systems: the accompaniment of war is destruction, its object increase of power; the effect of commerce is augmented wealth, and its end a distribution of mutual benefit between the countries within its reach. But France never entirely relinquished the commercial, nor Britain the warlike, system. In France, commerce was subservient to war; in Britain, war to commerce. The disorganisation of Europe is a term to catch the imagination. Britain could effect little, from its insular situation, either to prevent or to promote it; but, if France may be accused of an atrocious crime in this respect, it will be difficult to free Britain from a similar charge; for the latter has more effectually contributed to the disorganisation of India, than France has to that of Europe.

The simple fact is, that both states have pursued their own aggrandisement, according to the circumstances in which they have been placed--Britain with her fleets, France with her armies.

As long as the world lasts, if the same respect be paid to brutal and mechanical force as at present, and nations cultivate the base arts of destruction instead of those of mutual support and happiness, the organisation of Europe will occasionally suffer changes similar to those already experienced. The Austrians, the Russians, and the Prussians, disorganised its state by the partition of Poland: France disorganised it again by the increase of her own territories, obtained in a war against those who endeavoured to interfere in her internal form of government. Who ever did, or ever can, declare Europe to be in such a state of organisation, that it is not to be, and will not be, altered by the next generation ?--Treaties cannot bind the industry of nations; and states will grow richer, or weaker, by internal prudence or mismanagement; and their relative situations will, like the lunar disc, be in a state of perpetual varia

tion.

The present arrangement of Europe is totally different from that laid down by the politicians at the celebrated treaty of Pilnitz: but no one can imagine that the French had at that time arranged the plan for seising their newly-acquired possessions. The plans of the disorganising monarch (or shall we call them rather the intended organisers?) were frustrated by unforeseen events: such events put an end to the anarchy of France, and gave her once more an organised government, and a government powerful enough to compel the nations on the continent to submit to her terms. It was as natural for France to avail itself of those events in Europe, as for Britain to do the same in India. The writings either of Messrs. Talleyrand, Hauterive, or the present author, will not prevent their operation. It is fine language to assert, that,

When the great principles of rights, with respect to the commercial and maritime systems, are menaced, the vital germ of the welfare of the world is at stake. The stroke which shocks the commercial system, pervades the industry, products, manufactures, opalence, and happiness, of the whole globe with universal injury.' P. viii.

The great principles of rights, with respect to commerce, are much the same as those of the rights of man: they serve very well for the discussion of the closet; they may head a treaty or a code of laws; but experience affords too strong a test of the lit tle value affixed to them by every party, when it suits their convenience to set them at defiance.

In this publication, Russia, Prussia, and Britain, are each vindicated from the charges of disorganisation and revolutioncharges which are brought home to France herself; and history is ransacked for instances of her attempts at aggrandisement. Many of these, indeed, are little to the point, as to the present

state of affairs: but the foundation of the late revolution is justly stated to have been laid in the reign of Lewis the Fourteenth; and various circumstances, which to superficial observers appear as causes of the late convulsion, are considered only as the effects of that reign. Indeed, it is impossible that the papal and the feudal systems should long maintain their ground in any kingdom. Force and fraud must come to a termination; and it will be happy if the commercial system do not occasionally bring any evils with it to the injury of mankind. Its benefits are apparently great: luxury, however, is a certain consequence; and perhaps the improvement of the mind may be at a stand, when the world is chiefly confined to operations of trade. Our author's views of commerce are, however, in general, enlarged and just; and he vindicates our predilection for a commercial system, as well as refutes the insinuations of his adversaries. On M. Hauterive's recommendation of the exclusion of British commerce to all Europe, we meet with the following observations:

I am slow to condemn any public arrangements formed by statesmen, because I conclude that they tend, or at least are formed with a design to tend, to some national advantage; and that no stranger can well possess a sufficient knowledge of internal circumstances to justify his condemnation of any new system. But if I consider the plan suggested by the counsel of Mr. Hauterive in the light of a general proposition, I differ with him altogether. And my reasons are as follow: It is the interest of every nation to purchase her necessaries where she can get them best and cheapest. If she does otherwise, she wastes so much of her capital stock as amounts to the difference between her purchase of a good and cheap article, and of a bad and dear one. So much of the stock is lost in the first instance, as might be applied to, and would put in motion, some other branch of industry. In the next place, this dear and bad purchase operates doubly upon the consumer; from the badness and quick destruction of the article, and from the dearness of price: the operation of dearness is immediate, and affects the low class of consumers, as the dearness of food, &c. for it renders one of the articles of their consumption at an higher rate than what it might otherwise be purchased for, and consequently forces them to sell their productions at an higher rate than what they might otherwise be sold for. And if we extend this view of effects to the higher classes, it is obvious, that, in as much as the purchase of one article requires an increased portion of their income, it diminishes their consumption and encouragement of the other branches of industry. The third consideration on this point is still more important: whenever articles, which are under prohibition, can by any means be got cheaper and better than those which are allowed to monopolise the market, the former will certainly be obtained. England, with all her cruizers and coast officers, and Frace, with all her interdictions and confiscations, never can prevent it. What then ensues? Loss, or perhaps ruin to the fair trader, and encouragement to rational immorality. The fair trader becomes perhaps a smuggler; and the whole nation is taught to de

spise, and to live in disobedience of the laws; than which a more dangerous and deadly example cannot arise in society. If the people become once deaf to the voice of the laws, its cries will soon be heard in dissolution. This system, therefore, as a general consideration, is extremely vicious. It is one of the most dangerous kinds of monopoly. It is prejudicial in the extreme to the manufactures of the monopolizing state, whereof 1 could cite numerous examples to demonstrate, that where no emulation exists, no improvement will ever take place.' P. 172.,

As to the situation of our own country, some doubts may be entertained from the writer's own positions; and the facts alleged by him may be converted to the opposite purpose.

The coinage of a country being the circulating medium of barter, it is the barometer which marks the rising state of trade and industry. As the one increases the other augments; and the growth of both de monstrate [demonstrates] the growth of opulence.

It appears, by the returns from the British mint, that the coinage, in the reigns of William, of Anne, of George I., and of George II., amounted to above thirty three millions; whereas, during forty years of George III., it amounted to above sixty-two millions.' P. 190.

This is called a glimpse of the growing prosperity of GreatBritain:' but, unfortunately, this barometer, which in three of the above-mentioned reigns continued at a high point, has been lately, and is still, so depressed, that, of these sixty-two millions, not a trace is left; and paper occupies the place of coin. Hence either our author's test is fallacious, or the country must be in a very wretched and impoverished situation. For our own part, we can easily conceive a country to be great and powerful, where the use of gold is altogether unknown. On the next fact, there seems to be an error in reckoning. From a manuscript in the British Museum, it appears that the value of the nation was estimated, in 1688, at 650 millions, while it is now estimated at 2625 millions; consequently, it appears that the British nation is now four times as rich as at the revolution. But here the comparative value of money is forgotten; and there are many who will assert that 650 millions of money, at the revolution, would produce four or five times as much as at present. At any rate, the ratio is not that of 262,5 to 65,

On the nature of inclosures, there is room for much discussion: 2,804,197 acres have been inclosed during the present reign; which is nine times as much as in the three preceding;

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Surely these facts' (says the author) prove, beyond all doubt, the growth of agriculture: and consequently we may fairly inter from hence an increased supply of corn.

Formerly we exported corn; of late years, however, we have imported it; and the result of both forms collectively an amount of above

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