made in Great Britain, is intended to be, and is actually converted into beer; so that the duty on the latter was to all intents and purposes a duty on malt. Instead, therefore, of its being true that the tax on malt has only been reduced from 28s. 8d. to 20s. 8d., it has, in point of fact, been reduced from about 45s. to 20s. 8d, or a good deal more than 50 per cent! The consumers of beer, and consequently of malt, have good reason to be, and are, perfectly satisfied with this reduction. They do not complain of its price being excessive; and, if they did, the complaint would be so obviously unreasonable that it would not merit the least attention. But, say the landlords, if the malt tax be struck off, more beer, and, of course, more barley, will be consumed. No one doubts this; neither does any one doubt that the abolition of the duties on sugar, tea, coffee, &c., will occasion the consumption of more of those articles. But there are other considerations, besides the increase of consumption, that must be attended to. Unless provision be made for an expenditure of about fifty millions, national bankruptcy must ensue. Hence the absolute necessity of making a firm stand against all reckless and inconsiderate attempts at reduction. Instead of coming forward with motions for a repeal of the malt tax, let honourable gentlemen bring forward a motion for depriving the public creditors of a portion of their just claims. There would be sense at least in a project of this sort. If injustice is to be committed, let it be done openly and fairly, and not under the miserable pretext of relieving the public burdens, or of increasing the amount of the currency.

Most part of the clamour raised against the mode in which the stamp-duties are assessed, is quite unfounded. It is contended, that, because a receipt stamp for L.20 costs Is., a receipt stamp for L.1000 ought to cost L.2, 10s., and that because it only costs 10s., the interests of the rich are consulted at the expense of the poor. We believe that those who have so ostentatiously put forward this statement are as well satisfied as we are of its futility. By far the greater portion of the largest incomes are expended in paying comparatively small accounts. But, suppose it were otherwise, and that the tax is imposed on the principle contended for, it would only increase still further the burdens of the poorer classes; for tradesmen are too glad to get payment of their accounts to think of charging their customers with the expense of the receipt for the money. The legacy-duties, as at present arranged, are more open to objection: those payable on small sums ought, we think, to be reduced, and those payable on larger sums to be increased. But we must reserve the discussion of these, and other important matters, for another occasion.

ART. VIII.-1. Treatise on Burning Instruments, containing the Method of Building large Polyzonal Lenses. By DAVID BREWSTER, LL.D. F.R.S. Edinburgh: 1812.

2. Memoire sur un Noveau Systeme d'Eclairage des Phares. Par M. A. FRESNEL. Paris: 1822.

3. On the Construction of Polyzonal Lenses, and Mirrors of Great Magnitude, for Lighthouses, and for Burning Instruments; and on the Formation of a Great National Burning Apparatus. By DAVID BREWSTER, LL.D. F.R.S. (Edin. Phil. Journal. 1823. Vol. viii. p. 160.)

4. Saggio di Osservazioni, &c., or an Essay on the best Means of Improving the Construction of Lighthouses; with an Appendix, which treats specially of their Illumination by Gas. By the Chevalier G. ALDINI, Member of the Royal Institute of Science, Belles Lettres, and the Arts, at Milan. Milan: 1823. 5. Rapport contenant L'Exposition du Systeme adopté, par la Commission des Phares, pour eclairer les Cotes de France. Par M. de ROSSEL, Contre-Amiral Honoraire, et Membre de l'Institut. Paris: 1825.

6. Account of a New System of Illumination for Lighthouses. By DAVID BREWSTER, LL.D. F.R.S. Edinburgh: 1827.

GREAT BRITAIN has, by universal consent, been placed at the

head of the maritime nations of the world. To this noble pre-eminence she is justly entitled, whether we regard her in her naval power, or in her commercial greatness. Though occupying nearly the site of the Ultima Thule of the Roman world, -and though withdrawn almost to the icy verge of the Arctic zone, she is nevertheless the focus of civilisation and of trade; and foreign nations, however remote, and states, however barbarous, derive the light and the heat of their industry, either from its direct, or its reflected radiations. By her manufacturing skill she has long been the workshop of Europe; by her commercial enterprise she embraces in her gigantic grasp the whole circuit of the globe; and by means of her colonies in every quarter of the world, she has become the emporium of a universal commerce.

Though Great Britain is indebted for many of these advantages to her insular position, as well as to the bracing temperature of her high latitude, yet these auspicious peculiarities have been less favourable to the developement of her commercial resources. Beset on one hand by shifting sandbanks, and on an

other by rapid currents;-bounded here by lofty and rugged rocks, and indented there with irregular firths and inlets; exposed on all sides to the severities of a rigorous climate, and to the dangers of a tempestuous sea,-she presents no inviting exterior to the less skilful, or the less adventurous navigator, and is more apt to scare than to allure the timorous sail' of less boisterous regions.

Thus intrenched amid her wild shelves and bold headlands, and enthroned in the fogs and tempests of her variable climate, we might have expected that Great Britain would have put forth all the resources of her genius, and all the liberality of her wealth, to welcome the seafaring stranger to her shores,-to guide him through the mazes of her navigation,—and to light him homeward through the thick darkness of her Cimmerian winter.

Wherever individual humanity has had free scope in the discharge of such duties, a generous sympathy has been exhibited; -lights and beacons everywhere offer a safe entrance to our harbours ;-life-boats, and seamen, reckless of danger, are everywhere stationed for the rescue of the perishing mariner; and humane societies are every where organized, to make the latest struggle for the unhappy sufferer. But individual sympathy, however deep and wide be its current, can flow only in a limited channel. The great safeguard of human life on our coasts, the lighting up of our reefs and headlands,-has been necessarily intrusted to Public Boards, possessed of great wealth and extensive jurisdiction, and capable of organizing a general system, and adapting it to the peculiarities of our coast and climate, and to the varying wants of navigation and commerce.

The important and responsible duties involved in such a trust have been committed by Great Britain to three separate Boards; in England, to the ancient corporation of the Trinity House; in Scotland, to the Commissioners of Northern Lights; and in Ireland, to the Ballast Corporation of Dublin.

The Trinity House was founded in the time of Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth recognised it as a company of the chiefest and most expert masters and governors of ships, incorporate 'within themselves;' and she conferred on them the offices, rights, and emoluments, of buoyage, beaconage, and ballastage. King James I. and Charles I. granted them a charter of confirmation; and James II. constituted them into a body corporate and politic, by a charter at this moment in force. In virtue of this charter, the corporation consists of a master, deputy-master, four wardens, eight assistants, and seventeen elder brethren; eleven of whom are either noblemen, heads of departments in the

Government, or celebrated Admirals, and twenty are retired Commanders, from every branch of the merchant service. In none of these charters does the power of erecting lighthouses appear to be mentioned, but this privilege was justly supposed to be included in the direction to commune on the conservation, 'good estate, and wholesome government, maintenance, and ' increase of the navigation of the realm.'

Previous to 1680, no grant of any lighthouse was made to the Trinity Board, excepting the poor one of Lowestoff. Notwithstanding their undoubted right to such grants, the ministers of former times conferred them upon certain high officers of Government, as a remuneration for services, and upon other less meritorious personages, who happened to be the relatives, or the parasites, of the reigning monarchs. Even these powerful interests were sometimes overruled, and other individuals obtained from Parliament specific grants, in defiance of the power of the Crown, and of the privileges of the Trinity House.

By such means many of the lighthouses of England fell into the hands of private individuals, and were handed down to their successors without any restrictions. The natural consequence of this system of corruption was such as might have been expected. The proprietors levied their tolls with Jewish rigour, and left the ships which they robbed to find their way through the darkness which their glimmering lights had only rendered more visible and perilous. The lessees, too, of the Trinity House, took advantage of their leases, and refused to adopt those obvious improvements which the Corporation had introduced into their own lighthouses. To such an extent was this infamous system tolerated, that Captain Cotton, who had been fourteen years deputy-master of the Trinity House, assures us, it occasioned the loss of many ships, many lives, and much property;' and he adds, that the details of these losses would excite the most sensible commiseration and regret.' From this severe censure, however, we must except the proprietors of the Orford and Dungeness lighthouses, Lord Braybroke, and Mr Coke, whose readiness to improve their lights entitle them, to use the words of Captain Cotton, to the gratitude of every 'seafaring character, and of the nation at large.'*

The lighthouses of England are erected and maintained by means of a tax or toll on all ships that pass any lighthouse.

* Memoir on the Origin and Incorporation of the Trinity House. London: 1818.

This tax varies in different lighthouses from d. per ton to lid. per ton, and yields a revenue far greater than what is required for the purpose for which it is levied.

The Lighthouse Board of Scotland was established by Act of Parliament in 1786, for the purpose of lighting the Scottish coast. This Board consists of his Majesty's Advocate and Sɔlicitor-General for Scotland, the Lord Provost and eldest Bailie of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Provosts of Aberdeen, Inverness, and Campbelton, and the Sheriffs-depute of the maritime counties of Edinburgh, Lanark, Renfrew, Bute, Argyll, Inverness, Ross, Orkney, Caithness, Aberdeen-to which Ayr, Fife, and Forfar have been added on the authority of another Act.

The Scottish lighthouses are maintained by a toll of 1 d. per ton upon all British vessels, except King's ships, and 3d. per ton upon all foreign vessels that may pass any one of them; and this tax is not increased, even if the vessel should pass several or all of the lighthouses.

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The lighthouses of Ireland were originally placed under the Board of Customs of Dublin; but in 1810 they were confided to a new Board, composed of the principal merchants of Dublin, under the name of The Corporation for improving and 'preserving the Port and Harbour of Dublin.' The Irish lighthouses are maintained by a general toll on the tonnage of ail vessels entering any Irish port, whether those vessels have derived any advantage or not from the lighthouses.

It is somewhat curious, and not uninstructive, to observe the variety of legislative wisdom which Great Britain has introduced into her Lighthouse Code. In England, the lighthouses are intrusted to sailors and noblemen; in Scotland, to our Sheriffs or county Judges, and to the chief magistrates of burghs; and in Ireland to merchants and bankers. The sailor, exercising the justice of the Judge, demands payment only for the light which he dispenses; the Sheriffs, influenced by the generosity of the sailor, allow the mariner who passes one lighthouse to pass every other gratuitously; while the wealthy merchants compel the poor navigator to pay for all their lighthouses, even though he has been lighted by none of them!

But notwithstanding this singular diversity in the composition of our Lighthouse Boards, and in the manner in which they deal with their objects, there is one feature in which the family likeness has been sedulously preserved. The Legislature has carefully excluded from them men of science, opticians, and engineers, the only classes of persons who were pre-eminently qualified for the office; and the Boards themselves, true to the parent spirit which was breathed into them, have, we