is estimated to produce, for 1800, no lefs a fum than 1,250,000l. which is nearly one half the amount of public revenue in the year 1700.'

Having placed these strong facts in a clear point of view, he briefly confders fome of the leading mifreprefentations of the day on the fubject of the high price of provifions, &c. and proves, beyond all doubt, by the experience of a century, that it cannot poffibly be imputed to the war, the weight of taxes, or the increase of Bank Notes. On the last of thefe imaginary causes, his obfervations are peculiarly pertinent and juft.

"If the increafe of Bank of England paper money, now in circulation, be another caufe of the high price of provifions, as a recent writer has afferted it would be natural to fuppofe that the price would bear a permanent proportion to the Bank notes in circulation. But we find that no change of seasons or circumftances makes a fluctuation in the value of Bank notes; and that at periods, when not one half the quantity was in circulation as at present, provifions were occafionally at exorbitant prices; as it appears from statements laid before Parliament, that the Bank had in circulation, of paper currency, for the year 1800, to the amount of fifteen millions and a half*, and in the year 1795, to the amount of twelve millions nearly; being an increase of three millions and a half in five years. It would be natural to fuppofe, if the affertion be well founded, that the prices of wheat and provifions would bear fome proportion to the increased circulation of Bank notes. The reverfe is abfolutely the fact, fince, in the year 1795, the average price of a quarter of wheat was 37. 14s 6d. ; but we find the average price of wheat was cheaper in the year 1797, 1798, and 1799; viz. in the year 1797, it was 2l. 125. 9d. per quarter; in 1798, 21. 9s. 7d. per quarter; and in 1799, 31. 65. fod. Hence, taking the average of three years fince the stoppage of iffues in fpecie, and the confequent increafed circulation of Bank notes, it will amount to 2l. 165. 4d. per quarter, which is cheaper by eighteen shillings and two pence per quarter, than in the year 1795.

"We fhall conclude this fubject by adducing another fimple fact, which, confidered with thofe already ftated, will prove incontrovertibly the fallacy of the affertions made, with respect to the increafed circulation of Bank notes being the principal caufe of the prefent high price of provifions. It being admitted that the price of wheat regulates, in a great meafure, the price of all other provifions; we have only to take the average price of wheat for three years at the end of the seventeenth century, when there was not a tenth part of the prefent Bank notes in circulation, and compare it with the average price of three years at the end of the eighteenth century; the refult will be, that for the years 1697, 1698, and 1699 inclufive, the average price of wheat

* "The actual produce of the convoy-tax, which comprehends a fmall per centage on goods exported and imported, and a fmall tonnage on fhips arriving at, or failing from, any port in Great Britain, actually produced in the year ending October 10, 1799, 1,292,000l.--See Mr. Rofe's pamphlet on the Increase of the Revenue, Commerce, and Manufactures of Great Britain, fixth edit. P. 40."

* "A Letter to Mr. Pitt on the Stoppage of Iffues in Specie at the Bank of England, by Walter Boyd, Efq. M. P."

By the return made to the 25th January 1801, the average appears to

be nearly fifteen millions and a half,"

was

was 27. 18. 9d. per quarter; but taking the average of three years in a century afterwards, viz. 1797, 1798, and 1799 inclufive, we fhall find it no more than 2l. 16s. 4d. per quarter. This is a striking fact opposed to the outcry of an increase of Bank notes, the accumulation of taxes, and the expenditure of the war *."

We fhall tranfcribe from the Appendix the table which exhibits, at one point of view, the progreffive increase of our commerce in the courfe of the laft century.

APPENDIX, No. III.

A Table exhibiting the official Value of Imports and Exports, and Balance of Trade every five Years of the eighteenth Century.

"The computations in this Table to 1780, are chiefly made from Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas; and from that period to 1800 are taken from the Cuftom-house returns of Imports and Exports."

Our readers, we are perfuaded, will dwell with delight on this gratifying picture of our national wealth, and confider it as a juft ground of hope, and the beft ftimulus to exertion.

* "Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, vol. i. r. 490, gives a fact which corroborates what has been advanced to prove that Bank paper money is not the caufe of provifions being dear. From the beginning of the laft century to the present time (1776) he obferves provifions never were cheaper in Scotland than in 1759, though, from the circulation of ten and five fhilling Bank notes, there was then more paper money in the country than at prefent.

"Corn was upon moft occafions fully as cheap in England as in France, though there was a great deal of paper money in England, and fcarce any in France."

NOVELS AND TALES.

Providence Difplayed: or, the Remarkable Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, &c. 3c. &c. &c. By Ifaac James. 1 Vol. Price 35. 1800.

THE

THESE adventures of Alexander Selkirk, a native of Largo, in Scotland, were much the topic of converfation about the beginning of the laft century, when they afforded amusement and inftruction to the mariner and the moralift. Steele has made them the subject of a few papers in his Englishman, drawing from them fome pious and ufeful reflections. The prefent compiler of them has introduced the geographical and natural hiftory of Juan Fernandez; the buccaneering and privateering voyages of Dampier and others; the ftories of Serrano, How, an Indian woman near Hudson's Bay, &c. in order to fwell out flender materials into a three fhilling volume.

The voluntary feclufion of this man on a defolate ifland for more than four years having excited the anxiety of the curious, it is fuppofed "that he drew up a kind of narrative which he entrusted to De Foe to transcribe and improve the style; who, mingling the products of his own lively fancy with the real adventures of Selkirk, produced the celebrated novel of Ro binson Crufoe-returning the papers afterwards to Selkirk, telling him his history would not fell." The account of this literary fwindling obtained credit while both these perfons were living.

In has fince been called in question by Mr. Chalmers; and the 1ft vol. of Robinson Crufoe attributed to the Earl of Oxford--all which circumftances are related by Mr. James.

A reafon for this compilation is given in the commencing fentence of the work.

"The celebrity of Robinson Crufo appears to have arifen from two causes; the affecting fituation in which he is placed, and the lively fancy of De Foe, in delineating the peculiar difficulties with which it is attended. On the first of these alone depends the fuccefs of the following fheets, my design being to relate nothing but abfolute facts.”

One anecdote is related of the 1ft volume of Crufoe in 1719; that the reception was immediate and univerfal; and Taylor, who purchased the MS. after every Bookfeller had refufed it, is faid to have gained a thousand pounds."

Without the fpirit of prophecy we predict, that with the names of fix adventurous bookfellers to it, the prelent work will not be quite so for

tunate.

My Uncle Thomas: a Romance. From the French of Pigault Lebrun. 12mo. 4 vols. Lane. London. 1801.

THIS novel has been highly celebrated on the Continent for its humour its wit, and its fatire; to all of which it lays unquestionable claim. Though the scene of my uncle's life appears to have commenced in the year 1735, yet all the incidents which adorn it refer either to whimfical or political fituations of the present time. The character of my Uncle is certainly intended to perfonify the French revolution, the germ of which was sown about that period: he is brought as a boy into England to affift at the rebellion in 1745, when he first learns the rudiments of liberty; he is engaged

through

through a variety of circumftances, afterwards, always in fome turmoil of battle, and no fatire on his country's Gafconade, could be better hit off than the defcription of my Uncle's victories. He at laft turns pirate, marauder, common thief, and invader of countries; becomes poffeffed of fovereignty, makes and unmakes conftitutions; rules his fubjects with the iron fceptre of uncontroulable will,, and is, at length, conquered by the English; fo far, and in branches our limits will not allow us to trace, runs the allegory; an allegory happily interfperfed with pleafantries, and neatly decorated with its language; but left the author's defign fhould be too ftriking, he fends my nephew back to his native country, France where

"I found that all thofe who had been diftinguished for honefty and virtue had been the victims of anarchy, and had been happy to redeem their lives by the facrifice of their fortunes.". A deluded people had been tearing each other to pieces for the fake of obfcure and ambitious tyrants who only fought power in order to opprefs them, and for plunderers who fhared their fpoils; criminals fate on the feat of juftice; men, ruined by profufion and debauchery, prefcribed the peaceful citizens, in order to obtain poffeffion of their patrimony. Avarice enriched itself without labour; vengeance was exercised without fear; licentioufnefs unreftrained, and the brutal fury of the multitude destroyed, what they were incapable of enjoying."

After ridiculing; after condemning the unhappy ftate of France; he is compelled to fweeten the palate of the ufurping tyrant there by eulogy."

an hard-bound

At my return a clouded fun, but warm and penetrating, animated the horizon; the wretches who had fullied my country had reverted to their original obfcurity and contempt; the impunity of guilt, and the violation of the laws had vanished at the appearance of that aftonishing mortal become the first of heroes by the mere energy of his own great foul!!!"

In defcribing a meditated invafion of England to affift the forlorn hopes of the pretender, the author tells us-

Since the days of William of Normandy, thefe forts of enterprizes have been conftantly defeated; in order to beat the English on their own ground, it is abfolutely neceffary to be firft mafters of the fea; and they have acquired in that element a fuperiority which would more than balance the united naval forces of the rest of Europe. The reafon of this is fimple, the English depend wholly upon that commerce, with which other nations can in a great measure difpenfe; the fcience of navigation is therefore effentially neceffary to their existence; and an induftrious people are ever certain of fucceeding in whatever is indifpenfable to the fupplying of their wants. The Seine has nothing to boast of but its small boats; London is a confiderable fea-port, and the taffe and manners of the people of the Capital, have ever an irrefiftible influence over the more diftant parts of the empire. Perhaps too the climate and foil of England produce men more vigorous in their conftitutions, and more conftant in their pursuits, in the fame manner as they produce the best breed of horfes and hounds in the world. However, although fuch an attempt has never yet fucceeded, it has not been demonftrated impracticable; all that is required is; to land there; but I much question whether even the good fortune of Bonaparte would not defert him, should he ever be rash enough to make the experiment."

We cannot refift making a few fhorter quotations.

"In England, however, where we are affured they are all flaves; not even the king himfelf dares attack the liberty of a citizen.”

What

What does the ufurper think of this when he applies it to his infernal-machine, expatriation?

"The Oppofition. Journals magnified his (Lord Chatham's) leaft faults, and frequently attributed to him those he had not committed; yet he neither dared feize the preffes nor tranfport the Journalists even under the fanction of thofe high founding words, the meanings of which are perverted in order to impart to injustice an appearance of legality-words in common ufe, but which have no fignification, and only impofe on perfons of weak underftandings."

Did not Bonaparte feel a little twitch at reading this?

"In revolutions every one is actuated folely by motives of felf-interest ; and the men they employ, as their inftrument, they afterwards deftrey as foon as they have obtained their ends of them."

This is no bad hint to English Revolutionists.

"At length the refult of this wonderful night was, that with the exception of those who were killed, or wounded, or plundered, every one was in some meafure gratified; because every one turned the adventure to his own profit. Such is the general confequence of small revolutions as well as the moft fplendid

ones.

One more political quotation.

"The lower orders of people in every nation are infolent; thofe in England who imagine themfelves free, and who, in fact are fo, let men say what they will, join to that infolence a certain degree of foolish pride, which fome. times impel them to acts of violence, particularly towards the French, againft whom the government carefully nourishes the most inveterate hatred; by the fame rule it is endeavoured to imprefs the French with a belief that the English are a felfish and avaricious fet of people. Notwithstanding thefe re ciprocal calumnies it must be allowed that there are in England, as well as in France, men no lefs diftinguished for their bravery than their loyalty." We shall now lay before our readers the greater part of my Uncle's NEW CONSTITUTION.

"We are all free and equal; but you fhall all obey me; becaufe I will have it fo." This appears the bafis of a conftitution he had determined to make himself.

"You uncle; you make a conftitution.

"S'Death why not as well as another?

"I fear it will not anfwer.

"Well, then, I will make a fecond.

"Which will be no better.

"Then I will try a third.

"Which will not last longer than the other.

After meditating two hours he produced the following

Rights of Man. Every man has, a right to live in plenty, and without doing any thing for his livelihood.

Of the Government..-" Gen. Thomas having been proclaimed Grand Reg lator, fhall regulate and mifregulate juft as he pleafes.

"Civil and Criminal Code.-As the only difference among men confists in the one wanting what another poffeffes, no man fhall have any exclusive poffeffions of his own.

"As Magistrates are useless where there are no difputes, there shall be no

Magiftrate among us.

NO, XXXIII, VOL, VIII.