With refpect to merchants and discounts, the cafe is the fameand the trade carried on by the Bank and bankers fair and equita ble, whilst regulated by that criterion and standard of paper quantum which I have before defcribed -The Bank note ifued for a discounted bill is, in every point of view, fubftantial paper-the property appertaining to the various parties mentioned in fuch bills being amply fufficient to juftify fuch an advance, or loan, from the direction upon fuch fecurity. "I have faid the more upon Bank notes, because I have, with concern, seen many who, not understanding the nature of money tranfactions, have been dupes to their own fufpicion and timidity, or to the artful representations of defigning men under a mark of patriotifm. And I have treated the fubject upon leading principles, not taking into account the validity of the Bank itfelf, as a trading company. But if this confideration be added to the other arguments, we fhall find that, in their trading capacity, they have ac cumulated aftonishing riches. If the private banking bufinefs has answered well to individuals, what rate is there fo high at which we may not eftimate the fuperior favings of the Bank of England, poffeffed, as it is, of advantages fo much beyond thofe of any individuals whatfoever. Surely this confideration alone, were fufficient to cure the timorous of their unwarrantable fufpicion refpecting the validity of Bank paper, or the dangers threatened by a run "upon the Bank” From this reprefentation of the state of our paper credit this writer draws a very different fketch, of our national strength and refources, from that melancholy picture exhibited by Dr. Price; whom he compliments, nevertheless, as one among our greatest literary geniuffes; but on what particular account, we are at fome lofs to difcover. The doctor is certainly an ingenious man and a tolérable good writer; but really, if it were not for the prevailing defpondency, fo remarkable in our well-meaning countrymen; who are never better pleased than with prophefies of their political ruin; his very popular obfervations, on the fubject in question, might have been deemed gloomy reveries, not refulting from the foberett fenfe or the brightest imagination. ART. XIX. An Enquiry, Whether the Guilt of the prefent Civil War in America, ought to be imputed to Great-Britain or America. 8vo. 1's. Donaldson. Strand. After its being very generally admitted, by the fenfible and mo derate of both parties, that both parties have been to blame, we cannot help thinking an enquiry of this nature a kind of attempt To rip up old fores and enlarge the wound. If by fo doing, the, corroding, humour of it might be difcharged, we should have no objection to the mode of cure. But experience fhews that much, tampering of this kind has only made bad worfe. The particulars of this writer's charge we fhall, therefore, pafs over; noticing only only fome general reflections on civil liberty, which he has expreffed in a manner fingular and ftriking. "Much," fays he, has been faid to prove the colonies under our fubjection, are in a state of flavery. In the freeft government, every man is a lave to the laws; and muft either fubmit to fuch flavery, or forfeit the benefits of public order."-Sure this is an unneceffary play, a wanton abuse of words! Subjection folely to the laws in free governments conftitutes liberty not flavery.-What this writer advances, in reply to Dr. Price, is more worthy attention. "A writer, who has been confidered as the champion of liberty, and whofe fentiments many of the oppofition have implicitly adopted on other occafions, has been very much overlooked on the prefent Junius fays:* "A feries of inconfiftent measures has alienated the colonies from their duty as fubjects, and from their natural affection to their common country When Mr Grenville was placed at the head of the treafury, he felt the impoffibility of Britain fupporting fuch an eftablishment as her former fucceffes had made indifpenfable, and at the fame time of giving any fenfible relief to foreign trade, and to the weight of the public debt He thought it equitable that thefe parts of the empire which had benefited moft by the expences of the war, fhould contribute fomething to the expences of the peace; and he had no doubt of the conftitutional right vested in parliament to raife the contribution. But unfortunately for this country, Mr. Grenville was at any rate to be depressed, because he was minifter; and Mr. Pitt and Lord Cambden were to be the patrons of America, because they were in oppofition. Their declaration gave fpirit and argument to the colonies; and while perhaps they meant no more than the ruin of a minister, they in effect divided one half of the empire from the other." At the words Mr. Pitt Junius puts a mark of reference to a marginal note, which is in these words: “Yet Junius has been called the partizan of Lord Chatham!" Junius alfo fays in another letter, "When Lord Chathans affirms, that the authority of the British legiflature is not fupreme over the colonies in the fame fenfe in which it is fupreme over Great-Britain--I listen to him with diffidence and refpect, but without the fmallest degree of conviction or affent." Tho' thefe are the fentiments of Junius, whofe writings have been almost adored, as written by the God of Liberty, yet others, for having adopted the fame fentiments, are treated as the abettors of tyranny; and they who petitioned the houfe, and addreffed the throne, to maintain this fupremacy fo neceffary to the welfare of Britain, are faid to prefent blood thirty petitions," and that a spirit of domination has led them with favage folly to addrefs the throne for the flaughter of their brethren in America." (See Dr. Price on Ci 1 Liberty, &c. p. 54.) The author, whofe zeal is fo well ex preffed in the laft fentence, has declared fentiments which, as they coincide with thofe of many of the American affemblies, and of the Congress at Philadelphia, claim particular attention. The author declares," That in every free ftate every man is his own legiflature. That civil liberty, in the most perfect degree, can only be enjoyed in fmall ftates, where every member is capable of giving his fuffrages in perfon: but that in large ftates fuch near approaches may be made to perfect liberty, as fhall answer all the purposes of government, by the appointment of reprefentatives or delegates. But if the laws are made by one man, or a junto of men, in a state, and not by common confent, a government by them does not differ from flavery. And if the reprefentatives or delegates are chofen for long terms, by a part only of the state, and fubject to no controul from their conftituents, the very idea of liberty will be loft." From thefe principles the author infers, "that no one community can have any power, or property, or legiflation of another community that is not incorporated with it by a juft and adequate reprefentation. And that a country that is fubject to the legiflature of another country, in which it has no voice, is in a state of flavery." And confequently if Britain exercifes a fupreme authority over the colonies, as they have no reprefentation in the British parliament, they are in a state of flavery. But as liberty is the unalienable right of man, which neither individuals nor communities can be deprived of by contract, compact, or favour, the colonies have a right to refift Great-Britain when the endeavours to deprive them of it by taxation or legifla tion. (See Dr. Price, p. 19, &c.) If the above principles are juft and true, it indifputably follows: firft, That all the nations in the world, except a very few, the whole of whofe inhabitants fcarcely amount to one million, have a right to rife in rebellion to alter their prefent forms of govern ment; fince their laws are enacted either by one man, or a junto of men, and not by the whole of the people collected in a legiflative capacity, nor by a juft and adequate reprefentation of them. The fates of Holland, the Canton of Berne, the Hanfe towns, and even England itself, come under this predicament: which lat the author undoubtedly did not intend, for certainly nothing is lefs his difpofition than the wish to deftroy the peace and good humour of England, and fet in hoftile array friend against friend, brother against brother, and the fon against the father. Yet unhappily all this is implied in his pamphlet For" fince in Great-Britain, contifting of near fix millions of inhabitants, 5723 perfons, mot of them the lowest of the people, elect one half of the house of commons" (fee Dr. Price, p. 1o.) the legislature of Britain cannot be faid to be a juft and adequate reprefentation of the people, and therefore the people have as just a right to rife in rebellion to renedy this imperfection of reprefentation, as the Americans have to rid themselves of the fupremacy of Britain; for it has been demonftrated, fo as not to leave a poffibility of doubt in the minds of the most fanguine favourers of America, that they neither are nor have have been oppreffed; and therefore the prefent rebellion can be folely on the pretence of fecuring themfelves from future oppremion. zdly. That all the colonies belonging to the different nations of Europe, have a right to revolt, and form themselves into independent fates, for they are all fubject to the fupremacy of their parent ftates, and none of them are governed by laws of their own making Spain will not be much indebted to this author for exciting her colonies to rebel: neither can the cause of the British colonies be much benefited by fupporting their rebellion on fuch principles only as would juftify the immediate rebellion of every colony in the world: neither can any colonies be hereafter eftablifhed," for as neither compact, protection, or favour, can confer an obligation on them to remain dependent on their parent ftate," they will trade wherever intereft or fancy prompts them : and confequently no nation can have any motives to form expenfive establishinents of colonies, and therefore this plentiful spring of commerce and population would foon dry up. The form of government which this author reprefents as the moft perfect, in which every man is his own legiflator, is fo far from being entitled to that pre-eminence, that it ought rather to be claffed with the most imperfect ones; the other form which invests the legitlative authority in delegates chofen by the whole inhabitants, is liable to fewer exceptions; altho', if thofe delegates are only chofen for a fhort period, and their power limited by being obliged to confult their conflituents, this form will partake much of the imperfections of the other. We are, by no means of the opinion this writer feems to have adopted, that a people may be as free under the arbitrary governiment of one man or a junto of men, as under a government fubject to a legiflature of their own, or reprefentatives of their own free choice. At the fame time, we conceive, with him, that an unequitable reprefentation is next kin to no reprefentation at all: and that the argument in favour of the republican torm is a jelo de fe that form being confeffedly adapted only to finall ftates, in which a general equality of fortunes and rectitude of manners prevail Indeed Dr. Price s apology, in the preface to the laft edition of his famous pamphlet, is a lame one. He refts the goodness of the foundation of his argument on its being laid on the principles of Locke, Sydney and fuch as have been generally admired in this country. But, why pin his faith on the fleeve of Locke or Sydney Enquiry fhould be as free in politics as in religion, and the zealous, in the one cafe plead the infallibility of the Pope as the authority of Locke, in the other.-After all, we are perhaps wandering out of our province and there may be more truth than is generally admitted in thefe lines of the poet, For forms of government let fools conteft, VOL. III, Y ART. ART. XX. The State of the National Debt, the National Income, and the National Expenditure. With some short Interences and Reflections applicable to the prefent dangerous Crifis. By John Earl of Stair. Folio. Is. Almon. * By the many estimates, lately publifhed, of the national debt, a well-meaning creditor might be mistakenly led to conceive there is fome defign on foot to reduce it.-Not a fiver of it -The matter in debate is, whether it is, or is not, too enormous to bear augmentation. This being the cafe, one would imagine the taking it at an average might fuffice, and that the difference of a million or two of pounds fhould breed no greater ill-will between politicians, than the difference of a million or two of miles, in eftimating the diftance of the planets, does among aftronomers. Certain it is that the difference, in the estimates of our various calculators, is inconfiderable when compared to the fum total; efpecially as the prognoftications of its proving a national ruin were equally pofitive when it did not amount to a fourth of its prefent fum. The truth is the national debt is the bull-beggar of oppofition, as the national credit is the ftalking-horfe of administration; and the very fame declaimer, as he is in or out of place, makes use of both to anfwer his own ends, at pleasure. Not that we mean, by this, any reflection on the noble lord, who has been at the trouble to work the prefent calculations. No. Heaven forefend! He "lifts his hand, to the guardian angel of the land, guiltlefs of the wrongs, and unstained with the plunder of his country "-Who fays bine illa lachrymæ? Who do you think you have got to deal with? A Dr. P. or a Mr. Maffie No. Sirs. It is a noble earl; who, fetting his calculations afide, has fomething, befide his calculations, to fay for himfelf-Hear him. "Something may perhaps be neceffary to reconcile to myself and to the public, my fetting my name to thefe papers. Vain glory cannot be my object. Investigations of this kind are works of induftry, works of application, not of fame. Ambition, daring and headlong as the is, muft fhrink back from a state of things like this; and on fuch wretchednefs, avarice furely can build no hope. To faction I never was a friend. What therefore is meant, is to authenticate, to give weight (fo far as my poor opinion can give weight) to calculations, of which the material part is founded in truth; and which are of the greatest and of the very first impor tance to be thoroughly understood by every man of property in thefe kingdoms. It is likewife meant, to awaken the public from the fatal lethargy, and fatal luxury, that an unreal mockery of It is pleafant to fee, in what manner this fubject is made useful in whetting the wit and exercifing the talents of young Arithmeticians. As for example; taken from questions and answers on the National Debt, lately publifhed. Q. I. In what time could a man count the national debt in thillings, counting 100 in a minute for 12 hours each day? Anf. One hundred years.-2; 2. If it were paid down in thillings, edge to edge in a ftraight line, how far would that line reach-Anf. Almolt twice round the circumference of the whole earth. paper |