306 
tem might have been drawn up than is 
contained in the fourth chapter. Com- 
pare the acknowledged laws of maritime 
armaments with the acknowledged laws 
of territorial armaments ; and it will be 
found that moderation has been a dis- 
tinguishing virtue of the framers of the 
mafitime code. The Frederics or Bo- 
napartes have not shewn such respect 
for the rights of neutrals, as the admirals 
of Britain; yet further derelictions of 
claim would still be expedient. The 
northern popularity of Great Britain is 
not consulted by any of those arrogant 
claims, which our pretenders to states- 
manship seek a low applause by assert- 
ing. A mihister of talent would choose 
to renotince them all, conscious that the 
claim is a barrier to friendship; and — 
that all such claims amount, at the mo- 
ment of practical enforcement, to no- 
thing at all. The right of strength and 
the right of wit will ever be used in 
an emergency: contraband of war will 
always be seized by the powerful, and 
always furnished by the dextrous, dur- 
ing a blockade. The agreements do, 
indeed, guide the decisions of courts of 
justice, concerning the legality of prizes; 
but who would wish net to predispose 
our courts of admiralty to consult the 
interests of foreigners as well as of na- 
tives? because equity is most favourable 
to an increase of commercial inter- 
course. 
In the concluding chapter a violent 
effort is made to demonstrate the great 
increase of our prosperity. We are told 
that the coinage from the Revolution to 
the death of George II. amounted to 
33,000,0001. ; but that it has amounted 
under George III. to nearly double the 
sum, namely, 62,000,000]. ‘This is 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS, 
quoted as a proof of increased wealth : 
it only proves that bullion of late years 
has often been worth more than coin; 
and that a great deal has occasionally 
been melted down for exportation. The 
increased rental of the country is also 
adduced; but if the pound sterling has 
diminished in value, this proves Ftle. 
New inclosures are vauntingly said to 
have taken place; they always abound 
during a cycle of dearth; and during 
the first cycle of cheapness, half of them 
will probably be abandoned again to 
sheep-walks. It is not at all desirable to 
wind up rents very high; or to culti- 
vate every acre of the country: corn 
should be grown where it can be grown 
cheapest, in North America, and in 
such countries as have no rents to pays 
By attempting to force the growth of 
corn here, we render a vast portion 
of our. prosperity dependent on the 
dearth of food, which is always a public 
misfortune. In order to prevent the 
‘land-owners from losing their rents, 
our houses of parliament, which con- 
sist of land-owners, grant one another, 
by law, a monopoly of the home-mar- 
ket, and prohibit, at certain prices, the 
importation of corn; thus taxing the 
whole community, to accommodate 
themselves with unnecessary rent. The 
result of our author’s sanguine estimate 
‘is, that every man, woman, and child 
is worth, on the average, two hundred 
pounds; that eighty millions is the 
yearly value of their industry ; and two 
thousand millions the value of the whole 
British nation. Lucian turns auctioneer 
to the philosophical sects ; our author to 
the European nations; but his Britain 
is above the bidding even of a Didius 
Julianus. 
Art. XX. A Summary Account of Leibnitz’s Memoir addressed to Louis XIV., re- 
conimending to that Monarch the Conquest of Egypt, \as conducive to the establishing a 
supreme Authority over the Governinents of Europe. 
DURING the infancy of agriculture 
Egypt was an important country.— 
Lands, which could be brought into cul- 
tivation without mannre, or the spade, 
or the plough, might well astonish early 
society by their tertility and produce. 
But now that the art of husbandry is 
improved, and the conquests of tillage 
immeasurably extended, the strip of oose 
between the granite mountains of Fgypt 
is scarcely important to the corn-mer- 
chantsof Enrope. The Delta, it is true, 
has larger dimensions than ever; but 
Svo. pp. 104. 
the perpetual addition of alluvion-soil 
has lifted much of it above the reach of 
regular inundation. So that the’sum of 
arable surface is probably not greater 
than of old. What does Egypt pro- 
duce beside corn and natron, which pro- 
mises to. commerce any sensible acces- 
sion? The preductions of tropical agri- 
culture might indeed be naturalized 
there; but it would be a speedier pro-. 
cess to raise them on the Zaire, the 
Coanza, the Orange-river, or on the 
Oronoko, by means of creole coloniza- 
