lamp. His ideas, as we have already remarked, feem to be derived in many cafes from reflection, rather than from experience among men; but we need not obferve that the knowledge derived from experience is much more perfect than that which refults from fpeculation only. Boyle ufed to fay, that he often obtained more information in the work-fhop of a mechanic, in half an hour, than he could have derived from study in half a year with ftill more juftice may it be faid, that more political knowledge will be attained in half a year, by obferving facts that occur in the active bustle of human affairs, than could perhaps be obtained by fpeculative ftudy in half a century. As one inftance of the effects of fyftem on the reafoning of our Author, we fhall obferve, that he lays it down as an established principle, that the perfection of that plan of political economy, which he calls a fyftem of agriculture founded on a fyftem of manufactures, confifts in the having as few peasants in proportion to the manufacturers as poffible; and upon this principle he refts a great many of his molt important conclufions. It is however fufficiently obvious, that whether we regard the political strength and welfare of the whole community, or the profperity and happinefs of individuals in any fociety, it cannot be effentially varied by any affignable ratio in the proportion here fpecified; and that of course all the conclufions which reft upon this principle muft fall to the ground. As an inftance of undue deference to authority, we may alfo fpecify the implicit reliance he places on a few facts with regard to the most beneficial fizes of farms, haftily picked up by an author whofe conclufions are in general formed with a rapid glance at a few particulars only, fo as not to deferve to be relied on as a bafis for any important inducHad our ingenious Author been himself well acquainted with the subject of agriculture, he would doubtlefs have observed, that a great variety of circumftances, which have been entirely overlooked by the author on whom he relies, fhould have been taken into the account, before he could have been authorized to draw the conclufion he does *; and that although

the

* He would have perceived too, that in fome fituations agriculture can be practifed with profit only upon a very large fcale; that in others, its furplus produce can be most augmented in small farms; and that in every cafe, when the ground is brought to its highest ftate of improvement, its furplus produce, after feeding thofe emplayed in cultivating it, will be most augmented when that culture is performed by man only. Had he ever entered minutely into these fpeculations, and adverted to facts that might have been within his reach, he would have found that the poflible produce of an acre of ground, under the most perfect culture, would be fufficient to fubfift FOUR perfons at least thoughout the whole year; and he would also

the enquiry had been carried on by Mr. Young, at the time, with all poffible caution, fo as to ascertain the fact with regard to the particular place in queftion in the ftate of agriculture as practifed there at the time, with all imaginable precifion; yet that ftill this fact could not ferve as a basis for those important gene ral conclufions that Mr. H. founds upon it, because the fame conclufions could not apply to places in different circumftances at the time, nor to the fame place even at a future period, seeing circumftances may be varied almoft to infinity, all of which alterations would affect the fact here faid to be established. As Mr. H. refts many conclufions of very great political importance on thefe fuppofed facts, it was of confequence here to take notice of this error. We have alfo obferved that he reafons, in many parts of his work, concerning the political regulations of China, with a greater degree of confidence than the imperfect state of our knowledge of that country can juftly authorize; and that, in eftimating the means of fubfiftence that a country poffeffes, fisheries have been entirely kept out of view.

Had the work in queftion been poffeffed of lefs real merit, our animadverfions on it would have been much more sparing; but it is a rule we in general wish to adopt, because we think our duty to the Public requires it, to point out, as diftinctly as we can, the errors in works of fterling worth, that these may not

have been able to comprehend how it is poffible that every acre of land which admits of being turned up by the fpade or plough, may be brought, by skill and continued culture, to yield crops equal in quantity to thofe of the richest land now under culture. Thus would he have perceived that it is poffible for Great Britain, which contains above fifty millions of acres, to derive fubfiftence from her own fields for two hundred millions of fouls, on the fuppofition that the fisheries on our coafts could only be made to fupply a quantity of food equal to the deficiency that wou'd arife from the few acres of rock and inacceffible mountains in the island; and the probability is, that these fifheries would do much more than this. Had he farther adverted, that in the prefent ftate of Europe, the quantity of food that might be obtained by means of commerce is indefinitely great, as appears by the example of Holland, which has found an abundant fubfiftence, and at as reasonable a rate as almost any country in Europe, for more than two hundred years paft, by means of external commerce. Had all these things been fufficiently adverted to, our Author never could have thought of ftating the utmoft poffible degree of population of Britain, as he has done, at double its prefent amount, or have been at fo much pains to invent political devices to guard against the ills that may be expected to arife from a fuperabundant degree of population, as the period must be very far off (even if every poffible exertion fhould be made to augment the property, and increafe the number, of our people) when it will approach in any degree toward that grand epocha.

be

be implicitly adopted by careless readers, as of the fame standard excellence with the reft of the performance. We can with the utmoft fincerity fay, that we have read few works on this fubject with fo much fatisfaction as the prefent; and we are happy to find, that the Author announces a feries of treatifes on political economy, which we hope he will find leifure and inclination to profecute. The few blemishes we have had occafion to take notice of, feem, in general, to proceed from youth and inexperience, which the Author's own good fenfe, as he advances in years, will enable him to avoid in future. The following animadverfions on our prefent Premier may poffibly by fome be referred to the fame fource, though it is introduced with an obfervation of very great political importance, that deferves to be feriously weighed by the Minifter himself, and all those who have any concern in the legislation of this country.

• Taxes on manufactures,' he obferves, appear to be the great fource on which Mr. Pitt proposes to rely for his future fupplies, and the general cry of clear-fighted men against them has not been able to open his eyes with regard to the confequences of fuch a pernicious fyftem. Novice, ftill, in political economy, because the principles of that science are not innate in man, and that he has not had time to acquire them, either by meditation or experience, he has not been able to fee, in the patriotic citizens who have condemned his measures, the faithful interpreters of its principles, and he has perfuaded himself that their cry was nothing elfe than the voice of faction and felf-intereft.

But for me,' continues Mr. H. whom he cannot fufpect either of a factious fpirit or of perfonal intereft, I dare to ufe the fame language, and to fay to him (with the firmnefs and courage which the good of my fellow mortals infpires, in whatever country I find them, because every where they are my brethren), that of all the means of ruining the manufactures, the agriculture, the commerce, and the profperity of a nation, none are more fpeedy and infallible than the fyftem which he has begun to practife; efpecially when a fyftem fo fatal is applied to a nation whofe fituation demands the most cautious circumfpection.

• Enlightened and refpectable nation (proceeds he, with warmth), you English, who are acknowledged to have gloriously maintained the dignity of human nature, which is generally vilified in all other parts of the globe; you who have been, to the nations of Europe, the fchool of found principles of political economy, how have you bewildered yourselves in your ideas of that fcience? How have you mifled yourfelves with an opinion of, and confidence in, a young man, and flattered yourselves that he was capable to free you from the ills which unfortunate events have brought upon you? He has fhewn a talent for eloquence in an uncommon degree, and you have thought you faw in him, in the fame degree, the love of his country; but are the talent of eloquence and the love of one's country the fcience of political economy; and that fcience, the most difficult of all others, is it the infeparable appendage of a great orator and a good citizen?

• Would

• Would the gift of speech, and the love of men,' proceeds he, have appeared to you fufficient qualifications in a young physician without theory and without practice? Would it have induced you to confide exclufively in him even for the fate of the patients in an hofpital? The gift of words, and the love of men, would they have appeared fufficient qualifications in a young pilot, without theory and without practice, to truft exclufively with him the fate of paffengers in a difficult navigation? No, certainly; and no one among you would have thus chofen his phyfician in a dangerous disease, nor his pilot on a perilous fea; nevertheless it is thus you have inclined to chufe the arbiter of your destiny, of the public fafety, of your own profperity, and of that of your children.

But this is not all,' he adds; you have done ftill worfe! Inftead of the young man who has obtained your wishes and acclamations, you have impofed on yourselves for minifters men whom you never intended for tuch; men whom you, perhaps, would have rejected with abhorrence if they had been propofed to you. For as the want of knowledge in him who was the object of your choice, has put him under the inevitable neceffity of having recourfe to the lights of others, you have expofed him to the rifque of being directed in his conduct with regard to you by men perhaps ftill less enlightened than himself; by men, who, enveloped in obfcurity, cannot be rendered accountable for the confidence placed in them, nor be made to blush at the indirect abufes which they make of it; and, perhaps, by men fo depraved as to have in view nothing else than their own intereft, not yours. At least, these are the unfortunate confequences which have too often been seen to refult among other nations from the choice of minifters who were themselves deftitute of knowledge; and it would be difficult to perfuade one's felf things should be otherwife with you.'

In the fame ftrain our Author proceeds ftill farther, with no fmall degree of enthufiaßic ardour: but we, who have seen fo many changes of minifters with fo few effential changes of fyftem, have come at laft to view these things with a degree of apathy that few young men can conceive. The hopes that are excited by the partizans of new minifters are fo feldom realifed, that we quietly fuffer the noify acclamations to pafs unnoticed, and we have often obferved that if the principles of freedom are not impaired, there is, in human fociety, fuch an innate principle of vigour, as makes it quickly recover from all the other wounds or diforders inflicted with fuch liberal hands by every order of political quacks who fucceffively feize the helm ; fo that neither our hopes nor our fears keep pace with those of many writers who come under our infpection.

We had lately occafion to mention an Author who confiders the national debt as a great national bleffing; fo does not the Author now before us. Like most men of a common degree of understanding, he views it as an evil that ought to be diminished, and congratulates himself on having difcovered an eafy and effectual method of doing it. As this will perhaps be the most

I

interefting

interefting part of the work to many readers, and as he has chofen to announce it in fuch a way as might fuffer by any abridgment, we had felected that article as a fpecimen of the Author's ftyle and manner of writing: but as the extract would be too long for our Journal, we must refer to the work at large. Our readers will find the paffage which we here recommend to their particular notice, by turning to p. 230, and proceeding

to p. 244.

ART. II. SYLVA, or the Wood; being a Collection of Anecdotes, Differtations, Characters, Apophthegms, original Letters, Bons Mots, and other little Things. By a Society of the Learned. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Payne. 1786.

THE

HE contents of this volume are various both as to fubject and execution. We fometimes meet with trite remarks and infignificant anecdotes; and once or twice we were disgusted with a coarse joke and an indelicate ftory; on the whole, however, this is a collection of confiderable merit. The Author (for he is more than a compiler, though he deals much in *extracts and quotations) is evidently a man of acute difcernment and found morals. He appears to have had much experience of the world; and, in general, hath formed a juft eftimate of men and manners, principles and times. He writes with candour and liberality; and he is a friend to public order and decorum; but he loudly exclaims against thofe who fet up for reformers of abufes in church and ftate, giving them little credit either for integrity or wisdom, and placing their pretenfions to the fcore of pride, difappointment, ignorance, or imposture.But here, furely, a proper difcrimination is neceffary.

As a fpecimen of the entertainment that the reader may expect from this mifcellany, we will present him with a few extracts, taken at adventure.

Of making a Figure. I have read of a fquib which was reprefented burfting, with this motto under it, peream dum luceam-" let me perifh, if I do but shine." The fame motto will do for all, who diffipate their fubftance by shining or figuring with fhew and equipage.

When a husbandman claimed kinship with Robert Grofthead, Bishop of Lincoln, and thereupon requested from him an office, "Coufin," faid the bishop, "if your cart be broken, I'll mend it; "if your plow be old, I'll give you a new one, and even feed to "fow your land: but a husbandman I found you, and a husband"man I'll leave you." The bishop thought it kinder (as fhould feem) to ferve him in his way, than to take him out of it; and perhaps Stephen Duck, the thresher, had been better provided for, if,

* Some very judicious papers in this collection are taken from the IRENARCH of Dr. Heathcote; the third edition of which was published in 1781.

REV. Feb. 1787.

inftead