Retro/pelf of Dome/tic Literature. — PoUt'tcal Economy^ isc. 595 



The credit Mr. Orme gained by his forincr 

 works in iliuftration of the hirtory of In« 

 doftan, has prepared the way for a favour- 

 able reception to any thing he may now 

 write upon the fubjeft. The fragments 

 of the Wogul Empire, which foim a 

 large portion of the prefeilt volume, are 

 but the republication of a former wc k, 

 though now amended snd enlarged. 1 he 

 fecond article mentioned in the title, on 

 the trade at Broach and Surat, is an >iher 

 fragment, comprizing a period from 1608 

 to 1616. It is written in a limple llyle, 

 difplays refearch, and affords a good Ipc- 

 cimen of hiiiorical inquiry which might 

 have b'ien carried farther. But the thrd 

 article, en the govermient and people of 

 Indoftan, is a traft ihar will be long ac- 

 ki owledged to pcflel's luperior merit. It 

 was drawn up fo long ago as 1752, and 

 contains views which elucidate the go- 

 vernment and charafter of the peopie of 

 Indoftan with an accuracy and a fpii it of 

 inveftigation that has never besn furpaifed. 

 The particulars are too intricate to be en- 

 tered into here. We ftiail content our- 

 fclves with prefenting 10 our readers a 

 ftrong recommendation of the work. 



The eleventh and twelfth volumes 

 which have now appeared, complete Mr. 

 Belsh am's " Hijiory of Great Britain,^' 

 and bring it to ths conclufion of the Trea- 

 ty of Amiens. The eleventh volume opens 

 with the fpeech from the throne at the 

 commencement of the feflion of parliament 

 in the autumn of 1798. 



It may be fufficient to give a geneial 

 notice of Mr. Barre's " Rife and Fall of 

 Bonaparte' t Empire in Frante." Its rife 

 we have feen ; but, under recent circum- 

 ftances, it* fall does not appear fo obvious. 

 Mr. Barre may perhaps have truth on his 

 fide for many of the anecdotes which he 

 relates j but they are told with fuch an 

 oreiflow of zeal, and in fuch a fpirit of 

 hoflile rancojir, that we are confident feVv 

 will read them without doubting their au- 

 thenticity. Such writers injure the caufe 

 they would defend. 



Mr. Abams's " Ne'iu Hijiory gf Great 

 Britain from the Invafion of Julius Cafar 

 to the prefent Time," is an abridgment, ihc 

 plan of which we readily approve. In 

 regard to execution it has many errors. 



yoUTICAL ECONOMY, POLITICS, &C. 



In L id Liverpool's " Treaiife on 

 the Coins of the Realm, in a Letter to the 

 idfiji," tlie true principles of coinage are 

 explained and elucidated, the errors for- 

 merly committed in this country pointed 

 out, and tht bed oitlhodt of preventing 



fuch evils for the future fuggefted. In 

 fome of the earlier pages the hillury of the 

 law of this kingdom, as it concerns the 

 royal prerogative of ilT.iitig and regulating 

 coin, is clearly and precilely ftated ; and 

 the manner in which the prerogative has 

 been exercifed is given in a fliort hiftory of 

 the coins theinlelves. The purfuit of this 

 latter ohjefl has led Lord Liverpool into 

 an extenfive range ; and the various alte- 

 r■^tions and debafements at fucceffive pe- 

 riod?, and their iTiilchievous or lalutary 

 confequences, have dilated the treatile to 

 arr extraordinary, though not an injudi- 

 cious length. The better to underdand 

 the changes that have (aken place in th.e 

 coins, an account of the weights made uie 

 of at the mint are accurately listed. The 

 pound weight which was made u''e of in 

 the mints till the 18th of Henry VIII. lor 

 weighing gold and lilver, he obferves, was 

 the Tower-pound, or whit is called die 

 moneyei 's-p'und ; it was lighter than tlie 

 pound troy by three-quarters o( an ounce 5 

 and had been uled from the period of the 

 Sixons to the time we have already (tated, 

 when its ufe was forbidden by Henry 

 VIII., and the troy-pound introduced in- 

 ftead, which has been ever llnce the lland- 

 ard in the royal mints. The fimple fyf- 

 tem of coinage by which the pound in 

 tale was made equal to the pound in 

 weight, from the time of William the 

 Conqueror to Edward I., is next (tated ; 

 during the whole of which, pennies were 

 the higheft denomination of our filver 

 coin. Edward I., in his 28th year, was 

 the'firft who debafed them. After this 

 Lord Liverpool proceeds to give an ac- 

 count of the fucceffive debafements made 

 in our coins ; and deems it proper to ob- 

 ferve, as a preliminary, that coins may be 

 debafed in three different ways. Firff, 

 by diminifhing the (|uantity or weight of 

 the metal of a certain ftandard, of which 

 any coin of a given denomination is 

 made. Secondly, by raifjng the nominal 

 value of coins of a given weight, and made 

 of a metal of a certain itandard ; that is, 

 by making them current, or legal tender, 

 at a liigher rate than that at which they 

 palled before. Thirdly, by lowering the 

 ftandard or finenefs of tlie ir.etal of whicli 

 coins of a given weight and denomination 

 are made ; that is, by diminilliing the 

 quantity of pure metal, and proportiurally 

 increafing the quantity of alloy. In con- 

 formi;y with ihefe three methods, the 

 fucceffive ilebaH?iTiefiis of our coins are re- 

 gularly airangcd, and a hiltoiy, as it 

 weic, of the Englifh coinage introduced, 

 no lefs entertaining than inltru£live. Wid) 

 4 F » our 



