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woollens! Can any more conclusive proof be desired of the deadening influence of monopoly?--of its tendency to narrow and choke up, what would otherwise be the broadest and deepest channels of commercial intercourse? We have not the slightest doubt-and our opinion coincides with that of the most experienced merchants-that, had the trade with China been free during the last fifty years, our exports to it only would have amounted, at this moment, to 8,000,000%. or 10,000,000l. a-year.

While the Company's export of woollens, trifling as it has always been, has been recently falling off, that of the Americans has been rapidly increasing. Formerly the Americans used to export little except bullion; but at present their ships come to London and Liverpool, and take on board manufactured goods, which they carry to China. Now, the fact that such a trade is carried on, shews, that though in the hands of monopolists the export of manufactured goods to China is productive only of loss, it is advantageous when conducted by individuals. It is true, that some of those who have at different times engaged in the trade from the United States to China have failed; but such contingencies attach to all businesses, and are as numerous in the trade between this country and the United States as in any other, though it has not yet been affirmed that it is disadvan tageous. The failures in question took place chiefly amongst those who engaged in the trade without sufficient capital and experience, and attempted suddenly to force it beyond due bounds. Those who prosecuted it on sounder principles are very wealthy. The largest fortunes in the United States have been made in the China trade. Mr. Cushing, an American merchant, lately of Canton, has recently retired from business with, it is said, a fortune of 500,000l. and there are many others that have been hardly less successful.

It is material too to bear in mind, that while the free China trade has been thus productive of wealth to the American merchants engaged in it, it has been in the highest degree beneficial to the Union. The American public have been abundantly supplied with tea-that is, with an important necessary of life-for little more than a third of what it has cost the people of England, exclusive of the duty. Had the China trade of England been conducted in a similar way, it would, besides affording an advantageous market for eight or ten millions' worth of produce, have enriched vast numbers of our merchants, shipowners, &c., and saved two millions a-year to the public in the cost of tea.

But were the monopoly set aside, besides the vast empire of China, the resources of the extensive and populous, though imperfectly explored, countries of Cochin-China, Tonquin, and Siam, the empire of Japan, and the Archipelago of the Philippines, would be made available for mercantile purposes. The commerce between the Eastern and the Western worlds is yet only in its infancy. From the era of Vasco de Gama to the present day, the intercourse between Europe and India and China has been subjected to the most oppressive fetters. A department of commerce so extensive, had it been properly cultivated, as to have afforded full scope for the mercantile resources of every nation, but requiring great perseverance, skill, and enterprise in

its establishment, has been made over to a handful of monopolists, who have wasted all the energies of which they were capable, in warlike undertakings. So much is this the case, that, of the thousands of admirable harbours to the eastward of Malacca, Canton and Manilla are almost the only ones that have ever been visited by English merchantships. We have, in fact, voluntarily shut ourselves out of the most extensive markets, or, which is the same thing, we have delivered them over to those who do not resort to them as merchants, but as monopolists, to get cargoes of tea, which they afterwards sell to us upon their own terms, and at an exorbitant advance. This conduct has not been more injurious to ourselves, than to the nations it has so long deprived of the advantages derivable from a free intercourse with Europe. It is impossible to conjecture the improvement that might have been accomplished, not in the arts only, but in the sciences, moral feelings, and habits of the Indo-Chinese nations, had there been nothing to hinder our communication with them during the last sixty or seventy years. Commerce is the grand engine by which the blessings of science and civilization are universally diffused. While it enriches, it also instructs and stimulates the industry and invention of those who carry it on. That the immeasurable superiority of the people of Europe in knowledge of all sorts, should hitherto have had so little influence upon their Asiatic brethren, is entirely owing to the jealous systems of commercial policy that have obtained amongst us. Had European adventurers been allowed to resort freely to the different countries of the East, and been permitted to trade freely with their mother countries, the foundations of improvement would have long since been laid in nations that are still comparatively barbarous. We trust, however, that a new era is at hand, and that European arts and sciences will no longer be excluded from some of the finest and most extensive countries in the world, that the sickly existence of a decrepit and worn-out monopoly may be prolonged for a few years. The Parliament of Great Britain have it now in their power to open new and boundless markets for the products of our artizans, and they are called upon to assist in forwarding the civilization of the Eastern world.'

And they have obeyed the call, and earned, by so doing, the gratitude of unborn millions.

Art. IV. The Autobiography of. John Galt. 8vo. pp. xx. 792. Portrait. Price £1. 4s.

O

In Two Volumes. London, 1832.

To review these volumes to our own satisfaction, we ought to be much better acquainted with Mr. Galt's writings than we can affect to be. The greater part of them belong to a species of literature of which we do not consider ourselves bound to take cognizance,-dramas, novels, and tales, generally published anonymously. By his anonymous works, however, Mr. Galt is best known; and by these, probably, his fame will be chiefly perpetuated. The Author of The Annals of the Parish, the Ayr

woollens! Can any more conclusive proof be desired of the deadening influence of monopoly?-of its tendency to narrow and choke up, what would otherwise be the broadest and deepest channels of commercial intercourse? We have not the slightest doubt-and our opinion coincides with that of the most experienced merchants-that, had the trade with China been free during the last fifty years, our exports to it only would have amounted, at this moment, to 8,000,000. or 10,000,000l. a-year.

While the Company's export of woollens, trifling as it has always been, has been recently falling off, that of the Americans has been rapidly increasing. Formerly the Americans used to export little except bullion; but at present their ships come to London and Liverpool, and take on board manufactured goods, which they carry to China. Now, the fact that such a trade is carried on, shews, that though in the hands of monopolists the export of manufactured goods to China is productive only of loss, it is advantageous when conducted by individuals. It is true, that some of those who have at different times engaged in the trade from the United States to China have failed; but such contingencies attach to all businesses, and are as numerous in the trade between this country and the United States as in any other, though it has not yet been affirmed that it is disadvan tageous. The failures in question took place chiefly amongst those who engaged in the trade without sufficient capital and experience, and attempted suddenly to force it beyond due bounds. Those who prosecuted it on sounder principles are very wealthy. The largest fortunes in the United States have been made in the China trade. Mr. Cushing, an American merchant, lately of Canton, has recently retired from business with, it is said, a fortune of 500,000l. and there are many others that have been hardly less successful.

It is material too to bear in mind, that while the free China trade has been thus productive of wealth to the American merchants engaged in it, it has been in the highest degree beneficial to the Union. The American public have been abundantly supplied with tea-that is, with an important necessary of life-for little more than a third of what it has cost the people of England, exclusive of the duty. Had the China trade of England been conducted in a similar way, it would, besides affording an advantageous market for eight or ten millions' worth of produce, have enriched vast numbers of our merchants, shipowners, &c., and saved two millions a-year to the public in the cost of tea.

But were the monopoly set aside, besides the vast empire of China, the resources of the extensive and populous, though imperfectly explored, countries of Cochin-China, Tonquin, and Siam, the empire of Japan, and the Archipelago of the Philippines, would be made available for mercantile purposes. The commerce between the Eastern and the Western worlds is yet only in its infancy. From the era of Vasco de Gama to the present day, the intercourse between Europe and India and China has been subjected to the most oppressive fetters. A department of commerce so extensive, had it been properly culti vated, as to have afforded full scope for the mercantile resources of every nation, but requiring great perseverance, skill, and enterprise in

its establishment, has been made over to a handful of monopolists, who have wasted all the energies of which they were capable, in warlike undertakings. So much is this the case, that, of the thousands of admirable harbours to the eastward of Malacca, Canton and Manilla are almost the only ones that have ever been visited by English merchantships. We have, in fact, voluntarily shut ourselves out of the most extensive markets, or, which is the same thing, we have delivered them over to those who do not resort to them as merchants, but as monopolists, to get cargoes of tea, which they afterwards sell to us upon their own terms, and at an exorbitant advance. This conduct has not been more injurious to ourselves, than to the nations it has so long deprived of the advantages derivable from a free intercourse with Europe. It is impossible to conjecture the improvement that might have been accomplished, not in the arts only, but in the sciences, moral feelings, and habits of the Indo-Chinese nations, had there been nothing to hinder our communication with them during the last sixty or seventy years. Commerce is the grand engine by which the blessings of science and civilization are universally diffused. While it enriches, it also instructs and stimulates the industry and invention of those who carry it on. That the immeasurable superiority of the people of Europe in knowledge of all sorts, should hitherto have had so little influence upon their Asiatic brethren, is entirely owing to the jealous systems of commercial policy that have obtained amongst us. Had European adventurers been allowed to resort freely to the different countries of the East, and been permitted to trade freely with their mother countries, the foundations of improvement would have long since been laid in nations that are still comparatively barbarous. We trust, however, that a new era is at hand, and that European arts and sciences will no longer be excluded from some of the finest and most extensive countries in the world, that the sickly existence of a decrepit and worn-out monopoly may be prolonged for a few years. The Parliament of Great Britain have it now in their power to open new and boundless markets for the products of our artizans, and they are called upon to assist in forwarding the civilization of the Eastern world.'

And they have obeyed the call, and earned, by so doing, the gratitude of unborn millions.

Art. IV. The Autobiography of John Galt.

8vo. pp. xx. 792.

Portrait. Price £1. 4s.

In Two Volumes. London, 1832.

To review these volumes to our own satisfaction, we ought to be much better acquainted with Mr. Galt's writings than we can affect to be. The greater part of them belong to a species of literature of which we do not consider ourselves bound to take cognizance,-dramas, novels, and tales, generally published anonymously. By his anonymous works, however, Mr. Galt is best known; and by these, probably, his fame will be chiefly perpetuated. The Author of The Annals of the Parish, the Ayr

shire Legatees, and Sir Andrew Wylie, will survive in his works, when the biographer of Wolsey, and the author of "Lady Macbeth," as such, is forgotten.

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This is not, however, the autobiography of a mere literary man. In fact, Mr. Galt almost disclaims the character. Like Gray, who could not bear to be considered only as a man of ' letters,' and Congreve, who prided himself, not on being a poet and a dramatist, but on his gentlemanly indifference to reputation, the Author of nearly sixty volumes 'frankly confesses,' that, at 6 no time' has he been a great admirer of mere literary cha

racter.'

To tell the truth, I have sometimes felt a little shame-faced in thinking myself so much an author, in consequence of the estimation in which I hold the professors of book-making in general. A mere literary man, an author by profession, stands but low in my opinion; and the reader will perhaps laughingly say, "it is a pity I should think so little of myself." But though, as the means of attaining ascendancy and recreation in my sphere, I have written too much, it is some consolation to reflect that

"I left no calling for the idle trade."

This I assert with confidence, for, in looking back through the long vista of a various life, I cannot upbraid myself with having neglected one task, or left one duty unperformed, either for the thrift or "fancy work" of letters.'-Vol. II. pp. 200, 1.

We are not sure that, with regard to the mere 'professors 'of book-making,' Mr. Galt is altogether wrong in classing them below men intent on the more serious business of life. If the character is shaped by the object, rather than by the employment, the trifler in literature is still but a trifler, and the trading author but a trader. The literary character' is susceptible, however, of infinite modifications, and, when stamped with the nobleness of higher ends, is all but the highest style of man.' But with Mr. Galt, literature was always a subservient pursuit.' Aware that this assertion might seem to imply that he imagined he might have put forth better things, the Autobiographer

adds:

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This is not my notion; I have uniformly, on all occasions, done my best. The very utmost approaching to any thing like a consciousness of endowment, of which I ever thought myself possessed, was, in believing that I sometimes enjoyed a power of combination not very common; a conceit which led me to think many schemes practicable which were very extravagant. This acknowledgment of being sensible of my defects, is preparatory to disclosures that, were I likely again to enter the arena of business, I would not make; but, being laid on the shelf, I may speak of them unblamed.' Vol. II., p. 241.

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