frequently determines queftions that may be in the highest degree beneficial or hurtful to the community. A wife man, a good man, even a prudent man will, therefore, in that fituation, be cautious how he gives a decided opinion. In doubtful cafes, where his own intereft, at least, is not immediately concerned, he will allow things to take their natural course, and not make himself responsible for the errors of others. It would, perhaps, have been lucky for the premier, had the fpeech here prefented to the public, been fpoken on the occafion that gave rife to it. It might poffibly have faved him the mortification of being obliged, at fome future time, avowedly to condemn the measures he, at that time, fo warmly fupported. Art. 26. The Question of Wool truly ftated. In which the Facts are examined for and against the Bill now depending in Parliament. Svo. 6d. Nicoll, St. Paul's Church-yard. 1788. This little pamphlet might ferve as a model for compofitions of this fort. Important facts, on which hang the true merits of the queftion, are stated with a diftin&tnefs, perfpicuity, and brevity, that muft prove highly fatisfactory to every candid enquirer. The author is evidently master of the fubject himself, and he compreffes into a fingle page more real information than is ufually to be found in whole volumes, written on commercial queftions. He begins with obferving that no fet of men fhould come to parliament to demand an alteration of the fubfitting laws, unless they can fhew, ift. That they are under the preffure of fome general or particular evil, which is of magnitude fufficient to call for the interference of the legislature. 2d. That the specific method of removing fuch evil, which they propofe to be adopted, is beft calculated for doing it, with the leaft poffible inconvenience to others. He next enquires, whether, in the prefent cafe, the allegation of the woollen manufacturers, that their trade is declining, be well founded. On this head he fhews, from a statement laid before the houfe of commons, that the average exports of woollen goods were as under, viz. For feven years, from 1776 to 1782 Average of 1785, 1786, and 1787 £3,162,428 3,427,984 3,697,653 From which it appears that woollen manufactures, for exportatios, are not on the decline, but much the reverse. Though it be more difficult to afcertain the amount of the manufacture for the home market, he clearly fhews that the fame thing has taken place with regard to one of the greatest manufactures in the kingdom, the Yorkshire fabric of broads and narrows, from the following ftatement of the quantities ftamped: Average of four years 1779*, 1780, Broads 3,446,838 2,625,282 6,072,120 * Mitprinted-1789. Average That the manufacture of fuperfine cloth has advanced in a yet higher ratio, he concludes from the following statement of the quantities of Spanish wool imported during the fame period : And the year 1787 is £4,188,280, being the greatest import ever known. These facts, taken together, prove in a very fatisfactory manner, that there is no decline in the woollen manufacture at the present time. He next proceeds to enquire if the complaint of the great increase of smuggling of wool be well founded? And here, controverting Mr. Anftie's statement of this article (according to which. it would appear that the average from 1783 to 1787, both inclufive, amounts only to 11,000 tods *), he fhews, by an authentic account of the wool imported into France from England, produced by Sir Jofeph Banks, that it was as under: 104,591 Livres 312,126 389,201 344,612 390,439 357,649 183,128 This account is corroborated by another produced by Mr. Arthur Young, from which it feems proved that fmuggling of wool is not gaining ground, but has actually of late greatly declined. He then fhews that the price of wool (Spanish wool excepted) is nearly 100 per cent. dearer in France than in England, and of courfe that fmuggling, in one way or other, must ever prevail while that disparity fubfifts; but that at the higheft, as the quantity of wool grown in this country amounts (according to a statement produced by Mr. Erfkine) to about 600, 00 packs; and the average export to France, even according to Mr. Anftie's statement, to no more than 11,000; this muft appear fuch a trifling quantity as to deferve no parliamentary notice. Thefe are valuable facts, and we have chofen to tranfcribe them, thinking they might be of ufe to many of our readers. The remaining part of the pamphlet confiits of pertinent remarks on the Should not this be packs? A tod is only 281b. a pack is 240lb. Nn4 Wool-bill propofed, the general tendency of which he feverely condemns; and points out the great abfurdity and iniquity of its claufes, If members of parliament would take time to confider fuch performances as the prefent, we fhould not be fo often pestered with abfurd laws, which must be repealed in a fhort time, after having greatly retarded the general profperity of the country while they continued in force. Art. 27. While we live let us live. A fhort View of the Competition between the Manufacturer and Land Worker, occafioned by a late Publication, entitled Live and let live. 8vo. 1s. Printed at Norwich. 1788., A difpaffionate and well-written defence of the Wool-bill, which has been fo much agitated of late. We call it well written, because it makes the argument, in favour of the bill, affume a plausible appearance; not because it tends to elucidate the subject in a manner that will certainly prove fatisfactory to those who wish to enter deeply into the merits of the cafe. The author dwells on the hackneyed fubject of the landed intereft being hurt by a fuppofed depreffion of the price of British wool, and that of the manufacturers being benefited by it. We have already had occafion to fhew that if the bill fhould be capable of lowering the price of wool for a time, it would be the manufacturer, and not the farmer or landowner, who would, in the end, fuffer by it +. We fhall only add here to what we then faid, that the penalties, contained in the bill, are fingularly well calculated to prove vexatious to the farmer, and to make him, in a rapid manner, decrease the breed of sheep, and of course to raise the price of wool, or the price of mutton, to a very high rate. Our author fays I do not pretend to penetrate far into the influence of political and commercial regulations upon each other;' if fo, why enter on the confideration of a queftion of fuch nice difquifition as the prefent? Smith, Eden |, Tucker §, Anderfon¶, Herrenschwand **, Cafaux 11, how are your writings foiled! Polterity may fay that great is truth, and it fhall at length prevail; but they will have occafion alfo to lament that its progrefs is flow, and that in political affairs its fruits are tardy. As a proof, the writings of thefe philofophers will be fhewed as having existed in England, at the period that the Wool bill-this famous Wool-bill, for fuch it will be, paffed the houfe of commons of Great Britain, by a confiderable majority. *Or Land-workers, as he ftyles them. + See Review of Mr. Anftie's Pamphlet, in our laft Catalogue. Dr. Adam Smith on the Wealth of Nations. M. R. vols. 54, 55. William Eden, Efq. Letters to the Earl of Carlisle, &c. M. R. vols. 61, 62. The Rev. Jofiah Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, author of many valuable tracts on political economy, trade, and manufactures. Obfervations on national Induftry, &c. M. R. vol. 58. ** Difcours fur l'Agriculture, &c. See our late Reviews. 11 Mechanifme des Societés, &c. do. We We cannot help thinking it a little remarkable that none of the writers in favour of this bill, take any notice of a particular much infifted on in the pamphlet entitled Live and let live; viz. the abfurdity of fubjecting the wool growers, who never, from their fituation and circumftances in fociety, can become extenfive fmugglers, to fevere penalties under the pretence of infuring against fmuggling; while the wool-buyers, and manufacturers, who must obviously be the fmugglers, if fuch a practice does actually prevail, are not only freed from all trouble upon this account themselves, but are befides entrusted with fuch powers, by this bill, as to be able to ruin any wool-grower against whom they may take a pique, let him be, ever fo honeft and confcientious in his dealings. What can be the intention of introducing fuch claufes into any bill? Certainly it can neither tend to promote the interefts of the country, nor to difcourage vice and immorality among the people. The man who is himself the fmuggler, and who commits the very crimes the bill is avowedly intended to prevent, may not only be fafe himfelf from all harm, but, if he be wicked enough, may ruin hundreds of honeft men, and enrich himself with their fpoils. Will it be believed that a bill, having fuch claufes, could have obtained the approbation of the house of commons of Great Britain, toward the clofe of the eighteenth century? DRAMATIC. Art. 28. Clariffa; or, The Fatal Seduction. A Tragedy, in Profe. By Robert Porrett. 8vo. 5s. Lowndes. 1788. Founded on Richardfon's celebrated novel of Clariffa. The task of reducing fo many characters, and fuch a number of incidents, as compofe a novel of feven octavo volumes, into the narrow limits of five acts, could not but be attended with great difficulty. Our author's motive for undertaking it was, as he informs us, a conviction produced in his mind by the late Mr. James Harris, that domeftic tragedy is more ufeful to mankind than the catastrophe of kings and heroes. The queftion is curious, but need not be decided: at prefent it will fuffice to fay, whatever is beft written, is beft. There was, however, another difficulty in the way of Mr. Porrett, of which he does not feem to have been aware; and that is, the difficulty of reprefenting to the eye, what in the narrative has ftruck every imagination. The first impreffion can never be equalled. In reading Richardson, we weep over Clariffa; and, perhaps, Mrs. Siddons would not draw fuch copious tears, as gufh from every eye in the clofet : the hearfe rumbling in the court yard could not be introduced in the drama, and that incident, in the original work, is pathetic beyond expreffion. The author fhews, in his preface, that he is capable of taking advice; which is rarely feen among poets: being told that his fable was not likely to produce an effect on the stage, he acquiefced, and we commend his judgment. He undertook to imitate the inimitable. When next he endeavours to make the tears of forrow promote the interefts of virtue, we advise him to plan a fable from his own invention; he may then entertain hopes of fuccefs. Art. Art. 29. Of a play fo well known as Southern's Oroonoko, it will not be neceffary for us to give any kind of account; much lefs to enter into a comparison of Dr. Hawekefworth's alteration, with that now before us. Mr. Ferriar, the name of the present editor, undertook the task, not fo much with a fpirit of theatrical criticism, as from political motives. He tells us exprefly: When the attempt to abolish the African Slave-trade commenced in Manchefter, fome active friends of the caufe imagined, that by affembling a few of the principal topics, in a dramatic form, an impreffion might be made, on perfons negligent of fimple reafoning.' A more fallacious method could not be devifed by looking at things in profile, we are all too often deceived. The question relating to the flave-trade is of the first magnitude, and nothing but what Mr. Locke calls a round-about view can enable us to take in all circumftances, and form a juft conclufion. Let us liften, awhile, to what moderate men have faid on this subject. "The flave-trade," they fay, "may call for regulations, particularly in the mode of conveyance from the coast of Africa: avarice may crowd too great a number into a narrow compass, and this ought to be reftrained. In the islands, laws, no doubt, are requifite for the protection of men who are purchafed like cattle at a fair: the planter, who finds himself the owner of his fellow-creatures, may prove not only a mafter, but a tyrant. To check the infolence of pride, certain pains and penalties may be neceffary. But whether this trade, when all concomitant circumftances are duly weighed, is in principle repugnant to humanity, has not been, as yet, fufficiently demonftrated. Does any negroe, though of fufficient age to know his own country at the time when he was exported, ever defire, after any confiderable lapfe of time, to return home? It should also be fully known, whether, by abandoning the traffic, we fhould not abandon the cause of humanity, and leave the wretches, who are exported from Africa, to a worse lot in their own country. This is the firft, and the material queftion; till this is decided upon full and clear evidence, it is not eafy to pronounce, that the carrying on of fuch a commerce is a violation of humanity: but humanity may be, and perhaps often is, violated by the captains of ships, and the lords of flaves in the inlands. This, no doubt, should be prevented; we want no declamation to prove it but when the question is of the first importance, the ftate of the negroe in his own country fhould be fully known, before a fair conclufion can be drawn." To this purpose, indeed, an alteration of a play conduces nothing. The piece before us is avowedly a political pamphlet, and for that reafon we do not confider it in a dramatic light. Art. 30. For the obfervations, in this article, which we have diftinguished by inverted commas, we are obliged to our very respectable correfpondent, SIDNEY. |