A Chemical Chart or Table; exhiThe History of Lincoln, contain- biting an Elementary View of Cheing an account of the Antiquities, mistry, intended for the Use of StuEdifices, Trade, and Customs of that dents and Young Practitioners in ancient City, an introductory sketch Physic; also to revive the memory of the County, &c. &c. with plates of more experienced Persons, adaptSouter's Complete Set of Arith-ed for hanging up in Public or Primetical Tables; containing, besides those usually given, three New Tables, viz. one of Addition, one of Subtraction, and one of Division. Further Observations on the State of the Nation.

Somersetshire; and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Dowager Lady Bagot.

Brief Memoirs of Four Christian Hindoos, lately deceased. Published by the Serampore Missionaries.

A Sketch of the British Fur-Trade of North America; with Observations relative to the North West Company of Montreal. By the Earl

of Selkirk.

The Annals of Medicine and Surgery; or, Records of the occurring Improvements in Medicine and Surgery, and the immediately connected Arts and Sciences.

Sketches of India; or, Observations descriptive of the Scenery, &c. in Bengal. Written in India in the Years 1811-12-13 and 1814. Together with Notes on the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena. Written at those places in February, March, and April, 1813.

Travels in Brazil, from Pernambuco to Seara; beside occasional Excursions. Also a Voyage to Maranam. The whole exhibiting a Picture of the State of Society, during a Residence of Six Years in that Country.. Illustrated by plates of costumes. By Henry Koster.

cal, and Member of the Royal Medical Societies of Edinburgh, &c. &c.

Part VII. of Picturesque Delineations of the Southern Coast of England. Engraved by W. B. Cooke and G. Cooke. Contents: Netley Abbey, drawn by W. Westall, A. R. A.-Plymouth Dock, by J. M. W. Turner, R. A.-Bonchurch, by Joshua Christall-Shakspeare Cliff, by S. Owen-Beach of Ventnor, by P. Dewint.

Faith and Works contrasted and reconciled, in Six Letters to a Christian Friend. Containing Remarks on a late Address by Dr. Chalmers (of Glasgow) and other Sentiments as to the Doctrine of Grace. Shewing also, that the Influence of the Gospel extends to all the common Transac tions of Life.

Nautical Astronomy by Night; comprehending Practical Directions for knowing and observing the principal Fixed Stars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. To which is prefixed, a short Account of the most interesting Phenomena in the Science of Astronomy. The whole illustrated by several Engravings. Intended chiefly for the Use of the Royal Navy, and calculated to render more familiar the Knowledge of the Stars, and the Practice of ob serving by them. By Wm. Edward Parry, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy.

Vol. I. of Experimental Outlines for a New Theory of Colours, Light, and Vision: with critical Remarks on Sir Isaac Newton's Opinions, and some new Experiments on Radiant Calo- Practical Illustrations of Typhus, ric. By Joseph Reade, M. D. An- and other Febrile Diseases. By nual President of the Royal Physi-John Armstrong, M.D.

TO CORRESPONDENTS:

An authenticated report from Tralee Assizes is not in a form to receive notice in this Review.

The note respecting a work on Economical Subjects, dated the 7th of October, from a mistake with regard to the delivery at the late Printer's, did not reach the Editors' hands until the 22d.The pamphlet referred to will be noticed in our next publication.

The proposal of C. E. D. is under consideration.

A short pamphlet, on an interesting subject connected with Rustic Morals, was not submitted to the Editors in time for notice this month.

A short and interesting Tale would have been noticed, had it not been before the public last year, and reviewed elsewhere.

PRINTED BY W. SMITH AND CO. KING Street, seven DIALS.

CRITICAL REVIEW:
Series the Fifth.

VOL. IV.]

NOVEMBER, 1816.

[No. V.

ART. 1.-Further Observations on the State of the Nation. The Means of Employment of Labour-The Sinking Fund, and its Application-Pauperism- Protection requisite to the Landed and Agricultural Interests. By RICH ARD PRESTON, Esq. M.P. London, Longman and Co. 1816. 8vo. pp. 44.

Ir is the endeavour of almost every writer, whether his subject be a fan or a feather, to inflate or tickle his readers into a notion, that the matter of which he treats is of the deepest interest to his country and to mankind. The title of the present work is an exordium sufficiently impressive, without any weight of introductory argument, to make the nation feel sensibly its importance, and we will not devote an unnecessary line to what may be extraneous to it.

The former publication of Mr. Preston, entitled "The Present Ruined Condition of the Landed and Agricultural Interest," was reviewed in our preceding volume, p. 404 413; and the object of it was to recommend, that an equitable reduction be made in rents; that a commutation in money be conceded for tithes; that a more equal division of the poor-rates be established; and that the home market be properly secured to the interest of the farmer. With the exception of the first, all the same subjects are again discussed in the present pamphlet, but, in some respects, under new circumstances; and superadded to them, is a long and valuable examination of the best expedients for giving employment to the active population of the country. The work also treats of the funds that may be conveniently assigned to procure that employment, and of the parliamentary interposition that should set the whole in move

ment.

Now then is the time for &vise government, a prudent legisla-ture, and a patriotic press, to inform the public mind; to bring conviction even on those who are still in error; and to lead them to CRIT. REV. VOL. IV. Nov. 1816.

3 L

form such just and equitable arrangements, as shall give employment to British industry; shall protect British agriculture; shall diminish Pauperism; shall support the finances, by enabling those who are taxed to bear the burthen; and shall give ability to each half of the population, to find employment for the other half, by a mutual exchange of the labours and the fruits of their industry!!

"It is not sufficient that Great Britain has the same physical resources as formerly, or even greater. You must give action, energy, and power to these resources. The misfortune which is experienced is, that you have changed the sources, and diverted the tide of wealth. You are requiring the industrious to labour, not only for the capitalist, but for those who are deprived of employment, and, to a great extent, for discharged and maimed soldiers and sailors, most meritorious objects of relief!! The poor, on the one hand,— and the fundholder, the placeman, and the pensioner, and your large military establishment, on the other hand, are drawing to themselves the fruits of the labour of the active industrious part of the community: moreover, they are consuming the capital of the BeeHive. This diminution of capital will, at no distant period, be severely felt; not merely by a change of the stock of cattle and of corn from one hand to another, (a result of no great importance with a view to the future welfare of the country;) but by an actual and alarming diminution in the number of cattle, and of the quantity of corn, and of physical power, from the absence of manure and expenditure in labour, and 'from the pauperism and idleness of a large portion of the industry of the country, and the consequent inability to reproduce an equal quantity of human sustenance." (p. 16.)

On the necessity of public economy the honourable member is perfectly explicit, and we wish that all his colleagues were equally so. "Retrenchment," he says, "must take place; the people will demand and enforce it; self-preservation requires it." (p. 41.) Some facts connected with this branch of inquiry are illustrated by political arithmetic. He computes the expenditure at 70,000,000l., and the income of landed property, including canals and buildings, at 90,000,000/-assuming wheat to be at 80s. per quarter. Thus the taxation to the rental would be in the proportion of 7 to 9. In such circumstances, he conceives it to be absolutely required to reduce an expenditure, which occasions the whole circulating medium to pass through the hands of the government three, or perhaps four times, in the short revolution of a year; and which, on the scheme of a capitation tax, would contribute 47. from each individual to the state, reckoning the population of the United

Kingdom at about 18,000,000. The author fitly objects to the extravagant salaries of public officers.

"A determined system of retrenchment may be calculated to produce a saving of five millions a-year; for example-no governor of an island or colony should be allowed more than 5,000l. a-year, while some have 20,000l. a-year. No one person, in any department, or holding several offices under government, should receive more than 10,000l. a-year from the government; and of these officers there should be very few; only the cabinet ministers, who have official duties requiring eminent talents, and their whole attention. To those who may urge that 5,000,000l. a-year cannot by any possibility be saved by retrenchment, the short answer is, produce a list of salaries and duties, and let an investigation of the catalogue take place, and a correct.opinion on this point may be formed!! And it should always be remembered, that every 187. a-year paid to any placeman or pensioner, beyond a fair remuneration for his time, &c. withdraws from the public the means of giving active employment to one individual, as the head of a family; thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers.

"Pursuing this, or some such system, and reducing the military establishment, without abridging the pay of the private soldiers in the army, or the sailors in the navy, 5,000,000l. might be saved, being one-fifth of the present expenditure. The difficulty, if any, of saving more than this sum, proves the enormity of taxation and our distressed situation. After this reduction, the expenditure would be 20,000,000l. a-year, and the amount of taxation would be 65,000,000l. a-year. A property-tax, taking from every payment under government, including the funds, and with the exception of the soldier and sailor, 10 per cent, would reduce the burden of taxation to a sum not far exceeding 57,500,000l., being the balance of 70,000,000l., after deducting 5,000,000l. of retrenchment and 5,500,000l. of per centage. In consideration of this reduction, &c. the property of the country, as estimated at about 90,000,000%. a-year, should bear a tax of 10 per cent., computed at 9,000,0007. a-year; thus adding a sum of about 9,000,000l. a-year to the amount of the present taxes, in the place of those taxes which press most severely on the industry of the country." (p. 3—4.)

The reduction proposed of the expenditure, it will be observed, revives a property tax as to every payment under government, with the exception of the lowest ranks in the navy and army; and if a general impost of this nature be unjust, impolitic, and oppressive, a fortiori, a partial one must be of the like character. But we do not object to the effect as here recommended; we would in another form have the same object accomplished.