ENGLAND. 17S 



of which, including foreign merchandise and manufactures, in the 

 years undermentioned, was as follows : 



Imports. «. Exports. 



1772, 14,500,000/ 17,719,000/. 



1783, 13,325,000/. .... 14,741,000/. 



1792, 19,029,000/ 24,878,000/. 



1797, 21,450,000/ 28,917,000/. 



1801, 58,680,000/ 57,520,000/. 



1809, 46,138,179/ 66,017,712/. 



The number of registered vessels belonging to the British domi- 

 nions, employed in trade in the year 1801, was 19,772 J their tonnage 

 2,037,517 ; and their number of men 143,987. 



As the quantity of circulating specie may in some measure indi- 

 cate the extent of commerce, we may judge of the increase of the 

 latter by comparing the sums which the three last monarchs found it 

 necessary to coin. By George I, 8,725,921/. sterling were coined. 

 In the long reign (thirty-three years) of George II, 11,966,576/. ster- 

 ling ; and in the first twenty-four years of his present majesty's reign 

 the sums coined amounted to 33,0S9,274/. sterling. 



The English manufactures were a few years back estimated at the 

 annual value of 63,600,000/. and supposed to employ 1,585,000 peo- 

 ple : of this sum, the woollen manufacture is stated to produce about 

 15,000,000/. the leather 10,000,000/. the iron, tin, and lead, 10,000,000/. 

 and the cotton 9,000,000/. In 1809 the whole value of British ma- 

 nufactures was estimated at 137,301,605/. 



Constitution and government. ...Tacitus, in describing such a 

 I nution as that of England, seems to think that, however beauti- 

 ful it may be in theory, it will be found impracticable in the execution. 

 Experience has proved this to be a mistake ; for, by contrivances un- 

 n to antiquity, the English constitution has existed for above 

 . ;ars. It must at the same time be admitted, that it has receiv- 

 ed, during that time, many amendments, and some interruptions ; but 

 ; inciples are the same with those described by the above-men- 

 1 historian as belonging to the Germans and the other northern 

 -tors of the English nation, and which are very improperly 

 led under the name of Gothic. 

 All civil matters were proposed in a general assembly of the chief 

 officers and the people, till, by degrees, sheriffs and other civil offi- 

 v/ere appointed. To Alfred we owe that master-piece of judi- 

 policy, the subdivision of England into wapentakes and hundreds, 

 'iie subdivision of hundreds into tithings, names that still subsist 

 in England ; and overseers were chosen to direct them for the good 

 of the whole. The sheriff was the judge of all civil and criminal 

 era within the county; and to him, after the introduction of 

 Christianity, was added the bishop. In process of time, as business 

 multiplied, itinerant and other judges were appointed ; but, by the 

 earliest records, it appears that all civil matters were decided by 12 or 

 15 men, living in the neighbourhood of the place where the dispute 

 and here we have the origin of English juries. It is certain that 

 vere in use among the earliest Saxon colonics, their institution 

 being ascribed by bishop Nicholson to Woden himself, their great 

 legislator and leader. Hence we find traces of juries in the laws of 

 all those nations which adopted the feudal system, as in Germany, 



