posed by the new plan to be imposed between 1810 and 1817; by which plan, the war taxes are at the same time progressively absorbed and pledged for the redemption of the loans raised upon them. According to this plan, the debt

would continue stationary at 369,390,887 throughout the war.

Amount of debt in 1826, by new plan

Ditto in 1820, by this plan Difference of debt in favour of this plan

And no war taxes are mortgaged.

455,517,932 369,390,887

86,147,045

No. X.-That the expence of raising any given amount of loan on the present system; viz. by a single loan, with a sinking fund of one per cent. as compared with the principle of the now plan of raising the same amount by double and concurrent loans; the one raised upon a fund of ten per cent. for interest and sinking fund; the other raised upon a fund of six per cent. for interest and sinking fund; calculating the payments on account thereof, from the commencement to the final liquidation of the said loan, is as follows, the sinking fund in both cases being taken on the money, instead of the nominal capital: Suppose 12,000,000l. to be raised. New Plan.

Ten per cent. interest and sink

ing fund on 12,000,000l. for one

The following statements, as our readers will perceive, had not escaped us. in our introduction to the present important article. We must acknowledge that the pressure of the moment gives additional weight to the representations of the committee of ship owners. But, we have supposed that whenever peace should take place, those imposts which burthened the commerce of the country, in any considerable degree, would be removed, from this particular department of national concern, and would be replaced by others, of equal security to the stockholder, and of more general collection from the community. In the mean while, if our information be correct, the eastern parts of the kingdom are carrying on shipbuilding to an enlarged extent, and these are flourishing; while the port of London is making representations. The building of large ships appears to be that particular branch which suffers most, because the investment of capital is so much longer in these than in others, before it produces any advantage by returns. the year 1805, the decrease of large vessels built in Great Britain was 57; the increase of small vessels was 57; of course the decrease on the general tonnage was considerable, and there was less work for the ship-builder. But, besides the port of London, Bristol also, and Liverpool have decreased in ship-building; and this leads to the idea that the increased expenses of living, &c. in large towns has a detrimental effect on workmanship and trades,

which

In

may be equally well carried on elsewhere. It agrees also with the increase of small vessels, since vessels of the larger classes are not those which principally occupy the dock yards of Yarmouth, Newcastle, or Sunderland.

The

We flatter ourselves, whatever sus pension of our trade the present circumstances of the Continent may occasion, that they will not be permanent : minister has lately proposed a bounty on the exportation of refined sugar of 10s. per cwt; of raw-sugars 2s. under 40s. value and 1s. under 45s. He has also proposed to favour the consumption of rum, by laying an additional duty of 2s. 6d. per gallon on brandy. But the benefits to be derived from these assistances cannot be immediate.

At a meeting of the Committee of Ship Owners for the port of London, held this gth

Euvres de Louis XIV. The Works of Louis XIV. [Concluded from Panorama, p. 954]

THE philosophic mind contemplates with wonder the pursuits and objects of mankind, but with at least equal wonder the means employed to accomplish them. That the ambition of an individual should lead thousands to slaughter, perplexes the man who sees in ambition itself nothing worth striving for; but, when the effects of corruption are displayed to his view, he is forced to acknowledge, in the conduct of mortals, such intricacies as baffle every proposition of what man should be; and while they excite applause at his address and dexterity, excite no less disgust at his meanness and depravity.

That labour of the body should be paid for, by the means of supporting the body, is a principle obvious in its nature, and easy in its application: but, that mental sentiment should be thought an article of barter and sale. is astonishing! That any one should be mean enough to wish to buy it, that any one should be unthinking enough to sell it, when chaffered for, and cheapened, exceeds the comprehension of those, who happily, for themselves, have made some proficiency in the principles of rectitude. But, where a community is numerous, the principles which form its bonds, are seldom weil understood and appreciated by all its members However noble, however excellent, they may be, some will be insensible to their dignity, and indifferent to their excellence. And these, on the mere appearance of an advantage which allures them, will be tempted to separate from their old connections, and abandon without remorse those engagements which were either expressed, or implied, in their original association.

This is greatly to be regretted when the subject of change is religion. When from motives of great interest we see a change effected, of which we have reason to think conviction was not the cause, it excites our regret: what then shall we say, to the purchase of the acquiescence of conscience, or of any principle pretending similarity to conscience, at the price, the fixed price, of a few shillings? would any man act, thus in matters of merchandize? If broadcloth were offered at a few pence per yard, who would VOL. I. [Lit. Pan. March 1807.]

even condescend to look at it and what would be said of the merchant who offer ed it? Tinsel may be bought cheap; but not gold, for in that is an intrinsic value. To effect conviction, reason requires argument; religion requires the authority of him who instituted it. To matters of faith, gold has no relevance ; but, that it may produce a corrupt influence, or where corruption is already extant, that it may give it a certain direction, are truths which none acquainted with the human heart will deny. And we are now to witness that depravity in a king, which supposed that conversion from one religious persuasion to another, might be effected by purchase, and that the party thus bought, would be by so much a better subject, as the expense of his conversion had amounted to. We shall state in Louis's own words his notions on the subject of Protestantism in general; and shall then see the means he adopted for its extirpation in France.

Protestants.

And as to this great number of my subjects who profess the religion called reformed, which was an evil I always did, and still do, consider with grief, I formed even then the plan of my whole conduct towards them; which I have reason to be satisfied with, since it has pleased God, that it should produce a very great number of conversions, as it continues to do daily.

It appeared to me, my son, that those who advised violent remedies, did not know the nature of the evil. It is in great measure owing to the inflamed state of minds which must be suffered to become sober, and to cool gradually, instead of exciting them afresh by so violent contradictions, which are besides, always useless, when corruption is not limited to a few known people, but pervades the whole kingdom. As far as I could understand, the ignorance of churchmen in former centuries, their luxury, their debauch ery, the Lad examples they set, and those they were, in consequence forced to tolerate; in short, the abuses of every kind they connived at, in the conduct of individuals, contrary to the rules and known decisions of the church, have contributed more than any thing else, to the deep wounds it has received from schism and heresy.

The new reformers evidently spoke the truth in many matters of fact of this nature; which they condemned, with equal justice and severity. They misled their followers in points of belief; but it is not in the power of the multitude to discover a well disguised falsehood, when it is, besides, concealed

2 Q

among a number of undeniable truths. In the beginning it was only some trifling differences in opinion, and which, I understand, the protestants of Germany, and the Huguenots of France, consider now as of no great moment. Tacse soon produced a wider breach; and this was principally owing to the indiscreet harshness used towards a bold and daring man, who, seeing that he could not recede with honour, engaged deeper in the quarrel, and giving himself up entirely to the impulse of his imagination, took the Jiberty of examining what he had before received as incontrovertible, and promised mankind an easier and shorter way of effecting their salvation a sure method of flattering the worldly, and of gaining the multitude. Many were seduced by the love of novelty. Various interests of princes soon became implicated in this quarrel. Wars in Germany, and afterwards in France, increased the animosity of the supporters of the bad cause: the lower people were still more convinced of the truth of a religion, for which its followers had braved so many dangers; fathers, full of this prejudice, transmitted it to their children with as much acrimony as they could instill into their minds; but in fact, time moderates this passion, as it does all others, which often subside the sooner by not being violently opposed.

From this general knowledge, I thought, my son, that the best way to reduce gradually the number of Huguenots in my kingdom, was, in the first place, by no means to press them by any new measure of severity, and to inforce the observance of the inimunities they had obtained from my predecessors, but to grant them nothing further, and to limit their effect to the strictest bounds, justice and decency could allow. For that purpose, that very year (1661) I named commissioners to carry the Edit de Nantes into execution. I took care in the mean time to stop every where the enterprises of the religionists [He means their exercising their religion in places which were not privileged, and which he mentions afterwards.]. . . . But as to the favours, which depended on me alone, I resolved, and I have pretty well kept my resolution, not to grant them any; and this from tenderness rather than from severity, to induce them, thus, to consider now and then, within themselves, and without compulsion, whether it was upon good grounds they voluntarily deprived themselves of the advantages they might have in common with the rest of my subjects.

To avail myself, however, of their then state of mind which promised that they would listen more willingly than formerly to what might be said to undeceive them, I also resolved, to allure even by recompenses those who might prove tractable; to excite the

bishops as much as I could, to labour at their instruction, and to remove the scandals which sometimes alienated them from us; and lastly, never on any account to fill the sees, and other church livings, in my gift, with other than men of piety, application, and learning, able to repair, by a conduct opposite to that of their predecessors, the misfortunes these had chiefly brought on the church.

But I am still very far, my son, from having employed all the means I have in view to recover by gentle methods those whom their birth, their education, and more frequently an unenlightened zeal entangle bonâ fide, in those pernicious errors. I hope, therefore, that I shall have other opportunities of resuming this subject, without explaining to you, before hand, designs, in which time and circumstances may occasion a thousand changes.

The project of converting the Huguenots, and of uniting the two persuasions which Louis wished to effect by gentle means, had long before occupied the attention of the French government; it bad been often taken up, and as often laid aside; and was among the grand conceptions of Cardinal Richelieu. As early as the year 1666, Louis the XIV's council resumed this subject very attentively. The monarch, as was usual with him in all weighty affairs, consulted the Marshall Turenne. The answer of that great man (published in the collection before us) evinces a spirit of moderation and candour, which converts seldom profess towards the religious opinions they have abandoned; nor is it unreasonable to suppose, that it was in some measure owing to his advice, that violent means were not then resorted to. In 1669 the quarrels about jansenism being in some degree compromised, the intolerant party thought this a fair opportunity of again urging the necessity of an uniformity of belief; and a memorial was accordingly presented to Louis XIV, the original manuscript of which is preserved in the archives of the secretaries of state, with simply this note from the king, Memorial to keep. Its title is "Religious and State Considerations, to shew the existing necessity, and possibility, of uniting the Heretics of France with the Catholic church." It proposed the revocation of the Edit de Nantes, as a matter whose execution alone was wanting completely to restore peace to the church; it also ad