excel in the military, virtues, but not in justice and humanity. The Irish are splendidly courageous; they have much humanization to acquire. The Calabrians are the most daring, but the most cruel of the Italians. The Spaniards abound not in courage, but practise benevolence, and so do the Hollanders. Nor are the private lives of distinguished generals, or the public acts of countries, while under the ascendancy of standing armies, at variance with analogous inferences. It may be feared, therefore, that if we were to convene a parliament of drill-serjeants, or implicitly to obey the drill-serjeants of parliament, and to nationalize among our youth indiscriminately the military qualities and excellencies, other qualities and other excellencies of rival or superior value would proportionally disappear: and we should find less religion, less regard to conjugal fidelity, less humanity, and less pecuniary probity in the community than before; qualities which, if insignificant to the power, are not so to the prosperity, or to the happiness of a nation. Semi-soldiers may, and often do, retain the bourgeois virtues; but of what avail are such soldiers in an emergency, and of what use before? So long as the defence of the country's independence, which is a paramount consideration, can be accomplished without involuntary inrolment, or as our author calls it, a system of defence, it is more desirable to respect the ancient division of labour, which secured in each department the appropriate skill, to have a military sect than a military establishment; a partial and elective than a universal and compulsory conscription; a decimation than a levy en-masse; it is more desirable to remain a civilized than to become a military nation. In a chapter on foreign assistance, a command of common-places, and much art of expansion is displayed by the writer, but the advice given is desultory and vague. The great error of our diplomatic politics during the Pit administration has been to have preferred the alliance of Austria to that of Prussia, because Austria was the more powerful state; whereas the alliance of Prussia, although weaker, ought to have been preferred, because Prussia alone can check the northern aggrandizement of France, in which consists our risk. The friendship of both the German courts at once may seemingly but not heartily be had; because their German interests compel them, or at least habituate them, to rivalry. By assisting Aus tria we have always had to fight against the southern aggrandizement of France, which is the form of extension it behoved us to facilitate; had we succeeded in allying ourselves with Prussia, Holland might have been defended against France. An opportunity was lost in 1787 of exchanging with the stadtholder Hanover for the Cape: Prussia might then have taken the electorate, and we the Cape and some spice islands for our indenmity. The third chapter, which treats of rendering a people warlike, fills nearly a volume. We are here told, "that experi ence has shown it to be impossible to ren der even the population set apart for defence permenently warlike, if the rest of the population be effeminate." And again: "there is no instance of a bold, hardy, and vigorous soldiery existing among an effeminate people." What does this writer mean by the word effeminate, that he imputes the quality to whole na tions, rich and poor? The powers of government are often possessed, perhaps commonly, by the effeminate, the luxu rious, the refined, the opulent classes of a community; and such governments are often conducted with a gentle, an obliging deference for the public opinion of the gentlemen and ladies, who visit in the higher circles, which is perfectly polite; but who can form an idea of an effeminate people? When or where did such a phenomenon exist? Wherever there have been men there has always been great inequality. Inequality implies the misery of some. Wherever there is misery, children must be reared in privation, in hardship, in drudgery; and they must grow up with qualities the reverse of citeminate. Misery has hitherto been the lot of the majority of every community at all times; effeminacy can never have infected the mass of families. Eleminate mulers must be common in all countries, where the sway is exclusively intrusted to the aristocracy; France had such rulers. before the revolution, during the greater part of two reigns; but from the moment the authority was transferred to the ruder classes, all the excesses of masculinene-s broke loose and overspread the country. Universal suffrage would abolish every symptom of effeminacy even in modern Rome. Military usurpation is another remedy, but a remedy which restores the old grievance (if it may be called so,) in a generation or two. The son or grandson of the usurping general is educated to become an effeminate king. If effeminacy could become the attribute of a whole nation, it would be proper to institute societies for worsening the condition of the poor, in order that a harsher, hardier education might revive the energy of the numerous classes. Nature, wiser than man, proportions the multiplication of the people to their comforts, and thus provides an everLasting supply of scramblers for subsistence, and of temperate hardihood. The prætorian guards were fattened into effeminacy; but, during the deepest declension of Italy, Belisarius could raise there armies which defeated the Goths. By attending to the physical education of the por, by teaching the games and dances of aniquity, something more of plasticity may be attainable, and a larger proportion of them adapted for fighting men. But, in general, peace rears loose hands (as they are called) and war educates skilful officers; and if peace and war alternate often enough, neither to check the breed of troops, nor to obliterate the experience of commanders, every country can at all times be provided with a good soldiery proportioned to its populousness. A meritorious chapter on this topic is the fifth section of the second volume, on the circumstances which render a people hardy. On the whole this book deserves perusal and deserves praise. It is dilute, full of notorious, of superfluous, and of irrelevant matter: it might be epitomized with advantage. But it displays good reading and good sense, it contains counsels of pressing importance, and it breathes a spirit of moderation, of equity, and of libérality. ART. XII.-Reply to M. R. Gardiner's Answer to a Narrative exposing a Variety of irregular Transactions in one of the Departments of foreign Corps. By M. JAMES POOLE, 8vo. pp. 133. TWO pamphlets relative to this controversy were noticed by us Vol. III. p. 300: this will attract the same class of readers. We trust and we hear that it is not likely to escape the notice of parlia mentary committees of enquiry. ART. XIII.—Letters intercepted on board the Admiral Aplin, captured by the French, and inserted by the French Government in the Moniteur: published in French and English. 8vo. pp. 165. TO recite the title of this work is nearly a sufficient account of it. The correspondence here reprinted was published in the Moniteur in French only. These English letters are not copies of the originals, but versions of a translation; portraits from a bust, not from life. The marquis of Titchfield, who begins with a quotation from St. Luke: There went cat a decree from Cæsar Augustus that a the world should be taxed,' will hardly recognize his testament again in the Frenchified rhetoric: Augustus said, let us place the universe under contribution.' Beside the variations occasioned by double interpretation, these letters are purposely garbled. In the first a critique occurs of the duke of York's conduct, which the Moniteur gave at length, and which the London publisher suppresses. It may be inferred from the character of the specimens selected for publication, that the French government, at the time of its editing these letters, had determined to give up the invasion of England, and to undertake that of Ireland. Great care is taken to prepare the Parisians for this determination, by printing at full length every woman's scrawl which described in strong terms the activity of British preparation against the invader; and by bringing out every obscure or scattered paragraph which hinted at Irish discontent. Two letters, those at pages 57 and 58, appear from internal evidence to be forgeries of the French official translator: he must have visited London while we were quarrelling about the representation: for he uses the words rotten-borough faction, as if they were still the nick-name of an unpopular party. These letters throw peculiar light on the drift of the publica tion, and put into English lips what the French public are wished to believe. The most interesting fragments of this correspondence having already appeared in the morning papers, extracts would be superfluous and stale, RT. XIV.-The Works, political, metaphysical, and chronological, of the late Sir James Steuart, of Coitness, Bart. Now first collected by General Sir JAMES STEUART, Bart. his Son, from his Father's corrected Copies. To which are subjoined, Anecdotes of the Author. In Six Volumes. 8vo. SIR JAMES STEUART, of Coltness, was the only son of a baronet of the same name (who had been, under queen Anne, solicitor general of Scotland) by Anna, the eldest daughter of sir How Dalrymple: a descent in reality noble, but the diffusive popularity of the clan-names of Scotland gives a twang of vulgarity to their sound, which rarer names necessarily escape. He was born at Edinburgh October 21, 1712; educated until thirteen years of age at North-Berwick school, and entered in 1725 at the university of Edinburgh. In 1727 his father died; but he continued perseveringly his studies, matriculated in 1729, and was called to the bar in 1735. Sir James Steuart next undertook a continental tour. He accompanied a fellow-student to Leyden, crossed France, and went to pass fifteen months in Spain, where he received in 1736 the tidings of his mother's death. He visited France a second time on his way to Italy, became acquainted at Avignon with the duke of Ormond, and was by him recommended to the leading friends of the pretender at Rome, in whose society he imbibed a dangerous attachment to the ex-royal family. In 1740 sir James Steuart returned to Scotland, renewed with lord Elcho a friendship begun on the continent, and in 1743 married lady Francis Wemyss, his lordship's sister, who bore him a son and heir the following year. During the contest for the parliamentary representation of Edinburgh in 1743, sir James Steuart tendered his vote, which, on account of some informality in the record, was disputed he pleaded his own cause in court with a propriety and an eloquence that piled a trophy over his very defeat. : In 1745, a year of crisis, sir James Steuart was among those who welcomed Charles Edward into Edinburgh; but the battle of Culloden having blasted the hopes of the party, he withdrew hastily about October into France, and settled with his family at Angoulesme. Lady Fanny chearfully partook, and efficaciously consoled his exile. He visited Paris in 1754, and retired to Brussels in 1755; but finding the place ill adapted for the education of his son, he migrated in 1757 to Tubingen, a cheap German university, Sir James Steuart had been excepted from the general pardon granted to the friends of the pretender in the statute 20 Geo. II; a distinction honourable to the importance and integrity of his zeal. Thus deprived of a country, he sought in cosmopolite affections a substitute for the patriotic; he mingled in the factions of the republic of letters, defended Newton's chronology against Freret and his coadjutors; vindicated against the author of the Systeme de la Nature the intelligence of the plastic cause; wrote on German coins, and at length proceeded to the composition of his great work on political economy. The climate of Germany was too inclement for the occasional health of sir James Steuart: in the autumn of 1758 he went through the Tyrol to Venice, and resided with his family for some time near Padua. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu came to delight in their society: she corresponded during four years with sir James, mentions him and lady Fanny with the eulogies due to their accomplishments and virtues, and made some kind efforts to reconcile their sovereign. With the accession of George III. new principles of favouritism were to begin. In March 1761 lord Barrington obtained for the son of sir James Steuart a cornetcy in the dragoons. Sir James made approaches toward his country, and came to dwell at Antwerp. The French suspected him of a disposition to transfer the intelligence he possessed in their nation to the service of his own; they broke open his house at Antwerp, and seized his papers. After the peace of 1763, sir James Steuart received assurances, that if be chose to live quietly in Great Britain, he would not be inolested for the past. He immediately returned to Edinburgh, and ere long settled at Coltness, his family seat. He published in 1767, his Principles of Political Economy, a work of extensive information, which fills two quarto volumes. In 1771 a pardon to sir James Steuart passed the great seal. Some further tracts on the corn-trade, on the money-circulation of Bengal, on the desirable uniformity of weights and measures, and on Dr. Beattie's idea of truth, amused, if they did not illustrate, the remainder of his life. An estate was bequeathed to him in 1773 by sir Archibald Denham, which was enjoyed only seven years: his death took place on the 26th November 1780. He was buried in a family vault of the cemetery at Cambusnethan, and a cenotaph built to his honour in WestminsterAbbey. By publishing this complete edition of his father's works, his son has erected a yet more durable monument to his memory. The first four volumes exactly comprise the principles of political economy. This work is valuable for compilation of fact, for copiousness of argumentation, and for conversancy with the political writers of the continent. It has founded that sect or school of politicians, who wish the state to interfere with all our concerns; who would have government buy and warehouse our corn, go. vernment undertake to manage our poor, government prescribe our religion, government select our physicians, and government monopolize our banks. It teaches the antagonist system to that defended in the wealth of nations. According to Adani Smith, let us alone is the perpetual prayer of a wise people to its rulers: according to sir James Stuart it is lend us help. The one would repeal every law that can be spared; the other would enact every law that can be executed: the one would leave industry free as air; the other shape its vent through jobs and monopolies. If Adam Smith's system tends somewhat to anarchy, sir James Steuart's tends surely to hyperanarchy. Among clerks of office sir James Steuart is a favourite politician; because his principles go to enhance their consequence, and to multiply the demand for their services: even ministers, being mostly governed by clerks of office, give a practical preference to his system: but his doctrines deservedly want the sanction of our leading statesmen, and of our critical philosophers: they sacrifice the productive to the devouring classes; they paralyze liberty, and patronize inequality. As writers, both Steuart and Smith are diffuse they recur much to exposition, and paraphrase, and illustration: with few syllogisms they fill many pages, and place the art of persuading in detaining the attention. But Smith has always a distinct end in view, and travels toward it without digression; whereas the scope of Steuart is often vague, indefinite, and undistinguishable: Smith .draws his inference before, and Steuart after composition. Smith is more neat, Steuart more copious; Smith has more scholastic, Steuart more cotemporary learning; Smith owes all his reputation to his intellect, which will retain its exalted rank; Steuart owes some to his personal consequence, which will vanish with the recollection of his friends. The new matter of this publication begins with the fifth volume: not but that much even of the two last volumes has already been printed, but in so fugacious, or so local a form of dispersion, that to the literary world it may be considered as new. The principles of money applied to the present state of the coin of Bengal can only merit attention on the other side of the Cape. Where a transient, where a topical grievance is to be remedied, the resident authorities should be asked for the prescription. The letter of Mr. Francis displays more understanding of the inconvenience, and a clearer insight of the practicable means of correction, than all the professor-like verbiage of sir James Steuart: to Mr. Francis, lord Barrington ought clearly to have intrusted the requisite active interference. The Dissertation on the Doctrine and Principles of Money applied to the German Coin is again a pamphlet out of date. A good treatise on this topic is Beccaria's Trattato delle Monete. The Observations on a Bill for altering and amending the Qualifications of Freeholders well deserved to check an intended encroachment on the elective franchise. The Considerations on the Interest of the County of Lanark, detail in a very amusing manner the effects of the commercial' prosperity of Glasgow on the landed interest of the contiguous province. The natural progress of opulence begins in the towns, and thence diffuses itself through the neighbouring country: commercial precedes agricultural prosperity: trade is the substantive, husbandry the dependent, occupation. The Dissertation on the Policy of Grain constitutes the best, we had almost said the only, literary defence of the extant British policy respecting grain; a policy which we examined at length, and in a manner, we trust, to have produced some impression, in noticing Cursory Observations on the late Corn.bill; a policy which raises the price of subsistence a full fourth, and distributes this needless tax, not among the public creditors of the state, but among the farmers and land-owners, neither of whom have any claim or right to the slightest public recompense, for exercising an interested industry, or for living in unproductive idleness. Beside the interference by means of bounties and prohibitions, with production, importation, and exportation, sir James Steuart recommends the establishment of public granaries; and as his disciples are powerful unfortunately, as well as numerous, in the state, this new mischief may probably be superadded to those already inflicted. We shall transcribe the outline of his plan. "Let an enquiry be made into prices of grain for twenty years past; let the mean price of it be ascertained. Bounty-money being at present paid until wheat comes to fortyeight shillings per quarter, let it be inquired, whether manufactures do not then suffer too nuch from high prices. Upon these informations let the legislature determine to what height it is expedient, upon the account of the manufacturing classes, to allow the price to rise. Upon the other hand, let an inquiry be made into the interest of the farmers, in order to find when that class generally begins to suffer by too low prices. Let these points be settled by calculation, and from the best information; they may afterwards be corrected from experience during the execution of the plan. For the sake of distinctness alone, I shall suppose forty-eight shillings per quarter to be the beginning of distress upon the manufacturer, and forty-eight shillings per quarter the beginning of distress upon the farmer; the prices between these extremes should, I think, be considered as reasonable, and not to be checked, or influenced, in any respect, by the policy of the country. "These preliminaries seitled, I propose, "That all corporations, communities, or bodies politic, all hospitals, all manufacturers having the direction of large undertakings, all masters of collieries, iron-works, or mines within the nation; or, taking the thing on a Larger scale, all cities, towns, and considerable villages, in which the inhabitants (not employed in agriculture) reside, be severally obliged (as far as the legislature shall judge proper to extend this plan) to make up geeral lists of their inhabitants, with such exactness as may be judged necessary for the proper execution of it. That in proportion to the number of perBons of all ages, in each of these different classes, jurisdictions, and districts, a granary be formed, capable of containing eight bushels of wheat for every such person, which quantity I take to be sufficient nourishment for twelve months. "That the preparing and inspecting these granaries be committed to the commissioners of the land-tax; that these be authorised to "That, in a year of great plenty, when there may be a competition among the farmers for a preference to furnish the granaries, the commissioners may determine question between them for the encouragment of tillage, and the inspiring of emula tion. every "That no old grain be received, nor any from second hand, when in competition with a farmer of the district. "That as soon as the requisite quantity is procured, the granaries be shut up and excluded from all competition with the corndealers; and while prices fluctuate below that of forty-eight shillings, the grain coff tained in them be no more allowed to influence the market than it could have done had it been exported. "That, as soon as the price of wheat shall rise in the respective markets to forty-eight shillings, the several granaries be opened; but with this restriction, never to be allowed to sell in competition with any corn-dealer, farmer, or other, who shall bring grain to market below this price. "That the granary-keepers shall be authorised to issue, in payment for the gram received, corn-bills, printed for the purpose, signed by them, by the inspector to be named by the commissioners, and by the receiver of the land-tax for the county, which notes we to have a currency in the kingdom like bankbills, and be payable at the bank. They are to bear no interest while they circulate; but from the time of their being paid, the bank to receive an interest of more or less, as the legislature and the bank shall agree. per cent. "That one penny in the pound be added to the land-tax, as a fund for paying the inte rest of the corn-bills paid by the bank, until reimbursement to the bank by the granaries, upon the sale of the grain which penny in the pound may, I suppose, produce about 40,000. sterling per annum; and this, at 4 per cent. interest, will correspond to the capital of one million sterling, supposed to be laid out in the purchase of wheat, at forty shillings per quarter, which is therefore the price of 500,000 quarters of wheat, destined for the provision of the granaries over the whole kingdom. "That no person, at least in the beginning |