ART. XVI. The Oeconomy of Charity; or, an Addrefs to Ladies concerning Sunday Schools; the Establishment of Schools of Induftry under Female Infpection; and the Distribution of voluntary Benefactions. To which is added, an Appendix, containing an Account of the Sunday Schools in Old Brentford. By Mrs. Trimmer. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Longman, &c. 1787.

MRS

RS. Trimmer has here given us another fpecimen and proof of her zeal for promoting the happiness of mankind. In the Servant's Friend, and the Two Farmers (which have been noticed in our Review), fhe has fhewn, in an easy familiar way, the important benefits arifing from an early religious education, not only to the individuals themselves, but to fociety at large and in this performance, perfons of fortune, particularly ladies, are informed how they may make their benevolence most extenfively useful, viz. in promoting Sunday fchools. There is nothing,' fays our ingenious Author, wanting to complete their charity, but for ladies of rank to appear interested in the establishment of them; and for others, in middling ftations, to give a perfonal attendance at the girls fchools; which I am confident would conduce, beyond any circumftances whatever, to their benefit and perpetuity.'

In recommending fchools of induftry, the obferves, If there was a fchool for fpinning flax, girls of five years of age might be employed at it; and the yarn might eafily be manufactured into white or ftriped linen and checks, and by the time each little fpinftrefs had worn out the clothes given her by the parish or private benefactors, the might earn fufficient to entitle her to linen, and other neceffaries.

Another school for carding and fpinning wool, would furnish materials for linfey-woolfey, ferge ftuffs, baize yarn, and worsted for knitting. At a third fchool, girls might be taught needlework of the useful kind: and, at a fourth, they might learn to knit flockings. Thefe fchools, if properly conducted, would reflect benefits on each other; they might eafily be fet on foot by voluntary benefactions; and, in a fhort time, would fupport themfelves, and yield a furplus; and would require no farther aid than infpection to fee that the produce was properly applied.

At the end of this book are two plates of the horizontal spinning wheel, invented by the late Mr. Barton of Carlisle, at which 12 little girls can fpin at once. Our Authorefs fays, this machine is fo eafily managed, that the leaft child can, with the fmalleft touch, difengage, or fet a-going, any one of its wheels, without interfering with another. The original expence is 5. It feldom wants repair. Mrs. Trimmer, we would add, is fo fenfible of the utility of this wheel, that she has procured one for Brentford.

In the Appendix, there is an account of the Sunday Schools in Old Brentford, and the rules by which they are regulated; which feem well adapted to the purpose, and we are glad to find that they fucceed fo happily.

As the perufal of this treatife has given us peculiar pleasure, we therefore recommend it as worthy the attention of the Public; and we think the Writer juftly entitled to the warmest approbation, for her uncommon exertion, in executing the plans here laid down.-May her utmost wishes be crowned with fuccefs and may there be found, in every parifh, a Mrs. Trimmer, to promote that reformation, and that industry, which under her aufpices has taken place in the neighbourhood of her refidence. This work is, by permiffion, addreffed to her Majefty; who, we obferve with pleafure, is a particular patronefs of the Sunday school plan. Br_ -w

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE,

For MAY, 1787.

TRADE and COMMERCE.

66

ART. 17. An Anfwer to a Pamphlet published by the Earl of Dundonald, intitled, Thoughts on the Manufacture and Trade of Salt, and of the Coal Trade of Great Britain, &c." With a particular Examination of his Mode of refining British Salt; together with Remarks on the Writings of Dr. Anderson and others, on the fame Subject. By Robert Roe. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Robin fons.

ΤΗ

HIS irafcible Hibernian, highly offended at feeing his countrymen accused of the odious practice of Smuggling falt, here takes up the cudgel in their favour, which he brandishes with a mafterly dexterity indeed! Proving, by the clearest demonftration, that, although they have falt about five hundred per cent. cheaper than it is in England, they are fo ftrictly confcientious, that they neither fmuggle a fingle ounce of it thither themselves, nor permit any one to do fo for them.-O brave, trufty Irish! when you can find another nation in the world who do the like-you may shake hands with them as your friends and equals.

The above, we prefume, will be fufficient for this pamphlet-we cannot help regretting however, that fuch abilities as this Author evidently poffeffes, fhould be loft to the Public, by that want of candour which is unfortunately too prevalent among political combatants: he who contends for victory only, never produces facts that can be relied on.

n-n

A-n

Art. 18. Inftructions for Merchants, Ship Owners, Ship Mafters, &c. Extracted and digefted from the Navigation, the Manifeft, Newfoundland, and Wine Acts of Parliament, paffed last Year, and from the Smuggling Act, paffed 1784. By a Merchant. 4to. Is. Law, &c.

Where laws point to a number of objects which must be attended to in every stage of a bufinefs, and where they are accumulated, the latter

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latter referring to the former; it would be impoffible, in many cafes, to proceed duly according to law, without forming fome kind of regular digeft for private directions. The compiler of thefe Inftructions declares, that they were first drawn up for his own use, and that he has now publifhed them for the affiftance of others: they may therefore be more practically ufeful than if prepared merely to make a book on the subjects specified: but, in fuch cafes, it cannot be expected that we should undertake an examination of the feveral authorities, in order to decide on the merits of the performance. N. Сом MMERCIAL TREATY with FRANCE. Art. 19. New Information and Lights, on the late Treaty of Commerce with France. Addreffed to the Right Hon. William Pitt. By Robert Pigott, Efq. 4to. Is. Ridgway.

Mr. Pigott attacks the Treaty with ridiculous objections; and thefe he conveys to his Right Hon. Correfpondent in fuch imperfect language as can only ferve to reflect difgrace on the Prefs. N. Art. 20. A Commercio Political Effay, on the Nature of the Balance of Foreign Trade, as it refpects a Commercial Intercourfe between Great Britain and France, and between Great Britain and other Nations. 8vo. Is. 6d. Stockdale.

The Writer of this Effay is not to be claffed with the common herd of pamphletteers who ifiue forth on temporary occafions: he undertakes to examine the principle of the late commercial treaty, and in this line of inquiry overlooks many paltry calculations of prefent balances of profit and lofs on the immediate articles of traffic. For, he obferves, the commercial balance has for its object the increafe of gold and filver; but the political balance has for its object the increase of real phyfical wealth, and confequently the increase of general profperity, and of national power.' He inftances many nations, as well as our own American colonies, that have evidently thriven with a pofitive balance of trade against them; paying that balance from the produce of the earth. Whoever poffeffes things, poffeffes the price of things, and much more furely than if he poffeffed gold and filver; for an ox, or a bushel of wheat, is of the fame value now that it was five hundred years ago; but an ounce of gold is of twenty times lefs value now, than at the former period. Agriculture ought certainly to be confidered not only as a manufacture, but as the most profitable of all manufactures; for the products of agriculture are the refult of the labour of man, as much as the products of the loom or of the forge, with this great advantage in favour of the former, that labour forms a fmaller part of the aggregate of their value; therefore the net profit is the greater. From this confideration, I think it would be very advantageous to this kingdom if one half of our idle fhopkeepers would turn cultivators, that is, would become manufacturers; and that, inftead of throwing ourselves into feverish heats about the uncomputable balance of foreign trade, we should give our chief attention to cultivate that branch of commerce, where the annual balance is fure to be in our favour, to the amount of many millions.' Nature, he adds, could yield us many millions more, were we but to labour for it with half the affiduity that we labour for foreign

balances.

balances. But, if the increase 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 felfth as to defire all the advantages of it to be on our fide; and I cannot prefume to think the French miniflry fo unwife, as not to have the intereft 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,' says he, at Marfeilles, a cargo of Dutch cheeses that would have nearly purchafed a cargo of French wine, the pound of cheefe 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 those two different commodities with an interchange, is there much policy in obftructing 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 numberless 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-mean ng people with apprehenfions, 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 ftandard 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 inftance of an acre of onions from New York, felling in the Weft 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. laft, p. 169.
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yielding

yielding almost as little fuftenance for cattle, as if they were covered with water. It may, therefore, justly be prefumed, that the benefits arifing from our mild winters, and perpetual pafturage, when contrafted with those 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 should stand in the way of a like intercourfe 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 reasoning of fome of our orators and writers, who have objected to the commercial treaty on this ground, is most curious, and moft 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 Portuguefe 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 diftract our minds about the balance of trade: the custom-house balance of profit, and the political balance of profit, being widely different.

N.

Art. 21. Alarming Progress of French Politics: an Appeal to the People of Great Britain. 8vo. 15. 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 leaft nothing but fcurrility is offered to the Public in this worthlefs publi

cation.

D: Art. 22. Speech of the Right Hon. Henry Flood, in the House 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 beft 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 fpoken in the House of Commons, May 4, on the Motion of Alderman Newnham, relative to the Affairs of the Prince of Wales, 8vo. 2s. Kearney, 1787.

Mr. Tickell has the merit of the first thought, and of the title, here repeated, and applied to an interefting and popular fubject.

* See the account of this gentleman's vol. lix. p. 390.

Anticipation," Rev.