balances. But, if the increafe of foreign commerce is a thing defirable, it appears to me that the commercial treaty has a tendency to occafion fuch an increafe. I hope we are not fo selfish as to defire all the advantages of it to be on our fide; and I cannot prefume to think the French miniftry fo unwife, as not to have the interest of France in view, in framing the different articles of the treaty, as well as the English miniftry had the intereft of Great Britain. How! Can the treaty be both beneficial to us, and to the French? And why not? even on the fuppofition of the annual balance of trade between the two nations, being perfectly equal, the commercial intercourfe between them may nevertheless be greatly beneficial to both.' 'I have feen,' fays he, at Marseilles, a cargo of Dutch cheeses that would have nearly purchafed a cargo of French wine, the pound of cheese being nearly an equivalent for a bottle of wine; and I own I was forry that England had precluded herself from making the fame exchange. How many places are there in France where a pound of the best English cheefe would purchase two bottles of good Burgundy; and fhould the poffeffors of thofe two different commodities with an interchange, is there much policy in obstructing them?' The author of A View of the Treaty of Commerce with France*, thinking he had difcovered an infuperable reafon against any commercial connection between the two kingdoms, the validity of that objection is thus confidered: This author lays it down as a principle, that the staple manufactures of wine, brandy, vinegar, oil, &c. give France a phyfical fuperiority to the prejudice of England; and, never doubting of the juftnefs of his principle, is thereby led into numberleis errors throughout his performance. As much ftrefs has been laid upon this principle, though a falfe one, and as it is apt, when ignorantly adopted, to fill the minds of well-meaning people with apprehenfrons, a more particular examination of it may therefore not be unprofitable. The example I have before given, of a pound of cheese having a marketable value equal to two bottles of wine, at once fhews the futility of it; but the more narrowly it is viewed, the more unfound it will appear. If we reckon what will beft feed and maintain man (and that will be the ultimate fiandard of all commercial balances), an acre of wheat, or an acre of potatoes, will be of more value than an acre of oranges, or olives, or fugar. The late war afforded an infance of an acre of onions from New York, felling in the West Indies for what would purchase two acres of fugar. In how many places of England, may not an acre of dairy yield as much, in butter, as an acre of olive trees would yield in oil? In many parts of England one may fee, in the months of December, January, and February, young lambs feeding in the meadows with their dams, while one half of the neighbouring continent of Europe is buried under fnow; and, in the months of June, July, and Auguft, our cattle ftill find food in the fields, while the fouthern climates of Europe are, from the excess of heat, • See Rev. Feb. last, p. 169. Gg 4 yielding yielding almost as little fuftenance for cattle, as if they were covered with water. It may, therefore, juftly be presumed, that the benefits arifing from our mild winters, and perpetual pafturage, when contrafted with thofe which the hot fummers confer upon France, give the phyfical fuperiority to the fide of Great Britain.' Our author is as little fatisfied with the reasons why our connection with Portugal fhould ftand in the way of a like intercourse with France. If the Portuguese think the Methuen treaty advantageous to them, why may they not ftill continue it? If they think it difadvantageous, they will, doubtlefs, rejoice at the ceffation of it. The reafoning of fome of our orators and writers, who have objected to the commercial treaty on this ground, is moft curious, and most extraordinary. After enumerating, with all the painful accuracy of haberdashers or fhopkeepers, the balances of trade for a long courfe of years, between Portugal and England, they conclude, from a comparison of the debtor and creditor columns, that it has been moft gainful to England; and, at the fame time, that the Portuguese will be highly offended if any alteration is made in it!" On the whole, this fenfible writer concludes, that with a due cultivation of our domeftic advantages, we have no occafion to distract our minds about the balance of trade: the cuftom-house balance of profit, and the political balance of profit, being widely different. Art. 21. Alarming Progrefs of French Politics: an Appeal to the People of Great Britain. 8vo. Is. Jamefon. 1787. If the French have been as alert in canvaffing the dangers of a neighbourly correfpondence with us, as we have been on our part, the regulations of it cannot be cenfured as having been fettled without fufficient confideration; for no tranfaction could have excited more attention, both of good and bad heads, than the commercial treaty! It should feem as if objections were now drawn off down to the very lees, and nothing left but foul-mouthed abuse; at least nothing but fcurrility is offered to the Public in this worthless publication. Art. 22. Speech of the Right Hon. Henry Flood, in the Houfe of Commons, Feb. 15, 1787, on the Commercial Treaty with France. 8vo. IS. Debrett. Mr. Flood is ftrenuous against the treaty; and his fpeech is argumentative and eloquent. Gentlemen on the other fide of the queftion have alfo reafoned powerfully: the event will best fhew which party is moft in the right; and the experiment must be tried. POLITICA L. Art. 23. Anticipation of the Speeches intended to have been spoken in the House of Commons, May 4, on the Motion of Alderman Newnham, relative to the Affairs of the Prince of Wales. 8vo. 25. Kearsley, 1787. Mr. Tickell has the merit of the first thought, and of the title, here repeated, and applied to an interesting and popular fubject. See the account of this gentleman's vol. lix. p. 390. Anticipation," Rev. This IMITATOR is not a fervile one. He is more fuccefsful than copiers generally are. Many things are well faid; and there are, in our opinion, fome reprehenfible paffages, of the farcaftical kind. We think the Shropshire Baronet, in particular, is ill treated. Art. 24. Reponse de M. NECKER, au Difcours prononcé par M. de CALONNE à l'Affemblée des Notables. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Debrett. In our next, we shall give an account of this traft, from the tranflation. Art. 25. A Hint to the British Nation on the Violation of their Conftitutional Rights. 8vo. IS. Debrett. 1787. The late act respecting the fervants of the Eaft India Company is here reprobated, as tending to deprive thofe gentlemen of the most valuable bleffings of freedom, particularly the trial by jury. The Author obferves, that the number of perfons in the Company's service against whom any specific charge has been alledged, bears a very small proportion to the whole number employed; and that, were a like comparison to be made among the fervants of the nation at home and abroad, it is doubtful in whose favour the fcale of integrity would preponderate. Another grievance complained of, in a petition from the Bengal army to Lord North, is, his Majefty's regulation respecting military rank, between his officers and thofe of the Company, whereby the latter rank as youngeft of each degree, the fame as the provincial troops in America, and the embodied militia in England. Against this arrangement many arguments are adduced, fome of them inftancing particular cafes, which bear hard on the Company's troops. This grievance, if not redreffed, as well as thofe complained of by the civil fervants of the Company, may, the Author obliquely hints, be productive of difagreeable circumftances. The petition is, on the whole, well drawn up; there is, however, one confiderable mistake in that paragraph, wherein it is afferted, that the regulation complained of, was, during the late war, abolifhed in favour of the militia. Militia colonels, of a certain standing, had indeed army rank, but no alteration was made in the rank of any of the other officers. Art. 26. Prémiere Suite, &c. First Continuation of Confiderations on fome Parts of the Mechanifm of Societies, by the Marquis de Cafaux, of the Royal Society of London, and of that of Agriculture in Florence. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Elmfley. 1786. The Marquis de Cafaux continues his political fpeculations nearly in the fame train as in his larger work, which we announced to our readers in our Review for the last month. The thoughts and mode of illustration are very fimilar. The fame quickness of imagination, ingenuity in reafoning, and fondness for paradoxical hypothefes, that directly oppofe received opinions, characterise the prefent. The chief tendency of this effay is to fhew, that a reduction of the intereft of money would be a great national miffortune. The arguments, too, rest on the same doubtful foundation, and do not admit of abridgment. We are forry to be informed, by a memoir presented to Lord Sydney, copied into our Author's introduction, that his Majesty's liberal liberal intentions of protecting the French inhabitants of Granada, feem to have been, in a great measure, fruftrated by the manner in which those who have been intrufted with authority there have thought proper to act; on the other hand, we are happy to find, that the King of France has had the magnanimity to grant full protection to the English Proteftants at Tobago. This, we hope, will serve to excite a spirit of emulation between the two nations, and make them try who shall most excel in acts of national justice and generofity. The Seconde Suite is published; but we have not yet perused it. IRELAND. Art. 27. A Vindication of the Principles and Character of the Prefby-'terians of Ireland. Addreffed to the Bishop of Cloyne, in Aniwer to his Book entitled, The Prefent State of the Church of Ireland. The third Edition t. By William Campbell, D. D. Minister of Armagh. 8vo. Is. 6d. Evans. The bishop of Cloyne, in his State of the Church of Ireland, expofed himself to this fevere retort, by unneceffarily ftigmatizing the Prefbyterians of that country, as independents, whofe principles tend not to fet up, but to pull down an ecclesiastical establishment; and therefore as not intitled to national confidence. So pointed an accufation, though we took no farther notice than merely to cite it, while attentive to his lordship's reprefentation of the hardships the clergy there fuffered, by mob-law on account of tithes, could not be overlooked by an impartial obferver; and we then imagined it would probably be taken up by fome one of thofe whom it immediately affected. Accordingly, a temperate and masterly vindication of that refpectable body of Proteftants, refpectable as well from their numbers as their principles, from this injurious afperfion, injurious not only to the accufed, but alfo to the accufer, has been executed by an able advocate. It is much to be lamented that even the inroads of a common enemy cannot awaken a fenfe of duty, and eradicate the feeds of ill-will from the breafts of those who ought to unite their common ftrength to repel the invader. The bishop argued, "that almoft every legiflature (in Europe) has adopted an ecclefiaftical policy conformable to the genius of the civil conftitution:" and, that our established church is fo effentially incorporated with the state, that the fubverfion of the one must neceffarily overthrow the other." To inveftigate the firft pofition, Dr. Campbell runs curforily through ecclefiaftical hiftory, from the time of Conftantine, who gave his imperial fanction and fupport to the Christian church, to fhew that ecclefiaftical establishment did not tend to the ftability or peace of the empire, but was fubversive of the public peace and happiness' As little can he find it in the English hierarchy, which the bifhop affirms to be friendly to civil liberty. But,' adds Dr. Campbell, whatever the ecclefiaftical establishment is, and to whatever period we are to affign it (for you have not defined it), you affure us, it is an effential part of the con See Rev. April, p. 341. The two former editions, we are informed, were printed at Dublin. Kitution ftitution-and that there is a natural union of the civil with the ecclefiaftical branch of the conftitution." If it be the prefent establishment of the Proteftant church, which is an effential part of the constitution--this pofition is contradicted by fact-for the Britannic conflitution flourished in great vigour many ages before the Reformation-But if you would include alfo the Popish establishment in former times, you have already told us, this is congenial with arbitrary dominion, and confequently cannot be an effential part of a free conftitution; nor can there be a natural union between them. There is another difficulty-After laying it down that the ecclefiaftical establishment is an effential part of the conftitution-you fay, "the kingdom of Scotland may perhaps be held forward in oppofition to these principles; but you anfwer, that a fingle exception is never a fair objection to a general rule."-Shall we call this an overfight, or an apparent inconfiftency in reafoning, to allege that any thing can exift without what is effential to it? In any other fubje&t, this would be looked upon as a contradiction in terms; but where ecclefiaftical authority is concerned, it may fometimes be a merit to affert and believe what is unintelligible. Yet [as he obferves in another place], you defcribe the clergy a helpless" clafs of men," and call aloud for fupport, not only from government, but from Prefbyterians-Here is the moft apparent inconfiftency; for you have faid before, that the members of the established church alone can be cordial friends to the entire conftitution of this realm with perfect confiftency of principle. If this means any thing, the entire conftitution muft mean the church and ftate, and the reafon why Prefbyterians cannot be cordial friends, is their diffent from the church-and yet you call upon them to fupport you in that part alone, where you fay they cannot be cordial friends, with confiftency of principle. What fhall we fay of fuch reafoning as this? and what credit will the public give to thofe charges you have brought against Presbyterians, which you yourself feem immediately to relinquith? The nation is not fo blind, as to think the state is in the finalleft danger from the diftreffes of the South- and your want of information in regard to the principles and conduct of the Prefbyterians of Ulfter, where you lived fo long, will induce them to receive with caution all that you have faid concerning the rifings and tumults in Muniter.' To come to the pinch of the question in difpute, the Doctor urges that if indeed the evil be thus preffing, if there be the most urgent neceffity for Proteftants of every denomination to unite their strength in fupport of our admired conftitution, where was the prudence of an unprovoked attack upon the whole body of Prefbyterians? Was it prudent to hold out to the world, that the Proteftants of Ireland were not intimately united in fupport of the conftitution? Is it thus you would ftrengthen the hands of government? And, at a moment fo awful and critical in your apprehenfion, could it be imagined that wisdom fhould dictate the expedience of reprefenting the Prefbyterians, who form the great body of Proteftants in this kingdom, and who confequently form the great natural ftrength of our Proteftant government, as a " body of men who cannot be entitled to national conAidence?" You ought, my lord, before you brought such a charge, to |