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No crackling blazes his rude hearth" All hail benignant name, sweet

adorn,

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CHARITY!

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tires, we select the two following:— As a specimen of the Author's Sa

ON THE RELIGION OF AN EPICURE, "Whose God is their BELLY." "Here's my religion, Demas cry'd, And to his breast his hand apply'd.

This Poem closes with an apo- Oh! no, says Marcus, with a frown, strophe to Charity

It lies a little lower down.”

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"TO incur large debts, when we have not the means, perhaps not the inclination, to discharge them, is now 10 far from being thought shameful, that it is rather considered as a lofty ennobling distinction, the prerogative of those superior characters who aspire to lead mankind. The same mean and unworthy causes that actuate the higher classes, a defect of moral principle, the influence of example, the habit of indolence, the hatred of trouble, the suggestions of vanity, and the inordinate love of pleasure, have propagated this vicious practice through all orders of society. Though the amount of the debts may be different, the ruinous consequences are very nearly in the same degree. He who voluntarily spends more than he can afford is dishonest in exact proportion to his prodigality; whether his income rise to thousands, or depend on the daily exertions of his bodily strength. This species of profligacy is indeed so universal, that it ranks high amongst the glaring vices of the age, which sap equally the foundation of our moral and political welfare. Still the thoughtless multitude persevere in the same giddy course of extrava

gance and folly; and it is perhaps only the unfortunate ruined creditor, who, feeling the dreadful consequences, is duly sensible of the injustice, wickedness, and cruelty of this criminal, though prevailing habit. But, custom, though it has a marvel-. lous tendency to blind the eyes, cannot change the real nature of things;cannot render that lawful which God has forbidden." P. 2-4.

"A celebrated moral writer has well observed, that, according to modern manners, it is not the cruel creditor, but the merciless debtor we should complain of, and daily experience verities the justness of the ob

arrived at the years of maturity, who has not suffered by the carelessness: of others in pecuniary concerns. But that useful body of men, to whom trade is the business of life, being most exposed to this particular mischief, labour under the evil in its utmost magnitude. They are wounded not only in their fortunes but in their feelings. Repeated delay of payment, notwithstanding repeated promises, produces the feverish anxiety of perpetual expectation, baulked by perpetual disappointment. In the anguish of their souls they bitterly experience how truly hath the wise man said, Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.'

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"But this is not all: whoever has visited our unfortunate places of confinement, has found there many, languishing in hopeless inactivity and want, whilst their guilty debtors are revelling in a round of pleasure, wholly regardless of the misery which their profligate extravagance has brought on the industrious and the worthy. It has been many an honest man's severe fate, to be reduced to utter ruin, not by the hardness of the times, not by his own fault, but solely by his inability to collect his arrears. His own creditors grow impatient; will grant him no farther respite; he is arrested, and rots in goal. His wife dies, perhaps, of a broken heart; and his helpless children, whom he thought to have brought up in comfort and in virtue, to be useful members of their country, deprived of parental support and protection, are abandoned to penury and vice, and become the pest of society, the very scorn and refuse of mankind.

"If these reflections are founded,

as I trust they are, in truth and jus tice, can we listen to them without emotion? Can indolence or vanity, induce us to persevere in a vicious practice, so pregnant with mischief, so ruinous to ourselves and others."

XII. EIGHT LETTERS on the Peace; and on the Commerce and Manufac tures of Great Britain. By Sir FREDERICK MORTON EDEN, Bart. 8vo. stitched, 3s. 6d. Wright, Piccadilly. Pp. 32.

Tis

O these Letters an advertisement is prefixed, by which we learn, that the contents "were originally addressed to the Editor of the Porcupine, and published in that newspaper, in the course of the last three months, under the signature of Philanglus. With the hope that in their present form, at the present crisis, they may prove acceptable to the public, I have carefully revised the various documents they contain, and brought them down to the latest period on which information could be procured."

The four first letters contain a discussion of the preliminaries of peace; answer to objections; state of St. Domingo; the balance of power, and the conquest of Egypt. The latter four are upon "the commerce of Great Britain with the conquered islands; the neutral powers; the British colonies, and the Belligerent Powers."

The paper, to the editor of which these letters were originally addressed, has "pointedly and decidedly condemned the measures" employed to effect peace, and which the work before us is designed to vindicate, by answering objections against the peace, and shewing its probable advantages. The first letter contains an extract from the Porcupine, which states the territorial acquisitions of France as an objection, when compared with her former dominions, and the cessions granted to us in the preliminaries: to which our Author replies, " in order fairly to appreciate our present situation, we should recollect what was the chief object that induced France to attack us, and how far she has accomplished it. It was to revolutionize us. That the war, on our part, was purely defensive; that we had no

views of conquest or aggrandisement ; that we armed only to support our ancient allies, to vindicate our inde pendence, and to protect our invaluable constitution from foes, both foreign and domestic, no one who has read Mr. Marsh's collection of authenticated facts, respecting the po. litics of Great Britain and France, can entertain a doubt. If we failed in the first object, our failure was not ascribable to want of zeal, exertion, or perseverance. We fought and negotiated for the powers of Europe long after they had ceased to fight or to negotiate for themselves. But if we could not save others, we saved ourselves." P. 4, 5.

After stating our successful resistance of France, our negotiations at Petersburg, our conquest in Egypt, the value of Ceylon and Trinidad, and our acquisitions in the East, our Author proceeds: "Of the acqui sitions of France, I entertain very different sentiments from those expressed by the Porcupine; but nei ther your limits, nor my leisure, will allow me to compare her gains of population and territory with her losses, both moral and political. The account would be a long one. In less distracted times, France herself may probably strike a fair balance, set down her losses with correctness, and compute her gains without exaggeration."

"It is no objection to peace, that by it much must be hazarded; for more would be hazarded by a prolongation of the contest. All great political measures, war and peace more especially, are experiments. Our statesmen well know, that more than mere parchment is required to cement the amity of nations; that time, the most powerful of agents, the chief improver of human institutions, must co-operate with political wisdom to render peace a blessing; that self-interest will soften antient animosities; and that commerce, 'the

golden girdle of the globe,' will bind us together when our fiercer passions would disunite us.

"It is a narrow policy to suppose that our prosperity must be advanced by the ruin of France. A commercial nation will be benefitted by an increase of her best customers. The more industrious France becomes, the

* Cowper.

more sensible will she be of the blessings of peace, and the more anxious to preserve them. Nor will her advances in social arts, though they may add to her strength, diminish our security. It seems to have been wisely ordained by Providence, that the wealth of nations should not dis pose them to aggressions, though it may furnish them with defence. The poorest and most uncivilized tribes have ever been the greatest con

querors.

"You seem to apprehend, that what the republic cannot effect by force, she may accomplish by craft, and that we must fall, like the Tro jans,

Captique dolis, lacrymisque coacti, Quos neque Tydides, nec Larisseus 'Achilles,

Non anni domuere decem, non mille carinæ.'

"I entertain no such apprehensions: I consider our undisputed sovereignty in the East, and our union with Ireland, (another beneficial consequence of the war, which you have passed over) as some indemnity for the past, and security for the fu

ture. To these most valuable acquisitions, but above all, to the activity of British industry, and the energy of British spirit, (which, under the blessing of Providence) have conducted us through war with honour, I look with confidence for resources that may preserve us in peace with out humiliation.” P.9-Îl.

On the subject of the balance of power, we find the following observations: "Thus, from unfolding the page of history, we may confidently determine, that laws tempered by freedom, and favourable to industry, will render a people prosperous and happy; that distracted and corrupt administrations must produce misery at home and weakness abroad; that military governments, after some time, fall into impotence and lan guor, and that pure democracies usually end in anarchy or despotism. These, and similar truths, we recog nize as axioms of state, and (though sometimes disappointed) we make them the rules of our public conduct: they are either buoys to point out our danger, or beacons to direct us to safety.

to the consideration of our present circumstances, and from an investigation of the past attempt to antici pate the future, we may possibly discover, that in times less prosperous, Britain had no reason to despair, and that confidence becomes her now. We may find precedents to shew, that an advantageous peace has created dissatisfaction, but we shall find none to prove that a peace, like the present, has been the forerunner of ruin. Ill-omened birds, vain foretellers of tempests, may perch on our masts, but the vessel of the state will hold on her course. We should be vigilant; we ought not to be fearful. Our navigators still plough the sea and grow rich by commerce, amidst all the dangers of climates, storms, rocks, and quicksands.

"Many of the objections which have been, and are likely to be, urged may be included in this short though against the preliminaries of peace, comprehensive proposition;-that, fied the subversion of the balance of by sheathing the sword we have ratipower in Europe, on the preservation of which our existence, as a na tion, essentially depends." P.21-23.

The Author proceeds to state the principal alterations which have taken place within the last one hundred and fifty years in the territorial division bitious continental power may add a of Europe," and remarks, "An amcontiguous province to her frontier: an insular one can only enlarge the bounds of empire by acquiring detached provinces. But whilst our Britain has increased her power (the neighbours have extended their limits, power, I mean, of defence, for all other is precarious and illusory) by improvements in internal organiza tion; by colonization, by agriculture, tion, which have doubled her populaby manufactures, and by commerce, the parent of naval power.

"Britain has shewn, that her sta tion in the scale of Europe depends not on a fanciful equilibrium which a congress of nations can adjust, but on resources which can be created, and energies which can be exerted, by herself. Diplomatic interference, ne

It was Fontenelle, I believe, who said that the follies of cabinets constituted the

"If we apply political experience true balance of Europe.

gotiation, and treaty, may sometimes preserve a feeble state from immediate dissolution; but when did they inspire a timid people with manly sentiment and vigour, or make those powerful who had no confidence in themselves? Of all nations in Europe, Britain has the least occasion to dread the interpretation, or to court the mediation of neutral states. Her insular situation renders her inaccessible to all, except the maritime powers. Her unfitness for continental conquest secures her from jealousy. She can only affect Europe by her alliances and subsidies, &c.' P. 33,

34.

On the subject of commerce we find various average statements of the weight and value of the commodities imported and exported; the result of which is, that notwithstanding in former wars trade has been diminished, during the last, it has experienced a yearly increase; and the Author declares himself convinced, that peace will by no means prove unfavourable to our commerce. The Author argues thus: I have endeavoured to shew, that, though the greatest part of the colonial trade acquired by us during the war must revert to other countries, and our commerce with the neutral powers of the north must be reduced within much narrower bounds than it is at present, we may reasonably expect that the export of our manufactures to the United States will increase, that our settlements in America, the West Indies, and Asia, will be improving markets, and that returning amity and tranquillity will supply us with new customers in those belligerent states in Europe with whom our intercourse has been suspended or embarrassed during the contest. It is, however, material to recollect, that neither the tonnage nor the values of imports and exports furnish a fair comparison of the relative importance of the different branches of our foreign trade. The exportation of a piece of British broad cloth is more beneficial to us than the re-exportation of a quantity of Bengal muslin, or of West India coffee, of equal value. The exportation of a piece of broad cloth to a neighbouring country is more beneficial to us than the exportation of the same commodity to a distant country. The reasons are obvious. The vent of

British manufactures gives more employment to British industry, and contributes more to our internal im. provements than the vent of foreign manufacture or of colonial produce. The circuitous trade carried on with the East and West Indies, for the supply of other nations in Europe, is much too slow in its returns, to set so much labour in motion, and to afford employment and subsistence to so great a part of the nation, as a direct trade with our neighbours; a trade which, whilst it enables them to benefit by vicinage, and to procure what they want at the cheapest rate, enables us to purchase the linens of Holland with the woollens of Yorkshire, and the wines of France with the hardwares of Birmingham.

.

"The flourishing state of our com, merce, which during a long and arduous struggle, has been extended by British industry, and protected by British valour, affords a memorable example of what may be effected by the sense, the spirit, and the perseverance of the people.

Quid virtus et quid sapientia possit, Utile proposuit nobis exemplar.

"May the lesson not be thrown away! May Britain, during peace, gratefully recollect that, whilst a great part of Europe, deficient either in wisdom or in courage, has sacrificed its independence with the vain hope of preserving its property, a vigorous resistance has enabled her to maintain her independence, and, by the sacrifice of a part, to render the

remainder of her wealth more valuable and more improveable! May she gratefully recollect, that the revolu tionary system, which she has opposed, has not forced her to surrender her commerce to preserve her constitution, and that the cessation of hostilities does not call on her to surrender her constitution to preserve her commerce. They both may, they both will, flourish together; and when, at some future period, the feverish ambition of mankind shall compel her to unsheath the sword, her constitution and her commerce will again supply her both with motives, and with means, to prosecute the contest until it can again be terminated with safety and honour." P. 129-132.

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