kingdom, and the quantity grown; in order that Government may regulate their imports accordingly; for he infifts that it is their bufi nefs always to have a twelvemonth's ftock of grain in hand. The knowledge which he wishes the British Government to poffefs he affirms to be poffeffed by all the Governments of foreign countries. The extraordinary rife in the price of potatoes, he attributes to the true caufe; "it is rapacioufly carried on by combination, after afcertaining the exact confumption, and barely feeding the markets from day to day, that does it." In 1797 and 1798, this combination, he tells us, first began, but the evil was not fenfibly felt, until 1799, when potatoes rofe by combination from five guineas to eighteen guineas per ton, "although there were plenty of potatoes all the while, and altho' fine weather brought forward other vegetables." And this will ever be the cafe, fo long as the fanciful theories of fpeculative writers fhall be fuffered to prevail over the practical knowledge acquired by daily experience.

Turneps, in November 1800, were fold, we are affured, in the villages near town, where they were grown, at two-pence halfpenny per bunch, for the London markets; and, in the courfe of the fame morning, were retailed in the fame villages, by the hucksters who had bought them in these markets, at five-pence per bunch! A rife of no lefs than cent. per cent. on the confumer!" If this be not an evil that' calls for a remedy, we know no evil that does? And we agree with the author, that if fuch practices be tolerated, our manufactures muft fuffer most effentially, to fay nothing of every other defcription of perfons.

ART. XXIII. A Temperate Difcuffion of the Caufes which have led to the prefent high Price of Bread. Addreffed to the plain Senfe of the People. Third Edition. Wright. London. 1800. IT is with extreme fatisfaction we witnefs the very rapid circula-tion of this valuable little tract, which we reviewed, at length, in our laft Number. We ftill continue to think, that it is calculated to' produce very beneficial effects in removing the film from eyes obfcured by prejudice; and in correcting many falfe ideas which have gone abroad on the fubject of fcarcity. We cannot but feel highly flattered by the deference which this truly candid, and truly-liberal writer, has condefcended to pay to our opinion on the fubject of tythes; a deference evinced in his omiffion, in the prefent edition, of the paragraph relating to that subject, which we ftrongly recommended to his better confideration. On the other hand, it is but juftice to admit, on our part, that, in his table of prices, the author's inclufion of the firft year of peace in the years of war, and of the first year of war in the years of peace, is a fair mode of calculation, inafmuch as the effect of the peace, in the augmentation, or of war, in the diminution, of price, cannot be fo foon felt as in the first year after the ceffation of either. We were incorrect in imputing this statement to an error in calcula tion; it was adopted for the purpofe of giving a more equitable com putation,

We

We are happy to fee, that a cheap edition of this tract, price 3d. each; 2s. 6d. per dozen; or 11. 1s. per hundred, has been published, in order to extend its circulation. And, we truft, the opulent will eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity to put it into the hands of all their poorer neighbours.

ART. XXIV. Confiderations on the present high Price of Corn, with a Propofition for the effectual Regulation of the Prices of all the Requifites of Life; addreffed to every Clafs of Society. By Homo. 8vo. Pr. 28. Is. Norwich printed; Wright. Lon

don. 1800.

THE author's propofition for an effectual regulation is neither more nor less than a maximum to be established by law. We confefs, we are difpofed to think, that any regulation fhort of this will not fupply any permanent remedy to an evil, which all muft feel, in a greater or lefs degree, and which all muft neceffarily deplore. He contends, that farmers are always confidered, by legislators, as a diftinct race of men, from merchants and others engaged in commercial fpeculations; and he inftances their exclufion from the benefit of the bankrupt laws, as a proof that they are fo confidered in this country. His apprehenfions of the injury which must accrue to our trade and manufactures from a continuance of the prefent high price of provifions are, unhappily, but too well founded. Not fo, his objections to public granaries, which he unthinkingly compares to the hoards of mifers; he fays they are unbecoming a generous people, who ought, when they have a fuperabundance of their own, to affift their neighbours. But, in the first place, it is more than probable that our neighbours will not want it; and, fecondly, it does not fhew avarice, but common prudence only, to lay by, in a year of plenty, fomething for a year of scarcity. As to the practicability of the measure, that is totally a different queftion. The author's modeft deprecation of critical feverity precludes all comments upon his ftyle and language.

ART. XXV. Thoughts of an Old Man, of Independent Mind, though Dependent Fortune, on the prefent high Price of Corn.

8vo. Pr. 32. IS. Reynolds. Oxford-Street. 1800.

THESE thoughts are well deferving of attention at a time when there unhappily appears too ftrong a difpofition to oppose the crude notions of theorists to the wifdom of experience. The author feems to have duly confidered all that has been faid of the cause of the prefent fcarcity, and of the reafons for alleviating its effects; and he propofes fome measures and regulations which are evidently the refult of deep reflection. He ridicules the idea of afcribing the fcarcity to the war, which he properly calls, the Catch-word of Clamour; and we heartily with that his remarks on this fubject may meet the eye of the fages of the Common-Hall, and of their orator, Citizen Waithman. He fuggefts fome legislative provifions for afcertaining, at all times, the quantity of corn in the country, and the extent of our population,

which

which he deems abfolutely neceffary. He alfo recommends parochial granaries; and, on this head, oppofes BARON HERTZBERG, the Pruffian Minifter, to ARTHUR YOUNG; Practice to Theory. The high price of provifions he imputes, and we think juftly, to speculation to deny the existence of which implies fuch an ignorance of the ftate of the country, and a communication in fociety fo limited that I cannot conceive how it can exift." Of the effect of this fpirit on the price of paper, he relates an anecdote, which, we are forry to say, is but too true.

"I have been affured that the extravagant rife in the price of paper was occafioned by stationers, who had a great command of money, fending their agents all over the country to buy up for ready money all the paper they could; the temptation of ready money procured much; their agents were then fent to buy the remainder at any price, and having got into their own hands fo great a proportion of the paper manufactured, they were enabled to affix their own price on the public: this is called a good stroke in trade.”

On this fubject we can speak feelingly; the fhameful rife in paper (no less than 33 per cent!) taking out of our pocket annually more money than Citizen Waithman pays to the ftate, directly or indirectly, in yearly taxes.

The author recommends a maximum, not to "establish the actual price of corn, but only that, beyond which extortion could not carry. it in the dearest times." His obfervations on this point are pertinent and forcible.

Our readers will recollect, that, in our review of Saint Fond's Travels in Scotland, we had occafion to comment on a converfation between that ingenious writer and Dr. ADAM SMITH,* in which the latter pronounced a panegyric on the principles of VOLTAIRE and ROUSSEAU. The fufpicions which we were then led to entertain of this celebrated political economist are, we are concerned to say, fully confirmed by a very extraordinary paffage in the book before us.

"A man of much more refpectable talents, Adam Smith, had treated foreftalling as an imaginary evil! Adam Smith, whom I knew well, was a man of much investigation, knowledge, and fagacity, with a heart overflowing with benevolence and fociability; but he was ftrongly tinctured with French philofophy and fyfteme! To mention two circumstances, in which I cannot be mistaken, because, Spoken to myself, and, although contradictions to the fentiments I had expreffed, not fpoken in publick, where men often sport opinions for argument, but in the familiarity of individual converfation, where the unreserved fentiments are fpoken.. These were "that the CHRISTIAN RELIGION debafed the human mind;" and that, "fodomy was a thing in itself indifferent." The confiderate part of mankind will think that the opinions of fuch a man, or of any man, are not to be admitted as infallible dogmas; but to be fairly weighed before they are adopted."

The author might furely have drawn a ftronger inference from fuch facts; but we will not truft our feelings with the fubject. * ANTI-JACOBIN REVIEW, Vol. V. r. 268.

Alas!

Alas! what a contemptible being is a philofopher who is no Chriftian, compared with a Chriftian who is no philofopher! But, to speak correctly, a man, who is an enemy to Chriflianity, cannot be a philofopher, though he may be a philofophift.

ART. XXVI. Dangerous Sports, a Tale, addreffed to Children, warning them against wanton, careless, or mischievous Exposure to Situations, from which alarming Injuries fo often proceed. By James Parkinson. 180. Pr. 186. 2s. Symonds. 1800. THIS tale is very well calculated to promote the purpose for which it was compófed; and that the purpofe is of importance to the rifing generation, no parent nor preceptor will be difpofed to deMr. Parkinfon is, therefore, entitled to thanks for having di rected his talents to fo useful and fo laudable an object.

ny.

ART. XXVII. A Selection of the Lives of Plutarch abridged;, containing the moft illuftrious Characters of Antiquity; for the Ufe of Schools. By William Mavor, L. L. D. Phillips. London. 1800.

12mo. 4s. 6d.

A BOOK well fuited to the indolent fpirit of an age, in which Newspapers, Dictionaries, and Beauties, are the chief objects of study, with the generality of readers. The firft for learning the science of politics, and the two laft for the acquifition of general knowledge.

ART. XXVIII. State of the Nation, with Respect to its funded Debt.. Revenue, and Disbursements; comprized in the Reports of the Select› Committee, appointed by the House of Commons; with an Appendix to each Report. Also to enquire into the Receipts and Disbursements of the different public Offices, &c. Vol. III. 8vo. 6s. Symonds. 1799.

ART. XXIX. State of the Nation; comprized in the Reports of the Select Committee, appointed by the House of Commons, to examine and state the total Amount of the Public Debts, and of the Interest and Charges attending the same, viz. Police, Stationary Office, Civil Government of Scotland, Admiralty, Dock-Yards and Transports, Victualling-Office, fick and wounded Seamen, Chatham Cheft, and Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals; with the Names of the principal Officers, their Salaries, Fees, Duties, and Attendance; with what other Places, Penfions, or Employments they have, paid by the Public, Vol. IV. 8vo. 7s. Symonds. 1800. THE continuation of a very useful publication; the nature and contents of which are fufficiently explained in the title page.

ART: XXX. Account of a Plan for the better fupplying the City of Edinburgh with Coal; together with, an Examination of the Merits of the two principal Lines, pointed out for the intended Canal between Edinburgh and Glafgow. By Henry Stewart, Efq. L. L. D. F. R. and A. S. E. 8vo. Fr. 142. Bell and Brad

fute.

fute. Edinburgh; and G. G. and J. Robinfons. London.

1800.

HIS well-written pamphlet embraces a much greater object thar

Tthe reader is led to expect by perufing its title-page. In the

central districts of Lanarkshire, pit-coal is found in one folid mafs to ftretch over 55,000 acres, or about 110 fquare miles; and it is of fuch thickness, taken at a medium, that it would fupply the city of Edinburgh with fuel for 5,749 years, at the annual consumption of 222,220 tons. In Edinburgh a cart-load of coals, fuppofed to contain about 12 Cwt. was fold, in February Iaft, for eight fhillings, i. e. at the rate of 8d. per Cwt. or 13s. 4d. per ton; but the rich and the poor were obliged to pay almost double that fum for their fuel during the rigorous winters from 1793 to 1795. Were a navigable canal carried from Edinburgh through the heart of the coal districts of Lanarkshire, the author demonftrates, if there be truth in arithmetic, that a ton of coals, of a quality generally fuperior, could be brought to that city for 75. i. e. for very little more than one-half of what is now paid for coal brought from its neighbourhood. To Edinburgh and Leith he fhews that this would be an annual faving of 36,129l. 18s. 8d. a prodigious object surely to the inhabitants of the metropolis of Scotland. But this is not the only important object which would be effected by the propofed canal.

"Next to abundance of fuel for the home confumption, the foreign trade is the topic that naturally prefents itfelf; and it were eafy to fhew," fays our author, "how momentous an object the exportation of coal might, by a judicious policy, be made to Scotland. Upwards of 120,000 chaldrons are annually fent from Great Britain, to France, Flanders, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Holland, Ruffia, Norway, Poland, and the North of Germany. The city of London, and other English ports, are indebted for their fuel to the counties of Durham and Northumberland; as little comparatively is derived from. the mines on the Frith, or the coast of Fife. But were we poffeffed of adirect conveyance by water from our central diftricts, we might, ere long, draw a confiderable portion of this trade into our own hands. As our coals could be brought to the German sea at about gs. per ton, (2s. lefs than the ton of coals is fhipped for in the river Tyne) and as they would be exempt from the duty payable on those of Newcastle to the Duke of Richmond, we should, at least, hope to rival, and probably to underfell, the coal-masters of the South."

We think that for this there is much more than probability. To us it appears evident, from the author's facts, that the coal-owners of Lanarkshire would certainly be able to underfell thofe of Newcastle, or compel them to fell cheaper than they do at prefent; and, on this account, the propofed canal would be an object of very great impor tance to the inhabitants of London as well as to thofe of Edinburgh. The quantity of Scotch coal now brought to our metropolis is too

"That is, were fent, previous to the way."

trifling