462 Analyses of Books. [JuNE^, 



entirely overturned provided the French experiments be accu- 

 rate. 



3. An Inquiry into the Principles hy which the Importance of 

 foreign Commerce ought to he estimated. By Henry De war, 

 M.D.] This paper appears to have been v/ritteo in consequence 

 of the attempts of Bonaparte to destroy the foreign commerce 

 of Great Britain, and the probability that these attempts would 

 be crowned with success : in conseqi ence of the Vvcll-known 

 pamphlet written by Mr. Spence entitled, Britain independent of 

 Commerce^ and the various answers made to that pasjiphlet. Dr. 

 Dewar considers the etfect of foreign commerce upon the wealth, 

 the population, the happiness, and the power, of this country. 

 There can be no doubt, he thinks, that it increases the wealth 

 of the country. Its elFects in promoting the population are, in 

 his opinion, confined to the additional food whicfi it imports into 

 the country. He seems inclined to think that foreign commerce 

 at present does not increase the happiness of the country : though 

 he conceives that it might, perhaps, be so reguiaied as even to 

 add to the sum of national happiness. He considers Mr. Spence 

 as having demonstrated that the power of the country is inde- 

 pendent of foreign commerce ; that the loss of it would occasion 

 considerable sacrifices; but that they might be borne without 

 ruin : and that even supposing foreign commerce destroyed, we 

 might still retain the sovereignty oi the sea^ and keep up our 

 land forces as we do at present. 



A. Remarks on ike Use and Origin of Fi^jiiratiue Language, 

 By the Rev. William Johns.] The author conceives that 

 words were chiefly used at first in a figurative sense from neces- 

 sity ; because the language did not alford any other means of 

 expressing the idea which it was th ■ oi ject of the speaker to 

 convey. In process of time many of these words lost their 

 original signification, and were only used in their figurative 

 sense: thus they ceased to be figii>'ative. Mr. Johns thinks 

 there can be no doubt that language at first consisted of nothing 

 but nouns; and that c ii rher words, adjectives and verbs for 

 example, were only nouns used in a fi^uiative sense : though in 

 process of time many of these words lost their original meaning, 

 and came to be used only as adjectives or verbs. 



5. On the Measure of Moving Force. By M. Peter Ewart.] 

 This is a very long and most able defence of a doctrine which 

 has been in some measure proscribed both in this country and in 

 France. The subject occasioned a most violent controversy 

 among mathematicians, which, after continuing for above 30 

 years, was at last dropped about years ago; and the general 

 opinion at present entertained upon the subject is, that it was 

 nothing else than a dispute about terms. The question was, 

 whether mechanical force is to be measured by the mass multi- 



