washed, no curtains; neither soap, water, or towel, to cleanse in the morning, a Frenchman having no idea of it before he breakfasts. Dessein's hotel at Calais must be considered as an exception to this account; it has long been, and is still, the best inn in France. The familiar impertinence of the filles-de-chambre, throughout the whole country, is amazing; they enter your room at all times without knocking, stay as long as they like, and will remain while you are undressing; and, if there happen to be two or more, they very coolly seat themselves and converse together; they seem to consider this office as a matter of course, and do not think it at all indelicate or im proper. Indeed in France generally, in all ranks, there is a want of that feminine delicacy, decency, and modesty, for which the British are so justly and honourably celebrated; a people without those sweet proprieties of life, however exalted by mental superiority, however extolled for suavity of manners and address, are still a vulgar people. It would be unjust, however, to close this Sketch with an ill-tempered remark upon the French; they certainly are the most lively, goodtempered, and obliging people in the world, and a person can scarcely visit them without coming back much delighted and improved.'

A mass of information is here collected in a narrow compass: but we cannot answer for its correctness. We would not defend the morals of the French, but censure is carried a little too far when it is asserted that no such thing as decency is to be found in France.'

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CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. Lofft's letter exemplifies the fault which it attributes to us, since it speaks of a want of correctness without specifying any instance of failure while our hint of plagiarism was surely very gentle, both in expression and in meaning, and was designed only to intimate a similarity, if our memory did not fail us, of which perhaps the writer was unconscious, but which (if it existed) was some diminution of merit as to originality.

Spectator may be right, but proves nothing, and can have no weight under that assumed signature.

Audax will perceive that his intended favour was too late; and we must add that his conjecture is well founded, that no anonymous communications are accepted by us.

E. B.'s candid note is received. Were all authors like this gentleman, our office would be much more pleasing than it is, and more productive of improvement among that genus irritabile than we can often flatter ourselves with conceiving it to be.

The Poems and Imitations," mentioned in the letter from Bath, are in hand.

མར་

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ART. I. A Treatise on the Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire, in every Quarter of the World, including the East Indies the Rise and Progress of the Funding System explained; with Observations on the National Resources for the beneficial Employment of a redundant Population, and for rewarding the Military and Naval Officers, Soldiers, and Seamen, for their Services to their Country during the late War. Illustrated by copious Statistical Tables constructed on a new Plan, and exhibiting a collected View of the different Subjects discussed in this Work. By P. Colquhoun, LL.D. 4to. PP. 554. 21. 2s. Boards. Mawman. 1814.

UNDOUBTEDLY, the Wealth, Power, and Resources' of Great Britain form a subject of contemplation which is of vast magnitude and importance, of high satisfaction to her friends, and of much interest to all. A treatise, then, on this topic, must necessarily be a task of considerable labour and extent; and the public will be neither surprized nor displeased at receiving such a work in the bulky form of a quarto volume, closely printed, from the hands of Mr. Colquhoun; who has long been known to them as one of our most zealous writers on topics relative to moral and national improvement. His earlier efforts were devoted to an exposure of the thefts and irregu larities practised throughout the metropolis, and particularly in the port of London: another of his publications treated on the means of alleviating the condition of the indigent part of the community; and he now gives a kind of climax to his literary labours, by exhibiting an ample statement of the resources of the country at large. The subjects principally discussed in this ample production are our national wealth, our annual revenue, our expenditure, and our debt; the value of our dependencies in the West Indies, and other parts of the world; with a series of observations on the means of finding employment for the officers, the soldiers, and the seamen, who are usually discharged on the conclusion of a definitive peace with France.

A work of this nature must necessarily be in great part a compilation, and the author or editor must rest his claim to VOL. LXXVIII.

Z

favour

favour on the care and judgment with which he collects his materials, and connects them by appropriate observations. Official papers of great use for particular-subjects appear from time to time through the medium of the Reports of parliamentary committees, and extracts from these voluminous documents find their way into our magazines and news-papers: but it would be in vain to look for any publication exhibiting them in a combined and connected shape. Such an object Mr. Colquhoun has now undertaken to accomplish: but he apologizes for omissions or deficient arrangement, in consequence of his numerous. avocations as a magistrate, and his solicitude to bring out the book speedily after the conclusion of the late treaty of peace. The materials, he says, were put together in the short space of seven months; a notice that must excite regret with all who are aware of the time and reflection necessary to digest and arrange tables of such importance, even after the fundamental data have become familiar to the author's mind.— We shall first make such extracts and observations as may enable our readers to form a conception of the plan of the undertaking, and shall follow up this exposition with some remarks on the merits of the execution of it.

༣

The volume is divided into fourteen chapters, each of which is of much more substantial dimensions than we have lately had occasion to see in some fanciful French publications, in which the humble term section' would have figured more appropri ately in their pompous table of contents.. Mr. Colquhoun's first chapter, which occupies fifty quarto pages, treats of the population of the kingdom and its dependencies: but here his attempts at accurate returns are checked by uncertainty in the case of Ireland, no correct report of the population of that part of the United Kingdom being as yet made to Government. After having compared the arguments on both sides of the question, Mr. C. puts down the Irish population at four millions and a half; forming, with the twelve millions in Great Britain, a total of sixteen millions and a half. The official return made in 1811 from England, Scotland, and Wales, was so arranged as to point out the relative numbers in towns and in the country:

In the Towns.

Counties. Towns. Houses. Inhabitants.

In the Country.

Inhabitants.

Houses. 979,723 5,317,013 93,077

468,321

• In England 40 861 746,308 4,221,814 In Wales 12 78 29,416143,467 In Scotland 32 244 139,670 907,431 2175,752 898,257

84 1183 915,394 5,272,712 1,248,552 6,683,591'

On

On comparing this statement with the only other document that we possess of the kind, the return of 1801, we find a larger comparative increase in the population of the towns than in that of the country. The general summary just quoted is followed, in Mr. C.'s work, by extracts (at perhaps too great length) from the population of the different counties of England, Scotland, and Wales; after which we have a list of our principal towns in succession according to their magnitude. We quote a part of it:

Next succeed the totals of the counties in houses and inhabitants, distinguishing whether in towns or in the country; given, not in the sequence of their extent, but in their alphabetical order. We extract the County-population of England':

The general result of a comparison of the returns of 1801 and 1811 was an increase of a million and a half, or nearly a seventh, in the population of Great Britain; which, after ample deduction for the effect of an improved mode of taking the returns in the latter year, still affords a residue calculated to exhibit a very satisfactory proof of the augmentation of our numbers even in time of war. Our countrymen were not indeed exposed to fall in great numbers in the field: but the pressure of taxes and the dullness of trade must be regarded in the light of serious discouragements to marriage and to augmented population, when compared with the advantages of a state of peace. -The next question, and a very essential one, is to consider in what manner subsistence is to be provided for this rapidly increasing population; and Mr. Colquhoun very properly directs our attention to the improvement of our fisheries:

Viewing with an attentive eye the progress of population in Great Britain and Ireland at the present crisis, it appears probable that an increase of vegetable and animal food equal to the consumption of two millions of individuals must be obtained from improved cultivation, from fisheries, and from importation every ten years; making an accession of inhabitants in each year equal to a new population of 200,000 souls.

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