His idea of Agrarian Juftice is as follows: Nature made the foil the undivided property of mankind; but without appropriation it would not fupport more than a tenth of the inhabitants which we find in cultivated countries; nine tenths of its value are, therefore, given to it by the first occupant, or his exifting reprefentative; whofe indefeafible poffeffion it therefore is; but the remaining tenth is ftill in the people at large. Every one, therefore, who fucceeds to the direct inheritance of land, ought to pay a fine to the fociety at large, of one-tenth of its felling price. Collateral relations, or heirs by will, who are ftrangers to the blood of the teftator, Mr. P. directs to pay at a higher rate for their fucceffions. He argues for this claim in the following manner. Before land became property, the labour by which mankind fubfifted was hunting; and a nation of hunters are better fupported than the prefent poor of Europe. The rich, therefore, who have benefitted by this change in the ftate of fociety, ought to make up to the poor the difference*. This argument hinges entirely on a false representation of the hunting ftate. A poor man, by the wages of the new kinds of labour introduced by the altered condition of fociety, acquires the command of a greater quantity of the neceffaries and conveniences of life, for himself and family, and with a much more fecure constancy, than any individual in a nation of hunters. In their wandering tribes the most destructive famines are common; their impotent and aged they frequently destroy, when unable to follow them in their migrations; and their women, incapable of carrying two children at once, feldom bear a fecond, until the firft is of age to fupport the labour, of travelling with its parents, when they change place. Thefe are proofs of a much greater destitution of neceffaries, than we find among the poor in Europe. The application of this fund, is expreffed at large in the title-pages Mr. Paine acknowledges, that he had no proper elements, to determine whether it was adequate to the purpose he lays down. They were prepared for him, however, in tables of lives to be found in books on life annuities. He has still chosen to assume, as it pleased his own fancy, the data he should have fought in, thofe tables; and these affumptions have no colour of probability. To examine fuch caleulations any further, is as fruitless as to make them. But as from poifons, falutary remedies may fometimes be extracted; thofe men of property and refpectable station, who look with unconcerned fupinenefs on the prefent dangers of civilized fociety; may find one or two good leffons in the tract of this malignant incendiary now before us. They fhall be copied here for their ufe." The fuperftitious awe, the inflaving reverence, that formerly furrounded affluence, is paffing away in all countries, and leaving the possessor of property, to the convul * In England, however, this is actually paid, the poor's-rate amounting to a tenth of the rent of the foil very nearly; but a district in Europe, tolerably peopled, would not fupport above part of its inhabitants, as hunters; their fhare would thus be an eightieth of the reft of the foil not ã• fion of accidents. When wealth and fplendor, inftead of fafcinating the multitude, excite emotions of difguft, the cafe of property becomes critical" We have many perfons labouring to do away this fafcination, and excite this difguft. Again, " An army of principles will penetrate, where an army of foldiers cannot. It is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the Ocean, that can arreft its progress. It will march on to the horizon of the world, and it wil! conquer." ART. 38. A Mirror for Princes, in a Letter to his Royal Highnes the Prince of Wales. By Hampden. 8vo. 61 pp. 1s. 6d. Jordan. 1797. So fevere a monitor as Hampden is not likely to be heard with much cordiality, even if his intent were really what his pamphlet holds out, that of giving important advice to a Prince at a very critical juncture. It is impoffible, however, to read his fentiments on the causes of the war, and his allufions to our conftitution in what he calls its native and original purity, without fufpecting him of a fecret defign to increase that unpopularity, which he affects to lament. Who can read the following fentence, and fuppofe the writer a real friend to any prince? "It is to little purpose Kings have fortified their dungeons, and have forged new chains, new implements of oppreffion: the phantom of opinion, darting athwart the fullen horizon of Europe, fhaking ten thousand meteors from her wings, fpurns at their impotent controul." Where are thefe new dungeons, chains, and oppreffions? O wondrous bile! which con jure up fuch images. Happy, however, were it for man, if princes or any other mortals, could have magnanimity enough to profit by the wife counfels of enemies, without being prejudiced against them by their rancour. ART. 39. A Review of the Conduct of the Prince of Wales, from his The very public manner in which the conduct of the Heir Apparent has been difcuffed, and the dif-fatisfaction which has been expreffed at fome parts of it, have called forth in the pamphlet before us, a very stre nuous and plaufible defence. The writer, who is poffeffed of all that ability, information and attachment can give to his caufe, investigates through many pages, the errors of his royal client, on the core of expenditure, and afcribes them to the inadequateness of his income, compared with the demands of his ftation. To fhow that this defence is not unreafonable, the writer adverts to the fettlements made on the only precedents in point, George II, and his fon Frederic, when Princes of Wales. From thefe ftatements, the diminution in the value of money, &c. he concludes, that a deduction fhould be made from the debts incurred by the Prince, in proportion to the fuppofed deficiency of his income. From accounting for his financial embarraffinents the writer proceeds to thofe more delicate fubjects of accufation, which have also been difcuffed in private, if not in public. Upon the mode of vindication here adopted, we could make fome remarks, but the exI i BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XI. APRIL, 1798. treme treme delicacy of the cafe, feems to recommend to us that filenee, which, in fome inftances, we think it might have been more adviseable even for this defender to have obferved. ART. 40. The Principles of the Conflitution of England; including an Account of the Parliament, National Debt, and Established Religion 8vo. 29 pp. 15. Debrett. 1797. "The following compilation, felected from the works of several eminent political writers, is intended for the perufal of thofe perfons who have not formed any regular or confiftent idea of the English government, and who have not leifure to perufe the voluminous productions of the authors who have written upon the fcience of politics." It may ferve this purpofe very well; but it will be of little ufe to thofe who poffefs Blackftone's Commentaries; from the first volume of which this compilation is, for the most part, extracted; as the remainder, from p. zo, is from Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philofophy, vol. ii, c. 1c. We recommend it to all compilers to deal plainly with their readers, by pointing out exprefsly the fources of their compilations. FINANCE. ART. 41. The effential Principles of the Wealth of Nations, illuftrated in oppofition to fame falje Doctrines of Dr. Adam Smith, and others. 8vo. 144 pp. 3s. Becket. 1797. This is a work of fome difciple of the fchool of the economifts: a Sect, which having begun by raifing many controverfies in France on nugatory principles, combined and extended with fome metaphyfical fubtlety; and having thus had their fhare in exciting the ferment which preceded its fanguinary revolutions, finished the next period of their courfe by taking a very leading part in them. Dr. Adam Smith has given fome account of this fyftem, and cenfured parts of it. To these trictures this prefent writer replies at length; and though they are not, perhaps, the most decifive part of the work of Smith, the remarks here made upon them are utterly deftitute of folidity, and of that decorum with which the opinions of writers poffeffed of great and just reputa tion fhould be controverted. The fyftem of the economits is now brought forward by thofe, who are defirous of involving Britain in the calamities of our continental neighbours. Its fallacy lies fo near the furface, and it is applicable to purpofes fo bad, that, by way of warning, we fhall briefly ftate it: but to this ftatement, the following principles are to be premifed. The annual revenue of fociety, is what it can confume without wafte every year: it confifts of neceffaries, or things convenient in their form for real use. This is the annual product in its most important fenfe, being the ufeful or ufable product. Almoft the whole of This product confits of raw materials modified by labour. Labour indeed concurs in the multiplication of raw materials, but few of them are ufeful product, without the further labour of other claffes of workmen. workmen. Whence, (gratuitously admitting the existence of a nonproductive class in fociety, that is, of a clafs neither productive directly, nor circuitously) the productive clafs, or that which furnifhes us with ufeable product, is divided into two orders: the first of cultivators, who multiply the raw materials; and the fecond of manufacturers and artizans, who give the ultimate form to the commodities produced. To their conjoint labour fociety owes, what is here called product, in its important fenfe, its annual revenue, or the whole mafs of neceffaries it can confume in a year. Hence the cultivators of the earth, as fuch, only furnish the materials from which ufeable product is made: they concur only in the fupply, and are not the exclufive furnishers of it. They are only a fection of the productive The œconomifts on the clafs, and not exclufively the whole body. contrary, affert the cultivators of the earth to be the fole productive clafs. To maintain this error the author now before us, with more earneftness than strength, employs a great part of his work. The mapufacturers, he denies to be a productive, while he holds them to be a neceffary clafs. The land-owners he ranks in the non-productive clafs. Hence he agrees, that the whole charge of public defence and public inftruction, fhould be paid out of the rent of land. This he calls a burden of thirty-three per cent. upon product, and its receivers the most une fential and burdenfome clafs in fociety. In fhort, he repeatedly lays down and argues on the pofitions, on which that opinion is maintained. (the most fatal to civilized order in the prefent ftate of things) that there can exift no property in land; and having led the unguarded reader fo far that the conclufion is fully anticipated by him, he abftains from drawing it. But we may obferve here that to all the productions of man there are three things requifite; capital, labour, and fkill. Now where land is property, it is ufed as the fixed capital of the cultivator: as the profit he is to derive from it arifes from his retaining it to his ufc, and not from its alienation, whence that of the circulating capital arifes. Now a man who wants fixed capital to carry on any business, either agriculture or manufacture, and cannot command the money to purchase it, muft pay the intereft of the purchase money to get the ufe of it, and this in land is the rent. The proprietor of every part of the capital employed in agriculture, ought to receive from the fruits of The landlord is as juftly the land, the intereft of its felling value. intitled to the whole rent, without payment to the ftate, as the former to the intereft of his ftock fixed and circulating: which he has the fame title to expect as the manufacturer that of his capital. It is the interest of an advance in money whereby part of his fixed capital is purchafed by another for his ufe which is paid by the former, under the name of rent. This tract concludes with one of the most romantic proposals which the prefent age has produced, to make a fea frontier round our whole coaft by circling the island with fortified cities. As a specimen of the fcale of this project, it is recommended by this author, to build "two new Liverpools on the coaft of Effex," and twice as many on the soafts of Kent and Suffex,” Iiz ART, ART. 42. Letters written to the Governor and Directors of the Bank England, in September 1796, on the pecuniary Diftreffes of the Country, and the means of preventing them. With fome additional Obfervations on the fame Subject, and the means of speedily re-establishing the Public and Commercial Credit of the Country. By Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Prefident of the Board of Agriculture. Svo. 36 pp. 15. Nicol. 1797. The late fituation of Sir John Sinclair at the head of fo important an inflitution as the Board of Agriculture, was likely to fecure a general defire to know his fentiments on our ftill fubfifting difficulties; as it fuppofed and indeed demanded a refpectable degree of knowledge in political economics in the perfon who filled it. When thefe letters were written, the bank and the public at large laboured under fome difficulties from the want of guineas. The writer propofed, therefore, that this great company fhould be empowered by Parliament to iffue a million in notes of 21. or 31. each, payable one year after date. As they had then about ten millions of paper in circulation, payable on demand, it should have been confidered, that the new emiffion, being of an inferior condition to the reft, would inftantly be at a discount. This defect of the propofed new paper feems to have cfcaped the propofer's notice; but with another confequence of the measure it appears that he was fully imprefled. It would not be payable on demand after date he therefore directs all the notes to be dated a year after their emiffion, that they might preferve the appearance of continuing fo payable. Thus he fuggefts a falfity to be inferted in the obligation, which would not, even on the weakest underftanding, produce the effect propofed. Befides if the perfon who might have figned fuch notes, to any amount, fhould die before the expiration of the year; and one of them were to come before the courts of law, what could they decide on an obligation bearing upon the face of it, that it was executed many months after it could he proved, that the fubfcriber was dead. Such was the preventative recommended by Sir John Sinclair when the difficulties of the Bank commenced: the continuance of his care for public credit engaged him afterwards to give an additional plan for a remedy to them, when they had caused a ceffation of payment in cash. On this confideration he propofes an addition to be made to the capital of the Bank of ten millions; one half to be purchafed by paying in an equal amount of their own notes in circulation, and the remainder by exchequer bills, or other government fecurities. Thus he obferves its circulating paper will be reduced nearly one half, and its stock of coin will be fufficient to fupport the calls for the remainder, and the Bank may be re-opened for prompt payment. But as this will make a vacuity in the fum of our currency, he directs that it should be filled up by paper of a new kind, and fortified by legal fecurities, at which he hints; which papers fhould be emitted by bankers, licenced for that purpose; and to the new bank capital of ten millions, a dividend of 71. per cent. is to be fecured. But here we must be permitted to ask, whence is this dividend to arife? For the circulating paper of the bank being diminished one half, their profits thereon mult be deduced in the fame proportion: and if the whole were allotted to the dividend of |