fir and oak timber, plank and staves, and by this port, latterly, linens from Silesia, since the blockade of the Elbe." The ports of Memel and Konigsburg enjoy the benefit of intercourse with the Black Sea, by means of the Oginsky canal. Vessels, containing from 50 to 60 lasts, generally perform two voyages in the year. Dantzic is one of the oldest cities on the Baltic. Its chief article of export is grain, which it receives in immense quantities from Poland, by the Vistula. The regulations of this trade are peculiar; as no one is allowed to trade with a Polander, who is not free of the city, or is not a burgher; and neither an Englishman, nor a Dutchman, is allowed this privelege. The transit business is not permitted. Every foreigner is obliged to deal with a burgher. A remarkable instance of ill-judged œconomy is given, in the usual mode of conveying corn from the interior to this port. It is exposed to the weather in floats, during voyages which last from six to ten weeks, to save the expense of a tarpauling or covering. If the season is wet, it is piled in a ridge, and the surface soon becomes a coat of vegetative matter, and has the appearance of a grassplat floating down the current. Prussia is, however, to be regarded as a military, rather than a commercial state. The true principles of commerce, as in all military governments, are little understood, and much less practised. It appears not to have an united system in its dominions, to make a combined connection in its trade and manufactures; the latter, however, it encourages beyond the example of any other country; but there are no institutions of a public nature, founded on general principles, to facilitate commerce; and each of its ports has its peculiar modes of doing business, independent of the others, or of any general regulations." The Dutchy of Mecklenburg is so remarkale for its fertility in corn, that the author calls it the Egypt of the Baltic Sea. “It is almost one cornfield. The riches which have been brought into it within the last ten years, can only be conceived by the large sums which England has paid for grain." The territories of Sweden, not affording any of those new channels of trade, which it is the object of the author, in this part of his work, to point out; we shall pass on to the 5th chapter, which relates to the commerce of Denmark. In treating of Holstein, some observations occur, which derive a peculiar importance from the present aspect of European politics. The whole of the European shore, from the Adriatic to the Elbe, is now either in the possession of the French, or greatly under their influence, who, independent of their state of warfare with Great Britain, have established a government, the nature of which is incompatible with K 2 commer commercial prosperity. Commerce is now driven, as if it were by a storm, to the North of Europe, and the first hospitable shore, on which it finds a harbour, is on the coast of Denmark. • Commercial men have been accustomed to pay little attention to that country; it is to existing circumstances that it owes its present importance; but it does not follow that this importance will be of short duration.' p. 332. The portion of the continent that borders on the north bank of the Elbe, is the shore of the Holstein part of Denmark, and this small peninsula must be kept free from the French grasp, else Russia, Prussia, and Sweden, as well as Denmark itself, will lose all their importance !' p. 333. The sixth book includes an account of the produce, manufactures, and commerce of Germany. In the second chapter of this book, the author has inserted an official statement of all the imports into Hamburg, in the year 1802, when it was one of the greatest seats of commerce on the whole European continent. This is, perhaps, one of the most valuable documents that was ever submitted to the commercial eye. It is alphabetically arranged, and the places from which all the articles come are specified, and the quantities of each distinctly marked. It would, however, have been still more useful, if the author, instead of giving the gross amount of the importation, and annexing the names of the ports from whence received, generally, had stated the precise quantity exported by each of the several ports. Thus, it does not appear from the table, that the exportation of glass from France did exceed that from England. "Glass, 210 chests, 11 casks, and 457 baskets, from Bremen, Dieppe, Liverpool, London, Lüneburg, Newcastle, Rouen, and Stettin." It must have been from other documents than those given in the tables, that the fact is inferred by Mr. O. The seventh and last book of this work treats principally of the commerce of Great Britain and Ireland, as. connected with the North of Europe. The leading object of this part of our author's plan, is to excite attention to our internal resources, and to the production, either at home, or in our immediate dependencies, of those articles for which we are in the habit of paying, annually, immense sums to the northern nations. The comparative cheapness of Jabour, enables them to vend their merchandize at a rate so low, as almost to discourage the raising of such materials among ourselves. Their avarice, however, is leading us to wisdom in this. respect; for while policy dictates that they should be satisfied with such a price as would leave no stimulus to competition, and which the difference in the value of money in the respective countries, puts amply in their power; their demands seem to rise in proportion as they discover our capacity to pay. Thus, every commodity imported by us from our Northern European neighbours, is charged far beyond its intrinsic value. It is, at the same time, the less necessary that we should, in this way, enrich our competitors at our own expense, as a due attention to the cultivation of the saine cominodities in the United Kingdom, and our North American possessions, would beneficially employ our poor-render productive the immense tracts of waste land diminish our imports, and turn our wealth into those channels in which it would fertilize and improve our own country, and render us independent of foreign nations for every article of necessity. It is, also, the more requisite, that the improvement of our internal resources should engage a greater degree of care than they do at present, as it seems hardly reasonable to suppose, that, amidst the agitations which convulse the European con tinent, our external relations should not be affected. At the moment when we are writing, we are ignorant to what extent the insatiable envier of "our ships, colonies and com❤ merce," may have obtained controul over some of those very channels of trade to which Mr. O. has been directing the atten tion of his readers. The vast increase of our commerce, since the year 1793, is owing to circumstances which a peace, whatever may be its conditions, must materially affect. The intercourse of France, Holland, and Spain, with the East and West Indies, must then be renewed, and the preponderating influence of France on the continent of Europe will naturally afford them facilities, which we may fail to obtain. A considerable mass of wealth, driven by political agitations to our country, and which has, in many instances,encreased our commercial capital, must be refunded. These, and other considerations, forcibly point out the necessity of leav ing no means untried, which can tend to keep down that balance of trade, which our immense imports, under consequently di minished exports, would create against us. Whether or not, the capital which it would be requisite to employ in carrying such a plan into exccution, may not, during a period of high commercial prosperity, be more advantageously occupied, may admit of discussion: but it must be recollected, that the branches of trade, to which these observations chiefly apply, are almost the only ones, of which the balance is mate rially against this nation. The reflections of our author, on this part of his plan, are well entitled to attention from the landed, as well as the commercial, interest of the country. Few of them will, indeed, be found to possess much novelty; but as they stand con nected with documents, which add the result of experience to the deductions of reasoning; they have a weight beyond what is usually attached to them, in the speculations of mere theoretical K3 writers. writers. It might, however, have been of advantage, had he spent a little time in investigating the causes of that state of things, which he is desirous of altering: for it is not uncommon in human affairs, that by attempting to apply a remedy to effects, of which the true source is but imperfectly known, the evils themselves are either increased, or others more hurtful are created in their stead. In the cultivation of those resources which, as our author explains the term, our country possesses, a compensation is to be found for any diminution which our commercial prosperity may experience. The most necessary of the articles, upon the importation of which so much money is expended, are corn, hemp, flax, timber, and iron. To each of these the author devotes a considerable share of attention, and his remarks, for the greater part, carry conviction to the mind of an impartial reader. Taking it for granted that, the climate and the soil of Great Britain, Ireland, and our North American possessions, are as well calculated for the production of such articles, as those of the countries from which they are received, he laudably wishes to excite the attention of government, as well as of the inhabitants in general, to these important objects. We recommend the perusal of the several chapters, in which Mr. O. considers the means of extending our internal resources by the increased production of the commodities above mentioned, to our readers, whether connected with commerce or not; as they contain a large portion of useful and interesting information. In the chapter in which the articles of "hemp and flax" are treated of, our feelings were strongly excited by the representation which the author gives, from personal observation, of the state of the lower Irish. • In the course of twelve months, in which, the author travelled in Russia, Poland, Cermany, Holland, Flanders, and France, he resolved to visit, (as he did within that period) Ireland, never having been in that kingdom; when, to his surprize, he found greater distress among the the lower class than he had any where seen; and this in the midst of greater resources than almost any of those countries enjoy." p. 570. Who can forbear lamenting that this representation should be even partially true, in a country so closely allied to our own? Here is a noble field for the exercise of benevolence; and in enforcing the claims of the poorer inhabitants of several parts of Ireland upon their more enlightened and prosperous fellow subjects in England, every consideration, drawn from religion, philanthrophy, and patriotism, powerfully unites. It appears, indeed, unaccountable that, amidst the various exertions for extending the knowledge of genuine Christianity, and its concomitant blessings, the ruder part of our sister island should have been been, in a very great degree, overlooked. Can any race of men stand in need of these benefits, more than multitudes, who are united to us by nearer bonds than those of mere humanity? Enthralled by a spiritual tyranny, which holds its seat in the ignorance and superstition of its unhappy vassals, their energies are only known, when they have received from their insidious leaders, a direction destructive to the welfare and tranquillity of society. To rectify a state of things so detrimental to our national prosperity, we earnestly hope that the endeavours of government will be turned, whenever peace may enable them to relax their anxious attention to our external relations: and in the mean time, we trust, that the benevolent exertions of private individuals, will be directed to a quarter, than which they can no where be more honourably, or usefully, employed. Ireland possesses within itself, every requisite to render its inhabitants prosperous and happy. To the cultivation of hemp and flax, many parts of it are peculiarly adapted; and as Mr. O. observes, one fiftieth portion of the land now lying idle would enable us to export, instead of importing, those necessary articles. 1 With regret we feel ourselves obliged to bring this article to a close, especially as so much remains unnoticed, upon which we could dwell with real pleasure. In estimating the general character of the work before us, we think that Mr. O. has, in publishing it, done his country a considerable service. Its merits consist, chiefly, in the importance of the documents which it presents, and the various information which it combines. We consider the work, as a valuable repository of commercial knowledge, on the subject of our trade with the northern nations of Europe. Had the author enlarged his plan, and treated of the other branches of our commerce in the same way, the utility of his researches would have been more general; as other "new channels," might be pointed out which are not less important than those he has laid before his readers. We are sorry that we cannot fully perform our duty, without hinting at the defects of the treatise. These relate chiefly to the composition. There is, at times, an obvious want of method in the arrangement of the matter; observations are introduced, the application of which to the subject treated of is not very evident; and repetitions of the same sentiments not unfrequently occur. The style is occasionally very incorrect, and even ob scure but these blemishes might easily be removed in a future edition, by the revision of some friend, a little more accustomed, than our author is, to the rules of grammar and style. These are defects of minor importance, which are abundantly counterbalanced by the general excellencies of the work. We hope K 4 that |