as a good crop of corn is more valuable than a good crop of hay, the more ground is employed in tillage for corn, in preference to lying as meadow, the richer the country will be." This is the principle which our farmer fets himself to combat, and, in doing fo, he attacks Mr. Lamport's remarks on the importance of agriculture. In oppofition to what that writer advances, our author maintains, that the railing as large a fore of provifions as poffible would not in all cafes WITHOUT EXCEPTION, be a public benefit. On the contrary, he apprehends that it would in many cafes be a very great injury to thoufands of individuals, and very fatal in its effects, with regard to the nation at large. And, particularly, that the univerful cultivation of the wafte lands in Great Britain, would be the greatest evil to this country which in the course of nature or human art could poffibly befal it. Plenty of the neceffaries of life, fays our author, abftractedly confidered, is not of fo much benefit to a nation, as most people are apt to think-for it is only when that plenty caufes a cheapness that enables every rank and degree of people to purchafe a fufficiency for their fubfiftence, which conftitutes it a general benefit to mankind: Plenty or carcity of the articles of fubfiftence do not ultimately govern the price of a commodity, though it may tend to create a temporary rife or fall to a certain degree. It is the charge of the production, that ftamps the permanent averaged price on all kinds of commodities whatever.--For inftance, no poffible plenty of Dutch holland, or fine muflias of India, could ever caufe thofe articles to alter for any length of time to an equal low price as the coarfe doulas-because the manufactory of thofe fine articles is fo infinitely more, expenfive than the coarfe.-Admitting then, that the charge of production, flamps the permanent averaged price on all kinds of commodities, then I may fairly draw this conclufion; that though by a' higher degree of cultivation of the lands in this country, we might be able to produce twice as much corn and grafs as we produce at prefent; yet, if that corn and grafs fo produced should coft the nation, or the farmer who produced it, on account of the advanced rent of lands, and the exorbitant expences in the cultivation, twice as much per load as the price of thofe articles are at prefent, neither the nation nor the farmer would mend their condition by this encreafed plenty; on the other hand the poor would fuffer double the diftreffes they now fuffer, unless their wages were doubled; and if their wages were doubled, this would effectually put a stop to all manufactures carried on at prefent to fupply foreign markets.-Now, I do not believe, in cafe of a general enclosure, that corn would be much dearer, or even much cheaper than at prefent, notwithftanding the greater plenty; for as the price of corn is established in every country of Europe, from time to time, according to the averaged price, or plenty or fcarcity in the different nations-fhould the cultivation of the wafte lands be adopted, we fhould most probably produce a great deal more corn than would be required for our R 3 home home confumption; and therefore we fhould fend the overplus abroad; and confequently the price at home would be the fame as the merchant could tell it for abroad, deducting the charges of transportation. But as a certain ancient book has faid, man does not live by bread alone, there are other things to be taken into confideration respecting the fuftenance of man, befides corn, namely butcher's meat, &c. and it is thefe articles which has given birth to my prefent pamphlet. And I here lay it down as an axiom which I shall endeavour to prove, that although the price of butcher's meat hath rifen in London to double the price it might have been bought for thirty years ago; yet fhould all the wafte lands in Great-Britain be parcelled out into farms, and let to tenants at high rents, in like manner as many wafte lands in the kingdom have of late years been parcelled and let out, in a few years butcher's meat would be double in price to what it is at prefent; that is to fay, mutton and beef would be at 9d. or 10d. a pound at least, unless lean cattle fhould be imported from foreign countries. Because I am fure the grazier will not in that cafe be able to afford it for less. Therefore taking for granted for a moment that I am able to establish this affertion, the reader will, I doubt not, agree with me, that the raifing as large a flore of provifions as poffible, would not in all cafes withont exception be a national benefit; for I believe no one will advance, that the additional exportation of corn would be an adequate compenfation for fo great an evil as that of doubling the prefent price of butcher's meat." This extract will fufficiently evince that our author has a great deal to fay in fupport of his opinion, and that he is a man of a bold, original, and manly turn of thinking. He analyzes with fevere accuracy many paffages in Mr. Lamport's remarks, thews many advantages arifing to individuals and to the nation from commons and wafte lands, and intermixes with his reafonings on agriculture, many just observations on political economy in general, and particularly on the nature and tendency of trade to introduce luxury, to deftroy the happiness, and diminish both the numbers and the wealth of a nation: Trade ought to be kept in the ftation of an hand-maid, but never to be advanced to that of mistress of agriculture. ART. V. Three Letters to the People of Great Britain, and particularly to thofe who figned the Addreffes on the late Change of Adminiftration. And the Diffolution of the Parliament. 8vo. 25. Debrett, 1785. THE HE unufual and unprecedented part which the people of England took on the removal of the coalition adminif tration, the coming in of the prefent, and the diffolution of Parliament, directed the attention of the letter writer (fuppofed to be Mr. Edmund Burke) to the principles which have moved and guided the great political machine for fo many ages paft, and to the events which thofe principles and those motions have produced; becaufe, in reafoning from paft to future, they will be able to judge whether fimilar principles and fimilar movements will not again produce fimilar effects. Though the names of Whig and Tory were not known long before the prefent century, their principles are coeval with the conftitution. Where the two great component parts of the conftitution are prerogative on one fide, and the liberty of the people on the other, toryism and whiggifm must be there alfo. Our author, from the Hiftory of England, fhews that when the principles of the whigs, that is, a fpirit of liberty prevailed, the kingdom flourished proportionably in commerce, and wealth, and national happinefs: but that, when prerogative gained the afcendant, the fpirit of industry with trade and general profperity funk in proportion. He comes down to the period of the former war, which terminated in the peace of Verfailles 1763, when Great Britain was at the height of profperity and glory, being governed by a fpirit of freedom which calls forth in times of danger the wifdom and the energy of a nation. But before that war was concluded, minifters of monarchical principles furrounded the throne: and a most successful war was followed by a peace fo difgraceful to their country. That being received by the Parliament, and people at large, with the strongest marks of difapprobation, as coming infinitely fhort of what, with fuch power in their hands after fuch fuc cefs, they thought they had a right to expect; that it proved, what a peace is apt to prove, a rock on which weak ministers almost always fplit, and they quitted their pofts, but they did not relinquifh their power; and from this fource of SECRET INFLUENCE have flowed those bitter waters, which have poifoned all the land, bringing down in their noxious ftreams more loffes in wealth, and more difgraces in reputation, than this country had ever known,' and making within a few fhort years the name of an Englishman to be received abroad with ridicule and contempt, in exchange for the admiration and refpect which I have truly related had for fome time univerfally accompanied it. Such have ever been, and ever will be, the confequences of high prerogative principles; for in them were the foundations laid, fupported fecretly by thofe who dare not openly avow them.' Having proved that national profperity depends, because it has depended, on a due equilibrium of the conftitution, our author upbraids the people with having leagued themfelves on the fide of prerogative against their own liberties and proceeds to make an animated comparison of the present with the paft adminiftration, making the conduct or actions of both, the ftandard of his judgment. R 4 The The ground of the people's diflike to the late ministry were three; the union of two fets of men who had been once difunited; the tax on receipts; and the India Bill. These were the principal acts of that adminiftration; which our author compares with the public acts of the adminiftration which the people took fo much pains to bring into their places. It is needlefs to fay to which fide our author gives the preference; nor will our limits permit us, by an analysis, or even by a few extracts from his performance, to vindicate to our readers the propriety of our criticism, when we fay that these letters contain the best defence of the late administration, and the fevereft yet pleasantest attack that has been made on the prefent ministry. ART. VI. Five Differtations on the Scripture Account of the Fall, and its Confequences. By Charles Chauncey, D. D. Minifter of the first Church in Boston, New England. 8vo. boards 4s. Dilly, 1785. THE HE moral government of the deity, as well as those laws by which he regulates the courfe of nature, is a fubject into which every ingenious mind is inclined, and the Chriftian is invited to enquire. The myfteries of that government, the wonders of divine grace, as we are informed by divine authority, attract the attention, and the curiofity of thofe fuperior orders of intellectual beings who inhabit other manfions than this earth in the capacious house of the father of the univerfe. And, it must be allowed, that the moral government of the world is more interefting than the laws which regulate matter and motion; as the history of nations is more interefting than that of foffils and plants. In the facred fcriptures many views, and glimpfes, and obfcure fhades of truths are difclofed which unaffifted reason could not have difcovered, or, if discovered, could not comprehend. Our limited capacities cannot grafp the ways of the Almighty in their full extent: but, in proportion as we advance in our fearch, the more they open to our view; the more our wonder and adoration is excited; and the more we love, and approve, and confide in that eternal being whofe eye is upon every part of the world, and who is concerned for the happiness of all his creatures, and provides for all according to their wants, that is, the appetites and the powers of their nature. The fall of man is a fubject which has exercifed the philofophical powers of divines even more than any other. The fcripture account of this event is generally by fuch writers fuppofed to be allegorical; and much ingenuity has been difplayed to reconcile it to the theories of ་ philofophy, and to justify the ways of God to man. The 9 10 xaxov has exercifed the genius, and engaged the refearches of ancients and moderns. The moft ingenious account of the origin of evil, in our judgment is to be found in Heylyn's Theological Lectures. The uthor of these differtations does not confider the fcriptural account of the fall, by any means, as allegorical, but literal. It is true that he wholly rejects the accounts of those writers who afcribe wings to the ferpent, who affert that it was of the fiery kind and made a most beautiful fhining appearance, and that, being of an erect figure, he could reach and take fruit from the tree, of which our first parents were not permitted to eat. But ftill he afferts that Mofes may reafonably be looked upon as literally writing a true fact when he fpeaks of a ferpent as talking with eve, though it be fuppofed, at the fame time, that the ferpent was actuated by the devil, and did not say a word in virtue of any natural power he was endowed with, fufficient for the purpofe." Some commentators, our author obferves, by imaginary additions have made the ferpent fpeak in the moft artfully delufive manner. 66 "" 66 After they have introduced the ferpent "playing fome of his wily tricks," and, in the woman's prefence, taking and eating of the tree fhe was reftrained from touching, they represent him as putting on a more feraphic, or angelical appearance," and addreffing her in fuch language as this, "You fee how the fruit of "this tree has exalted me; fo that from a beaft of the field I am "become a glorious feraph, " and endued not only with fpeech, "but with the knowledge of the Divine Will, which has not been "fully opened to you by God himfelf-Can God poffibly, do you "think, have really intended, that you fhould not eat of the fruit "of every tree of the garden, and of this in particular, which he "himself has made and planted there? What did he make and place it there for then?-You are greatly mistaker. The fruit is 66 not deadly, nor will it kill you, any more than it has me. Alas! "all that God meant, by faying it would deftroy you, was, that it "would change and transform you. But fo far will it be from "making you ceafe to be, that, in the day you eat of it, it will open and enlighten your eyes, as it has mine; and as it has "raifed me from a ferpent to a feraph, endued with fpeech and "knowledge of the divine counfels concerning you, fo it fall "likewife raife you from being mortals to be Gods; and, instead of 66 bringing death on you, make you immortal like the great Creator "himfelf; giving you the fame kind of knowledge of good and "evil that he has. You fhall then know the way to poffefs all the "good you enjoy, independently as he docs; and you fhall know "how to avoid death, the threatened evil, which would for ever put an end to all your blifs and felicity. Even difobedience "itfelf will not then be able to bring it upon you. In fine, you 66 66 will |