fchoolboys fent out to India, embark with the deliberate purpo of accumulating wealth with the greatest rapacity, and yet a hufbanding it with the greatest parfimony, that they may retur, youthful and opulent, to their native land. And what the Muft they not be wondrous boys,' to keep this their re lution? Is it not a neceffary confequence of their being yett thoughtless, and free, that much of their gains will be expende in the country where they were accumulated? Nay, is it m much to expect that such characters will occafionally deviate im generofity, at leaft, if not into juftice? Will none of them in: their account in giving encouragement to Afiatic induftry ingenuity? We own that the thoughtlefs boys' we hav chanced to meet with in this country, (and there are too many of them in all countries, both at fchool and at college), has very feldom difcovered fuch a steely and self-denying rapaci as our author attributes to thefe young friends of the Director But now, to all our conceffions, let us add one more; let fuppofe thefe wicked boys to be, in inclination, all that they reprefented in this effay;-to be at once rapacious and penuti tyrants. Are there no laws to protect the natives? What's become of thofe municipal regulations,' framed in the tre fpirit of British freedom,' of which this author himself has ken? Where are thofe unremitting efforts, on the part of th British fettlers,' to effect all the purposes of justice,' and protect the perfons and property of all claffes of society?' To be ferious-we are not panegyrifing our young count men in the Eaft, but merely vindicating them from the hafty an ill-digefted afperfions of our young countrymen at the Univer ty. Of the irregularities which deformed the earlier years cí our fovereignty in India, we fay nothing. Of the fyftem d foreign politics, which has fometimes been adopted by our L dian Governors, we have faid enough. The question news, Whether the internal adminiftration of our Afiatic poffefens after all the reforms of Lord Cornwallis and others, be really is corrupt, profligate, grinding, and deteftable, as it appears in the portrait given of it by the prefent writer. In juftice to the exalted character juft mentioned, as well as to the reft of ou: European brethren befide the Ganges, we declare our conviction, and we triumph in the contemplation, that the internal economy of our Afiatic dominions has been, of late years, wonderfuly improved; that inftances of rapacity are now extremely rares and that, on the whole, the general adminiftration of British India as pure as that of any part of the British empire. Indeed, ther is one prefumptive proof of this amelioration, which is obvie to the plaine it understanding; the actual term of refidence of ou Countrym countrymen in the Indian fervice is known to be now feldom less than twenty years. We have not room to notice particularly Mr Cockburn's doctrine, that expenditure is the great parent of industry, and that the luxury which is often faulty in the individual, becomes, under certain limits, the nurfe of civilization.' The reader, who wishes to fee the arguments in fupport of this doctrine, may confult the Fable of the Bees; or, if he has no inclination to fearch for them there, he will find them ftated, and tolerably well refuted, in the Minute Philofopher. We fhall only fay, that this doctrine is to be confidered, rather as a perverfion of truth, than as radically erroneous, and that its fallacy cannot be better expofed. than by the project ironically started in the book laft mentioned, of burning down London, by way of roufing this whole nation to unexampled exertions of manufacturing industry. The gentle reader may poffibly inquire why we have beftowed fo much.fpace and time on the confideration of the thefis before us. We answer, for three reafons; 1, Because we delight to indulge ourselves in the contemplation of the important fubjects which it fuggefts to our minds; 2d, Because we were fearful that the fort of authority, with which this production has been ushered into the world, might give a currency to its errors; 3d, and laftly, Because we were willing to expofe the danger which authors incur, by venturing on the inveftigation of queftions for which they are totally unfurnished. However imperfectly we may have fucceeded in the attempt to convey to our readers fome original information on the state of our Afiatic dominions, we are, at leaft, fanguine enough to believe, that we have proved the fubject of this thefis to be confiderably removed above the grafp of our English academics, and that thofe who may honour thefe ftrictures with their perufal, will beware of receiving their impreffions, on matters connected with modern India, from men who are much better acquainted with Porus and Sandracottus, than with Holkar and Scindia. At the fame time, prolix as this article may appear, we take fome credit for our forbearance, in not ftill farther extending it, as the catalogue of Mr Cockburn's mistakes, which we have exhibited, might have been doubled with the utmoft facility. The ftyle of the Differtation, which we are just about to close, is ufually of that fpecies which does not particularly challenge criticifm; without ornaments-and not ambitious of them; poor and content. Occafionally, however, that fort of fine writing is attempted, which confifts in yoking a spare-epithet to every fubftantive, and in fuch claufes as this, Bloody was his march, and rapid and refiftlefs,' &c. ༦ ART. ART. XVII. Reflections on the Commerce of the Mediterraneas; De duced from a&ual experience during a Refidence on both shores of in Mediterranean Sea, containing a particular account of the Trafi: gi Kingdoms of Algiers, Tunis, Sardinia, Naples and Sicily, the Me, c.; With an impartial examination into the Manners and Cyfre the Inhabitants in their Commercial Dealings, and a particular di tion of the British Manufactures properly adapted for each cour fbewing alfo, the policy of increafing the number of British Confuès, m that fuch advantages may refult to the English, by bolding poin in the Mediterranean, as nearly to equal their Weft India Trad. B John Jackson Efq. F. S. A. author of the Journey over land f India. London, Clarke. pp. 222. 8vo. 1805. THIS is a book of a very useful class. It contains the refult: di a practical man's experience in a most important purtir, and is immediately addreffed to thofe who are difpofed to engag in the fame line of occupation. When the employment of cap tal is daily becoming more difficult from its accumulation, and when there feems reafon to dread that, ere long, fome very wide channels will be fhut up which it now occupies, mercantile me are under no fmall obligations to those who fuggeft new fourca of profitable fpeculation, and furnish not only a general outline f the spot where the gains may be reaped, but a chart of the rou which leads to it. The only legitimate encouragements to commerz, indeed, confift in the diffufion of fuch valuable information; and though no one can be fanguine enough to expect that publication of this fort will produce their effects directly, by engaging a co fiderable body of capitalifts to embark in the propofed adventures, yet it is clear that they lead ultimately to the fame confequence, by tempting one or two fpeculative individuals to follow the new line of trade, which foon becomes fufficiently attractive from the obvious confideration of their fuccefs. Mr Jackfon's book is full of details which have every appear ance of accuracy, and are related without any affectation. The reafoning, which occupies but a fmall proportion, is in general correct. A number of curious facts, interefting in a fpeculative point of view, may be gleaned from his ftatements; and though the ftyle, as well as the arrangement of the materials, befpeak in author little practised in the art of compofition, the air of fa plicity and plain sense which characterise the whole book, would atone for greater literary defects. We purpofe to give an abitrad of the general pofitions moft dwelt upon in the courfe of it, and a few fpecimens both of the more fpeculative information above alluded to, and of the manner in which our author has delivered his practical leffons. That the commerce of the Mediterranean in general could e cupy a much greater capital than is at prefent embarked in it, may may be made apparent by a variety of confiderations. It will be fufficient to mention the high rate of the profits which this trade now yields. Our author afferts that the gain is frequently thirty and forty per cent. from port to port along the coafts of the fea, and for very fhort voyages. The different nations which surround it have a decided preference for dealings with English merchants, and for British manufactures and colonial produce, over thofe of France. The fuperior excellence of our wrought commodities, as well as the greater proportional cheapnefs of our freight, is fufficient, it would feem, to counterbalance the greater length of the voyage; and the scale would be turned decidedly in our favour by the high character of the nation in its mercantile dealings. Yet notwithstanding these advantages, it is not an uncommon thing to fee the whole ports of a nation filled with French fhipping, and scarcely to meet with a fingle English flag. Such facts can only be accounted for upon the fuppofition either that the profits of fome other employments of ftock are higher, or that there is fome check to the interference of English traders in the commerce of the Mediterranean, which does not operate against thofe of France. We fhall afterwards mention more particularly, what, in our author's opinion, this check is. At prefent, we may remark, that the coafting trade of the Mediterranean feems to be lefs confidered than it deferves, if there is any truth in the affertion, that veffels will frequently lye in port waiting for their cargoes feveral months, at an expence of four or five hundred pounds, when fo great a profit as thirty or forty per cent. might be obtained by the transport of goods from port to port, while the affortments are making up. The inftance of Leghorn is fpecified as a proof of this; and if the only cause of fuch impolicy is the ignorance of our traders, Mr Jackson has contributed his share to remove it, in the full information which he here details. The extent of the French commerce with the Mediterranean ftates, may be estimated from the fact, that in one year (1797) the merchants of Marseilles. alone, loaded in the different ports of Tunis above three hundred fail of veffels, from eighty to three hundred tons burthen. According to our author, the main obftacles to the advancement of the British trade in the Mediterranean, are want of confuls in the different ports, and of a few convenient fettlements to furnish entrepôts and harbours. We decline entering here into fo extensive a difcuffion as the latter of these confiderations must Luggeft. But the policy of increafing the number of British commercial agents in the foreign countries with which it is the intereft of our merchants to trade, can scarcely admit of a doubt. The impofitions practifed by perfons affuming the title, are well known; and the difficulties which our traders experience in carry ing on their business at ports where no regular conful refides, are ftrongly illuftrated by the statements of the work before us. is clearly expedient that fuch obftacles to the employment of capital fhould be removed; and the conduct of the French government in this particular, if Mr Jackfon may be trufted, has been attended with great fuccefs. We may remark, however, that our author greatly exaggerates the ufes to which confuls are properly fubfervient. According to him, the chief impofitions practifed by our foreign vice-confuls, confift in the extravagance of their charges upon the cargoes which they are commiffioned to prepare by the merchants of this country. He fhews that a profit of thirty-five per cent. is really gained by them, under cover of the trifling nominal commiftion; and inftances the fact of Italian houses at Leghorn, fupporting themselves in great fplendour upon the fales of two Newfoundland fhips per annum. He is here obviously confounding things perfectly distinct. The duties of a conful appointed to aflift the traders of his country in their differences with the government where he refides, and to watch over their rights when attacked by foreigners in places where the ordinary administration of juftice is irregular, are quite diftinct from the functions of a mercantile correfpondent; and although the establishment of commercial men as confuls for the above general purposes, may greatly facilitate the mercantile tranfactions of his countrymen, by furnishing refpectable correfpondents, yet it would be altogether abfurd in any nation to view this as a primary motive for establishing confulates, and thus to hire perfons as factors for its merchants, in countries where the natives were not deemed worthy of truft. The particular facts alluded to upon this topic, we feel fomewhat difpofed to queftion. That merchants may be extremely ignorant of the places or fpeculations which are open to their capital, we can eafily admit. That various accidental circumftances may operate to prevent them from entering into thefe profitable employments fo fpeedily as their intereft would require, might also be granted; but after they have once occupied the new ground, and engaged in the whole details of the bufiness, as our author admits them to have done in the cafes referred to, we prefume it would be abfurd to fuppofe that they can remain blind to the most gainful methods of managing it. If their foreign correfpondents impofe upon them to the extent of above one third of all fales and purchafes, as Mr Jackfon afferts, the trick muft fpeedily be difcovered. If all the native factors perfift in demanding the fame high premium under the cover of the nominal commiffion, we may be affured that the fums actually taken are the real and juft profits of the agent; and if the British trader, who fends two Newfoundland veffels in a year to Leghorn, fup ports |