1800.] 
there is really a want of an article, it ap- 
pears in other ways than merely by the 
price rifng. Now it has not done fo in 
England. Any man here will find as 
much bread to purchafe as he pleafes, but 
in France, if a family required a number 
of loaves, they mult fend as many fer- 
vants ; for no one perfon was allowed to 
bring away two loaves at a time, and each 
mult wait for his turn. God grant that 
we may never be brought in this country 
to fucha pitch; but why, when we are 
not, does it happen that bread Is aug- 
mented to full three times its ufual price, 
and, atthe fame time, is reduced in qua- 
lity, when there are no fymptoms of {car- 
city ? 
Give me leave here to make a compari- 
fon. Thearvificial fearcity is like the pe- 
nurious expenditure of a rich man; the 
money comes flowly, but regularly, and 
always when neceflary; but it is not fo 
with thofe who have not enough, in which 
cafe there is no regularity, and ometimes, 
when the neceffity is very prefling, there 
is no relief atall, 
Would fome of your Correfpondents 
favour the public with the information 
which, from their being difperfed all over 
the country, they are fo well enabled to 
give, more fight would be thrown on this 
fubje&t than by any committee in the 
kingdom ; for, with all due refpect to my 
courtryman, Mr. Adam Smith, whofe 
memory I revere, and with whom I had 
the honour to be well acquainted, I do 
not think the fame rules will do for the 
frit neceffaries of life that do in other ar- 
ticles of commerces The neceffity of 
filling the belly is of a different nature 
from that of cloathing the back. In the 
article of cloathing, the man can tire out 
the merchant, but in the article of eating 
the merchant can foon tire out the man. 
Ifa fpirit of financial calculation pets 
amongtt farmers in general, as I fear it is 
doing, then woe will be to the commu- 
nity, unlefs effe€tual meafures are taken 
to “bring corn from other countries ; but 
thofe mult be very different from what 
have hitherto been put in practice. I have 
fome fuch meafures to propofe, if times do 
not get better ; and fhall, if you pleafe, 
make your ufeful repohitory the means of 
communicating them to the public; but 
hope, that, in the mean time, your read- 
ers will communicate as many well-authen- 
ticated facts as they can. 
re Nil Your Conftant Reader, 
32th Fuly, 1800. W. P. 
High Price of Provifions.—Quoftions on fers. 
107 
To the Editor of the Monthl y saa 4 
SIR, 
CORRESPONDENT at p. ri of 
bes Magazine for July ptopofes 
two queitions re{pecting the Jews : I fhall 
rejoice if my attempt to anfwer them 
fhould appear fatisfactory to him and to 
yap readers. 
. That a belief of future rewards and 
aS conftitutes an effential article 
in the Jewith creed, and an article cha- 
ra&teriftic of a genuine Ifraelite, is certain’ 
from the writings of Maimonides, Abor- 
zabel, and other moft celebrated and learn- | 
ed teachers of their nation. ‘This perfua- ' 
fionis proved by the Go!pels, and Afts of 
the Apofiles, to have been general, though 
not univerfal, in the days of Chrift ; for 
the feét of the Sadducees, which was but 
fmall, and compofed principally of the 
rich and noble, whofe opportunities of in- 
dulgence in worldly pleafures may be rea- 
fonably {uppofed to have influenced their 
faith in fome meafure, rejected the doc- 
tvine of retribution in another life. The 
prevalence of this belief is frikingly mani- 
felt through the htitory of the Maccabees ; 
and it is never mentioned as a novelty or. 
fingularity of dottiine, but rather in a 
manner correfpondent to an eftablifhed | 
and uncontrovcrted point of faith. On 
this account, as a tenet fundamental and 
unfufpeéted, no notice is taken of it in the 
Mofaic Law, whole object was temporal 
fanétions for a temporal polity, and which 
faw no occafion to interfere with an axiom 
not connected with the peculiar {pirit of 
its iaftitutions. This conception of the 
cafe is corroborated by that very grand 
and eloquent compofition, both for ftyle 
and fenctiment, the eleventh chapter of the 
Epiltle to the Hebrews ; which becomes, 
in this view, a moft rational and fublime 
vindication of the ancient patriarchs, with 
refpect to various peculiarities of their 
conduét, as recorded in the Old Tefta- 
ment. 
2. I have ever conceived this Hoe of 
fiiture rewards and punifhments among 
the Jews to be traditionary from their pros 
genitors, and coeval indeed with the hu- 
man race. It appears to me an indifput- 
able propefition, that no otter hypothelis, 
en any princioles of metaphyfical philo- 
fopby, or from hiftorical operations of the 
human intelleét, will account for the uni- 
yerial, diffufion of this. dogtrine through 
every age and every generation of man- 
kind, civilized or barbarous, But a com- 
P 2 plete 
