Page images
PDF
EPUB

To conclude, our Author might have faved him felf the trouble of warning his countrymen to beware of this treaty, and us the trouble of reviewing it; for he declares- There is not, there never was, a parliament that would pass fuch a treaty into a law.'

While we fhew the futility of crude objections to this meafure, we would not be understood to deny the existence of valid reasons against it, either in whole or in part: if any fuch there be, they will appear in the course of the business. N.

Art. 31. The Principles of British Policy, contrafted with a French Alliance; in five Letters, from a Whig Member of Parliament to a Country Gentleman. 8vo. Is. 6d. Debrett.

This M. P. is by far the moft plaufible of the opponents to the French treaty, and the propofition he fets out with, declares, that our differences take their fource from no caufe which can admit of mutual accommodation; and are therefore unfit objects for a treaty of commerce, in which we cannot fafely engage with France, until the gives fome folid fecurity that he will disturb the peace of Europe no more.' He gives up commercial objections. On this ground,' fays he, I cannot admit the fentiments, especially when mixed with the wishes, of our manufacturers, as any decifive authority. Nay, the more they like the treaty, the more jealous fhould I be of its effects; for in that proportion it will engage their powerful intereft on the fide of France, whenever the returns to the profecution of her dangerous projects. And it is no new axiom in politics, that a ftate may lofe its importance, confiftently with the prefervation, nay, the extenfion of its commerce.

[ocr errors]

You afk me,' fays he, how I account for the profound filence of the manufacturers at prefent?—In the cafe of Ireland, the market of that country was ALREADY OPEN to our cotton, our iron, our potteries, and twenty other manufactures; in the cafe of France, it is the reverfe. In the cafe of Ireland, no profpect of immediate gain was held out to the British manufacturer, whofe home market was to be thrown open to the future fpeculations of his Irish rival. In the cafe of France, an immenfe immediate gain is placed juft within his reach, fufficient to outweigh all alarms for the competition of his French rival in the home market, until he has made his fortune by the demand of a new market for his own goods. Here is the true fecret of the popularity of this meafure with fome men : and we shall hear no more of the great principles to which they committed themfelves on the Irish propofitions, until the improvement of France in the feveral manufactures which she is to take from us under the treaty, enables her to fupply her own confumption.'

He ftates the following comparison between the two countries:

Great Britain and France are both very great commercial countries; but mere commercial profits are in neither the fole end of their local inftitutions. There is a certain rank and dignity which every great empire muft neceffarily fupport among its neighbours. The wealth of a nation is justly faid to confift in the number of induftrious poor that it employs; but the ftrength of a nation is a different thing, and depends upon the nature of their employments. Holland is, beyond all proportion, the wealthieft and the moft induftrious country in the world, confifting of an equal number of inhabit

ants,

ants, but their fyftem for thefe laft fifty years, has rendered them just as indifputably the weakeft. Great Britain, however, is undoubtedly more a commercial country than France. Our infular fituation, our laws, our liberty, and religion, and many other causes, confpire to make it fo. But if this fuperiority be to our advantage, it involves a confequence that, pushed to its extent, may be of the greatest mischief, by bringing us into precifely the fame fituation as Holland. If commerce be more the genius of the people of England than of France, it will follow that, when once thoroughly immersed, there will be an infinitely greater difficulty in drawing us away from its fpeculations, whehever confequences which are deftructive to the national interests in another point of view, fhall be difcovered to refult from the purfuit of them. Commerce and public credit are infeparably connected. France is unfettered by the chains which bind us to the rigid obfervance of national faith. There have been times of diftrefs, we know, in which he has become bankrupt, and yet her public credit, which is nothing like fo good as ours, has perfectly recovered it. This is an effect of her conftitution; for under defpotic governments the fecurity of property is precarious, and men who engage their capitals in trade, or lend it to the ftate, know to what they truft, and contrive to find fome profit which they conceive adequate to the rifque.'

A

Under these apprehenfions he thus anticipates the operation of a commercial intercourfe with France: Let us fuppofe a commercial connection had been established between the two countries fome years ago. Let us fuppofe it ftrengthened by the experience of its mutual benefits; by mutual debts, and other confequences of mercantile intercourfe. Our minifters abroad difcover alarming projects of the Court of France, and confederacies against the peace of mankind, formed for the old purposes, and upon the old principles. In purfuance of our ancient policy, an English minifter would endeavour to counteract her by other treaties, and other confederacies. war breaks out, and he is called upon to fulfil his engagements. He comes to parliament for fupplies. What follows? All the leading manufacturers in the country throng around the doors of the Houfe of Commons with petitions against the war. They state the immense benefits of a French trade,- they state the prodigious capital engaged in it, they state the number of hands employed in it, they state the amount of taxes and excife duties paid by them to the revenue; -in fhort, they ftate all that you may read already in their printed evidence, and fum up with ftating the menaces of France to cancel their debts on the one hand, and the additional taxes that they must pay on the other, to fupport the very measure that deprives them of the means of living. I profefs, I hardly know how fuch an appeal as this could be refifted in reason: much lefs do I think, that there

How far it may enter into her views, in any moment of national calamity, to repeat the experiment, may be worth the attention of our manufacturers; especially when we confider, that the only measure by which fhe can make peace with thofe of her own fubjects whom he would involve in the common distress, would be their relief from debts to foreign nations.'

i

ever yet was a minifter bold enough to hazard the profecution of a meature oppofed in the manner I have defcribed. Even the rafhnefs of the prefent day would be checked, I think, by the dread of a rebellion; and to this calamitous extremity, an alliance entered into for the common fafety might lead. I fay to rebellion; unnatural enough at all times, but monftrous when raised in favour of a French trade.'

In this ftyle, our Author, on Antigallican principles, combats the motives on which the treaty is urged forward: he profeffes an attachment to old fyftems, confeffes himself of the Rockingham party, and confiders the prefent miniftry as pursuing a train of experiments to ftrengthen the power of the crown. How far his reasoning may be influenced by party opinion we will not now ftop to examine in parliament he may urge his objections in his proper character; he has prepared the Public for them in time, and we have no wish but that the true interests of the nation may govern the decision.

MISCELLANEOUS.

N. Art. 32. A Fragment on Shakespeare, extracted from Advice to a young Poet. By the Rev. Martin Sherlock; and tranflated from the French. 8vo. IS. Robinsons.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Sherlock's work, called Advice to a young Poet, was written in Italian, and published with intent to give foreigners a more juft idea of Shakespeare than could be collected from the ftrictures of the partial and the jealous Voltaire. A French writer felected the fragment now before us, and tranflated it for the use of his countrymen. It has fince gone through another metamorphofis, and now appears in an English drefs. The French tranflator tells us in his preface, that English literature has been for fome years much esteemed in France, and the name of Shakespeare is now grown familiar on the Continent. Voltaire, by writing against him, has contributed, without defign, to extend the reputation of a dramatic author, who, notwithstanding great faults, has captivated, for two centuries, an enlightened nation. So far the French tranflator the plan of the Rev. Mr. Sherlock is as follows: he tells his young Italian poet, that Dante is a great genius, and Ariofto an enchanting poet; but neither the one nor the other can ferve to form a juft tafte. For this purpose the Greek, Latin, and French poets must be studied. Homer, Virgil, Racine, Horace, Longinus, and Boileau, are the models he recommends. Racine, he fays, has done honour to France, and would have been honoured at Athens. A good tafte, good fenfe, truth, a knowledge of the human heart, the pathetic carried to the utmoft height; thefe are his merits, and thefe entitle him to a place between Sophocles and Euripides. Among the models of good tafte he does not name Corneille. The tafte, he fays, must be formed before he is read. He then puts the queftion, muft Shakespeare be ftudied as a model of good tafte? Here, he tells us, he must facrifice his darling poet to truth, and he anfwers, NO. CORNEILLE, the great poet of France, and SHAKESPEARE, the pride of England, are both excluded from the models that are to form the young poet's tafte; but Shakespeare is a fuperior being, poffeffing all the excellences of all the eminent writers of antiquity: he difplays more knowledge of life, more morality, more poetic energy, and more eloquence

eloquence than can be found in any other author. Voltaire, to depreciate Shakespeare, has given a vile tranflation of Julius Cæfar, and compares it with the Cinna of Corneille. Mr. Sherlock quotes at length the fpeeches of Marc Antony, and oppofes them to all that can be found in Homer or Virgil. He adds, Demofthenes and Cicero were orators by profeffion; is there any one of their orations fuperior to Antony's? If the reader will take Mr. Sherlock's advice, and read Shakespeare's fcene attentively, he will most probably agree that nothing can exceed it. Racine and Shakespeare are not to be compared: Racine made regular tragedies, Shakespeare did not; but he made dramatic pieces, which will intereft all claffes of mankind, as long as mankind fhall exift, Voltaire has talked of monftrous farces and grave diggers; but that writer was not more famous.for his talents than for his practice of pillaging, and then calumniating the person whom he has robbed: read Zara and Othello, and then judge of the two poets. Mr. Sherlock fays, Nature made SHAKESPEARE, and broke the mould. Upon the whole, the admirers of Shakespeare are much obliged to Mr. Sherlock for removing the prejudices fo widely diffufed by Voltaire. As the Author wrote in italian, he has caught much of the ftyle and manner of the country. He writes with enthufiafm, but his obfervations are not the lefs founded in truth.

LAW.

M..y.

Art. 33. A fort Enquiry into the Fees claimed and taken by the Clerk of Affize on the Home Circuit, &c. 8vo. 1s. Debrett. 1786. To this Enquiry is prefixed a fet of refolutions paffed by the Grand Jury for the county of Hertford, Summer affizes 1786, in which it is ftated that confiderable fums were received by the clerk of affize, his clerks, and others, under pretence of cuftomary fees and perquifites of office, unwarranted by law, and in many inftances contrary to various acts of parliament.

It is further flated, that the faid fees and perquifites were taken from perfons preferring bills of indictment, profecuting felons to conviction, or attending as witnefies, to the injury of fuch perfons, the difcouragement of public juftice, and the great increase of the levies of the county. The Grand Jury conclude with recommending to the justices of the county, at quarter feffions, to caution all parties attending the affizes against fuch exactions for the future. The pamphlet now before us is addreffed to the juftices, and proceeds minutely to afcertain the fees taken by the clerk of affize, fetting forth the feveral claufes in various acts of parliament which prohibit the fame, or fettle the fpecific fee which ought to be taken. With out feeing the answer of the clerk of affize, it were improper for us to give a decifive opinion upon the fubject. Men of the law have, no doubt, been aftute in all ages for their own emolument. Abuses, which have been tolerated, become traditional, and are too frequently turned into precedents to eftablish a right. All we can fay is, that exactions, fuch as are ftated in this pamphlet, call for fome preventive remedy. That which the Grand Jury have adopted feems feeble and inadequate. The judge of affize, it is well known, cannot fit in court to hear complaints of this nature, and make a table of fees. All he can fay, when applied to, is, that the officer muft

be

be paid his fees, and if he takes too much, he is answerable for extortion. The confequence is, that the party complaining is left to purfue his legal remedy, but, instead of doing it, he prefers the money in his pocket to a troublesome and expenfive litigation. To go at once to the root of the evil, application fhould be made to parliament, and in an act for the purpose a table of fees might be fet forth, with directions that the fame fhall be hung up in the office of the clerk of affize, for the infpection of all perfons whatever, and the exacting or receiving of more fhould be prohibited under proper penalties. D Art. 34. Obfervations on the Uje and Abufe of the Practice of the Law. By a Friend to the Profeffion. 8vo. is. 6d. Anderfon, &c. This pamphlet has for its object the various mifchiefs arifing to mankind from low attorneys, and men deftitute of all knowledge as well as morals, who, by undue means, force them felves into that branch of the profeffion, and prove the most pernicious locufts that ever infefted human fociety. This race of men is reprefented in proper colours, drawing the unwary into fuits, and when they fucceed, ruining their clients by the bill of cofts. Of this fpecies of impofition feveral inftances are given, and one in particular, told with fome humour, of a blind fidler, whofe inftrument was broken by one of the company for whom he played at a hop near Plymouth. The poor man had faved 30%.: the attorney got that money into his hands, went to affizes with his witneffes, tried his caufe, and recovered a verdict for two guineas. The defendant fled the country: the poor plaintiff fpent all his money, and is ftill in debt to the worthy attorney. The Author gives us a curious advertisement from the Daily Advertifer, in which an attorney makes profeffion of his knowledge, and is fo difinterested as to offer his advice in Crown and Common Law cafes, Chancery, and Conveyancing, for the moderate fee of 1s. in Prujean Square, Old Bailey, any day, except Sunday. On the last mentioned day this worthy lawyer is fuppofed to go out of bis way to church. What a moral and exemplary man! The means by which this fpecies of vermin encreafe and multiply are painted forth with a true pencil. One is a footman to a lawyer: he cleans fhoes and knives for five years, and having in that time learned to write, gets a certificate from his master, and is admitted an attorney. A noted alehoufe-keeper at the weft-end of the town, having been formerly, fworn an attorney, has an office in the city, where three or four Jew clerks attend every day, and will in time be fworn attorneys. We are prefented with the hiftory of a man well known by the name of the Little Lawyer, who from bafe beginnings has rifen to eminence. A noted undertaker, who formerly contracted for funerals in Newgate, and after many years became a bankrupt, has put himself clerk to an attorney, and is now, with the flock of knowledge which he acquired in that learned feminary, in the high road to be an eminent attorney. The intent of this pamphlet is to lay open the grofs impofition of fuch wretches, the villanics which they practife, and, by a falutary caution, to put the unwary upon their guard. The defign is truly laudable. We think it may be purfued to a wider extent; and fhould the Author enlarge his plan, he will at least have the merit of attempting to do a benefit to mankind. Art,

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »