the Company, are now ready to take the field. Many of the company's servants have already commenced operations through the medium of the daily press. Advertisements of "one even tenor," viz. that individuals would be ruined in the prosecution of this trade were the charter to be done away, and that themselves should be ruined in the event of the metropolis being no longer the exclusive emporium of Eastern commerce. These considerations are zealously pressed on the public through the several channels of carpenters, ships'-husbands, riggers, caulkers, ship-chandlers, packers, &c. &c. &c. of the Company, and echoed by their woollen-factors in the West. We are yet to hear from their tailors, slop. sellers, and Jew crimps.

It appears that a meeting of merchants, manufacturers, traders, and others inte rested in the export trade to India and China, from the port of London, was held on the 25th of April at the City-of-London Tavern, at which Mr. Alderman Atkins presided, the avowed object of which was the defence of their respective properties. And how was this defence conducted? it may be asked. Why, in the language of the meeting, by "misrepresentations, which may have the effect of misleading the public mind upon a subject of such magnitude to the community at large." Now, amongst a tissue of assumptions, we find but one fact, which appears in the following resolution:

"That it appears to this meeting, from indisputable authority, that the quantity of tonnage engaged by the East India Company for the private traders of the United Kingdom (exclusively of that allowed to be exported in the privilege of their own captains and officers) amounted during the last six years to 63,000 tons, and that during that period only 36,000 tons of every species of manufacture, including beer, and 4000 tons of wine, have been actually engaged and shipped to

India."

articles of no sort of value, or else were not occupied? Private traders pay too largely to the East India Company for freights, (notwithstanding the assertion of the Company that they have "always allotted tonnage at a rate of freight cheaper outward, as well as for the returns, than the Company themselves pay,") to suffer any part of their tonnage to be unoccupied. The meeting give us to understand that 65,000 tons are all that have been employed in the private trade beyond the Cape for the last six years, while 16,000 tons have afforded sufficient room for manufactures of every kind, including beer and wine, for the same pe riod. But it behoves the public to bear in mind that these 16,000 tons went to India. This leads us to the questions, how were the remaining 47,000 tons disposed of? did they go to China, and in what did they consist?

What can be more weak or ridiculous than their arguments for retaining the India and China trade to the port of London. To give it publicity will be its best refutation. "That the articles exported to India and China are various but not extensive in any particular manufacture, and therefore require to be collected from every part of the kingdom to one concentrated point for exportation, with any rational prospect of advantage either to the manufacturer or exporter." The argument on the same subject which the East India Company urge, and which government will, no doubt, take into consideration, as affecting the revenue, is plausible, as is also that wherein it is attempted to be shewn-that the permis sion of a free trade to individuals to China, and to the various ports of the Peninsula and Asiatic Archipelago, will serve only to create disgust and animosi ties. These objections, however, I trust I shall be able to do away.

might

proved that the latter have behaved otherwise than orderly and circumspect; and yet it will not be contended, that the Americans are brought up in habits of implicit obedience. Judging from their political institutions, theorists believe, and practical men know, that the contrary is the case. But the reason of this uniformly quiet and peaceable demeanour was, that, though thirty American ships might be loading and unloading at once, at Whampoa, their's was individual exertion and individual in terest. Not so with the crews of the Company's ships. The writer of these observations was in Canton in 1802, and was a frequent witness of the battles between the Company's sailors and the Chinese rabble. It was at that time the custom to send up about one hundred men at once from their ships, to have a day's recreation on shore, where they had not been many hours before the effects of samtchu, (a spirit distilled from rice) and confidence in their numbers and cooperation, uniformly induced them to become assailants. It was matter of astonishment to me to see so little blood shed on these occasions, and I could never account for it on any other ground than this, that, spite of intoxication and self-confidence, the sailors were constantly aware of the Chinese law, in that particular, "blood for blood." The Chinese would have much more reason to dread the hostility and plundering disposition of a Company's fleet, manned as some of them are with fifteen hundred, or two thousand, men, composed of the dregs and outcasts of all nations, if, in consequence of the arbitrary conduct and exactions of the Hoappoo, (comptroller of the customs,) and all means of redress being shut out, the Company's servants in Canton should be so rash as to call this species of force into action. The Chi. nese cannot be insensible to the vast increase of the company's territory in the East, whose advanced posts are now at their very threshold. They would never consent that the English should garrison Macao. In our future commercial relations with that empire, government need only send out a clever and intelligent man, in the capacity of consul, clothed with equal powers to those vested by the Company in their supra-cargoes, to insure the good order and regular conduct of British shipping, coming, as they would, from all parts of the empire, and without any other cord of union, but that of being fellow-countrymen,

If parliament should confirm the arrangement of the late ministry, with the East-India Company, that the only boon to be granted to the British public, shall be the permission to trade with the countries under the Company's control; that London shall be the sole emporium, and that all the eastern cargoes shall be deposited in the Company's warehouses, shall be subject to their charges, their regulations, and their delays; then it will be most clear, that, to obtain such a boon, the public would be in their own wrong. Of all the immense countries whose shores are washed by the Indian Ocean, I do not hesitate to say, that, with the exception of the northern provinces of India, none afford such scanty outlets for our manufactures, as those over which the Company bears sway. Such is the climate, and such are the superstitions of the Peninsula, that our manufactures will not find any greatly increased vent amongst the mass of its population. Much will depend upon the increase of the white and mixed population, whose habits will necessarily be, in a great measure, European, Still, under the fetters of monopoly, the exports to India increase, which can, I think, only be attributed to the constant increase of the white and mixed population.

The trade with China, in the event of its becoming free and unshackled, will be of greater consequence to this country, than all the trade to the other parts of the East. It need not be told, that the population of that empire is immense, and that so intensely cold are the winters of their northern provinces, that not only woollens, but furs, are constantly worn by the middling and higher classes, during that period. Even in Canton, such are the vicissitudes of heat and cold, in the winter months, that English woollens constitute a part of the dress of the same classes, during their mornings and evenings. Our exports to that country have gradually increased. They consist (besides the gross articles of lead, iron, copper, and tin, in immense quantities,) of light woollens, such as queen's cloths, long ells, kerseymeres, and serges; of worsted stuffs, of different kinds of hardwares, clocks and watches of the most expensive kind, and jewellery. The Nottingham lace-manufactures would probably become a valuable branch of commerce. China does not afford a market for a great variety of English manufactures. The costume of the Chinese being peculiar to themselves, they C &

want

want not our silks, linens, hosiery, boots, shoes, hats, &c. &c. It is true, that such articles (except silks) have been, and are still, taken thither by individuals; but they look for a market for them, amongst those Europeans and Americans, who may happen to be in Canton. I remember purchasing several articles of English clothing from a servant of the -Company's supra-cargoes, who had a shop well stocked with such goods, besides wines and liquors of all sorts.

The great revenue that government draws from the single article of tea, would most probably be increased onethird in amount, by the Chinese trade being thrown open, though the duties should remain as they are. Throughout the great towns of the United States, the same article in tea, (the best Hyson) that sells for fourteen shillings in the grocers' shops in England, is to be bought at from five shillings to five shillings and sixpence; and the inferior teas in the same proportion. England can now, (thanks to her unqualified sovereignty at sea) navigate the ocean, though a belli gerent, as cheaply as America, a neutral. The great reduction in the prices of Chinese products and manufactures, consequent on the great cheapness of individual economy and enterprize, would necessarily occasion an increased demand for teas, though it be very great in the present state of the trade. The cheapness of the article would, in some measure, do away the temptation to smuggling. The leading articles of export from China, are silks (raw and manufactured) teas, nankeens, porcelain, and sugar. In this latter article, all Europe might be furnished with an abundant supply from Canton, Batavia, and Calcutta, at half the price which it costs in the West Indies; and thus the abominable system of West-India slavery, and colonization, might be finally put a stop to; and the wide waste of human life, consequent on those pernicious climates, in a great measure obviated. It is but fair, however, to state, that the sugars in the East are by no means equal in quality to those raised in the West Indies.

Unfettered by monopoly, the Americans undersell us on the Continent in most articles of foreign produce; and from one branch of trade, connected with China, they have completely rooted us out. I allude to the fur trade, on the north-west coast of America. It is rue, that the woollens and hardwares, tquisite for the ir trade, are drawn from

this country; and so far we participate in the advantages of the trade. No wonder that the English merchants should give up this trade, for how is it possible that they should conduct it pro fitably, since their skins must be sold by the Company's servants in Canton, and the voyage there ended. The Americans, on the contrary, vest the produce of their furs in the products and manufactures of China; and afterwards find a vent for them, either in their own markets or those of Europe.

Let these unnatural restrictions on English commerce be done away, and the vast Pacific Ocean would be worth exploring. Such are our relations with Spain, and such the mental state of the population of Spanish America, that we might soon expect to visit their whole west coast, from Valdivia, to San Francisco, with our manufactures. Thus, with their dollars in exchange for our manufactures, with the furs of the Northwest coast of America for our woollens, and the sandal and other precious woods and pearls of the South-sea Islands, we should have wherewithal to procure, in Canton, cargoes adapted to the home trade. A, B,

London, June 8, 1812.

For the Monthly Magazine.

ON SUICIDE.

N the Extracts from the Portfolio of

IN

a Man of Letters for April, are several historical anecdotes tending to shew that Suicide, in some former periods, instead of being deemed criminal and disgraceful, as at present, was viewed with a certain degree of respect and admiration.

As self-murder is attended with loss to society, it is proper that it should be accounted a crime in law; and as it is murder, a thing in itself savage and shocking, it ought, among Christians and all civilized people, as much as possible, to be discouraged, and held in abhor rence. Notwithstanding these proper considerations, instead of viewing this action with the detestation which we always feel when reflecting on a crime; pity, mixed sometimes with a degree of respect, is yet often the prevailing sentiment.

Some have censured the practice of punishing suicide with marks of disgrace, as the feeling of such punishment can be imparted to the relatives only, who, it may be supposed, have already suffered sufficiently. But it ought to be consi

dered,

›dered, that the intention of law in punishing crimes is never vindictive, but as a warning to deter others from similar practices. In Athens, when this crime became alarmingly frequent, it was effectually suppressed by dragging the body of the deceased ignominiously through the public streets.*

In ancient Roine, suicide was viewed with such high admiration, that several modern writers have dignified it with the name of a Roman death. It must be confessed, that, in certain circumstances, this crime assumes such an appearance of heroism and magnanimity, that we can hardly refrain from joining in the generous sentiments of Pope, in his elegy on the death of an unfortunate young lady, who perished by her own hands: Is there no bright reversion in the sky, For those who greatly think, and bravely die? It ought, however, to be allowed as an apology for certain noted suicides among the Romans, that, as all the civilized world was under their dominion, they had not, as at present, any inde pendent country to fly to for refuge, but must purchase life by the meanest submissions; and, generally, after having been exposed a spectacle of triumph to their enemies, certain death was the prospect. Among the most remarkable of those who preferred death to a disgraceful existence, the classical reader will be familiar with the celebrated names of Porcia and Cleopatra, Cato and Brutas.

Among savages this crime is little known. Their coarse and unreflecting ninds are not susceptible of such keen sensibility as to harbour thoughts that would drive to self-destruction. Their comforts too are so rude and so few, that the deprivation of them has not the effect to overwhelm with despair.

"The Chinese may certainly be considered among the most timid people on the face of the earth. Yet there is perhaps no country where acts of suicide occur more frequently than in China, among the women as well as the men; such acts, being marked with no disgrace, are held in no abhorrence. The government, indeed, should seem to hold out encouragement to suicide, by a very common practice of mitigating the sentence of death, in allowing the criminal to be his own executioner. The late viceroy of Canton, about two years ago, put an end to his life by swallowing his stone snuff bottle, which stuck in the esophagus, and he died in excruciating torments."-Barrow's Travels in China,"

England is noted among European nations for frequency of suicide. All continental philosophers and travellers remark this as a most distinguishing national characteristic; and it has not been controverted by the English themselves. For this remark, it must be acknowledged, there are some grounds. Melancholy actual proofs of it, indeed, too often occur. The various comforts of life in England, it may be safely atfirmed, are of a higher nature, and dearer to the possessor, than in any other country; the deprivation of them, consequently, on a people of thoughtful sensibility, and pos sessing too the highest pride and resolution, might naturally be supposed sometimes to operate with a fatal effect. In reflecting on the English character in other points of view, different inferences may be made. French writers, from whom the accusation chiefly comes, ought to be reminded that one of their common-place observations is, that we are also a cold, sedate, phlegmatic, people; qualities, surely, which do not prompt to desperate deeds; and it ought to be retorted upon them, that from their own well-known violent impetuous dispositions, such things may with better suspected that suicide is as frequent, at reason be expected. Accordingly, I have least, in France as in England; and that this subject, from the humanity of bur we are under some degree of illusion on journalists, who sympathize with the sufferings of the meanest individual, and blazon them abroad in their pages;

whereas French pride views them in silence with supercilious brutal contempt, instances of suicide among officers of as matters not worthy of public interest: rank have lately been commemorated by their journalists with little sensibility. It ought also to be remarked that a proportion of the suicides in this country have been foreigners. It is but a few weeks ago that three French prisoners condemned for fabricating bank-notes, made a most desperate attempt to destroy themselves; two of them, in Winchester goal, had almost succeeded by opening their veins with a nail; and another named Roche, with another instrument, but with equal desperation, made the same attempt. In order to arrive at the truth, and, if possible, to wipe off this disgrace from our country, I subjoin a series at two late different periods, of the number of suicides in London, which give an average of about 25 annually. If in Paris, where the inhabitants are

about