from us. We fhall content ourfelves, therefore, with feriously recommending his work; which is, indeed, one of the moft ufeful and important, of the kind, that we are acquainted with, The fubjects of the feveral difcourfes are extremely interesting, and they are treated with perfpicuity and judgment. From the great variety of arguments which may be produced in support of the divine benevolence, the Author hath felected fuch as are beft calculated to carry conviction into the minds of the generality of readers; and he has placed thefe arguments in fuch a light as feems beft adapted to ftrike and imprefs them. Through the whole of his work too there runs a vein of rational and wellfounded piety, which cannot fail to recommend it to every well, difpofed reader.

R.

A General View of England; refpecting its Policy, Trade, Commerce, Taxes, Debts, Produce of Lands, Colonies, Manners, &c. &c. argumentatively stated; from the Year 1600, to the Year 1762. Tranflated from the French, firft printed in 1762, 8vo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Robson.

THE

HE Tranflator, in his preface, fays, that the Author of the following treatise (which appears in the form of a letter) is fuppofed to be a French gentleman who refided fome time in England . During his refidence here, he was extremely affiduous in obtaining all the information he could procure with regard to our conftitution, laws, finances, tillage, manners and commerce; and the following work fhews what use he has made of the information he got, and of his observations thereupon; how accurate, and well-founded they both are, is fubmitted to the confideration of the reader; the tranflator neither adopting, nor being answerable for the author's fentiments; which, partial, and groundless, as fome of them may be, do many of them, however, convey hints that may prove extremely falutary and beneficial to this kingdom.'

After a long chain of argumentation upon the different topics enumerated in the title, the Author proceeds to draw the following conclufions; feveral of which must be allowed to have the appearance of too much truth;-though, as Englishmen, we could with fome of them had lefs of it for their fupport, viz.

That a nation may have a foreign and limited trade, and yet gain confiderably by exchange; as on the contrary, it may have a foreign and very extenfive trade, and yet lofe confiderably by its exchange.

That a nation can only gain by its foreign trade, while it

* Mons? Silhouette

fells

fells more than it buys, whereas it lofes by buying more than it fells.

That a nation can never fell more than it buys, but by a judicious cultivation of its lands, and by obferving fuch frugality in its manners as neceffarily fets bounds to its foreign pur

chafes.

That any nation that cultivates its lands fufficiently, and yet, at the fame time, gives itfelf up to ufelefs and foreign extravagance, does in truth increase its foreign trade, but it is by increafing at the fame time its purchases abroad; and from that moment it begins to live upon its capital, and makes great strides towards its ruin..

That a nation that pays great interefts to foreigners for fums borrowed, ought to be more frugal in its manners than any other, and fhould fell in proportion, a great deal more than it buys, in order to be able, from its favings, not only to pay the intereft-money, but likewife gradually to pay off the capital of its debt; from whence it necellarily follows, that it behoves any nation that is debtor abroad, to contract the extent of its foreign commerce, feeing the ought to contract the extent of her foreign purchases.

That England once had a very great balance in her favour, borrowed little, made good the intereft of what she did borrow abroad, and alfo paid off a part of the capital fums borrowed, whilft fhe was prudent and frugal, and while fhe had not carried her foreign trade to fo great an extent, as I have made appear was the cafe, during the epoch of King William's reign.

That England has had a much lefs balance in her favour; that he has borrowed great fums of money, that he has hardly been able to make good the interests due to foreigners; and that fhe has paid off no part of the capital of her debt from the time that fhe became lefs frugal, and that her foreign commerce extended itself further and further: the lucrative branches acquired by the treaty of Utrecht, and the increafe in the exportation of corn*, not having been fufficient, to counterpoife the want of frugality in manners, and the increafe of her purchases abroad.

That at this very time the balance of the foreign trade of England is against her, that the borrows a great deal, that she borrows even to make good the intereft due to foreigners; and that this is actually fo, and that this evil goes on, increafing ever fince the gave herself up to every kind of trifling diffipation, and has been extending her commerce to all quarters of the globe.

*This Writer, elfewhere, ftiles the export corn-trade a capital article to England, (p. 74,)—the principal fource of her richts, (p. 165,)—power and frength; p. 203:

• That

That confequently the payment of the interefts due abroad, cannot be placed to the account of the extention and profits arifing from foreign trade; fince, without breaking in upon the main ftock, they have only been paid when England did not carry on fo much of this fame trade, but that this payment has aifen folely from oeconomy and the national favings, feeing from that moment, that this oeconomy and thefe favings no longer took place, the aforefaid payment could no longer be made, any other way, but by breaking in upon the main ftock, and borrowing in order to pay it, which is always the cafe with those who spend more than they have coming in.'

What follows, certainly deferves to be noticed:

The riches of nations, like thofe of individuals, fhould be confidered both as realities and relatives. An individual who has an income of 100,000 livres a-year is really richer, than one who has but 50,000; but if the latter fpends no more than 48,000 livres, and the other fpends 102,000; the lat* becomes relatively the richest of the two, and is in fact more and more fo, till at last he ceafes to be relatively fo, and then becomes really fo. This is pretty nearly the cafe of England, comparing it at different times with itself. Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and till the revolution of 1688, its lands were much lefs cultivated, it had much lefs territorial income, few objects of barter, and but little trade either foreign or domeftic; now, without being really rich, at that time, fhe was however relatively fo, compared with what he has been fince, and the actually became really fo, more and more every day. Since that revolution, her lands have been greatly improved, she has made great augmentations in her territorial income, in a variety of objects of barter, and alfo in her foreign and domeftic trade; in fhort, fhe has become really rich.-But then, from that very moment, she began to spend, in fome fhape or other, more than the had coming in, and has become relatively poor, compared with what fhe was formerly, till at laft, by continually increafing her expence, and going fuch lengths as even to borrow mo ney, to pay for her luxurious importation of baubles, and the fupport of her trade, fhe has become really poor. The grofs of her territorial income, that in the beginning I fixed at 810 millions ferlingt, is at prefent merely nominal, for it is very far

• Somewhat inaccurately expreffed;-but, by the last, we fuppofe he means him who fpends no more than 48,coo livres, though here mentioned before the other.

Thus it ftands at p. 164: but, in the beginning, viz. at p. 10. this fame territorial income is really fixed at 810 millions of livres only. This, we apprehend, is what the Author means; though the Tranflator has, above, changed the fum (a little inadvertently) into pounds ft ring.

from

from being effectively fo; her military expences, the increase of the national debt, together with the great fums paid for intereft due to foreigners, make a large breach in it, so that, to use a military phrase, there is little more to do, than to order the attack, to know how to conduct it with fpirit, and forthwith to mount the breach.'- -Spoke like a true Frenchman.

But though our Author, we hope, is greatly mistaken, in drawing this conclufion; yet we think many of his premisses worthy of due confideration, from those who have it moft in their power to promote the real interefts of Great Britain.

P.

The Life of Cardinal Reginald Pole, written originally in Italian, by Lodovico Beccatelli, Archbishop of Ragufa; and now firft tranf lated into English. With Notes critical and hiftorical. To which is added, an appendix, fetting forth the Plagiarifms, falfe Tranflations, and falfe Grammar in Thomas Phillips's Hiftory of the Life of Reginald Pole. By the Reverend Benjamin Pye, L.L.B. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Bathurst.

POOR

OOR Mr. Phillips really feems to have met with an hard fate! Ridley first knocked him down; Neale then gave him the coup de grace; and now comes Pye, to kill him again! But is it not somewhat inhuman, thus to flay the Jain, and barbarously triumph over the dead? Does not this resemble the cruelty of the Roman catholics, who used to harrow up the breathlefs bodies of the proteftant reformers, try them for the herefies of their departed fouls, and hang and burn the poor paffive carcafes, with as much zeal as if they were alive, and capable of feeling the edge of fuch keen arguments?-at this rate, a popish author stands but a poor chance of making converts by his writings, in this heretical country and we may conclude, if the Romish faith does, as hath been much afferted of late, gain ground among us, it must be owing to other means.

:

The zeal of a proteftant divine, to counteract the efforts of a Romish priest, may be eafily accounted for, and will naturally be approved, in a proteftant country; but that fuch a divine fhould be at the pains of tranflating, and the expence of printing, a panegyrical account of the life of a Romish cardinal, written by a Romish ecclefiaftic, is a circumftance that may feem to demand fome explanation.--Let Mr. Pye, himself, explain it :

6 These curious remains,' fays he, in his dedication to the prefent Bishop of Durham, were lately refcued from the oblivion of almost two hundred years, by one of Pole's zealous admirers, Cardinal Quirini, who profeffes to have drawn the first

outlines

outlines of his character of Pole from this Italian master, though he hath filled up the canvas afterwards with some strange daubing of his own, in which he hath fince been followed by a very humbly copyift in our own language.

It may not therefore, my Lord! be altogether unfeasonable to exhibit a true and fimple representation of the original itself; which, though modest in its appearance in comparison with the piece of a late biographer, hath too much of the fictitious caft of panegyric to have been offered to the public, unless it had been contrafted at the fame time with the plainness and simplicity of hiftorical truth, that it may be feen at one view, not only what Pole's tranfcendent merits were in the partial eye of his fecretary and dependent Beccatelli; but also what was his true and genuine character in his travels, his retirements, his embaffies, his legation, and his primacy.'

The contraft with biftorical truth, above intimated, will be found in our learned Tranflator's very large and numerous annotations; in which he hath strictly fcrutinized, not only every fact advanced by his Author, but also the fubfequent reprefentations of Quirini, and his follower Mr. Phillips: fo that all three are here made to undergo fuch a cross-examination, as none but the plainest and most upright evidence could poffibly endure. No wonder then, if the unguarded fallies and fallacious colouring of profeffed panegyrifts fhould be found unable to ftand so severe a test.

It is very well obferved, by Mr. Pye in his prefatory discourse, that a biographer feems to be by profeffion a writer of panegyric; as it is a strong predilection in favour of fome particular character, that generally determines him in the choice of his subject : praise therefore being the fixed object of his plan, he often makes a facrifice of truth without fcruple, to his partiality for a friend, or his gratitude to a benefactor.

• Compofitions of this kind have therefore their principal merits in their elegant variety of compliment, and delicacy of expreffion; and it would be as unreasonable in a reader to complain of want of hiftorical truth, in a work of pure declamation; as it would be abfurd in a writer to make fuch effufions of the fancy, however ingenious, the bafis and ground-work of real hiftory. The Italian language, which, from its smoothnefs and melody, is the very dialect of flattery, feems alfo peculiarly fuited to this fpecies of compofition; and the complexional genius of that nation, prone to admire every thing that is fpecious, together with the dependent ftate of the literati among them, bred up either in the libraries of their popes, the palaces of their petty fovereigns, or the colleges of their cardinals, in the learned fervitude of librarians, and fecretaries, confpire to form the talents of their men of letters to this particular mode of writing. • This