Page images
PDF
EPUB

1815.] Study of Latin and Greck-Miss Hawkins' " Rosanne.”

MR. EDITOR,

IN reply to your correspondent G. E. T. (Volume II. p. 322) respecting the books that are best adapted for a short and easy acquisition of the Latin and Greek languages, I take the liberty of observing, that his question is of too general and extensive a nature to admit of any explicit answer. At the same time I would recommend to him as a most excellent elementary book in Latin, a work lately published by Dr. J. Pye Smith, divinity tutor at Homerton Academy, entitled "A Manual of Latin Grammar," with prefatory advice to solitary students, &c. As to the Greek, the grammar of Moore, lately professor at Glasgow, were it complete, would be by far the most eligible.

M. N.

Fort George, N. B. Nov. 21, 1814.

MR. EDITOR.

HAVING lately perused a novel intituled "Rosanne, or a Father's Labour Lost, by Lætitia Matilda Hawkins," I cannot help sincerely hoping, and indeed feel no doubt, that part of this lady's title-page will be applicable to herself, and that her labour will be lost. She seems quixotically bent on the reformation of the world, or at least its follies and vices. So far, so good-but if, in order to be reformed, it is necessary to adopt such conduct and sentiments as are recommended in the following literal quotation from the first volume, p. 62, God grant that we may remain in our (according to Miss Hawkins's idea) present vicious state:-" This reference to experiment is sanctioned by the example of a judicious homely mother, who having a daughter disposed to lying, dropped lighted brimstone from the end of a match on her tongue, that she might have some idea of everlasting burning. Pity we are not oftener thus weaned from our vices."-From this passage, which being inserted in the work by way of a note, is more strongly marked as meeting the author's approbation, I should think that Miss Hawkins's admirers (if she has any) will not choose to adopt her ideas of the mercy and goodness of the Creator, or give her credit for any degree of liberality. Such sentiments are shocking even from the most bigoted monk of the darkest age-how highly reprehensible are they, then, from a female of the nineteenth century!

T. Q.

NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 13.

25

For the New Monthly Magazine. RECOLLECTIONS of the UNPUBLISHED LECTURES of an EMINENT PROFESSOR.

Of the Freedom of Trade.

IT will now be necessary to trace the outline of that great practical doctrine of the freedom of trade, which is the great object of Mr. Smith's celebrated book. The circumstances which have contributed to give encouragement to the trade of towns over that of the country, are shewn by Mr. S. to have arisen at first naturally out of the peculiar circumstances of society: but these advantages have been since fostered and propagated to an undue extent by merchants and manufacturers, whose education and habits gave them a superiority over the inhabitants of the country, and whose peculiar interests are not always, like those of the farmer, the interests of society at large. Hence the institution of apprenticeship, and of various regulations and monopolies in almost every town in the kingdom, calculated to benefit the town to the detriment of the inhabitants of the country.

The circumstances affecting the freedom of trade may be divided into two kinds-those which impose restraints and checks on the free circulation of domestic trade, and those which more particularly regard foreign commerce.

It has been remarked that Mr. Smith resolves all prices into the wages of labour, the rent of land, and the profits of stock. The quantity of supply of any commodity, it has been already stated, is generally proportioned to the demand for it; though many local accidents, conveniences, and regulations of police, may vary these; such as the discovery of secret processes in trade, the manufactures adapted to particular places only, as certain wines in particular districts, and thirdly, the restraints and monopolies authorised by law, in apprenticeships and many other instances.

The wages of labour and profits of stock among the different classes of society vary, Ir. S. says, with the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the employment; thus the wages of butchers are high in proportion to some other trades. Secondly, the ease and cheapness, or difficulty and expense, in learning a trade, influence the wages acquired by it: hence arises the great difference of wages obtained by mere labour and those of ingenuity and skill. Thirdly, wages vary with the constancy and inconstancy of the employment, as VOL. III.

E

26

Of the Freedom of Trade.

we see in the higher wages of masons and bricklayers. Fourthly, the greater or smaller trust reposed in the artist regulates, in some measure, the wages of his labour, as in the case of watch-makers; and 5thly, the probability, or improbability, of success, as in the professions of law and physic, A hundred carpenters, says Mr. Hume, can make a chair or a table equally well; but no one writes poetry with the spirit and ele gance of Pope. Of these several causes of variation the first and last only affect the profits of stock. Restraining competition to a few in some trades by granting patents and monopolies; increasing it beyond all bounds in others, and obstructing the employment of labour and stock in its natural progress, are the three great means of restraining trade pointed out by Mr. Smith.

The chief of these restraints are corporations and apprenticeships. In Elizabeth's reign, seven years service was made the term of an apprenticeship, by which certain trades could be exercised, and the law continues still in force.* There is no general law in Scotland relating to apprenticeships. Three years is the term often agreed on, and this may be purchased out by a small fine, or bought in the first instance without difficulty; and many trades require no service at all to qualify for the exercise of them. These restraints keep up the profits of stock and the wages of labour by narrowing the scale of competition; and therefore, though individuals might suffer by their abolition, the public in general would be greatly benefited: they are further injurious from the advantages which they give to the town over the industry of the country. In Britain, however, this superiority was formerly greater than now, as the overflowings of the extraordinary riches of towns are ultimately returned to the country whence they were obtained.

Another material obstruction to the accumulation of wealth is monopoly of all kinds. This was more particularly the practice in the reign of Elizabeth, who granted patents and privileges to servants and favourites, by whom they were sold to others; by which means trade and industry were so cramped, that had the system continued much longer, says Mr. Hume, England, as a place of trade, would not have been superior to Morocco. Against all these

The reader will recollect that this law was repealed during the last session of pariment.-EDITOR.

[Feb. 1,

monopolies a noble law of James I. declares the right of every one to exercise his ingenuity and industry without any other restraint than that of law; and all patents and monopolies to be void and contrary to law. But still exclusive companies continued, and many even now exist; their effects are to exclude some from trading at all, and to oblige others to buy at a dearer rate.

The advantages of freedom of trade were properly understood by Sir J. Child and Mr. Carey in the 17th century; and by the celebrated De Witt in Holland. The same opinions are expressed by Judge Fortescue, and are also fully stated in Magna Charta,. In these instances monopolies restrain the progress of national wealth and industry: among the bursaries and other such offices at universities, they increase competition to an unnatural extent. In the third place, apprenticeships limit the circulation of trade, and corporations have a like effect. Workmen in one trade might often, in a case of failure, be able to turn their hands to another more flourishing, did not these corporate privileges forbid it; hence they are obliged to betake themselves to common labour or become a burthen to the parish. The poor laws, also, not only prevent the circulation of trade, but by the laws of settlement, agriculture likewise, and are considered by Mr. Smith as the greatest grievance in England. As to what relates to trade, Mr. S. distinguishes it by the title of commercial political economy. He employs political economy to express two things only-the wealth that enriches first the people, and secondly the sovereign; but it is here extended much more generally.

The ideas of money and wealth are often confounded; and merchants are apt to think the riches of a nation to be in proportion to the money it heaps up, as is the case with individuals. It is this principle that has occasioned the restraints on exportation of money in most nations; till, from the inconveniences that ensued, they began again to doubt whether it was good policy. The balance of trade came now to be considered as the chief object by statesmen, although money was still held to be the source of national wealth, a principle evidently false. No maxim is more true than that the quantity of every commodity will effectually suit itself to the extent of the demand; and from the convenience of its transfer this is more applicable to money than to other things. Wherever the quantity of money

1815.j

Signification of the term "Caucus."

exceeds the effectual demand, as in Spain and Portugal, no laws, however sanguinary, can restrain exportation, as experience has proved, and where the effectual demand is great, there will money soon find its way without the aid of laws to encourage importation. Complaints of the scarcity of money are made chiefly by merchants who overtrade their capital, and are thereby often driven to inconveniences; but this is not necessarily injurious to the nation.

When a merchant contracts a debt abroad, he wishes always to send manufactures to pay it, and the finer and less bulky they are the better. The exportation of rude produce alone could not long sustain a foreign war, as Mr. Hume has remarked: and hence the accumulation of money in treasuries, a practice now followed only by the government of Berlin, but given up by all states where commerce exists.

Restraints on importation and exportation by high duties and prohibitions came to be gradually introduced. These, operating on the importation of goods that can be produced at home, necessarily give rise to a monopoly of the home trade; but do they increase or injure the country in general? and is the channel thus formed better than any other in which the industry employed could be directed? It necessarily imposes a hardship on the consumer, and it is better to buy by labour of your own the manufacture of another, than to obtain it on more disadvantageous terms.

27

Mr. S. says, where these restraints on importation may be useful; such is the important regulation called the Navigation Act; or, where one nation prohibits the manufactures of another, the latter may in some cases retaliate by similar prohibitions; and a third case is where disorders would arise from suddenly allowing importations of commodities that affect considerably any extensive manufacture. The last case is dictated by a spirit of monopoly, the two former by jealousy and animosity.

The effect of Mr. Smith's work in governing the principles of the last commercial treaty with France affords a noble instance of the triumph of philosophy over prejudice and error.

The books of the customs and the course of exchange have been the means generally resorted to for ascertaining the balance of trade; but the first of these was proved insufficient by Sir J. Child, and the latter by Mr. Smith. Mr. S. considers the doctrine of the balance of trade as absurd in the extent it has been usually considered. If the exchange between two nations be in native commodities only, each will gain almost equally if one exchange native, and the other foreign goods, both would gain, but the former in the greatest degree. The wealth of a foreign nation is always advantageous in trade, how formidable soever it may render it in war.

MR. EDITOR,

IN reply to the query of your corEvery man knows what labour best respondent Theoguis, on the origin and suits himself, and how he can dispose of meaning of the American term caucus, it to the best advantage. A taylor does I send you the best explanation which I better in buying shoes of a shoe-maker have been able to obtain: perhaps some by the value of his own labour, than in of your correspondents may have it in sitting down to make them for himself. their power to furnish a more satisfacIn like manner it is better for a nation tory account. It seems to mean a numto encourage importation than by creat- ber of persons, whether more or less, ing monopolies at home, to advance the met to consult together upon some price of the article to the consumer, scheme for carrying a favourite point. and force industry to one point which For instance, in the time of the revolumight soon find out a more profitable tion, Mr. Samuel Adams conferred with channel. Restraits on importation be- Mr. Warren, of Plymouth, upon the nenefit the merchant and manufacturer cessity of giving into spirited measures, only, not the public in general. Many and then said, "Do you keep the commight for a time suffer by admitting immittee in play, and I will go and make portation, but their industry would soon take another direction. The agricultural interest in requiring laws to prevent the importation of black cattle and salt-provisions seems to have thought as if the consumption of the nation could never exceed the produce of the soil.

There may, however, be some instances,

a caucus against the evening, and do you' meet me." The word is not of novel adoption. More than fifty years before that time Mr. S. Adams' father, and twenty others, used to meet, make a caucus, aud lay their plan for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power.

COLUMBUS.

28

MR. EDITOR,

Sacred Music at Wells Cathedral.

HAVING observed in your respectable publication for November rather a strong charge against the dean and chapter of Wells for neglect of their cathedral music, and especially against the dean, for the introduction of the evening hymn, and having been at Wells about the time to which your correspondent alludes, I will beg the favour of you to insert, for the information of your numerous readers, a few facts relative to the subject which happen to have come to my knowledge, and an observation or two which the occasion appears to suggest.

The independent income of the lay vicars, which your correspondent conceives should produce a better and a fuller choir, is the very cause of their remissness in attendance; in which respect, however, they have been somewhat improved by the attention of the gentleman of whom he complains.

The selection and direction of the music is almost always left to the organist, whose abilities your correspondent justly applauds; and, if the anthems he happened to hear did not suit his taste, he should have discussed the point with him whose choice they were.

The Evening Hymn was, I believe, used for one Sunday only, or two at the most, and then not substituted for an anthem, but for the voluntary, which all the persons concerned have been unanimous in wishing to be discontinued; and he who wishes to retain it, especially in its usual style, has, I fear, but little acquaintance with the only genuine objects of the church service. The use of the Evening Hymn was relinquished, as it was thought better, upon the whole, not to have any variations from the actually prescribed offices in the cathedral. But your correspondent should have informed himself upon the subject before he classed it with " compositions seldom if ever sung but in dissenting meeting houses." It was composed by a bishop of that diocese in which it was sung, and that bishop eminent for his learning and orthodoxy, and almost a martyr for his attachment to what are called high church principles. It is constantly used in many of the most distinguished churches in the metropolis, and throughout the kingdom, in the presence of prelates and dignitaries of our church; and this, or its companion, the Morning Hymn, together with several other hymns, is to be found in prayer-books published

[Feb. 1,

by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge.

Your correspondent will allow me, in allusion to the remarks with which he concludes his censure, to take the liberty of recommending to him to look, in his laudable zeal for reformation, to objects more important than those to which he appears to have confined his attention; to be anxious that foreigners should judge of our established religion rather by observing a truly devotional use of our incomparable Liturgy in those who attend the cathedrals, than by listening to agreeable sounds, or a skilful performer; and to be assured that our church must hold out inducements far superior to the finest cathedral anthems

inducements of which she has in her liturgy, her articles, and her homilies, and in sermons which breathe their spirit, an ample inexhaustible store, in order to draw back these who have forsaken her-in order to crowd her empty space-and to delight and edify those who worship in spirit and in truth.

Dec. 8, 1814.

MR. EDITOR,

J. P.

TO the subject of this article, Mr. John Gibbs, the public, or at least the literary part of it, is more indebted than at present it is aware. His merits demand that they should be made known, and that he should receive that meed which is the most valuable reward of the disinterested and truly modest character.

It

Mr. Gibbs is a native of Sandwich, in Kent, where he spent a considerable portion of his life. He very early evinced a taste for antiquarian pursuits, for the mechanical sciences, and for natural history. It is in the latter department that we are most indebted to him. will not be detracting from the merits of the justly celebrated Colonel Montagu to say, that Mr. Gibbs made nearly all the collections which constitute the original part of his two quarto volumes on British shells; indeed, the many minute and new species, I believe, are entirely the fruit of his research. For the purpose of forming this collection, he travelled at his leisure, on foot, from the Land's-End, in Cornwall, to the Goodwin Sands, in Kent; and he has also in a similar manner explored the treasures of the Welsh coast.

For some years Mr. Gibbs resided under the roof of Colonel Montague in Devonshire, on the most familiar footing,

1815.] Mr. John Gibbs-Strictures on Rees's Cyclopædia.

to which he acceded by express invitation. During this period, in company with his friend and some other gentle men, he explored several tumuli at an ancient Roman station called Stanborough, in that county, whence were rescued many valnable relics of that people. Mr. Gibbs has throughout his life been attached to the study and practice of electricity and galvanism. In the former his fertile genius suggested many additional experiments and improvements. In some branches of mechanism, in those trifles which he made for his own amusement and use, and for the gratification of his friends, there is an unrivalled neatness and originality of design. He is particularly well read in that species of literature which attracts the attention of the virtuosi.

The writer of this article will ever bear in mind those instructive excursions which a few years since he made in company with this gentleman, when Every plant, every weed, and every shell, afforded a source of instruction and pleasure, which can only be appreciated by those who have experienced similar delight. He is a gentleman, if it may he so said, in whom nothing is conspicuous but the amiable, and with whom friendship is in that estimation which we are to understand in the true meaning of the term. Mr. Gibbs's collection of coins and fossils is particularly valuable, and there can be no doubt that at some future period he will again favour the world, either directly or indirectly, with additional results of his industry and knowledge.

Many of the readers of the New Monthly Magazine, I am sure must be acquainted with the subject of these anecdotes, and will no doubt favour you, Sir, with further remarks. Information of this nature will be thought valuable by the curious reader, and friendship will delight in the task of giving to unassuming merit those tributes which are so justly due. ROBERTUS.

Portsmouth, Nov. 1814

Many parents have to thank this gentleman for the advancement in life of their sons. It was his practice to invite to his society those young lads in whom he thought he could discover some traits of genius or ability. Here they enjoyed a free use of whatever books, &c. he possessed, and thus they imbibed a taste for research which has raised them in the world; and many now of this description fill situations from merit alone, which at one time they could not even have aspired to. This surely is not the least amiable trait in Mr, Gibbs's character.

MR. EDITOR,

29

WHEN the editor of a work which professes to hand down truth to posterity, wilfully breaks the promise he has given to the public of impartiality, and suffers the bias of politics to warp his judgment, it is but fair that such misrepresentations should be noticed. It is well known, Sir, that the French Encyclopædists-the misguided talents of a D'Alembert, a Voltaire, and a Rousseau

brought about that period of impiety, and absence of religious decency, which even at this moment France has hardly recovered. It is well known, Sir, that those illustrious savans set on foot the Encyclopedie Françoise for the express purpose of disseminating deistical and religious badinage, in which they too well succeeded, and which ended in one general ruin, and deluged France with blood.

I

I do not say, that the editor of the New Cyclopædia has any such idea; no, Sir, he too well knows what has been the result of those opinions, subversive of religious government; and he cer tainly too well knows the value of a religious establishment, to wish to overthrow that altar at which he is allowed in his own manner to prostrate himself. But I must confess that my indignation was somewhat moved, in taking up the second part of Vol. XXVII. to find that politics must be mixed with narrative, and the religious opinions of the learned editor forced upon the subscribers to the New Cyclopædia, be they members of the Church of England, Presbyterians, Methodists, Idolators, or Atheists. shall pass over the affected liberality of opinion in the life of the great Pitt: I am not quite certain that he did die exclaiming, "Oh, my country!" neither am I certain of what the learned editor has affirmed that he said in his dying moments, "I fear I have, like too many other men, neglected prayer too much to have any ground of its efficacy on a death-bed:" both these, are assertions; and if one is admitted, I see no reason why the other should be omitted. But, if I must take up the editor's weapon, and talk politics too, I would tell him what he must now be well aware of, though he may not choose to own it, that to the measures of a Pitt and a Perceval the favourable issue of affairs is owing which—but no more of this. I shall now refer you to another proof of the editor's fallibility, and an intrusion of religious opinions set in opposition to that of a venerable

up

« PreviousContinue »