Salt-office, Hawkers and Pedlars Office, Duties on Pensions, &c.
First Fruits and Tenths, Expenditure of the Public Revenue,
Treasury, Secretaries of State, Admiralty, Navy Board, Navy
Pay-office, Transport-office, Secretary at War, Comptrollers of
Army Accounts, Pay-Master General, Barrack-office, Ordnance-
office, Auditing Accounts of the Public Receipt and Expendi-
ture, Exchequer, &c.-Ordered to be printed 31st March 1797-
8vo.
PP. 300. 58. sewed. Debrett. 1798.

The length of the above title supersedes the necessity of a preface, explanatory of the nature and object of this work. The report, as here published, is incapable of abridgment, being itself merely a precis, and that not altogether satisfactory; because innumerable papers are mentioned as presented by the Committee, but are not inserted in the present abstract.. Such as the performance is, however, it cannot fail of being esteemed as a work of political curiosity, and of importance to all who have not an opportunity of inspecting more copious documents. If it exhibits the vast magnitude of our incumbrances and expences, it also shews the proportional greatness of our industry and resources.

These reports are drawn up with precision and perspicuity. Many useful hints are offered for diminishing the public expenditure; but, in general, it may be remarked that those who batten on the emoluments of office have not much to dread from the parsimony of the Committee. They report that the profits of comptrollers of army accounts, &c. cannot be diminished without hurting the public service. That men who exceed in useful talents, the acquisition of which requires long and studious application, should meet with a liberal recompence, will readily be allowed: but that those, whose `employments require little other accomplishment than a competent skill in common arithmetic, should enjoy incomes of 1000l. or 1500l. per ann. is what we cannot understand. It is equally incomprehensible to us that a first clerk or under-secretary should be at any time deemed fairly entitled to nearly 20,000l. per ann.; or that such a person, should his modesty and conscious merit incline him to accept of such enormous emoluments, should be allowed to receive them. We are happy to find that several very material abuses are to be correçted in future.

Art. 38. The Theory of the National Debt, with Observations on the
Land Tax, and the present Situation of Stockholders. 8vo. 6d.
Jordan.

A very ample discussion of this difficult subject could not be comprised within the limits of so small a pamphlet :-nothing more than a few obvious thoughts could be expected, and nothing more is given. The writer applies himself to shew that the public debt impoverishes the nation, by turning the wealth of the monied interest from the support of productive industry to that of the unproductive labour of soldiers and sailors. Supposing the capital of the kingdom to be 700,000,000l. of which 300,000,cool. only are in the hands of the productive labourers, and 100,000,000l. in possession of the monied men, he estimates at 11,000,ocol. the annual loss of wealth to the

6

nation,

Gil...S

nation, by diverting this capital of the monied men from the pro-
ductive labourers, to whom it would naturally be lent, and throwing
it into the hands of Government, who occupy it in the support of
unproductive labour. This loss, he contends, is now actually in-
curred every year. To save that part of it which is occasioned by
the expence of tax-gatherers, the medium by which the interest of
the debt is transferred from the productive labourers to the stock-
holders, he proposes that those productive labourers should pay in by
instalments their proportion of the principal debt, through the me-
dium of Government; the consequetice of which would be that they
would borrow it again of the stockholders on their own private ac-
count, and thus the monied interest would receive the interest of
their property without putting the nation to the expence of collecting
it by taxes. The present measure of selling the land tax to the
landholders, he considers as a partial execution of this plan.-We
agree with the author, when he allows that there are some strong
objections to this scheme.

Art. 39. A Letter to the Author of the Considerations upon the State of
Public Affairs at the Commencement of the Year 1798. Translated
from the French of M. de Calonne, &c. &c. &c. 8vo. IS.
Hatchard.

Several very interesting observations on the necessity and the means.
of carrying on the war against France occur in this pamphlet. On
the publication to the author of which this letter is addressed, M.
Calonne pronounces a very flattering eulogium: but he thinks that,
in merely proving the continuance of the war with France to be
essential to the interest of England, that work has only half accom-
plished what its author had, or ought to have had in view; namely,
to shew in what manner the war may be continued so as to pro-
duce advantages proportioned to the evils it inflicts, and how to ma-
nage that this necessary calamity may not become an insupportable cala-
mity.' Carried on as the war at present is, however Great Britain
may swell her naval triumphs or increase her distant possessions, she
must ultimately be exhausted by the continuance of her extraordi-
nary' efforts.
France will not, he thinks, be induced to make peace
by the loss of her colonial possessions; for she knows that these are
taken but to be restored. She is much more solicitous about those
acquisitions which, by rounding her frontiers, confirm her most real
power, and enable her to execute a plan of universal innovation. To
continue, then, merely a naval war, and to depend on time for a dis-
solution of the power of France, is, in the opinion of M. de Ca
lonne, the most destructive policy. The maxim that "nothing
violent is lasting," applied to France, has already deceived us for
eight years; during which, the progression of our affairs has been
from bad to worse; and, if we depend on it, they will be brought to
irretrievable ruin. Time, he contends, is the enemy of England,
and the ally of France; and he gives two reasons why the continu
ance of the war by England alone must be much more injurious to
her than to her enemy: the one, that a long interruption of the
commercial relations of two countries is more detrimental to that
country which has the greater commerce, than to that which has the
REV. JULY, 1798.

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less;

Wall..e.

less; the other, that at present the expence of the war to England annually is 20 millions; the expence to France, in what concerns her hostilities or her threats against England, is not more than two mil. lions beyond the ordinary charges of her marine. Such a war, carried on singly by England against an agricultural and warlike nation, at this time amounting to 33 millions of inhabitants, whose young men have no other profession, inclination, or resource, than that of arms, must be fatal.

To hinder a continental peace, then, and to revive a new coalition, M. de Calonne thinks, should be now the great object; and he does not deem this impossible. To accomplish it, he recommends a strict attention to the exterior relations of France, and equal vigilance in watching whatever passes in the interior of that country: he suggests the propriety of procuring, at any expence, a knowlege of the real disposition which begins to manifest itself in the armies of that ill-ordered empire, soon to be given up to military power;' and he hopes that Ministers have not failed to employ invisible agents, who are able to find out and seize every favourable appearance which can present itself. He rests much on the animosities and dissensions which are fomenting in France; and he urges us to apply the match to this inflammable matter.

With respect to the coalition of other powers against France, he treats as the chimera of a speculator all hope of a general war: but he does not despair that at least Austria, Prussia, and England, may once again form a triple alliance against the common enemy.

In this picture of the probable issue of the war, carried on as it now is by Great Britain alone, there is little, very little indeed, to cherish hope. M. de Calonne himself seems to rest every thing on a new confederacy:-but of that, what is the prospect?

sure.

SINGLE SERMON S.

Wall.e

Art. 40. Preached in the West Church, Aberdeen. April 17, 1796. On Occasion of the Death of the very Rev. Dr. George Campbell, late Principal and Professor of Divinity in Marischal College. By William Laurence Brown, D. D. &c. 8vo. IS. Robinsons. Dr. Campbell's merits as an able defender of Christianity are well known; and this tribute of respect to his memory, by a man so capable of appreciating learning and piety, will be read with pleaThe loss of friends, estimable for their talents and worth, is an affliction which requires every consolation that religion can afford ; and though much has been written on the subject, it is not yet exhausted at least we may say that, if the arguments in the disGourse before us be not new, they are placed in such a striking light, and adorned by an eloquence so persuasive, that they cannot but reconcile serious and reflecting minds to the dispensations of Providence; however contrary they may be to the fond indulgence of their hopes, and to the pursuit of those objects in which they feel the deepest in

terest.

The opening of this discourse contains truths which cannot be too frequently inculcated, and which we have seldom seen so happily expressed:

The

The thoughts of God, my brethren, are not our thoughts, nor his ways, our ways*. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart t. Man is either captivated by the gaudy ornaments and the delusive pleasures, or devoted to the idle business, of the world. But, these are, in the sight of God, vanity and vexation of spirit. In his estimation, nothing is valuable, but that which he hath constituted immortal, or which contributes to the happiness of immortal existence. In those pleasures which we so intemperately desire, in that distinction which we so fondly court, those possessions which we so eagerly pursue, and those occupations in which we so assiduously engage, in order to obtain them, infinite wisdom beholds the depravation of our taste, the degradation of our nature, the perversion of our affections, the abuse of our faculties, the bane of our happiness. When we acquire jufter notions of the objects of our desires, and learn to seek happiness, where only it can be found, in the improvement of our immortal part, in the acquirements of understanding, or in the amendment and purification of the soul, we soon perceive and acknowledge the comparative insignificance of every thing external, and the inherent excellence and dignity of piety and virtue. Then, the noblest and most pleasing object of contemplation is that which is exhibited in the life. of a good man; and the most precious of all possessions is the capaeity of exhibiting it. When we further consider the extensive utility of a great and virtuous character; the beneficent influence which it sheds by its active exertions for the good of mankind, by the wise and salutary precepts which it inculcates, and by the amiable example which it affords, we naturally wish it to continue for ever on the earth, and deplore its removal, as a singular calamity. When we feel, in ourselves, the inclination, and the capacity of doing good, and are conscious that we have successfully exerted our abilities for this purpose, we are unwilling to think of leaving the theatre of our beneficence, and would gladly possess the power of prolonging our earthly existence for the benefit of our brethren. Thus, the desire of life may be suggested, not only by that natural aversion from dissolution, which is implanted in the breast of man, but also by the noblest principles of our souls.''

What the learned preacher has here said, with respect to the cha racter of his excellent PREDECESSOR, is honorable both to the deceased and to the encomiast.

Ban! Art. 41. The proper Method of defending Religious Truth, in Times of prevailing Infidelity. Preached before the Synod of Aberdeen Oct. 11, 1796. By William Laurence Brown, D. D. Principal of Marischal College. 8vo. 1s. Robinsons.

The subject of this sermon is highly important, and the ingenious author has treated it in a manner deserving of our warmest commendation. The following animated description of the daring attempts of the enemies of Christianity cannot but be interesting to every mind which is impressed with a sense of religion and virtue:

Long were these pernicious efforts confined to the closets of the studious; and if they produced any sensible effects, these principally

*Isa. lv. 8.'

'+1 Sam. xvii. 7.'

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consisted

consisted in unhinging the faith of those who were destitute either of ingenuity to detect, or of patience to examine the fallacious grounds of sophistical argument. The profligate, who wished to remove all restraint from their conduct-the opulent, who desired to enjoy their wealth without fear of a future account--the arrogant and presumptuous, who aimed at the empty distinction of singularity all these readily embraced the sophistical conclusions of infidelity, and took, on the trust of illustrious names, what flattered their passions, and saved them the trouble of all further enquiry about religion.

Of late, the destructive spirit of infidelity has taken a wider range. It aims at more extensive conquests, and, adapting its arms to the new warfare in which it is engaged, lays aside the pomp and parade of learning, assumes a popular garb, and endeavours to lead captive those understandings which it before despised, and to alienate, from Christ, those affections which it pretended to leave under his servile and superstitious yoke. Animated with the tyranny, as with the ambition, of conquest, it has employed its usurped power, whereever it has been established, in the most cruel acts of oppression, persecuted under the guise of religious freedom, and sanctioned, by the name of philosophy, the violation of every principle of natural justice. As the strongest evidence has been exhibited of a deep-rooted aversion to the religion of Christ, we cannot doubt that its enemies ardently wish to extirpate its profession, wherever their power may extend. An awful and alarming crisis this !-which seems to call for unremitting vigilance, and the most active exertions, to preserve and maintain that precious gift of heaven, which is our present comfort, and our future salvation. The Church of Christ is, indeed, built on a rock, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. But, while we repose, with implicit confidence, in the over-ruling providence of God, this very confidence itself will stimulate our most assiduous endeavours in the discharge of our duty, and the fulfilment of our sacred trust.'

As the best means of opposing these adversaries of our faith, we are recommended first to satisfy ourselves of the truth of the religion which we profess, by a careful and impartial examination of its doctrines-when we have obtained this conviction, it is our duty to enforce its dictates by exhortation and reproof, and yet more by example. Vice should never escape animadversion; and, in our endeayours to correct mistaken ophions, even if of a dangerous nature, mildness and gentleness are rightly judged by our author to be more efficacious than harshness and severity. Above all, he advises, in preaching and exhortation, that earnestness and that warmth which seem to be the effect of sincerity, and to which Enthusiasts are so much indebted for their success.

The conclusion of the discourse has something in it so pious, just, and rational, and at the same time holds up such encouragement to those who exert themselves in the cause of Christianity, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of quoting it.

Ye, then, who know, and value, and maintain, pure and un defiled religion; who perceive and acknowledge the miserable condition of man, deprived of the pardon, the succour, and the animating

prospects