Europe; they are placed according to their refpective geographical bearings. The names of the towns are written on a small square piece of paper, and fixed in a flit on the top of a peg, which is ftuck into the table. The remarkable mountains are fhewn by small pyramidical black ftones, and little white pyra ids are ftationed at all the fpots hich have been diftinguished by any great battle or other remarkable incident. The man himself, in explaining his work, fhews abundance of learning, relative to the ancient names of places, and the form -r inhabitants of the countries to which he points; and amufed us with anecdotes of various kinds, connected with the lands he has marked out. Thus, in fhewing us the Alps, he pointed to the fpots over which the French army of referve fo lately paffed,. and where Buonaparte fo fortunately efcaped being taken by an Auftrian officer; and then he gave us a fhor comment of his own upon the character and extraordinary good fortune of the First Conful. In a fecond room he has a large machine, reprefenting the Copernican fyftem of the univerfe: it is made in fuch a manner, as that the whole firmament of fixed ftars moves round our folar fyftem once in every twenty-four hours, and thus always exhibits the ftars, in the exact pofition, relative to our earth, in which they really ftand. Internally, he has ftationed all the planets which belong to our fyftem, with their feveral fatellites, and all the comets that have been observed during the laft three centuries. In a third room he has another machine, exhibiting in different parts the various phases of the moon, and those of Jupiter's fatellites, the apparent motion of the fun round the earth, and the real motion of the earth round the fun.

66

In his garret he has another work, upon which he is yet occupied, and which being his laft labour, feems to be that in which he takes the moft delight. Upon a very large table, fimilar to that in the first room, he has inlaid a number of thin plates of wood, formed so as to reprefent a projection of the earth upon Mercator's plan. All the intervals between the plates of wood defignate that portion of the world which is covered with water. He has used a number of very small ropes of two colours, drawn over the furface in fuch a manner as to defcribe the tracks of all the celebrated circumnavigators of the globe. The colours of the ropes diftinguish the feveral voyages from each other. To three of thefe great adventurers, who he thinks claim efpecial preeminence above the reft, Columbus, Anfon, and Cook, he has shown a fpecial honour by three little models of fhips, bearing their names, which are placed upon the furtace of his ocean, in fome fpot of their refpective courses. The names of all the other voyagers, and the times at which their voyages were performed, are marked by papers fixed at the points of their departure. Such is the imperfect defcription I can give you from a fhort view of the labours of this really curious man. He must be nearly, or quite feventy years old, and has all his life-time been of an infirm conftitution. But this tafte for the fciences, he told us, was hereditary in his family, and had been common to them all, from his great-grandfather down to himself. His drefs and appearance were thofe of a common weaver: but his expreffive countenance at once full of enthufiaftic fire and of amiable good-nature, was a model, upon which Lavater might expatiate with exultation. The

U 2

honeft

honest and ingenious weaver, on our taking leave, made us fmile by exclaiming, that now, if he could but have a traveller from Africa come to fee his works, he could boast of having had visitors from all the four quarters of the globe." P. 35.

The latter part of the volume, which is occupied by the flatiftical account of Silefia, is by no means the leaft interefting; and the statement of the present mode of education, which has been adopted, feems worthy of a place.

"After all these preparatory measures had been carried into effect, an ordinance was published, in the year 1765, prefcribing the mode of teaching, as adopted in the feminaries, and the manner in which the clergy fhould fuperintend the efficacious eftablifhment of the fyftem. The regulations of this ordinance prove the earneftnefs with which the King of Pruffia laboured to fpread the benefits of useful knowledge among his fubjects. The teachers are directed to give plain inftruction, and upon objects applicable to the ordinary concerns of life; not merely to load the memory of their scholars with words, but to make things intelligible to their understanding; to habituate them to the ufe of their own reafon, by explaining every object of the leffon, fo that the children themselves may be able to explain it upon examination. The candidates for school-keeping must give fpecimens of their ability, by teaching at one of the fchools connected with the feminary, in the prefence of the profeffors at the feminary, that they may remark and correct any thing defective in the candidate's method. If one fchool fuffices for more than one village, neither of them muft be more than half a German mile diftant from it in the flat country, nor more than a quarter of a mile in the mountainous parts. The fchool-tax must be paid by the lord and tenants, without distinction of religions. In the towns, the school must be kept the whole year round. It is expected that one month fhall fuffice to make a child know the letters of the alphabet; that in two it shall be able to join them; and in three, to read. The boys must all be fent to school, from their fixth to their thirteenth year, whether the parents are able to pay the fchool tax or not. For the poor, the school money must be raised by collections. Every parent or guardian who neglects to fend his child or pupil to fchool, without fufficient caufe, is obliged to pay a double school-tax, for which the guardians fhall have no allowance. Every curate muft examine weekly the children of the school in his parish. A general examination must be held annually, by the deans of the diftricts, of the fchools within their refpective precincts; and a report of the condition of the schools, the talents and attention of the fchoolmatters, the ftate of the buildings, and of attendance by the children, made to the office of the vicar general, who muft tranfmit all these reports to the royal domain offices. From thefe, orders are iffued to the refpective landraths, to correct the abuses, and fupply the deficiencies, indicated in the reports. This fyftem was at first prepared only for the Catholic fchools; but it was afterwards adopted, for the most part, by most of the Lutheran confiftories. Its truly refpectable author, Felbiger, was, in the lequel, with the confent of Frederick,

Frederick, invited to Vienna, by the Emprefs Maria Therefa, and her fon Jofeph II. who appointed him director of the normal fchools or feminaries in all the Austrian dominions. His regulations have been introduced, and are acted upon, in almost all the Catholic countries of Germany.

"In Silefia they had, at first, many old prejudices to contend with. The indolence of the Catholic clergy was averfe to the new and trou blefome duty impofed on them. Their zeal was alarmed at the danger arifing from this difperfion of light to the ftability of their church. They confidered alike the fpirit of innovation and the fpirit of inquiry as their natural enemies. Befides this, the fyftem ftill meets refiftance from the penurious parfimony and ftubborn love of darkness, prevailing in fome parts of the province. Many villages neglect the fupport of their fchools; many individuals, upon falfe pretexts, forbear fending their children to school, for the fake of faving the tax, The compulfive measures, and the penalties prefcribed by the ordinance, are used feldom, and with reluctance. The benevolent defign has not been accomplished to the full extent of which it was fufceptible; but as far as it has been accomplished, its operation has been a bleffing. That its effects have been very extenfive, is not to be doubted, when we compare the number of fchools throughout the province, in the year 1752, when they amounted only to one thousand five hundred and fifty-two, with that in the year 1798, when they were more than three thoufand five hundred. The confequences of a more general diffufion of knowledge are attefted by many other facts equally clear. Before the feven years war, there had scarcely ever been more than one periodical journal or gazette published in the province at one time. There are now no lels than feventeen newfpapers and magazines, which appear by the day, the week, the month, or the quarter, many of them upon fubjects generally useful, and containing valuable information and inftruction for the people. At the former period there were but three bookfellers, and all these at Breflau. There are now fix in that capital, and seven difperfed about in the other cities. The number of printing-preffes and of book-binders has increased in the fame proportion.' P. 366.

Having pointed out the route purfued by the traveller, and exhibited fpecimens of his work, we can only refer our readers to the book itself, which we have no hesitation in afferting, will be found to be the production of an enlightened and accomplished mind.

ART.

ART. X. An Effay on the Principle of Commercial Exchanges, and more particularly of the Exchange between Great Britain and Ireland; with an Enquiry into the prac tical Effects of the Bank Reftrictions. By John Leslie Fofter, Efq. of Lincoln's Inn. 8vo. 209 pp. 5s. Hatchard. 1804.

MR.

(R. FOSTER, in this work, undertakes to give an account of a phænomenon, fuppofed to be difcovered in the commercial world, and abfolutely new; the coexiflence of a favourable balance of the general payments of a flate, together with an adverfe exchange. He brings forward public documents to establish the fact of this coincidence, which is in diametrical oppofition to former experience, and pre-eftablithed principles, feemingly well founded upon experience; and he then proceeds to account for this anomalous circumstance, which must be on grounds very different from those that have prevailed to this time.

To enter fully into the merits of this work, it would be requifite firft to confider the evidence of the coexiftence of thefe two facts, hitherto held to be lo repugnant as abfolutely to exclude each other; then, if it must be admitted, the proofs of the principles on which it is here accounted for, which of neceffity muit be new, will require to be examined, together with the legitimacy of their application. Many evils are here alfo flated, as attending this fingular fituation of the country; and the efficacy of the remedies which he has prefcribed to these evils might become proper objects of our confideration.

We cannot give to the plan of our critique fo wide a circuit; especially as the exiflence of the fact itself is certainly entitled to our firit attention, as being of the greateft national confequence; and this cannot be entered upon, in any manner proportioned to its importance, without an arithmetical comment on Mr. F.'s authorities, of fome length, and of a kind which the nature of a work like our's feems almoft to exclude. When this, however, is difpatched, by fuch a process as we can undertake, and which will be fufficient, we conceive, to fhow, that probably the difficulty does not exift; whereby what is of fered in folution of it may be more curforily pafled over; we fhall add to it a few remarks on certain other principles which Mr. F. adopts, and what he deduces from them; and, in conclufion, give a fummary character of his work.

Ireland has certainly been for fome time in a flate of fermentation, not very remote in degree from that which may be called exalted: great errors, at fuch a crifis, and on moment

ous points, generally entertained, cannot exift without danger, and may be fatal to that country; and this may as well be the confequence of those delufive and flattering flatements, which, throwing a veil over the caufes of its diftrefs, prevent any timely remedy being applied to them; as of thofe fictions of evils threatening the general empire which do not really exist, or the aggravations of thofe which cannot be denied; the latter of which may furnish new arms to fedition, excite difcontent, and create defpondency, where they had not been felt before; and few errors are capable of producing worfe confequences than those which relate to the important fubjects here treated.

Of the two branches of the fact maintained by Mr. Fofter, that the course of exchange is againft Ireland, but the balance of general payments in her favour, we are concerned to be obliged to admit, from the evidence in his Appendix, that nothing can be urged against the former; and equally to be compelled to exprefs a ftrong belief, that the general balance of payment is much against that country; that belief being founded on certain documents which he has produced to show the contrary, and which, as cited by him, carry on the face of them the appearance of fo doing.

For No. 4. of the Appendix is a Table, flated to be an account of the current value of the exports and imports of Ireland, and their differences, in feven different years; and therein we find, in the year 1803, a balance entered in favour of Ireland of 917,000l. We have not the printed report before us, from which this is extracted, but we fhall give certain reafons, deduced from the Table itfelf, and that preceding it, which contains the correfponding series of official values, to fhow that no fuch balance took place in that year; and the high probability that it is an error of a very fingular kind, which fhall be described.

In order to this, we muft affume the following point; that the imports of Ireland, in each of the years confidered, confifted very nearly of the fame articles; and that the quantity of each bore nearly the fame proportion to the whole import of each year. The Table of official values is divided into three periods of five years each (p. 205): in that which follows it, we have the current values for the laft four years of the fecond period only, and the firft, fecond, and fourth of the third (p. 206). At the firft formation of a national commercial ledger, every commodity is rated in at its current value; which therefore, for the firft year, is the fame as the official; but the former foon comes to exceed the latter by the rife of prices of all commodities; and, after a long courfe of years,