commodities except those which they indispensably require, the author of this publication thinks that it would be good policy to retort on them their own measures, and to prohibit all imports from those countries in which our exports are not admitted, excepting only articles of absolute necessity. Having already expressed the different recommendation which, as it appears to us, should be given, in this case, it only remains that we add a few words on the merit of the pamphlet as a composition. The style is always diffuse and frequently vague: but the author is evidently well acquainted with the branches of trade on which he writes. Although his opinions are entirely on one side, he discovers no wish to misrepresent arguments, but aims at the discovery of truth by a temperate and candid course. His particular creed leads him, for example, to the adoption of the erroneous notion that the retention of the island of Zealand would have been a political and commercial advantage to this country; yet he discovers no reluctance to acknowlege (p.12.) the notable truth that, previously to our hostility, the Danish cabinet was on bad terms with that of France. He even quotes the passage in the Moniteur, (20th September 1807) in which, with reference to this fact, it is said, "Denmark has acted a foolish part, and has had this in common with the continent, that she has always been distrustful towards France."

ART. VIII. Substance of the Speech delivered in the House of Commons, by the Right Hon. George Rose, 6th May 1811, in the Committee of the whole House on the Report of the BullionCommittee. 8vo. pp. 132. 3s. 6d. Cadell and Davies.

THO

HOSE among our readers, who had a sufficient stock of perseverance to travel through the long debates on the Bullionquestion, will not fail to recollect that Mr. Rose came forwards as one of the keenest assailants of the Report of the Committee. That abridgment of a speech which always takes place in the condensed form of a newspaper-report, and which, in the case of a diffuse speaker, becomes an improvement, must be very unsuitable to a discourse consisting, like this, in a great measure, of arithmetical statements. To follow a course of rea. soning and to record its substance with fidelity are much more within the compass of a reporter's powers, than to transcribe, in the rapidity of debate, a series of numbers. The present speech, therefore, when printed at length, differs more in size and in substance from the newspaper-copy than it is common to observe, on similar occasions.

Mr. Rose began by paying a high compliment to the opening speech of Mr. Horner; at the expence, however, of

the

the labours of the Committee of which that gentleman had been chairman: a Committee which Mr. R. considers as having delivered a Report with more errors and mis-statements than any that was ever made to a House of Parliament.' Adverting to one of the principal topics of Mr. Horner's speech, the rapid rise in the price of commodities, Mr. Rose makes a full acknowlegement of the fact, but very justly ascribes a principal part of it to the increase of the price of provisions by the operation of our corn-laws. The landed gentlemen, he adds, have in consequence been enabled to advance their rents: but it may be fairly questioned whether they have not suffered more by the consequent enhancement of other articles, which are indispensable to their consumption. In connection with this subject, Mr. Rose adverts to the very large importations of corn which had taken place with his knowlege and sanction, during the year 1810; and he maintains that, without the aid of foreign corn, the quartern loaf would, instead of being at the price of fifteen pence, have risen to half-a-crown.

In commencing his strictures on the Report of the BullionCommittee, Mr. Rose takes occasion to remark the variety of contrary theories on the subject of money, from Mr. Hume down to Mr. Wheatley: but, desirous of avoiding this intricate and disputed ground, he determines to try the Report of the Committee by the test of experience. In answer to the allegation in the Report that the rise of bullion was owing to an over-issue of bank-notes, he exhibits a comparative table of the rate of exchange, the price of bullion, and the quantity of bank-paper in circulation, for a number of years. This is followed by a narrative of the effects produced on the exchange by the remittance of continental subsidies during the last and the present war. In regard to the unfavourable influence of this circumstance, as well as of the large sums sent abroad for the purchase of foreign corn, the payment of freights to foreign ship-owners, and our enormous expenditure on the continent, we are fully agreed with Mr. Rose: but the point on which we differ regards the original cause of the overthrow of our foreign trade. He has no hesitation in attributing the whole mischief to Bonaparte; while we cannot help associating the pilots at our own helm in the noxious co-partnership. In combating the assertion of the Committee that the price of commodities is raised by over-issue of paper, Mr. Rose refers to a curious foreign document, a report to the agricultural society of Paris in 1805, by Mons. Silvestre, on the progressive increase of the expences of husbandry. It appears from this report that, in most of the departments, the price of labour had risen since 1789 by at least one-third, and in some by one-half; and

all

all the instruments of cultivation and the articles requisite for the maintenance of a farmer's family have become enhanced in a similar proportion. In a speech to the Legislative Body, in January 1810, it is observed that the same income does not now represent more than two-thirds of that which it represented twenty years before. We are thus informed, from good authority, that the long continuance of war and taxes has been productive of a considerable augmentation of prices in France, though the ratio of increase is still much behind this country; in which, we apprehend, prices have nearly doubled in the course of the last twenty years.

Much reliance having been placed on the evidence of Sir Francis Baring by the Bullion-Committee, Mr. Rose adduces (p. 28.) several reasons for entertaining the apprehension that the memory of that highly respectable merchant had begun to be impaired at the time of his examination. Mr. R. accompanies, however, the animadversions on his accuracy with an animated eulogium (p. 27.) on the strictness of his honour; declaring that his esteem for Sir Francis had been high ever since the years 1782 and 1783, a time in which the Baronet was employed by Lord Shelburne to transact all the mercantile business of the Board of Treasury; and during the continuance of this charge, it was Mr. Rose's duty, as Secretary of the Board, to have frequent and almost daily intercourse with Sir Francis. -Another of the points, on which Mr. Rose ventures to contradict the Committee, is not less than the fundamental principle that "differences in the rate of exchange between two countries are limited by the expence of transporting the precious metals from the one to the other." The contrary examples brought forwards by the speaker are clear and specific: but, as no doubt of the truth of the principle can be entertained, we are reduced to consider Mr. Rose's facts (p. 34, 35, 36.) as striking instances of the extent to which the irregularities of exchange may be carried, under the prevalence of a system of coercion like the present.

We must express a more. decided dissent from a negative opinion advanced by Mr. Rose shortly afterward, (p.41.) viz. that a large foreign expenditure does not tend to increase our exports. He is successful, however, in the point which he takes up, we mean in shewing the inconsistency between the evidence of the continental merchant and the conclusions drawn from it by the Committee. After some strictures on Mr. Huskis son's pamphlet, he proceeds to call in question the accuracy of another principle laid down in the Bullion-Report, viz. that the rate of exchange and the price of bullion are liable to be affected by the amount of our bank-paper in circulation, an attempt

Consi

in which we cannot congratulate him on his success. derable labour is afterward bestowed by this indefatigable inquirer in controverting the accuracy of the Report in two respects; with regard to the early history of the Bank of England, and the recent situation of the Bank of Ireland in 1804. Neither of these examples appears to us productive of a general conclusion; nor as intitled, in the rapid survey to which we are at present limited, to particular investigation. On the subject of the Bank rule that "discount may be safely extended to all good and bona fide bills of short dates," (a rule which, in the opinion of the Bullion-Committee, cannot fail, when it has long been operative, to lead to over-issue,) Mr. Rose acknowleges that he feels less confident on the side of the Bank than in regard to the other points.

In the farther prosecution of his reasoning, Mr. Rose enters into a variety of numerical statements, one of the most curious of which relates to the very small proportion of specie which is received in the collection of the revenue. In Hampshire, where his country-residence is situated, the assessed taxes amounted to 342,000l., and the excise to 84,000l.; of which only 4761. 83. was paid in coin. In Manchester and its neighbourhood, the yearly revenue-payments, before 1797, were about 1,040,000l., of which two-thirds were in specie and onethird in notes but the proportion of specie was first reduced to one-half, and afterward to a third; and at present the whole payments are 3,540,ocol., of which only 10 or 11,000l. are made in specie. It deserves remark that the circulation of Lancashire consists entirely in Bank of England-notes not a countrynote being issued in that district. All these and other considerations concur in shewing the necessity of the present stock of Bank-notes greatly exceeding that of former years; and they induce Mr. Rose to ask whether it be not a matter of surprize that the issue of bank-notes is not greater than it has become? With these observations, Mr. R.'s criticism on the BullionReport is brought to a close, and Mr. Huskisson's pamphlet becomes the next object of his animadversion. That the motives of the Ex-secretary were of the purest kind, Mr. Rose declares in terms of the clearest conviction: but the publication he considers as calculated to injure the national interest in a high degree, in consequence chiefly of the respectability of the writer. He is particularly severe on the comparison hinted by Mr. Huskisson between the Mississippi scheme and the doctrine of the Bank on the subject of discounts; and he points out (p..110.) the serious consequences that might arise from announcing to the military servants of the state that they are paid in a depreciated currency. The remainder of the

speech

speech is appropriated to a vindication of the memory of Mr. Pitt, from the imputation of ignorance of political economy that was cast on him by Mr. Wheatley; and to a statement of the impracticability, under the actual circumstances of our trade, of the resumption of cash-payments by the Bank. Mr. Rose adds, however, that he is no advocate for that Company except on public grounds; nor would he defend them from the obligation of paying in cash for a single hour after they had the means of doing it. Neither ought they, he declares, to be spared in regard to expence, since they have derived large profits from the increase of their notes: but the misfortune is that, in the present state of things, expence cannot accomplish the object.

Having brought our sketch of Mr. Rose's pamphlet to an end, we shall now briefly express our sense of its merits. It is easy to recognize in his pages a mind more accustomed to detail than to general reasoning; and it would be no difficult task to point out blanks and incongruities in the combination of his arguments: but we shall be satisfied with remarking, in general terms, that, as the Report of the Bullion-Committee dwelt too much on the principles of money and too little on the facts of the case, the opinion to be passed on this speech should be exactly the reverse. It is valuable, however, as a repertory of useful tables, and commendable as an example of unwearied diligence in a public servant, who has many other avocations, and who has now descended into "the vale of years."

ART. IX. An Ethical Treatise on the Passions, founded on the Principles investigated in a Philosophical Treatise. Part II. By T. Cogan, M.D. 8vo. pp. 282. 7s. 6d. Boards. Cadell and Davies.

1810.

TH HOUGH the science of ethics is the most important branch of philosophy, inasmuch as it applies to our truest well-being, and is calculated to correct those mistakes into which we are apt to fall as well in the estimate of happiness as in the pursuit of objects supposed to be connected with it, yet it is less studied than any other; the ideas of mankind are extremely vague and undefined concerning it; and the terms which are employed in it are very imperfectly understood. The theory of morals, though it includes "quod ad nos attinet, et nescire malum est," is considered as a dry study; and the operation of the passions and affections is more willingly contemplated through the fascinating medium of a novel than in a philosophical treatise. Into the moral history of the human mind, few are disposed to look; the grammar of morality is not taught to the rising gene

ration;