ed, by the process of the finking fund, into capital, is only taken from one employment to another; from performing the function and feeking the diftribution of stock in the tax-payers' hands, to performing the fame function and feeking the fame diftribution in the ftockholders' hands. But even if we fuppofe the taxes to be levied entirely on the portion of annual profits referved for confumption, it is evident that this portion, after it has been transferred to the public creditors, will return to the service of the former owner, if he can afford to borrow it, i. e. if it is expedient for the community that he fhould spend it; fo that there will be as much expenditure ftill as the fulness of the channels of employment of stock requires, and the circumftances of the fociety authorise.

We refer our readers to the review of Bishop Watson's Speech, No. VI. for an exemplification of the effects produced by finking funds, the neceffary effect of the funding fyftem, and of the manner in which the diftribution of capital accumulated by this procefs takes place.

We shall now only remark, that this part of Lord Lauderdale's work appears to us the most unmeasured and prejudiced of his whole fpeculations. It is (with the exception of a few juft remarks on commercial reftraints) the only practical application of his theory which he has thought fit to favour us with; and, in that point of view, the excellence of the fruit does not certainly lead us to recal the general opinion which we have been led to form of the tree, by examining its roots, its trunk and ramifications.

Before concluding, we have to remark, that the ftyle of this work is by no means either elegant, perfpicuous, or correct. It does not indeed contain any marks of a corrupted tafte, but it exhibits no proofs of a refined one. In one particular, Lord Lauderdale is extremely reprehenfible; he entirely mistakes the meaning of feveral very common phrafes, and even of fingle words. There are, for example, fcarcely two pages of the whole work in which we do not find him ufing alone for only. All this, however, is of little confequence, after the fundamental and univerfal objections which have been urged against this volume.

lic.

We have now only to apologize for drawing this article to fo great a length. We conceived that talents, and a ftation like Lord Lauderdale's, might have the effect of misleading the pubNothing published by fuch an author can be indifferent; and the circumstances in which he ftands have frequently tended to impede the progrefs of fcience which they have failed to accelerate. His talents and rank, in the prefent inftance, we think greatly mifapplied. The importance of his fubject-the names

of those illuftrious men whofe authorities he has difputed-the nature of the truths which he has attempted to fubvert-all these confiderations have induced us to follow him step by step, and to complete, by this painful procefs, the proofs on which our general opinion of the book refts. In the courfe of the inquiry, we have been led to a statement of fome fundamental doctrines of political economy, clofely connected with the work before us-and likely, we fhould hope, to facilitate the ftudy, if they should not aid the progrefs of the most valuable of sciences.

ART. IX. Letters written by the late Earl of Chatham, to his Nephew Thomas Pitt Efquire, afterwards Lord Camelford, then at Cambridge. zd Edit. 8vo. pp, 133. London, Payne,

IT

1804.

T is fingular that fome of the moft illuftrious perfons in modern hiftory, after occupying an unexampled fhare of public regard, fhould have gone down to the grave, without exciting any of that pofthumous folicitude which inferior wits and leaders of the fashion in matters of literature and fociety, have often monoplized to an extravagant degree. The converfations of Johnfon, the correspondence of Gibbon, and the more trifling effufions of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, have long exercised an undifputed fway over the curiofity of the world, while the very inadequate memoirs which have been preferved of Lord Mansfield and Lord Chatham feem to have completely satisfied the demand for information refpecting thofe illuftrious characters. Much of this indifference is certainly owing to the belief that men of fuch a ftamp had no time for thofe purfuits which render a more trivial life fruitful in amufing incidents, nor any leifure for the occupations which are calculated to carry down their private character to pofterity. While the deeds of fuch men are matter of history, and flourish in the lasting records of public annals, the actions of the writers who delight and instruct mankind confift in their feats of converfation, their ordinary intercourfe with the world, their epiftolary communications, and various other transactions important in their unvarying and private scenes, but naturally viewed as the most trivial of all the occurrences which diverfify the lives that are spent in the great tumult of affairs. It happens, in reality, that the private characters and familiar intercourfe of thofe men, whom of all others it would be most interesting to follow out of the fenate and the forum, are in general marked by a fpecies of carelessness and flatnefs, which tends greatly to reprefs or to difappoint our furiofity and the letters of Lord Chatham may not only be such

as

as would excite no regard whatever, were they attached to an other name, but even fuch as to raise little emotion, though giv en to the world as his authenticated productions.

We do not hesitate to affirm, that a part at least of this re mark applies to the volume actually before us. The letters which compofe it derive their whole intereft from the character of their author. In the portfolio of an ordinary man, they would have had no chance of being preferved. But who is there that would not feize with eagernels upon any such memorial of the minifter of the people'-the great commoner'-the ruler of the house of Brunfwick-the conqueror of Indoftan and Canada-the terror of the Bourbons in their proudest days? To have the power of following fuch a man into the relaxations and duties of his private hours, is the diftinguished privilege of these modern times, which are enlightened and adorned by an univerfal diffufion of literary purfuits. To pry into the retirement of the great, is one of the exquifite luxuries of learning-one of the refinements in which modern delicacy and tafte indulge. The name of Chatham is no fooner pronounced, than a multitude of affociations are excited to awaken our curiofity; and we become fuddenly prepared to feel the livelieft intereft in the moft trivial document of his private occupations and character, which is handed down to us with fufficient authenticity.

Such were the feelings with which we first opened the volume now before us, hopeful that its merits might bear fome inverse proportion to its bulk, but perfectly affured that nothing which related to fo eminent a man could be perufed without a very high degree of intereft. And, truly, nothing can be more pleafing than the examination actually proves. Literary meritdepth of reafoning, or extent and fagacity of obfervation-extraordinary stores of learning, or flashes of eloquence-thefe certainly are not what we wished to find in the most careless and artlefs effufions of that illuftrious ftatefman, in letters dictated by the warmth of an affection almoft maternal, during the inutes fnatched from the most bustling period of his political career. But we difcover, in every line of thefe interefting relics, features of a mind as lovely, as we know from other fources that it was powerful and accomplished. We difcover unerring proofs that Lord Chatham was as amiable in the private relations of life, as the annals of the old and the new world proclaim him to have been tranfcendently great in the management of affairs. We are conftantly delighted with traits of an union, extremely rare in the human character, of the ftronger paffions and grandeft powers of the mind with its finer feelings and nicer principles: We meet with perpetual evidence, that neither the

intrigues

intrigues of courts, nor the contentions of popular aflemblies, had ever effaced from this great man's heart thofe early impreffions of virtue and of piety, with which almost all are provided at their outfet, but which fo few are enabled to preferve even from the dangers and feductions of an obfcurer fortune. It is entirely in this point of view that we are difpofed to regard the prefent publication; and, aware that our readers may feel fomewhat of the fame intereft in its contents, we haften to make them acquainted with the book, chiefly by directing their attention to fuch extracts as ftruck us moft in perufing it.

The letters are introduced by a very el gant and appropriate dedication to Mr Pitt, and by a well-written preface, in which the editor (Lord Grenville) delivers fom judicious remarks upon the valuable remains that he is ufhering into the world.

The following correfpondence, imperfect as it is, (and who will not lament that many more fuch letters are not preferved?) exhibits a great orator, ftatefman and patriot, in one of the most interesting relations of private fociety. Not, as in the cabinet or the fenate, enforcing, by a vigorous and commanding eloquence, thofe councils to which his country owed her pre-eminence and glory; but implanting, with parental kindness, into the mind of an ingenuous youth, feeds of wif dom and virtue, which ripened into full maturity in the character of a moft accomplished man; directing him to the acquifition of knowledge, as the beft inftrument of action; teaching him, by the cultivation of his reafon, to ftrengthen and establish in his heart thofe principles of moral rectitude which were congenial to it; and, above all, exhorting him to regulate the whole conduct of his life by the predominant influence of gratitude and obedience to God, as the only fure groundwork of every human duty!

What parent, anxious for the character and fuccefs of a fon, born to any liberal ftation in this great and free country, would not, in all that related to his education, gladly have reforted to the advice of fuch a man? What youthful fpirit, animated by any defire of future excellence, and looking for the gratification of that defire in the purfuits of honourable ambition, or in the confcioufnefs of an upright, active, and ufeful life, would not embrace, with transport, any opportunity of listening on fuch a fubject to the leffons of Lord Chatham? They are here before him. Not delivered with the authority of a preceptor, or a parent, but tempered by the affection of a friend towards a difpofition and character well entitled to fuch regard.' p. x.xiii.

Lord Grenville follows up thefe introductory remarks by fome eloquent and profound obfervations upon feveral points, on which his opinions differ widely from thofe delivered by Lord Chatham in thefe letters. His diffent is chiefly entered on the two following topics--the merits of Lord Bolingbroke's Remarks on the English Hiftory,' which he juftly thinks Lord Chatham very much overrated, whether we confider the purity and precision of

the

the ftyle, the fagacity of the remarks, or the fidelity of the narrative and the judgement infinuated by Lord Chatham upon the integrity of Lord Clarendon's character. Into the defence of that celebrated statefman, the noble editor enters with great earnestness and irresistible effect. His eloquent expofition of Lord Clarendon's conduct, is naturally mingled with remarks upon the characters of the two masters whom he ferved; and the whole paffage is diftinguished by so much force of diction, and genuine liberality of fentiment, that our readers will thank us for extracting it entire. The tenor of Lord Grenville's public life, and the general principles of policy which have guided his difcourfes in the fenate, would not, perhaps, lead us to expect from his pen an ample recognition of true Whig principles, on a question always taken as a general teft. At the fame time, we must difclaim any paltry intention of imputing inconfiftency to that dif tinguished statesman. We are ftill lefs capable, we hope, of infinuating that his opinions have been modified, in any degree, by the unprecedented divifions and combinations which have fignalized the recent history of British parties. We deduce the free current of his remarks from a very different fource, and confider them as the real fentiments which he has always entertained upon abftract questions, and which he would have openly avowed, had the circumstances of the times demanded or juftified a difcuffion of fuch general principles. For the reft, we do not remember ever to have met with a more impartial view of the great question regarding the civil war, than appears to have dictated the following striking obfervations.

Clarendon was unquestionably a lover of truth, and a fincere friend to the free conftitution of his country. He defended that conftitution in Parliament, with zeal and energy, against the encroachments of prerogative, and concurred in the establishment of new fecurities neceffary for its protection. He did, indeed, when these had been obtained, oppofe, with equal determination, thofe continually increafing demands of Parliament, which appeared to him to threaten the exiftence of the monarchy itself; defirous, if poffible, to conciliate the maintenance of public liberty with the preservation of domeftic peace, and to turn afide from his country all the evils to which thofe demands immediately and manifeftly tended.

The wifh was honourable and virtuous, but it was already become impracticable. The purposes of irreconcileable ambition, entertained by both the contending parties, were utterly inconfiftent with the reeftablishment of mutual confidence. The parliamentary leaders openly grafped at the exclufive poffeffion of all civil and all military authority: And, on the other hand, the perfidy with which the King had violated his paft engagements, ftill rankled in the hearts of his people, we jaft fufpicions of his fincerity were continually renewed by the unfte i