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the confideration of the prefent treaty, he has given it a more me thodical form, that his remarks may appear with the advantage of arrangement.

To a review of the good policy and happy operation of our famous Navigation Act, is fubjoined a fhort history of the negociations at Utrecht for a commercial treaty with France, and the contests to which that effort gave rife. From a comparison of the cotemporary ftatements of our commerce, at different æras, fome deploring the decay of our trade, and others exulting in its profperity, we may perceive, that what are offered to us as stubborn facts, are fometimes of a very flexible nature: yet, as our Author remarks, we are now convinced, that the fair fide of the picture was drawn by the correct hand of experience, while the oppofite was no more than the hafty refult of defponding theory; and, he might have added, the interested mifreprefentations of party.

The fuccefsful cultivation of our commerce muft fpring from ade quate caufes, and an intelligent obferver will not be reduced to pronounce them occult qualities. To what we must afcribe this vital ftrength, which neither war or faction, or the fpirit of luxury, has been able to fubdue, will be obvious on a little reflection. That the fupport was never tranfatlantic, as fome have idly imagined, our prefent commercial fituation fufficiently demonftrates. May we not rather, with an acute politician of the prefent day, attribute this phænomenon of an almoft uniform fuperiority of our commerce to fomething like the following principles? The fuppreffion of various monopolies and companies of trade at home, and the undermining of their exclufive privileges, or, what is the fame thing, the eluding of their bad effects by means of legal decifions in our courts of law: The nurfing up of new trades, and new branches of commerce, by means of bounties and national premiums: The giving of drawbacks on the exportation of fuch goods as were to have paid a duty if confumed at home: The repeal of taxes on raw materials, and on exported manufactures of our country: The improvement of engines, and new discoveries for the abridgment of labour: The rapid communication by means of roads, canals, and pofts: The happy difcoveries in agriculture, and the mechanic arts, the fruits of that patriotic liberality which has been of late fo eminently exerted among us in public inftitutions, and focieties for the encouragement of induftry and useful skill; and the natural refult of all this national fpirit, the employment of larger capitals in husbandry and manufactures, and in the importation and exportation of goods; all thefe circumftances co-operating, would render any country rich and flourishing, whether it had colonies or not.

No wonder then that the fceptre of commerce continues firm in the hands of a nation where perfonal rights are facred, and where every fpecies of property finds protection and fecurity in the freedom of civil government and the equal administration of law.'

We may then reafonably hope for a continuance of our fuccefs until like caufes operate with equal vigour in fome other country; and until adverfe circumflances have fo far thrown us back as to admit any rival in the political race to start with us on equal terms.

The competition between high and low wages, though often debated, is often reiterated as a juft caufe of apprehenfion; thofe unbiaffed readers, who are most competent to the fubj&t, will judge of the validity of our Author's reasoning on this head:

There is fcarcely any point in political economy which has been fo variously difcuffed, as the effect of the price of labour on commercial competition. It fhould be obferved, that the question of high and low wages is not to be determined merely by the pay of the workmen, but by the proportion which fuch wages bear to the prices of all other articles, either native or foreign, and by comparing the manufactured product alfo of different countries, with a view to discover at what average price the fame goods can be equally well made in each. By fuch a mode of inquiry it will in general be found, that labour in a country of low wages is comparatively dearer, than where wages are high, and that confequently in molt cafes the rich country will be able to underfell the poor one, because its goods will more than compenfate by their quality for any excefs of price. It cannot be doubted, that as "the liberal reward of labour is the neceffary effect, fo is it the natural fymptom of increafing wealth;" for when the productive powers of labour and ingenuity are thus excited, industry must in all its departments become more refined, as well as more dextrous and active in its exertions. In a manufactory where the different proceffes are diftributed to different workmen, each will in his diftinct branch be more expert than if he were under the neceffity of undertaking many different branches at once in order to gain fubfiftence. Such dexterity begets competi tion, and this neceffarily reduces the price; "whereas in the country of low wages, it is in the power of one wealthy man, to monopolize the trade, and to fet what price he chufes on his goods." That the low price of labour will not command a market, may be fhewn by the following inftances: When the iron of Sweden arrives in England, it has paid duties of export, import, and the expence of freight; to this must be added the cofts of carriage to and from the places of manufacture, the price of the labour there bestowed upon it, and the duty to which it is lable on its return home under this new form; yet with all this accumulated charge upon it, we are able to underfell the Swedes themselves in their own market; and every attempt on their part at competition has proved hitherto ineffectual. It is exactly the fame cafe with the Bay yarn of Ireland, which, not with tanding all the charges of importation, conveyance, and manu facture, is worked up here, and returned cheaper to the Irish market, than if it had been manufactured at home. It is not, as fome have lately afferted, the higher price of our labour which has given the French an advantage over us in the Levant and Portugal trades, but rather the indifference of our manufacturers, and their unwillingness to accommodate their fabrics to the tafte of thofe markets, in which, by reason of the climate, cheap cloths of a flight texture will ever be preferred to fuch as are more durable. After all, it may be doubted whether it would be worth while for our clothiers to attempt the recovery of this trade, at the risk of facrificing a better; for every loom employed in the weaving of druggets, muft occupy materials and Labour which might be more profitably applied in the working of

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broad cloths; add to this, that the fame competition which would be ferviceable in higher branches, by rendering the goods cheap, muft here be prejudicial, becaufe the original low price of the commodity would fink the neceffary reduction of profits beneath the merchant's confideration. An effort made at Penryn, in Cornwall, about 30 years ago, proved unfuccefsful for want of proper encouragement, and almoft ruined the patriotic projector. Ireland indeed, by being admitted to the advantages of the Methuen Treaty, might in time, perhaps, be enabled to fupplant France in the drugget trade. But the circumftance of being underfold is not the only ground of apprehenfion for the fafety of trade, with thofe who draw their arguments from a comparifon between the value of labour in different countries. The danger of emigration has been largely infilted upon, and fears have been fuggefted that manufactories will be transferred from a dear country, to one where the means of fubfiftence are cheap. It would be lofs of time to fhew the fallacy of fuch a feppofition, and the abfurdity of conceiving that artificers of any clafs would voluntarily exchange high wages for low, or, in other words, would quit good provisions and comfortable habitations, for. meagre fare and wretched hovels. In fact, the high price even of the neceflaries of life, has feldom been injurious to the progrefs of induftry, nay, in fome inftances it has been the means of calling forth new and fuccefsful exertions of labour and skill, and has led to very important difcoveries in arts and manufactures. It was when the Piedmontefe were oppreffed by the taxes and exactions of the SFORZAS who for fome years perfifted in heavy affeffments of their harvests, and their markets, that they firft carried their fabrics of filk to a degree of refinement and expedition, by the introduction of mechanifm into fome parts of the process, that no European country was able to enter into competition with them f. It is not difficult in fhort to conceive, that in a state where the balance between the prices of labour and of wages is left to regulate itself, and is never made the object of civil policy, the rate of common fubfiftence and of the conveniences of life may be fo low as to prevent any improvement in manufactures, if not

* I will not fuppofe fo little virtue to be in that part of England, as the author of Propofitions for improving the manufactories, Ec. of Great Britain, in 1763, would infinuate, when he fays, "this gentleman was almoft ruined, because he thought it his duty to vote against the prefent reprefentatives of the borough of Penryn, at the laft general election," p. 32..

MURATORI, Differt. VII. Tom. III. It is through them we are indebted to this circumftance, perhaps, for LoмBE's ftupendous Machine, on the river Derwent, near Derby. He procured a model of it in Piedmont, by working under the difguife of a common weaver. -By 5 Geo. II. c. viii. Sir T. LoмBE obtained 14,000l. as a reward for this fervice to the filk manufactory. The machine contains 26,585 wheels, and 97,746 movements, which work 73,726 yards of organzine filk thread every time the water wheel goes round, which it does thrice in a minute. Its erection in this country was confidered as fuch an injury to Piedmont, that an Italian artist, it is faid, was fent over to England to affafinate the proprietor.

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entirely to exclude them. In opulent countries fuperior skill may often countervail the effect of high wages. This is obvious in all thofe articles where labour and materials are the least part of the value, and may be exemplified in molt of the articles in the warehoufes of Manchester and Birmingham.'

As the general merit of this treaty, and the various objects of it, are now under national confideration, where all interefts, all hopes, and all apprehenfions, will unite in fo important a difcuffion, we leave the fubject, after giving our opinion that this Writer offers many hints neceffary to prepare his readers for forming an unbiaffed idea of the expediency of cultivating a good commercial understanding with our neighbours.

Art. 28. Helps to a right Decifion on the Merits of the late Treaty, &c. 8vo. IS. Debrett. 1787.

This writer is an advocate for the treaty, and offers fome points of confideration that are totally overlooked by thofe who view the meafure through the medium of popular prejudice. If it be only as matter of curiofity, let us fee what he has to fay on the fubject of our antipathy to our next-door neighbour.

Those who are fo fond of giving Great Britain a natural enemy in the House of Bourbon, ought, one would think, to find her fome natural friends among the other powers of Europe; and it is much to be regretted, that none thought fit to difcover them felves when the stood fo much in need of them in the course of the laft war: Where was the grateful House of Auftria? our firm allies the Dutch ? and the moft faithful King of Portugal, in the hour of our diftrefs? The truth. is, we have been too long the dupes of our own prejudices, and of the artifices of fuch as called themselves our friends, and it is high time we recovered our fenfes.

If France has been hoftile to us in her negociations fince the peace of Utrecht, it was we who made her fo, by treating her as our enemy when we were allying with Auftria against her, and fubfidizing every little prince in Germany, to hold troops in readinefs to attack her; was fhe to blame for ftirring us up enemies in Afia and America, or finding us work at home? What but the most determined prejudices could have hurried us into the war of 1739 with Spain, which was the forerunner of the French war in 1744; at the t merchants cry of no fearch of their illicit traders, and the patriots yell for the lofs of Jenkins's ears which were never taken from him? And who will now be hardy enough to affert, that it was the intereft of Great Britain, to make fettlements beyond the Allegany Mountains in America; or that we had any bufinefs to interrupt the French in establishing a communication by water between their provinces of Canada and Louisiana? Yet what other grounds were there for the war of 1755?'

He thus extenuates the fupport given by France to the Americans during the late revolt:

France certainly entered into the laft war without the fhadow of justice on her fide; but while we admire and applaud the wifdom of our Elizabeth, in abetting the Dutch in their revolt from Spain, because that power was deemed then her natural enemy; ought we not to allow it equally wife in France to avail herself of a like opportu

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nity to weaken Great Britain, who had held herfelf out to her in the fame character? I mean not to palliate, much lefs to juftify the breach of faith and unprovoked hoftility in either inftance; but I with my countrymen to reflect, that however France may merit the epithet of faithless, plain honest John Bull is not perfectly immaculate.'

On the fubject of the commercial regulations at Utrecht, he obferves, that the Utrecht treaty made no ftipulation for the admiffion of our woollens into France; but that important article of our exports was left to the chance of a future negociation, which is not the cafe in the late treaty, as their admiffion is effectually provided for in the tariff-And our trade with Portugal, which was facrificed by the Utrecht treaty, will probably be revived by the provifions in the prefent, refpecting that kingdom; for we have moft wifely referved the power of giving her wines the full benefit of the Methuen treaty, on the condition of her restoring to us the advantages it ftipulated in favour of our manufactures; and which the in fo many inftances has moil flagrantly contravened.

Thefe are effen:ial differences between the two treaties, and intitle the latter to the fullest approbation of Parliament, although the former was juftiy reprobated.

The particular merits of this treaty he deems it needle's to enter into further, as it is now taken up by the Chamber of Manufacturers, in whofe hands he leaves it, with a wish that they may confine their publications to their refolutions.

Art. 29. The Neceffity and Policy of the Commercial Treaty, &c. confidered. By Anglicanus. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Richardfon.

This appears to be the production of a fenfible, well informed writer, as far as we can judge from the internal evidence of an anonymous publication. After a retrofpective view of the American war, and the lofs of the exclufive trade with our late colonies, the writer pleads the neceffity of opening new channels for our manufactures, and fhews that France off red one into which they now actually force themselves, even under all prohibitions. Among other clandeftine tranfactions, he inftances our trade in cambrics. · An attempt,' fays he, has been made to excite a clamour against that article which allows of the importation of cambrics into England under certain restrictions ;-an article which merely legalizes what is every day committed with impunity, and which cannot be prevented. Every linen-draper's fhop in England abounds with this commodity, imported in defiance of law; and furely much praise is due to the minifter, who converts an unavoidable evil into a public benefit. Those who imagine that a yard of cambric will be imported, more than what has been hitherto annually fmuggled, must have but a very flender knowledge of this branch of trade, and have paid very little attention to the conftant and enormous demand of this article among all ranks of people.-The poor deception which the cunning of trade employs to evade the vigilance of the revenue, is too grofs to impofe even upon the most illiterate tide-waiter-we all know that long-lawn means cambric; but call it by what name you pleafe, the fact of its having been a commodity prohibited by the laws, will always exili.