I 54i ] [Jan. I, 



^i'i'i^Ew Publications in DECEMBEti,',, 



«qii 



IVith an HisronicAL and Critical PRoiiMiuM. 



*I^E'piiWifintions of the present month 

 include iiutliinj;' absoiiifely historical, 

 except a \V(Ji!<. entitled, the History of 

 Veylait, wliicli by conrtesy may he so 

 tlcnoniina'ud. It appears to be a very 

 usel'iil eonii ilation tif tlie piinoipril ac- 

 counts and notices of that important 

 island, sIhcl; its partial occupation l>y 

 Europeans. Robert Knox's Narrative 

 of his twenty years' cajjlivity is sub- 

 joined. 



Elaborate political speculiition is as 

 little ci!coura{;ed when fa«:ls are over- 

 abundant, as when they (ire insuliicient 

 to stimulate attention ; for it is not in 

 the hcij^ht either of prospeiily or of 

 suffering, that ])eoplc are disposed to 

 investigate reasonins:, or follow ar<;n- 

 invnlalion. 'I'liis truth may account for 

 the few |iolitical pamphlets which now 

 appear in comparison w illi their ninn- 

 fccr in times past: the present Jjist, in 

 particular, only afl'ords one under the 

 heads either of (jcneral Politics or Poli- 

 tical Economy, which it is necessary to 

 mention here. The work in question is 

 clenominaf ed. An Essuy to shew the Jus- 

 tice and l''.rpciliencij of reducing the In- 

 terest of the National Debt, and is writ- 

 ten to prove the propriety of estimating- 

 the amount duo to the national creditor 

 by some other crit(.'rion tiian a currency, 

 the fluctuation of whicli is favourable to 

 Mm alone. 'J'lie anliior's general argu- 

 ment may be stated verysimi)ly: — all 

 the property in the conn! ry, ho observes, 

 is depreciated, except that of the holder 

 of stock, whose stake increases in value, 

 if not in security, precisely as every 

 other source of income is deteriorated. 

 The great bulk of the money lent, he 

 contends, was advanced when its posi- 

 tive value was not more than half so 

 high as it is at presenl ; and he would 

 therefore have the interest calculated on 

 the grounds of that positive value only. 

 Strictures on war, profusion, excessive 

 taxation, and the fallacy of the sinking- 

 fund, make up the remainder of this 

 essay, which is warmly written. 



Air. Cor.iiETT, whose sincerity in thf 

 cause of the country can no longer he 

 questioned by any })<'irty, has exceeded 

 his wonted energy in the late numbers 

 of his Political l\egistcr. By publishing 

 a cheap edition at two-penck, siranlta- 

 lieously with his royal octavo edition, he 

 has iucreased his circulation froHj three or 

 1 



four to FORTY and fifty thocsaxd 

 per week ; Und thus his work tends to 

 counteract the imprincipled sophistry 

 of certain of the daily Newspapers, and 

 ot their satellites through the country. 

 As Mr. Cobbett gives no quarter to the 

 partizans of war and corruption, and to 

 the .sinccurists and peculators who de- 

 vour the substance of the people, and 

 as 1)6 is the able advocate of the vital 

 (juestion of parliamentary reform, we 

 conceive it to be our duty to rcconi- 

 nicnd his Register to the favorable at- 

 tention of our liberal and enlightened 

 readers. 3fr. Cobbett is called a vio- 

 lent and inflammatory w riter ; but how 

 dillicnlt it is for any man of strong feel- 

 ings to measure his language, when he 

 considers the turpitude which beg«n 

 and continued the late wars — the hor- 

 rible course and ruinous consequences 

 of those wars — and the circumstance 

 that the criminal authors, instead of 

 being brought to condign pimis'nnent, 

 are wantoning in power and luxury I 



Much curiosity being excited in re- 

 gard to the Spencecm Plan of Public 

 Economy, it will be useful to state, that 

 the details of the system may be found 

 in a small pamphlet called Christian 

 I'oliei/, by'J'HOMAS Evans, librarian to 

 the Society of Spcncean Philanthropists, 

 at No. 8, Newcastle-street, Strand. 

 Mr. Evans appears to have been most 

 cruelly used by the Pitt administration ; 

 and, having been drilled into the science 

 of politics in the school of persecution, 

 his pamphlet is written with consider- 

 able energy. Wc collect from it, Ihat 

 the main object of the Society is a more 

 ojual occupation (not pro])rietorshi|)) of 

 land, a principle whicli has often been 

 urged in the pages of this IMagazine. 

 Soinetliing must be radically wrong if 

 industry should suffer from want in a 

 country in which there aie but 2| mil- 

 lions of families, to 42 millions of acres 

 of cultivated land, affording, tinder a 

 wise policy, fhe produce of 17 acres to 

 every family, or four times as inuchas 

 it could consume. Skiltiil labour in 

 any branch of useful industry ought, 

 therefore, to yield abundance, even 

 though the proprietary in land should 

 remain exactly as it does at present. 



The most jnetcnding product ion."! of the 



montlj, however, fall under the bead of 



Biograpliy, — for the Private Correspmi- 



.1 keiKt 



