they actually preferred the stripes to which custom had familiarized them. These were separated from their comrades under the designation of the miscreants mess, the worst provisions were allotted to them, and the many deprivations and marks of odium that they thus incurred, soon placed them in a contemptible and mortifying light in the eyes of their brother soldiers. This circumstance produced greater effect than the lashes that had formerly been inflicted. Their earnest entreaty to be relieved from so irksome a situation was, after much apparent difficulty, complied with; and from that period there has never been occasion to renew the establishment of a miscreants mess. By the labor obtained in this manner, tracts of waste ground, offensive to the eye, and receptacles of filth, were converted into a handsome parade for the soldiers, and into gardens, highly ornamental to the town, and beneficial to the hospital. But more solid advantages than the acquisition of gardens or parades were gained by the decency and order that became manifest in the garrison, the improved appearance of which was observed by every passing stranger who had an opportunity of contrasting it with its former state. Light infantry manœuvres and sham fights formed a source of recreation and military instruction both to officers and privates, with which until then they had been unacquainted." The activity of Mr. Brooke in his projected expedition against the Cape of Good Hope during the last war, the succours he sent thither when it was taken by the English, and his capture of nine Dutch East Indiamen, are circumstances fresh in the memory of us all. His zeal and gallantry were not only rewarded by the court of directors, but complimented, as they richly deserved, by his majesty himself. After fifteen years of anxious toil, a severe illuess obliged Go vernor Brooke to return to Europe in the year 1800. He was succeeded, not unworthily, by Colonel Patton, the present governor, who has introduced many essential improvements. Among the rest, is the establishment of telegraphs on a very simple and cheap construction, invented by himself. In the construction of gun carriages he has made such alterations, that hot and cold shot, at any depression, may be fired with the greatest facility and accuracy. The recent discovery of Terra Puzzolana he has turned to much advantage in the construction of aqueducts. By the extension of these into various parts, and by the construction of reservoirs in which he is now employed, much will be added to the general improvement and fertilization of the island. It is only by placing men of science, talent, and energy, at the head of distant settlements that they can be rendered of any material advantage to the parent country, or even indemnify it for the expence of their establishment. When men are sent out as governors of colonies because they are troublesome at home, and it is found convenient to get rid of them, or because having wasted a fortune at the gaming-house some powerful relatives at court relieve their own pockets by making them pensioners on the public, discord is very likely to disturb the council, and plunder tó rifle the treasury. In early times the island of St. Helena was miserably unfortunate. as to its governors; it has an active and intelligent one at present, and as we are "all honorable men" now-a-days, we may of course be allowed to look for rivat excellence in all his successors. ART. XIV. A Political Sketch of America. 8vo. pp. 87. THIS is a calm and temperate defence of that party in America, which is called the Federalist: it is better calculated to, excite an interest in Washington or Philadelphia, than it is in London. The American union is probably not worth many years' purchase; but the prosperity of that country is not necessarily destroyed with its con stitution. The arms of the president are scarcely long enough to reach, or strong enough to govern, the remote regions of such a widespread territory as that of America. The people are too jealous to invest him with powers, which must be deducted from themselves: and without additional powers some Burr will succeed in detaching the south western from the north-eastern states. The cession of Louisiana may put a stop to the intrigues of Spain: formerly if she could have erected an independent empire on the west of the Alleghany mountains, she would have formed a pow erful barrier between her settlements and the United States. But the cession or the purchase of Lou-. isiana will give no additional strength or duration to the union. The Mississippi is a natural boundary for an empire, and New Orleans would make an excellent capital: these circumstances are too palpable to escape attention. ART. XV. An Essay on Government. THIS performance is not anonymous, though a fictitious name only appears in the title-page. The author subscribes the introduction with the name which, he says, he has borne during the last thirteen years, R. F. A. Lee. The publication is not unworthy of approbation. Its author's views are liberal, virtuous, and philanthropic. He is a man, to a considerable degree, conversant with good books on the subject government, and he has brought to them a mind open to the best impressions. There is nothing, however, very profound or very new in Mr. Lee's speculations. Most of the opinions which he delivers are either true, or so established in common opinion, that it is not easy to surmount them; but few persons, of a liberal education, we should suppose, can be unacquainted with of The author of this pamphlet attributes a preference on the part of the Americans to French rather than English politics, and considers that preference as inimical to the federal system. We are glad to find, however, that he is conciliatory in his disposition, and that he does not join the war-cry of that hot party who think negotiation humiliating, and concession cowardly. A war with America might be more injurious, to her than to us; but so long as we possess territory in Canada, and islands in the West Indies we are not invulnerable. By PHILOPATRIA. 8vo. pp. 265. any of the doctrines which are here delivered. For any thing like profundity, even had it been the author's forte, he has undertaken too much. In a pamphlet, the body of which, exclusive of dedications, prefaces, introductions, (for it contains all the three) extends to little more than 200 pages, the author contrives to afford forty-two chapters, each of them distinctively on one of the most general topics of political investigation. We shall present an enumeration of the several heads of inquiry; and from these, with what we have already said, it will be no difficult thing for our readers to form a judgment of the performance. The work comprises the following subjects;-the freedom of the press with respect to political inquiries;-the rights of the people ;-universal principles; - -civil distinctions ;-the sovereign--public charities; - servants ;— ty; the representations of the inns, public houses, &c. ; -the mipeople; the constitution of Eng- nor regulations in cities and towns; land; sedition and treason; national institutions, public buildjudges; secret information; ings, &c.;-funerals; public oaths;-torture.;-influence ;-bri- festivals and games; dress; bery-the dignity of the plebeian military and naval honours ;-ticharacter;-slavery; -society;right; property; education of women; -marriage; the claims of children; public schools; - tles ;-war; -taxation; -posts; disaffection; duelling;-crimes; concluding reflections. ART. XVI. An Inquiry into the State of National Subsistence, as connected with the Progress of Wealth and Population. By W. T. COMBER. 8vo. pp. 389. THERE is no part of political economy which is more involved in prejudice, or which the public have more obstinately persisted in misunderstanding, than what relates to. the means of subsistence. This ought not perhaps to surprize us; for there are several powerful causes, which, though they alter not the laws of production in this important case, very naturally induce a great portion of mankind to look upon them in a different light when this primary article is concerned, and where the question respects the ordinary objects of purchase and production. So extremely prevalent, notwithstanding the perfection to which the science of political economy, in the hands of a few real philosophers, has attained, are the most erroneous opinions on this subject among our countrymen, so false are the principles on which our legislature still proceeds, and so hurtful are the regulations which it adopts, that every publication which has any tendency to loosen the public prejudices, and make way for truth, deserves a cordial welcome. For this reason we are disposed to extend our thanks to Mr. Comber, though, in fact, the praises which we have to bestow upon him, are not very lavish. He understands the subject but imperfectly, and he has not the happiest talent at communicating what he knows. He feels an urgent 7 propensity at all times to go very deep, but he has not taken the previous care to provide himself with a sounding line of sufficient length. In other words, his mind has not attained that knowledge, and acquired those penetrating habits of thought, which are requisite to see through all the mists in which the doctrine of subsistence is involved; and such is the nature of mental fogs, that, till they are seen through, they cannot be dispelled. After this refusal of applause, however, we must not permit the reader to go farther in the subtraction of merit than the work deserves. It is not below mediocrity. The author merits the praise of a sensible man, though a man not altogether sufficiently informed. He has collected, in the shape of facts, not an inconsiderable portion of useful information, from which both the ordinary, and the extraordinary reader may derive advantage. His idea of the errors in legislation, which this country has committed, is in most respects correct, and his criticisms are instructive. His greatest failures will be found in the views which he attempts to exhibit of the numerous and important relations of this chief branch of production. But even there he runs far greater hazard of tiring his reader than of misleading him. The principal question which used to be agitated respecting the means of subsistence was, whether, in regard to this important class of commodities, commerce ought to be as free, as in all other cases. The controversy was first started by the economists in France; because they were the first persons who called in question the system which had been universally maintained, of rigid and minute regulation. This branch of production constituted the basis of their new doctrines; and to render it concordant with the theory, absolute freedom was an indispensable requisite. The matty erroneous, and dangerous conclusions into which those philosophers ran, created a general prejudice against their system, and some very enlightened men attacked this particular doctrine as forming its basis. The intelligent, the virtuous, and philosophical Mably, whose views of society were far different from those of the economists, thought it necessary even to attack this part of their hypotheses, at the moment when Turgot, whom he highly esteemed, was minister, and when it appeared likely to be adopted as a rule of state. A curious and interesting discourse of his, though a discourse full of errors, may be seen in the 13th volume of that complete and valuable collection of his works, which has been published since his death. After the publication of Smith's Wealth of Nations, in which the laws of production were at last fully unfolded and demonstrated, the question remained doubtful only to those who could not, or would not apply to this particular case the truths which that great philosopher had brought to light. As these, however, constituted the greatness of mankind, the number of those who imbibed the rational views was infinitely small; and our government continued to act upon the erroneous system, while the writing or speaking part of the small nu ber above-mentioned, continued to preach against it. Since the publication of Mr. Malthus' book on population, another question has been brought forward, and has called to itself a greater share of attention than it had previously attracted. From the wellknown, and even hackneyed doctrine, that population is entirely de pendent upon the means of subsistence, that author drew certain paradoxical conclusions, which, as usually happens to paradoxes, have be come very popular, and have started another question respecting the means of subsistence, that is, whether the production of the means of subsistence do not as necessarily depend upon the population, as the population depends upon the quantity of those means which are produced. These two questions are, both of them, involved in the present disquisitions of Mr. Comber, and very much, unfortunately, mixed, and confounded together. The relations between population and the means of subsistence, is the main question which he appears to have had in view. But he introduces his reflections respecting the freedom of the commerce in the necessaries of life, and respecting the regulations to which it has been subjected, whenever they come across him, and however sorted with reflections of a different species. The plan which he pursued very naturally betrayed him into this confusion, nay into still greater complexity. His inquiry is chiefly historical, and his reflections are most commonly introduced for the elucidation of the history. The two speculative questions, therefore, and the historical inquiry, are carried on in common, and each chapter is in general made up of a part of all the three. It seldom happens, by this means, that any thing is decided. In fact a complicated subject, like that before us, must be taken to pieces and examined, by the help of a severe analysis, if we would hope to make any progress in real knowledge. To take so many branches of the subject, and jumble them all together, is a most inaus picious procedure. The author begins with a dedication to Mr. Henry Thornton, whom he says he has not the honour to know, but whom he chooses, as the patron of the work, because he is "one, who has in so lucid and satisfactory a manner dispelled the doubts which, from the present state of our circulating medium, were entertained respecting the solidity of the whole system of our floating wealth;"—and as one whom his deep interest in the maintenance of national industry, combined with his intimate knowledge of our commercial and financial system, renders the most competent judge of the degree in which the trading and manufacturing population contribute to the national strength and prosperity." We present these eulogies of Mr. Henry Thornton, who, though a very respectable, man, and not a contemptible author, has very widely mistaken and misrepresented the nature of money, both paper and metallic, as a spe cimen of the accuracy with which our author has studied one great branch of political economy, that which relates to a circulating me dium. In the commencement of his preface, the author states the occasion and object of his inquiry; and it may be instructive to exhibit the account in his own words. "The change of system, by which additional limitations were imposed on the importation of grain, after the late scarcities, in 1804; and the comparatively trifling effect which the almost total interruption that subsequently took place in our foreign supplies, produced, with respect to the sufficiency of bread corn, induced some doubts of the solidity of those reasonings which, from the prece ding scarcities, inferred an increasing de pendence on other countries for a considerable portion of our national subsist ence. doubts, which the works of theoretical "The imperfect solution of these writers afforded, led the author to search for the principle by which the production of food proportions itself to the popula tion, in an examination of the actual pro gress of the country itself. This subject is indeed incidentally touched upon by every writer on political economy; but the author is not aware, that a distinct view of the progress of this increase, combined with an analysis of the causes which have retarded or accelerated it, has yet been presented to the public. "In the opinion of some, perhaps this basis may not be sufficiently broad for the establishment of general prin ciples; but the coincidences which present themselves in the state of society, in those countries where the agricultural system, under different modifications, at present exists, confirm the results which flow from our historical review. "If this detail should be considered by some too diffuse and general, he must observe, that the connexion, though not always immediate, will, it is hoped, generally be found necessary; and he even flatters himself, that the sketch here pres sented, however imperfect, may not be totally without interest, as exhibiting the principal features of our commercial progress; and may, probably, leave a more distinct impression on the mind, than those collections of mere chronological facts and documents, which form almost the only histories of the earlier periods of British commerce.” His introduction begins with a general view of the present state of speculation on the subject, and concludes with a general view of the investigations which he himself has pursued in the remainder of the work. As this affords a more satisfactory delineation of the aspect under which the author viewed bis subject, than any analysis which it would be possible for us to present, we are induced to restrain our own |