171] £. PRICES CURRENT, March 20, 1817. American pot-ash, per cwt 2 Fire-Office Shares, &c. March 20. Canals. £. 3. ....Div. 5..... 102 950 (Div. 441.) .. 0 to 2 17 Croydon .... 510 Ditto pearl 3 Crivan 2 2 .... ...... Barilla Ellesmere and Chester (D.41.) Brandy, Cogniac,bond.gal. 0 11 Camphire, refined lb. 0 4 .. Ditto unrefined..cwt. 12 10 Cochineal, fine black, b. 1 10 Ditto, East-India 0 6 0 0 .... Ditto ordinary Coffee, fine bond....cwt. 5 13 Cotton Wool, Surinam, lb. 0 ...... 5 0 0 5 1 11 Ditto Jamaica 0 Ditto East-India 0 5 18 0 0 Lancaster...... Div. 11..... 20 0 2 2 615 1 10 Peak forest 63 8 Stratford & Avon.. 10 Thames and Medway Currants, Zant....cwt.. 5 0 Docks. Elephants' Teeth .22 75 Scrivelloes 25 East India.. Div. 71... 170 London ........ Ditto Petersburgh Galls, Turkey.... cwt. 12 Geneva, Holl bond.gal. 0 Ditto, English.... Gum Arabic, Turkey,cwt.10 0 0 3 013 Hemp, Riga,.. .. ton 0 0 Ditto Petersburgh Indigo, Caraccas Ditto East-India ... 0 7 Iron British bars.. ton 13 10 0 Ditto Swedish c.c.N.D. 21 10 Ditto Swed. 2nd sort 18 0 Lead in pigs.... fod 0 .... Ditto red..`、、、、 ton 40 0 ton 0 49 50 5pd. Div. 61. West India .... Div 10l..... 203 Insurance Companies. 500sh..£50 pd. 50 0 1! 6 Imperial .500 50pd. 82 London Fire... London Ship... 2,1 22 8.10 0 0 Royal Exchange .. Div. 10.., 260 Rock......20...2pd.. Union Fire Life 1001. 20 pd 27 Water Works. London Bridge.... Div.31. 10s 52 10 60 Manchester and Salford 42 Portsmouth and Farlington50/ 10 10 4 14 54 181 Ditto (New) 50..Div. 6..... 34 South London 17 ... 0 0 West Middlesex 0 0 100 Bridges. 48 Southwark 61 ..... Waterloo 12 10 Ditto Old Annuities 60 all på. 40 Ditto New do 40 sh. all pd. Vauxhall Bonds 97 pd Literary Institutions. Russel 25 gs. .... .... 32 100 50 35 40 40 47 ,50 27 Fair ,56 ,80 18 Fair ,51 24 Cloudy 1818. 36 51 46 ,20 23 Cl.St. Feb. 27 .. 8. d. 20 4 8 0 Sh. Sn. ,250 Showry POTATOES, Kidney...... 8 0 0 Ox Nobles.. 7 0,0 ,52 21 Cloudy Smithfield, per stone of 8b. to sink the Offal. 27 4 8 28,720 Stormy 8 42 ,36 30 Fair SUGAR. ,25 10 Sh. Slt. 11 31 48 38 ,40 28 Clody 28,85 22 Fai Lumps ordinary or large 32 to 40 lbs... Powder, ordinary, 9 to 11lbs. COTTON TWIST. ,35 20 Cloudy Mar 19. Mule 1st quality, No. 40 3s. 5d. -No. 120 6s. 7d. -2d quality, No 40 2s. 10d. Discount-15 to 22 per cent. COALS, delivered at 13s. per chald. advance 108s 121s 121s 115s London Premiums of Insurance. Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, &c. 15s. 9d. Amelia Island, Ogs. to Ogs. Hamburgh, &c. 158. 9d. to 20s. Cape of Good Hope, 2gs. France, 15. 9d. to 20s. Mar. Daily Price of STOCKS, from 23rd February, to 21st of March, 1818. Judia Stock. South Sea India Bonds. Excheq Stock. Bills. 80 80 1818. Feb. 23 24,289 25 289 79 79 20 元 22p 79 994 1064 20 15-16 783 240 94 23p 792 79 80 783 91 80 792798 240 791 97 97 97 20p 79 782 98 105 14p 782 878 THE LITERARY PANORAMA, AND National Register : For MAY, 1818. NATIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES, (British and Foreign,) PROSPECTIVE and RETROSPECTIVE. ON THE DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING POLITICAL TRUTH. ON THE DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING Truth IN POLITICAL AFFAIRS; EVINCED BY THE VARIOUS ANSWERS MADE TO CERTAIN QUESTIONS Uncommon penetration is attributed, by the bulk of mankind, to their rus lers and sovereigns; whether the sove reignty reside in one person or in many persons;—" It is known to God and the Grand Duke," says the Rus sian; the Pope is informed by Revelation, says the Catholic Italian; and among ourselves, who has not heard references to the "Omnipotence of Par liament," references which included, at least, the supposition that our legislature was competent to obtain truth and corsati-rectness, in every branch of national concerns; to go no further? Circulated under the Act 55 George III. Quid Leges sine moribus Vana proficiunt ;— Was the enquiry of the mortified rist, whose works inform us, that ancieat times suffered under the same evils The legislature enacts laws; it is the as those of which we now complain. office of that national council: and a He saw in the conduct of mankind the law is the expression of national will, same prevailing dispositions as we now promulgated by lawful authority. Nesee; and he, equally with ourselves, la-vertheless, it is the intention of the premented the incompetence of legal enactments, when self-interest, either really or supposedly, stood in the way of their most desirable operations. Political institutions have, certainly, great effect on the character of a people; yet there are principles in the human mind, which, in action, thwart the efficacy of Political Institutions. There are natural dispositions, innate tendencies, which a man can no more abandon than he can abandon his being; insomuch that the old proverb will always continue to be true, "what is bred in the bone will never be out of the flesh." VOL. VIII. No. 44, Lit. Pan. N. S. May 1. sent paper to adduce a few observations on the difficulties which prevent the spirit of laws, however clearly enacted, from obtaining universal prevalence; and on the almost impossibility of acquiring that accuracy of information on some questions, which is necessary to the full and intire discharge of the most ardu ous and important duty, of legislators, that of adapting the laws they establish to the circumstances and condition of the people, who are to obey them. To say "the people in our country-have nothing to do with laws but to obey them," is to overlook the existence of those numerous applications for amend H ments, corrections, and even repeal of statutes, which every session brings before Parliament; and to which not a little investigation of that illustrious body is directed. Parliament may possess the best information that can be obtained, at the moment; but later or more extensive enquiries may prove, that the subject admitted of much addition; and that to accomplish the object intended, other considerations were demarded, and must be allowed their place in the general discussion. The selfishness of human nature is not a principle to be controuled or counteracted by law; it is inherent, and cannot be eradicated. Habit, independent of selfishness, though not wholly separate from it, is another instance of the existence of a power against which legal enactments maintain a perpetual struggle; but are not always victorious. We waive all reference to Religious opinions, which, as all the world knows, in very many instances, either resist or evade the force of authority, whether political or ecclesiastic. How often has the head of the Catholic Church called for unity among its members, and enacted peace and silence, by Bulls, decretals, injunctions, monitions, edicts, and exhortations ? Has he succeeded? Are there no jealousies and squabbles, and rivalships between this Order and that Order? between this sect and the other sect? Do not the very Bulls themselves from time to time, occasion fresh disputes? and did we never hear of distinctions, formed into parties, marked by the reception or non-reception of such instruments? If this obtains in a religion so professedly peaceful as the Christian, and so professedly universal, as the Catholic, can we wonder it should prevail among the various sects which follow Mahomet, or the innumerable diversities existing as rivals, and displaying their rivalship, not seldom in blows, among the votaries of Hindoo idolatry and polytheism ? Our own country has its share of this diversity. Far be it from us to interfere with the rights of any man, whether as to his mind, or as to his person. We merely refer to the fact, as an instance of the insufficient power of law, as mere law, to accomplish the purposes of those who anticipate implicit conformity to its operations. And if any doubt, whether the same imperfection accompanies law when enacted in civil concerns, which are properly its province, we might intreat their attention to a few obvious instances. Self-interest, hardened into habit, forms the smuggler, whose pursuits involve a direct contravention of law; and are unreservedly proclaimed as open defiance, not by the culprits themselves, only, but by every one connected with them, throughout the whole of their traffic. And yet, they do find customers; and those customers again find others; for, were there no buyers, there would be no sellers; and the buyers also are individuals who have not yet learned to subject their feelings of interest to the enactments of the state. In this the smuggler and his coadjutors confess no compunction; as they acknowledge no guilt; such is the force of habit !-And the same may be said of those more cautious transgressors, who, in spite of the exertions of the excise, and the severity of the distillery laws, prepare their potations of ardent spirits for family use, and for exportation, too; without the tedious delay of a seven years' apprenticeship; or the troublesome formality of obtaining licenses for their stills, and appointing the inspection of an officer of the revenue to watch their workings. The Hibernian, who has prepared a few gallons of whiskey, for the pious purpose of driving away grief at a funeral, and "putting his wife decently into the ground," acknowledges in his practice the force of habit: he thinks himself free from the slightest penalty of the law, or the censure of his neighbours, for doing that which his father and his grandfather did before him. They kept their wakes before the interment; and they took the cheering cup after it, to soothe their sorrows: why, then, should not I? The argument is irresistible; and the reference is undeniable :-"Do not tell me of the stillmen, and the officers: Erin go bragh !” When the habits of a community are adverse to the law,-or rather, when the law is adverse to the habits of a commu |