ence between a Republic and a Monarchy! But then their chief magistrate only costs £5000 a-year; which would be

considered hardly a sufficient allowance for a Lord of the Bed-Chamber, or an illegitimate son of our King.

THE year has opened under favourable auspices for commerce and manufactures. The restrictive system by which the commercial intercourse of nations has been so much trammelled, is on the wane, and we everywhere see the dawn of a more liberal policy. On the 3d January, M. d'Argout, the French Minister of Trade and Public Works, in introducing a bill into the Chamber of Deputies, for a modification of the duties of customs, expressed the desire of the French Government to give the greatest possible freedom to foreign trade, and to relieve it from all injurious restrictions, by substituting in some cases duties for prohibitions; and in other cases, where too high duties existed, by reducing and modifying them. He proposed specifically to do away at once with the existing prohibitions against the importation of fine cotton twist, of Cachemere shawls, of Russia leather, (cuirs odorans,) of certain embroideries, and of watches and watch-works; and also the prohibition against the import of raw and thrown silk, and to substitute moderate duties. He proposed to reduce the bounty on refined sugar exported, to nearly the proportionate rate paid on the import of the Raw Sugars lately the bounty has been so high as to be the occasion of the loss of a million sterling to the French finances, and in consequence has seriously affected the English refineries, France having supplied nearly all the ports of the Mediterranean with refined goods. By the new arrangement this trade is likely to be resumed by England. He further proposes to reduce the present duties on the importation of live cattle "for the cheaper nourishment of the people;" and, adverting to other proposed alleviations, he concluded by justifying and recommending the reduction of tonnage dues, which has lately taken place upon British ships in French ports; and he particularly stated, that this was only the beginning of a series of measures of a similar nature, which the Government will have to propose. Combined with the petition of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce to the Legislature, in favour of free trade, we may consider the publication of M. D'Ar

gout's principles as a great stride in the progress of commercial knowledge and true liberality among our neighbours.

We also learn, from the message of the President of the United States to Congress, that the evils of the restrictive system, by which nations are forced to manufacture inferior articles at a great expense, instead of purchasing articles of superior quality from foreigners, at a cheap rate, are beginning to be clearly perceived in America.

The unhappy dispute which has arisen between South Carolina and the General Government of the States, will probably lead to a revision of the tariff, and to a great reduction of the duties on importation.

COTTON MANUFACTURES.-The accounts from the West of England mark a decided improvement in the Cotton Trade. Printing cottons have risen from 78. 7d. to 83. 3d.; and as the stocks in the hands of the consumers are low, the demand is brisk. The factories in general are in full employment. At Paisley the weavers, during the whole winter, have been kept in constant employment; and since the preparations for the Spring Trade have commenced, the demand for workmen has increased. India Imitation Trimmings are very brisk, and the prices given to the weavers have advanced above the table. A number of weavers have been engaged for 1600 India Imitation Trimmings, 2 sets, at ls. 11d. per cover, which is 7d. per cover above the Table price. A respectable manufacturing house have advanced the wages of their sewers 3d. per shawl on the finer qualities. The demand for Quaker shawls has increased. Blue dresses are very flat, but there is a demand for cross borders, and 1400 cotton trimmings. At Perth, although no rise in the price has yet taken place, hands for harnesses are in request by the manufacturers, and by agents for Paisley houses. In the other branches no alteration has taken place, but all hands are employed. The cotton manufacture continues to increase. The reduction of the profits has sharpened the wits of the manufacturers; and men, women, and children, as well as machines, throw off an increasing quan

tity of work. We perceive, from the evidence on the Factory Bill, that the weekly quantity now spun by one spindle is twenty-one hanks of No. 40 a-week. The cotton spun in Great Britain last year, amounted to about 288,000,000 pounds. Of this vast quantity, a tenth was spun in Scotland. The United States supply three fourths of the consumption, or 213,000,000 pounds; the East Indies about 20,000,000 pounds; the West Indies 1,600,000 only. All the cotton, except the growth of the East and West Indies, pays a duty of d. per pound. This duty would, last year, exceed £690,000; and would be, as nearly as possible, 10 per cent on the return of the cotton in bond.

THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES are also reviving, and prospects are cheering. In Bradford, more business has been recently done than for weeks preceding; the mills, both in the town and neighbourhood, being in full activity. In Halifax the demand for stuff goods has been gradually increasing for some time past, and all the hands there are in active employment. Leeds, and other towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire, present similar favourable prospects. The East India Company have given orders for ladies' cloths, and a large one for military goods. In Ayrshire, notwithstanding the late rise in the price of wool, no rise has taken place in plaidings. Dun plaidings run from 7d. to 8d.; white from 74d. to 1s. 23d. In the Flannel Trade, low-priced articles continue to be sought after. The trade is more brisk than it has been at this season for several years.

SILK WEAVING.-The wages of the silk weavers are very low, but there is an expectation of an advance in the Spring. The trade is brisker than usual at this season. At Lyons, the manufacture of silk goods had so far decreased, that many hundred persons had been thrown out of employment.

THE LEATHER TRADE. This trade has been extremely flat and depressed for the last twelve months, and prices have been so low as in many cases not to yield the tanner a profit. Prices now, however, appear to have passed their lowest point, and the stock of leather is much smaller than that of last year at the same period. IRON TRADE. The iron trade, so long depressed, begins to revive. In Wales, an advance of 5s. per ton was obtained some time ago; and at Christmas quarter day the iron masters, both in Wales and Staffordshire considered the state of the trade such as to warrant them to lay on a farther advance of 10s. a ton; and appearances would lead us to believe that this advance will be sustained.

CORN. The corn markets have been dull throughout the month, and prices are still on the decline. This probably arises from the want of cultivation in British grain, in consequence of anticipated changes in the Corn Laws. It is highly desirable that this question should be settled without delay, for the present state of uncertainty is highly injurious to the agriculturist. The protection which the present laws afford them, is a mere delusion, as the average duty on wheat imported since 1828, is only 6s. 1d. per quarter, and the prices of grain are yearly falling. Looking to the last three years, the average prices have been :

BARLEY.

WHEAT. OATS. 1830648.328. 8d.348. 3d. 1831668.388. Od.25s. 3d. 1832598.338. 3d.20s. 6d. At Haddington, on the 11th of January, the averages were only, Wheat 49s., Barley 26s. 8d., Oats 18s. In the event of a fixed duty being substituted for the present fluctuating duties, care will need to be taken that it is not fixed at too high a rate. The duty on wheat is at present 32s. 8d., and it will be very difficult to obtain such a reduction as the manufacturing interests expect. Young wheats continue to look well, and, notwithstanding the openness of the winter, are not too forward. Feeding stock are proceeding favourably. Agricultural labour is far advanced.

CATTLE MARKETS.-At Cupar Yule Fair, on the 3d ult. prime fat animals brought 7s. per Dutch stone. Half fed animals sold for nearly the same money; the sellers, in consequence of food being plentiful, not being desirous to part with their stock. The prices obtained are about 1s. per stone higher than those at last Yule market. The price of sheep continues steady.

HORSE MARKETS.--At Ayr Horse Market, on the 4th ult., the prices of draught horses varied from L.20, L.22, L.28, L.30, to L.36. One or two brought L.40. Saddle and harness horses of good figure and form brought L.34 to L 36, some less shewy L.25. Horses of inferior quality, L.18, downwards. The fair was not brisk. At the annual horse market at Johnstone, a vast number of Horses appeared in the market, consisting of some of the finest draught horses and riding ponies; and the horse-dealers sold extensively, and received very flattering prices. At Lancaster Fair the better classes of carriage, phaeton, and gig horses were not so numerous as at some former fairs; but they are ready of sale, at good prices; whilst those of inferior breed, and but few pretensions to usefulness, were not only dull of sale, but scarcely looked at.

POETICAL ASPIRATIONS, BY WILLIAM ANDERSON, ESQ. SECOND EDITION. The world is now so rich an inheritor in poetry, that when a bard of humble pretensions, though of undoubted merit, comes modestly forward with his claim on attention, he has a slender chance of either respectful audience or patient reception, unless he contrives to send a flourish of trumpets before him. Yet here is a volume of agreeable and genuine verse, which, for the honour of the public taste, we are glad to find, has been quickly and properly appreciated, without such appliances and means as the true poetic spirit would find it living death to employ. Poems in the second edition is something to talk of now a-days; and in this instance the new publication has so soon followed the first, that the examination and favourable judgments pronounced by the critical tribunals, cannot yet be forgotten, nor consequently require repetition. There are, however, in this volume, a good many additional poems, which possess the same character of gentle elegance that distinguished the earlier effusions, with a wider range of fancy. These compositions are announced by the author as the fruits of relaxation "from the higher literary and political duties of his vocation,”—an explanation, which if meant as apology, was not required. They are smooth and pleasing, always correct, and graceful often; and by all gentle lovers of gentle poesy will be accepted as an agreeable addition to our contemporary treasures of verse. With a battery of fifty volumes raised before us, poetical quotations are entirely out of the question; but we cannot forbear to point out a few of our favourite pieces in the additional poems. Loch Awe is one, the sweetly musing lines on a Wild Flower, another; and the Wassail Song and Wells o' Weary, in different styles, are equal to any of these.

LIVES OF EMINENT AND ILLUSTRIOUS ENGLISHMEN, from Alfred the Great to the Latest Times. Edited by GEORGE GODFREY CUNNINGHAM.† Vol. I. It is to be feared that the scope and object of this publication is not sufficiently indicated by the title. Hasty as our glance has been, we conceive it one of the most meritorious historical works that has lately been projected. Nor is historical the word, though we can think of none more apt, and must employ circumlocution in describing the nature of a work

Smith & Elder, London; Anderson, Junr. Edinburgh, Pp. 184. + Fullarton, Glasgow.

which is at once political, literary, and historical; combining, in short, all the elements of history and biography. The series commences with the birth of Alfred the Great, and is intended to come down to the present time. The work is to be divided into nine grand Divisions or Periods, of which the time which elapses from the birth of Alfred to the Norman Conquest, forms the first. These Periods are treated of in distinct sections, divided into a Political Series, an Ecclesiastical Series, and a Literary Series; each Period having, besides, a general historical introduction. Let us take the Second Period as an illustration of the design :— Under the Political Series we have the Life of William the Conqueror, William Rufus, the three first Henrys, Richard Strongbow, Simon de Montfort, and others. The Ecclesiastical Series of the same period gives us, with others of lesser note, Becket, Anselm, Pope Adrian IV. and Archbishop Langton; and the Literary one, Roger Bacon, Matthew Paris, &c. &c. &c. The Literary Series of the Third Period is yet richer, in the names of Chaucer, Gower, Dun-Scotus, &c. &c. The design is original and excellent. It is history put into action, "embodying the history of England in the lives of Englishmen ;" and the nearest approach compatible with truth to the historical plays of Shakspeare, and the historical novels of Scott. The execution is worthy of the clearness and comprehensiveness of the design; and taken together, we warmly recommend the work as a mine of valuable information presented in the most attractive form. It is secondary, but not unimportant to notice, that the book is handsomely printed, in volumes retaining the proper historical dignity of size; and is embellished with authentic portraits of eminent persons, very beautifully engraved.

SEMI-SERIOUS OBSERVATIONS OF AN ITALIAN EXILE."—A priori, and from merely reading his observations, we should not have inferred that Count Pecchio was a person likely to cause revolution in any country. He was, however, early obliged to leave Piedmont, his native state, for the share he took in the abortive revolution. He came to England, and subsequently went to Spain and Greece, a military adventurer; by which term we imply nothing disrespectful. His sword and his services were always on the right side. The Count has now been fortunate enough to marry an English lady, and, better inured to our

• Effingham Wilson, Pp. 525.

sea-fogs, is settled at Brighton. His work was originally published in Italian, and obtained the praises of the Quarterly Review; a periodical, by the way, which generally distributes its smaller patronage, on the principle, and not unlikely on the motives which made despotic princes fondle and caress dwarfs, idiots, and the halfwitted, and hold at surly distance every one who approached their presence with the stamp of independence of mind or undeniable intellectual capacity. The Count's observations, if not remarkable for profundity or accuracy, are lively, good-humoured, and agreeable. We should suppose that he has not been consulted on the publication of this translation; for it is impossible but that his subsequent experience in England must by this time have corrected many of his original errors. They now stand the most amusing, and not the least useful portion of the Count's labours. His notions of Scotland are about as just as those which might be formed by a gentleman of Manilla or Canton. But these absurdities are exceeding ly diverting, and help to make the book really light reading.

MEMOIRS OF LOUIS THE EIGH. TEENTH-Written by himself."-This work has thrown some of the self-elected guardians of literature into a paroxysm of rage. "It is not authentic,-it is a hoax -an imposition of the book manufacturers of Paris," &c. &c. &c. Much of this virtuous indignation might have been spared. No biped beyond the age of a sucking turkey, ever, for one moment, could have imagined the work authentic; and for this, among a hundred other good reasons, that Louis the 18th never possessed a tithe of the wit, sagacity, and depth of views displayed in every page of it.

But the treason is ridiculing courts and royal persons; and by unveiling their vices, their selfishness, dissimulation, grossness, and audacious profligacy, bringing monarchy itself into contempt. This, unhappily, is an office which royal and courtly personages have not left for men of letters to perform. They have, in works beyond all possibility of question or doubt, as to authenticity, sufficiently scribbled their own infamy. If we were wicked enough to harbour the design of bringing kings and courts into contempt, and into detestation, it is not a pleasant good-humoured hoaxing work like this we should employ, but others of very different character, written by princes and courtiers themselves. We would recommend that king-craft and its tendencies should be studied in the witty memoirs of the profligate Grammont, and

Saunders and Otley, London.

in the sketches of the virtuous Evelyn; but especially in the memoirs of the Princess of Bareith, the letters of the old Duchess of Orleans, the mother of the Regent Orleans, the memoirs of Lauzun, and fifty more volumes French and English-not forgetting the letters of Walpole. Of this book, all that need be said is, that it is a clever work, though cer tainly a spurious one, which gives far too favourable an idea of the supposed Royal Author, and of many of his friends.

THE CODE OF AGRICULTURE, including Observations on Gardens, Orchards, Woods, and Plantations, with an Account of all the Recent Improvements in the Management of Arable and Grass Lands. By the Right Honourable Sir JOHN SINCLAIR, Bart., Founder of the Board of Agriculture. Fifth Edition.* -The numerous large editions which have already been sold of this work shew the estimation in which it is held by the public.

In the present edition will be found accounts of such discoveries in agriculture as have been made since the date of the last edition. Few of the useful arts are less indebted to the labours of literary men than agriculture. Hitherto the art has not been studied in the closet, but in the field; and although no one can pretend to any thing like an accurate knowledge of agriculture, or the sister arts, gardening and planting, who has not practically been engaged in them, too little attention has hitherto been paid to the useful information which may be found in books. Few farmers have an opportunity of minutely inspecting the operations of agriculture in foreign countries, or even in distant parts of their own country; and valuable discoveries may remain long unknown, if the knowledge of them is diffused solely through the slow and incorrect channel of oral tradition. But until Sir John Sinclair undertook the task, the agriculturists had no manual of their art to which they could refer. From the immense mass of materials, many of them crude and indigested, in no ordinary degree, which Sir John Sinclair had accumulated, he has succeeded in laying down the principles of the art, concisely yet clearly; and has formed a book not only of great value to the agriculturist, but interesting to the general reader. He has obtained information from every source, whence anything valuable was likely to be obtained; and this edition of the Code of Agriculture proves that the worthy Baronet, now an octogenarian, is still interested in the success of that art to which he has so devotedly dedicated the best years of his life. Every farmer should have a

London; Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, 1832.

copy of the Code in his library, were it for nothing else than as a memento of the Founder of the Board of Agriculture; the most zealous promoter of the art which this, or perhaps any other age has produced.

AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLES OF POPULATION; exhibiting a System of Regulation for the Poor."-We consider this book as mainly valuable, on the principle of it being necessary to keep an important object constantly before the public, by studiously varying the aspects in which it is presented, till it become familiar from every point of view. Though the fundamental opinions of the author are those of the great political economists of the age, they are, on some points, very considerably modified. He even approves of a poor law for Ireland. His truths are recommended by the indulgeut and kindly tone which writers on similar subjects have too often neglected or despised.

AN ESSAY ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF MILITARY BRIDGES, and the Passage of Rivers in Military Operations. By Sir HOWARD DOUGLAS.+-This is the second edition of a work held in great esteem among military men, from its extent of accurate knowledge, and the diligence of research displayed in it. The British wars in the mountainous parts of India, and the late long war of Europe, extending over every kind of

coun

try, mountainous or champaign, from Gibraltar to Moscow, have made military engineering almost a new science, calling for a new exposition of its principles. For this purpose the same war has laid up a store of facts and illustrative materials, of which Sir Howard has skilfully availed himself, in adding to, and perfecting this new edition of his valuable, and now standard work. Although it is a book of instruction for students in tactics, its historical materials, the resources of genius called forth by difficulty, and the enterprise, skill, and hardihood displayed by Napoleon, Wellington, and the great commanders connected with them, make it a work that may be read with interest by the civilian as well as the military man.

THE POLISH EXILE-Nos. 1, & 2. † This unassuming periodical is written with considerable ability. Its object is to furnish historical, statistical, and literary information regarding Poland, embellished by appropriate illustrations. It possesses a high claim on public encouragement, both from the intensity of interest encircling a people crushed to the earth after a display of more than Spartan heroism, and from sympathy with its Edi

Duncan, London, octavo, Pp. 336.
Boone, London.
Tait, Edinburgh.

tors, who are "Polish Exiles" themselves, who have shared in, and been ruined by, the terrible conflict. The article in No. 1, on the "Preponderance of Russia over the other European States," is alike distinguished for its spirit and truth. The clear and succinct compendium of the "History of Poland," evinces a perfect knowledge of their national history, and every succeeding number must increase in interest as we approach the details of the Revolutions of 1794 and 1830. The freshness and naivete of the anecdotes are highly attractive; and the music of "Dombrowski's Mazourka" alone, far exceeds in value the price of the periodical.

How favourable the opportunity now afforded the public of proving the reality of their sympathy with the "Exiles," and their approbation of a struggle, which for sublimity and extent of self-sacrifice, has eclipsed all the efforts of the modern world! VEGETABLE COOKERY. By a LADY.* This is a system for the modern human gramnivorous animals, though we had no idea they were so numerous as to require a book of cookery for themselves. A culinary work which proscribes fish, flesh, fowl, and even good red herrings, is not likely to be received with much gusto at this present season. It should have appeared in the dog-days. It was scarcely fair, moreover, in the author to turn the arms of Mrs. Rundell and Meg Dods against themselves; and covertly to employ their own delicious puddings, pastry, and vegetable messes, to subvert their plain joints, ragouts, and savoury pies. Nor do we understand upon what principle the lives of beeves and sturgeons, &c. &c., are to be hallowed from human touch and teeth, while such nefarious means are suggested for the destruction of black-beetles, cock-roaches, mice, and bugs, as those in the Appendix.

THE BRITISH REFORMER'S ADVOCATE. By D. P. WHITEHEAD.†—The object of this work is useful. The writer has condensed and arranged a great quan.. tity and variety of valuable political and statistical information, from authentic sources; and presented it to the public in a cheap and accessible form. As a popular manual of politics, the book deserves praise. It is decidedly Radical, but not violent. As a book of which the objects are co-extensive with the British empire, there is, perhaps, too much connected with abuses in this city. It would also have been an improvement had the compiler quoted his authorities.

THE LAUREAD, A SATIRE OF THE DAY.-This wicked little poem is writ.

• Effingham Wilson.

+ Black, Edinburgh.

Cochrane and Co., London. Pp. 120.