clufions are thus inverted, muft, if he is fatisfied it is done oft better grounds, rejoice in the event.

The fame objects appear to different men as differently as are the tempers of mind with which they are examined. Our present Author, under the influence of his discoveries, feems to estimate things in a candid, good-humoured manner; and, accordingly, declares, that notwithtanding luxury, extravagance, and diffipation, are at a very high pitch, it by no means follows, that they are carried higher now than they were formerly; or that they are of a more wicked nature, or of a more dangerous tendency. It was always the custom to praise the past, and speak ill of the prefent times; and, therefore, when I hear gentlemen declaiming in this manner, I am no more convinced of the truth of what they advance, than they are themselves by the authors who lived in, and wrote with the fame feverity of the manners of the ages, which it is now the fashion to extol fo much. Drefs is not more expenfive; nor are places of public amufement more numerous now, than formerly. Exceffive gluttony and drunkenness, the groffeft, and perhaps the most pernicious to population of all others, are by no means the leading vices of the prefent age: indeed, there are very few, except among the lowest of mankind, who would not be ashamed to be thought guilty of them. In fhort, when I caft my eye over the feveral purfuits, fashions, amufements, and vices, of the prefent age, and compare them with thofe of former times, as I find them defcribed by the moral writers, who lived in them, I can only conclude that the circuit of these things is changed, but not enJarged; and that Providence has caft my lot in an age which is as defirable as any that have preceded it for many generations.'

We shall conclude this article with producing our Author's fentiments on another fubject, concerning which many ingenious men have widely differed:

Although all arguments drawn from conjecture must submit to the foregoing matters of fact, yet the following ones appear to me fo forcible, that I cannot help fubmitting them to the public. It has been urged, that the inhabitants have decreased in country towns and villages, because employment has decreased in thofe places, and that the decrease of employment has been caused by inclofing commonfields, and putting feveral fmall farms into one great one. That both thefe circumftances may have tended to leffen employment amongst husbandmen, in fome parts of the kingdom, I will not difpute; but I believe, by no means, in that degree which thofe, who argue for a decreafed population, imagine. The farmer, where he is at liberty to act as he thinks proper, will not be governed by confider ing whether his land is open or inclofed, in affigning the proportion between arable and grazing grounds, but by the profits which this or that state of his land produces: confequently, whether land be in clofed or not, the proportion between the quantity of land which is on tillage, and that which is in grafs, will always be determined by the proportion which the price of corn bears to the price of cattle, as it always was. It is true, great quantities of the newly inclofed common fields have been laid down; and the reafon is plain. For every

acre

acre of common-field land that has been inclofed, there have been inclofed two acres of commons, and other waste grounds; almost every acre of which has, neceffarily, had the plough thrown into it, in order to cultivate and improve it. The price of corn must therefore have funk to nothing, and the price of cattle have rifen to an extravagant rate, if other lands had not been laid in to grafs to feed them.

It may be farther obferved, that hitherto, inclofures have been fo far from leffening employment, that they must have greatly increafed it. The inclofed commons and wafte land, being fo much more in quantity than the common fields which have been taken in ; and requiring, at the fame time, fo much more labour, to bring them into order, than it required to work lands, already cultivated, must greatly have increased employment. We may add the great increafe of labour in fencing and dividing both forts of inclosures, as well as the additional employment of keeping them continually in repair, and in cultivating continually a quantity of land fo much greater than was ader cultivation before, as well as keeping a confiderable part of that land in a higher state of cultivation: it being well known, and reasonable to fuppofe, that more care and pains are employed in the cultivation of inclofed lands, than on those which are not inclosed. In short, the whole inconvenience which has arisen from inclofing, and which has given rife to all these complaints, is, that where the inclofures have been chiefly, or wholly, of common fields, employment has declined: whilft it has increased in a much greater proportion, in those parts where the inclofures have been chiefly, or wholly, wafte lands; and, confequently, the people have been obliged to remove from one place to another, after their employment.

With respect to the engroffing of farms, there can be little doubt, but that it has been a real grievance to many individuals; and fo, likewise, have many other things been, which have proved very advantageous to the kingdom in general. Every confiderable alteration in the internal policy and management of a flate, whether it be for the better or worse, in general, must be a hardship to those individuals who are obliged, in confequence of it, to feek a new employment; but it does not therefore follow, that every fuch alteration is for the worfe. Whether the change under confideration has been for the better or worse, can only be determined by experience, and the obfervations of men who are judges of, and converfant in; these matters. Mr. Young, the very ingenious author of many excellent publications on this fubject, and who has certainly confidered these things as much, and, perhaps, understands them as well, as any other perfon in England, is clearly for large farms; and has advanced fuch arguments in their favour, as feem difficult to confute: and, to his work, I with to refer thofe who chufe to inquire farther into this affair. It is obvious enough, that the divifion of land into fmall farms, may be extremely proper at one time; and as highly improper at another. Such a divifion may also be proper in one ftate, and not in another. For example, it would be very proper to encourage it in those states where the form of government is feudal, and where they have no manufactures or commerce; but it seems very abfurd to employ more hands than are neceffary, in cultivating the ground, in ftates which depend chiefly on arts, manufactures, and foreign commerce, for their REV. April 1781.

fupports

fupport, as is the cafe with England at prefent. If that unhappy time should ever arrive when these are loft, farms will naturally fubdivide themfelves again, and become as fmall as they have been formerly.'

Whether this train of reafoning may now be accepted as conclufive or not, we cannot refift the temptation of going one step further in it, to conceive in idea what might be the defponding reflections of politicians at fuch a time, from the inability of tenants to occupy refpectable farms; and the unhappy obligation on landlords to portion them out into diminutive lots, to fuit the narrow circumstances of impoverished cultivators!

As the Writer concludes with an invitation to the parochial clergy to affift him with materials to extend his inquiries into the ftate of population; we fincerely hope he will receive all the encouragement due to the laudable induftry he has manifefted in this brief attempt.

N.

ART. II. A Comparative View of the Differences between the English and Irish Statute and Common Law. In a Series of Analogous Notes on the Commentaries of Sir W. Blackflone. By William Thomas Ayres, Efq; of the Middle Temple. 2 Vols. 8vo. 12 S. bound.. Brooke.

W

ITH what propriety this book is intitled a Comparative View of the Differences between the English and Irish Statute and Common Law, we do not readily comprehend. We think it would have been called with more logical exactness, and certainly with more truth, a Comparative View of the Coincidences between the Differences. The bulk of the work is bor rowed (we will not fay ftolen) from Sir William Blackftone's Commentaries, with a few fcanty Notes, referring to Irish Statutes that have been paffed in confirmation, hardly ever in variation, of the English. We fometimes travel through thirty or forty pages together that have been fervilely taken from Blackftone, without a folitary Note intervening.

This is Mr. Ayres's differential code (as he fomewhat curiously expreffes it) for which he demands the gratitude of the Irish ftudent. His Introduction, we confefs, led us to expect more than he has performed. Notwithstanding the aukwardness of his phrafeology, there is in the plan fomething fpecious. After paying a very handfome compliment to the Commentator on the laws of England, to whom he gives the praife of having firft properly methodized the principles of law, and (ftill more) of having united them to reafon (we queftion whether panegyric could ftrain a higher compliment), he obferves, that if the ftudy of the law is rendered more easy to the English ftudent by its being thus methodized, yet the difficulties to the Irish are very numerous. Although the Conftitution of Ireland, when first adopted, was exactly fimilar to that of England, and the

I

principles

principles and maxims of Irish jurifprudence coincident with the English common law, yet material differences in both have arifen in procefs of time, from neceffity and accident.

A competent knowledge of thefe differences is effential to every Barrister; but it too frequently happens, that gentlemen, arrive at the bar founded with an ignorance of that differential code with which they ought to be fo peculiarly acquainted, after a fevere application to the ftudy of the English law.'

It is not easy to understand what this Author means by afferting, that though the principles and maxims of Irish jurif prudence were once coincident with the English common law, yet material differences in both, have arifen in process of time from neceffity and accident. Different ftatutes in either country may alter, and have altered, the law, in particular points, but the maxims and principles of both (or rather they are one and the fame fyftem) remain unfhaken; and that they do fo, is the boaft and the fecurity of both countries. They are the medium through which even thofe ftatutes are conftrued. The latter muft conform to the peculiar neceffities of trade, and other fub-, ordinate objects of regulation; but the principles of law do not fluctuate and this the Author himself confeffes by tranfcribing fo copiously from the Commentator on the Laws of England; which we know as little how to reconcile to this pofition, as we do to his title of the Differences between the Irish and English Statute and Common Law.

The intention of his work is to facilitate the labours of the Irish ftudents. To those who are too poor or too indolent to purchase and to read Blackftone's Commentaries, and the Irish Statutes, it may be of fome utility, and may prevent them from arriving at the bar founded with an ignorance fo difcreditable as that which Mr. Ayres imputes to too many Irish Barristers. We hope the imputation is as unmerited, as the language which conveys it is ungrammatical and inelegant.

The Differtation contained in Mr. Ayres's Introduction " on the contefted point of the power of the British Parliament to bind Ireland," is ufeful as an hiftorical deduction,-and perhaps deferves to be printed feparately.

T.

ART. IV. Theatre of Education. Tranflated from the French of the Countefs de Genlis. 8vo. 4 Vols. 11. is. Boards. Cadell, &c. 1781.

T has long been a fubject of complaint, that while the most

care is taken to furnish the neceflary materials for that of the heart. Elementary treatifes on the fciences, though not fo perfect as might have been expected, have been produced in great abundance;

S 2

abundance: but the number of works, the immediate object of which is, to form the difpofitions and manners of children and youth, is comparatively small; and of these only a very few are judiciously adapted to answer their end. Whether this deficiency has been owing to the extraordinary difficulty of the task, or to the common propenfity-we will not fay of authors, but-of mankind, to prefer the fplendid to the useful; much praise is due to the writer, who is difinterefted enough to make the attempt, and has ability fufficient to fucceed in it.

The Countefs de Genlis has had no inconfiderable fhare of merit, in inventing, and judiciously executing a kind of writing, which is admirably adapted to imprefs the minds of children and youth with the fentiments of morality. Didactic effays may be of great ufe in furnishing young minds with juft ideas on moral fubjects. Leffons of wildom and virtue may, with fome advantage, be ftored in the memory, in the form of fage maxims and reflections; but it is by repeated impreffions on the imagination and feelings, more than by the most affiduous repetition of preceptive inftructions, that habits of virtue are formed. Thefe effects are produced with great advantage by the moral comedy, of which this writer has given many fuccefsful fpecimens. In common with fable and narration, it exhibits moral truth before the youthful fancy in lively and pleafing colours, and obtains it a free admiffion into the heart, by combining it with characters and fcenes adapted to intereft the paffions; and befide this, it has the peculiar advantages, of engaging the attention by the gradual unfolding of the plot; giving an air of reality to fiction, by character and dialogue; and affording an opportunity for exercifing and improving the powers of memory and speech, in dramatic reprefentation.

The Writer's first defign in these comedies appears to have been to teach the leffons of prudence and virtue by examples. Almost every piece is fo contrived, as to inculcate fome one moral truth or fentiment. The characters are chofen, with great judgment, to exhibit before young perfons engaging patterns of goodness; or to fuggeft to them the hazard of falling into those leffer errors of conduct which easily admit of correction, rather than to expose to their view thofe enormities of character, which would fhock their moral feelings, and lead them into a premature acquaintance with the worst part of mankind. The pieces are in general fufficiently enlivened with incident to render them interefting; and fometimes we meet with scenes which merit the appellation of humorous: the general caft, however, is that of grave dialogue; and the ferious and tender paffions are more frequently touched, than the gay and fportive. The language has, throughout the whole, fimplicity fufficient to render it intelligible to young perfons, and at the

fame