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the treasury and the people were emptied; justice,
commerce, arts, science, and learning, withered under
his blighting power. The military glory of France
was raised to a high pitch of renown, but her internal
prosperity was ruined; the education of the young
monarch was neglected, and most of the vices of Louis
XIV. are to be attributed to the example and the vile
policy of this profligate and ambitious minister. More
grossly avaricious than Richlieu, he had heaped up
treasures too enormous even for the royal coffers, and he
maintained a degree of shew and splendor, beyond even
royal magnificence. His princely air and manner con-
tinued with him to the last, and it is even said, that
to keep up the appearance of health, in the languor
of disease, and to deceive those who might expect his
death, when he gave his last public audience, he put
rouge upon his face, and assumed a degree of spirit in
his air and gait, which was indeed but ill counterfeited;
for the Spanish ambassador turned round to some one
near him and remarked, that it was a pretty good likeness
of the cardinal, tho' not quite so spirited as the original.
His conscience smote him on his death bed, and by
the advice of his confessor, he bequeathed all his treasures
to the king. Alas! he had nothing to bequeath to the
people for the loss of their liberty and comfort.
P. 311. "Montesquieu."
His faults and his excel-
lencies have been ably estimated by the once celebrated
Bertrand Barrere.

The merits of his remarks on the different principles of different forms of government, have been acutely examined by Helvetius, by Mr Henry Redhead Yorke, in

his Mural Nights, p. 19. &c. and by the Count Alfieri, in his celebrated book Della Tirannide, p. 24.

One of the few chapters in which Montesquieu had chosen to censure present evils, is that in which he treats of the effect of punishments, lib. 6. cap. 12. And in another place where, according to his general principle, he was going to justify the use of torture in despotic states; but he makes a long pause, and exclaims,—" But I hear the voice of nature cry out against me!" cap. 17. The books of Montesquieu, which more particularly relate to political economy, are the 13th, 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d.

P. 313. "The œconomists." The system of the œconomists has met with an able defender in the illustrious Dugald Stewart, and whoever wishes to think well of them, must apply to his defence of their motives and principles. I doubt he has spoken of them too favorably, yet he has spoken with moderation.

To such of my readers as are unacquainted with the writings of this amiable philosopher, and have any taste for moral and intellectual researches, I recommend an immediate perusal of mild, calm, candid, liberal, and enlightened disquisitions. He does not rest merely in speculative systems and opinions, but lays down principles deduced from long experience and profound meditation, tending at the same time, by natural inference, to moral, social, and political melioration; yet these things are not introduced with the fiery zeal of a reformer, but with the sober dignity of philosophical enquiry. They are not addressed to the multitude, but to those by whom the multitude must be enlightened. Tho' I admire his phi

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losophy, I dissent from his metaphysics, for they tend to revive the doctrines which Mr Locke so happily exploded.

P. 324. "He therefore." When Adam Smith wrote the following passage, he never imagined what was to happen in the year 1800.-" And from what has been said, it seems evident enough, that corn can at no price be so engrossed by the inland dealers as to hurt the people."-Vol. ii. p. 307.

The great increase of paper money in this country (caused by the necessities of government, and the exportation of specie), has had an evident tendency to raise the price of provisions, and to favor the schemes of monopolists. It becomes the duty of government, as instituted for the good of the people, to lay restraints on such speculations, and take every means in their power to bring back the capital of the country to that sober and regular employment of its strength, which might tend to the moderate advantage of individuals, without depressing the middle ranks of the community. Instead of this, however, government have hitherto seemed rather to favor the tendency which the state of the circulating medium (occasioned by the late war), has had, to the aggrandisement of a few at the expence of the many; for we hear of nothing now but great merchants, great farmers, and great fortunes in every trade, while the poor and middle ranks are oppressed by those enormous prices, which tend to make others great at their exper.ce.

Since the above was written, the situation of England is almost wholly changed. She is about to be brought down to her true rank and level in the scale of nations.

She has descended from the proud pre-eminence which she has so long enjoyed by the folly and weakness of other nations, and it will require no small portion of political wisdom, and no small skill in political œconomy to enable her to maintain the station even of a secondary power. To this state she has been brought by the imprudent interference of Mr Pitt in the French revolution.

P. 326. "Dictionary." An Italian is now publishing, at Milan, a collection of all the writers of his own country, on political economy, enriched with judicious notes and observations; the work will comprehend about thirty volumes, in octavo, and probably be some time before it is completed.

P. 327. "Malthus." The Edinburgh Reviewers, who profess to criticise every work of importance, of which importance they create themselves the sole judges, have most unaccountably never yet noticed Mr Matthus' book on Population, a work whose moral and political importance exceeds, in my opinion, that of any other, of the last or present century. These gentlemen are very fluent writers, but on most subjects very superficial thinkers, and I am sorry to find on that account that they are able to make so great an impression on the public opinion; for if there is any sort of men whose influence is more to be dreaded in a state than that of any other, it is those who have acquired a habit of talking and writing upon any subject without any profundity of thought; such men can lead the multitude wherever they please, for the multitude never trouble themselves with thinking, but they like fine words and fine sentences;

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they like to have their ears tickled, and they like the men who can tickle them, and such men are the Edinburgh Reviewers, they can gloss and varnish over any subject, and make the worse appear the better reason, but they have never penetrated deeply into the nature of things, and yet they have bandied and tossed about all authors, and all subjects of importance, except Malthus on Population. That they have never ventured to fathom, for it is a subject on which words alone are not sufficient, they dare not attempt it in all its bearings and relations, therefore they have with proper prudence left it untouched. Men who think much and write little are most likely to write well on the subjects they undertake to handle, while they who write on all subjects can seldom think deeply upon any, and if they can but acquire a fluency of words, and a certain novelty of arrangement, which goes a great way with the multitude, they think themselves qualified for any literary undertaking, however arduous or extensive; these are the men whom my soul abhors

because they are always arrogant in proportion to their emptiness, and impose upon the world both in writing and conversation by the mere force of well sounding and well arranged words, and treat with contempt all others who do not possess the same talent. With so little honesty do these gentlemen exercise their critical functions, that their praise is censure, and their censure is praise. For wit and humor they have no doubt some talent, but their stile is flippant and their reasoning superficial.—