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we muft likewife leave himself to explain what folid fecurity would require for the pacific difpofition of France through all future times. Will he infift that the fhall immediately burn all her fhips of war, abolish the use of every military weapon in the kingdom, and rafe all her fortifications to the ground? These are, indeed, very harsh requifitions; yet so pofitive is the author with refpect to them, that he informs us, • he is against the propofed ailiance (as he chooses to call it) because it is incapable of being adjusted without her giving any (fome) fuch fecurity to Europe.' This doctrine is certainly too abfurd to merit refutation; but it cannot be more erroneous than the obfervation immediately fubjoined: And I am also against it, because we tie up our hands, and render it wholly out of our power to oppofe her, whenever the feels an inclination to renew her old fchemes of dominion.' How, in the name of common fenfe, we would ask this extraordinary politician, do we tie up our hands? If he will have them to be tied, it is only in his own imagination.

The approbation of the manufacturers is juftly confidered as a strong prefumptive argument that the treaty will prove advantageous to this country; but this author, very wifely for his own purpose, will not admit their fentiments to be of any authority in this point. He goes fo far as to affirm, that the more they like it, the more jealous fhould he be of its effects; for in that proportion it will engage their powerful intereft on the fide of France, whenever the returns to the profecution of her dangerous projects. But where will be the neceffity for the intereft of our manufacturers in favour of France, if, as we have been already told, we have tied up our hands, and rênder it wholly out of our power to oppofe her?"

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Pursuing the fame train of thought, the author asks, concerning France, Does the reduction of her army, formerly her greatest care and pride,-does the annihilation of almost every eftablishment by which the can fave a fhilling, and the rigid application of all her refources to her marine, indicate any views of particular amity towards England?' The author here evidently confounds the dictates of good policy with those of intemperate ambition. He makes no allowance either for the great revolution which has happened in the fyftem of nations, or for the fuperior knowlege, in modern times, of the advantages arifing from extended commerce. The very fame arguments by which he would convince us of the infidious defigns of France, are equally applicable to the conduct of the British administration at prefent. We have reduced our army, we are increafing our navy, and every effort is exerted for augmenting the refources of the ftate. The arguments advanced by this author, therefore, to prove hoftility in the defigns of France, are fo far from being decifive, that they betray the most unwarrantable prejudice, and never can juftify, in any degree,

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the inference which he draws, that, in the framing of the prefent treaty, those who hold the reins of the British government are the dupes of that nation.

This author is extremely inconfiftent, as well as abfurd, in many of his principles. At one time he entertains the idea of a very precarious peace; and, at another, prognofticates the certainty of a perpetual and uninterrupted commercial intercourse between those two nations. He carries this notion fo far as to affirm, that all the trade of Great Britain will be monopolized by France; and that there must confequently be an end to all our connections, commercial as well as political, with other ftates. I: feems as if this author had never heard one fyllable of the other commercial treaties in agitation; or perhaps he anticipates the fatal epoch conceived in his own imagination, when France fhall, in the luft of univerfal dominion, have fwallowed up all other nations.

It would be wearying the patience both of our readers and ourselves to purfue any farther the extravagant reveries fug gefted by the author of this pamphlet. We fhall, therefore, difmifs him with a hint, to be careful of reflecting difgrace on the understanding of the nation, by affuming, in future, the fpecious title of a Member of Parliament.

Obfervations on the Agricultural and Political Tendency of the Com mercial Treaty. 8vo. 13. Debrett.

The opponents of the commercial treaty have, for the most part, founded their arguments upon fome pernicious effects, which they endeavour to fhew it will produce on various manu factures in this country; but the champion now before us takes his station on more extended ground, and reprefents it as irreconcileable not only with the commercial, but the agricultural interests of Great Britain. He delivers his fentiments in a propofition, like the author of the pamphlet immediately preceding, whom indeed he resembles fo much both in manner and principles, that we strongly fufpect him to be the fame perfon with the aforefaid Whig Member of Parliament. He fets out with obferving, that the commercial treaty is incompatible with the long-established principles of national policy; by which he means nothing more than the jealoufy which has long fubfied between the two kingdoms. Admitting the existence of mutual jealousy, and even animofity, to be an undeniable fact, yet both reafon and religion difclaim the idea that national, any more than perfonal feuds, fhould be rendered perpetual; and, before the author fo confidently affirmed that France has invariably discovered, towards this country, a difpofition neither to be fubdued by force, nor conciliated by kindness, he ought certainly to have shown in what inftances we have ever endeavoured to gain her affection by that means. The bafis upon Which this author affects to reft his illiberal policy; is the fafety of the nation; but the fafety of the nation cannot fuffer the Imalleft

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fmallest diminution by the commercial treaty; and our national ftrength will be greatly increased, by the additional refources of wealth and population, which will be the natural refult of extended commerce.

The hackneyed and groundlefs idea that our trade with Spain and Portugal must be deeply affected, if not entirely ruined, by the prefent treaty, is another favourite fubject of the most omi nous apprehenfions to the author of this pamphlet, who, not fatisfied with raifing in the imagination clouds and forms of adverfity, endeavours to imprefs his readers with the difmal profpect which he paints as the probable refult even of extreme good fortune.

Let me suppose, fays he, what the commercial interest are taught fanguinely to expect, that the demand for our manufac tures will be increafed beyond meafure-Let me then ask whether more hands must not neceffarily be employed in them, and whence this demand for more hands is to be fupplied? There muft neceffarily in every country be a point beyond which the mercantile or manufactural (if I may ufe the term) fyftem in found policy ought not to be extended. Whether we have already attained that point, or whether the expected increase of commerce is likely to carry us beyond it, are queftions difficult, but abfolutely neceffary to be answered before we engage too far. The landed proprietor will do well to confider whether the villages are at this time as populous as the interefts of agriculture require; and whether additional temptations may not feduce the husbandman from the field to the manufactory; whether he might not facrifice his natural prejudice to his own 'employment to the profpect of higher wages and greater gains, and bring up to the loom the fons he intended for the plough?

If more hands will be neceffary, I repeat, whence are they to be had? Our streets may fwarm with idleness, but from idlenefs the manufacturer has nothing to expect: I again, therefore, intreat the attention of the landed proprietor-his fields muf be abandoned-I appeal to the experience of the last war, when the neceffities of the ftate drained the country towns of its moft ufeful hands."

As the author feems to put his questions in a very earnest manner, we shall add a few words in reply. Let him not entertain any apprehenfion about the depopulation of the country. Agriculture, commerce, and the arts, will never fail to give vigour to each other. Thousands of hands are every year ripening to increase the industry of the nation. Even the idleness which he mentions may be rendered fubfervient to this purpofe; and with regard to the ruinous effects of war, no expedient can be more likely to act as a preventive, than that commercial treaty which is the object of this author's animadver fon and prejudice.

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Sentiments on the Interefts of Great Britain. With Thoughts on the Politics of France, and on the Acceffion of the Elector of Hanover to the German League. 8vo. 25. Baldwin.

This author enters deep into the fpeculation of political alli ances in general, which, befides examining with much inge nuity, he arranges into a fyftem, adapted to the idea he enter tains of the different interests of the feveral nations in Europe After taking, likewife, a view of French politics, and affirm ing that univerfal dominion is the ultimate object of that nation, he proceeds to confider the tendency of the commercial treaty, at prefent the bugbear of fome politicians, and yet generally acceptable to the kingdom. His fentiments on this fubject being recapitulated in the conclufion, we fhall, for the fake of brevity, exhibit them from that part of the pamphlet. He maintains, therefore, that our naval confequence is injured by increasing that of our natural enemies; that luxury is encou raged; the people corrupted and enervated; that we are deprived of the advantage of favouring by commerce, fuch nations as are our most natural, and might be our most powerful allies; and that we do more, we make enemies of them; and all this to prove our confidence in the feigned friendship of our greatest enemy, whofe political perfidy is notorious to all the world.

Such are the accumulated charges produced by this author against the treaty in question. If even the half of them were founded in reality, fuch a part might be fufficient to justify an entire rejection of the propofed compact; but the fact is, that the whole is a series of mifreprefentation. Our naval confequence, instead of being injured, will be increased, and that in a proportion equal at least to the exaggerated growth of the maritime power of our rivals. The encouragement of luxury is no neceffary effect; but that of industry will be certain. We are not deprived of the advantage of favouring, by commerce, fuch nations as are our most natural allies; and, therefore, having given them no offence, we are in no danger of incurring their refentment. This author, like the other opponents of the prefent treaty, would reprefent it as a facrifice of the national interefts to the designs of a perfidious rival; but where is the article in the tariff that excludes the exercife of minifterial vigilance from the cabinet? It, happily, peace fhould be protracted, our resources for war will be increafed by the accumulations of commerce; and when ungovernable ambition fhall again involve us in that calamity, let us truft to Providence (not to the goddess Fortune,' the deity of this author), and our own national bravery, for protection.

There is one just remark amongit the Sentiments of this author, and therefore we shall specify it. It is, that when a war fhall happen between Great Britain and France, it will be attended with pernicious confequences to the manufacturing part of our people, many of whom muft neceffarily be thrown out

of employment. But is it reafonable to argue against pro, moting public profperity, becaufe, in the courfe of human contingencies, it may fometimes meet with interruption?

The author is at no fmall pains to expofe the whimsical perplexity which he thinks may arife from his majesty's acceding to the Germanic league, as elector of Hanover, But with regard to this, as well as his other political apprehenfions, we with this ingenious and fophiftical writer to be perfectly at cafe ; for with whatever facility he may paint a ridiculous picture in his own imagination, let him depend upon it, that a fovereign fighting against himself in different characters, is an idea which will never be realized. Though we have the misfortune to differ from this author in almost every one of his Sentiments, we are ready to acknowlege that he has a rich fund of plaufible argument, and difcovers a degree of fhrewdnefs that qualifies him for a champion in the field of political difputation. We cannot, however, beftow any praife on the correctnefs of his performance.

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A Short Vindication of the French Treaty, 8vo. 1s. 6d. Stockdale, This Vindication relates to the charges brought against the French treaty, in a pamphlet, entitled, A View of the Treaty of Commerce with France,' of which we gave an account in our laft Review. In that pamphlet the author had afferted, that an advantageous trading intercourfe with France is impracticable; and this affertion he refted upon the failure of two fimilar experiments made towards the end of the last century. It is certain that the different fituation of this country at prefeut, with an export of fifteen millions, and that in the laft century with an export only of two millions, cannot be regarded in the light of cafes fo fimilar as to authorize the affertion above mentioned. But exclufive of this general remark, the writer of the Vindication obferves, that the general trade and navigation of England from 1663 to 1688, comprehending a period of twentyfive years, during which time the intercourfe with France was open (except the laft feven years of Charles the Second), had actually increafed, and not diminished. In fupport of this obfervation he ftates the average amount of goods exported from England to other countries, in the years 1663, 1669, and 1688; from which it appears, that the general trade and navigation of this country actually doubled between the first and the laft of thefe periods. Is is admitted, however, that the balance of the French trade was at that time against us to the amount of a million; but it ought likewife to be observed, that fir George Downing, in his report to the houfe of commons on this fubject, in the year 1675, ftates, that the linen and filk manufactures imported from France amount to upwards of 800,000l. We hence find that, on account of the infant ftate of thofe manufactures in England at that time, the demand for the confumption conftituted four-fifths of the balance; to

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