- 
594 
and the fuel neceffary to cook them, have 
been fo enormoufly dear, that the poor 
people have been driven to eat an un- 
ufual quantity of bread, and thus add to 
the evil which oppreffes them. Need we 
add, that the extent of our naval and 
military eftablithments, contributes, by 
an enormous wafte, to the fcarcity of 
every thing efculest? Mr. Brann, 
however, in a pamphlet entitled “ A 
Determination of che Average Depref- 
fion of the Price of Wheat in War, be- 
low that of the preceding Peace, &c.” 
contends, as it appears indeed from his 
title-page, that the natural effect of war 
is to lower the price of corn! In order 
to prove this, he has given a complete 
table of the annual price of wheat for 
10 years, which is divided into feveral 
fueceffive terms of war and peace; and 
from which it appears, that in every term 
ef peace, the rate of price has exceeded 
that of the preceding war, by more than 
five percent. It mutt be acknowledged, 
however, that the prefent price of corn, 
high without a parallel, in contempt of 
the natura! tendency of war, which has 
certainly bad full time to operate, forms 
avery fubborn and awkward anomaly. 
We recommend to perufal the following 
work, of which the title-page is fufl- 
ciently indicative of its contents: “ A 
Letter tothe Right Hon. Lord Somer- 
ville, Sc. with a View to fhew the In- 
utility of the Plans and Refearches of 
that Inftitution, and how it might be 
employed in others more beneficial. With 
Remarks on the recent Communications 
of the Board, and a Review of the Pam- 
phlets of Arthur Young and Wiliam 
Brooke, Efqrs. upon the prefent high 
Price of Provifions. By a Society of 
Praétical Farmers.” It ovght to be 
mentioned, that minifters at the late 
epening of Parliament, endeavoured to 
perfuade the people, as Mr. Brand has 
done, that war has no tendency to raife 
the price of provifions by creating 2 {car- 
city ; but that the fophiftry of this in- 
fulting’ paradox was expofed by feveral 
of the oppofition members, particularly 
Mr. Sberidan and Mr. Nicholls, in the 
Houle of Commons, and by Lord Hol- 
land in the Houfe of Lords. 
Mr. DutHY, in his Obfervations on | 
the prefent high Price of Provifions,”’ has, 
we think, adduced abundant faéts to 
prove, that to war we mutt look for the 
fource of the evil. Sir THomAs TuR- 
Ton’s “ Addrefs to the good Senfe and 
Candour of the People, in Behalf of the 
Retrofpet? of Domeftic Literature. —Political Economy. 
Dealers in Corn,” is a very acute and 
argumentative pamphlet: Sir Thomas 
combats with much fuccefs Lord Ken=— 
yon’s hafty and ill-founded opinion on 
the fubjeét of regrating. This opinion, 
indeed, is fo completely at variance with 
that of our moft able and competent wri- 
ters on the fubject of political ceconomy, 
that we were not a little furprifed at his 
Lordfhip’s temerity in making it public. 
The author of “The Caufe of the 
Prefent threatened Famine traced to its 
real Source, &c.” confiders the high 
price of provifions to have originated in 
an aétual depreciation of our- circulat- 
ing medium, occafioned by the paper 
cerrency, with which the war, the fhock 
given to public credit in 1794, the ftop- 
page of the bank in 1797, and the bank- 
ruptcies of Hamburgh in 1799, inun- 
dated the country, to accommodate. go- 
vernment, and enable the merchants to 
keepupthe price of theirmerchandize. An 
Independent Gentleman's “ Thoughts 
on the prefent Prices of Provifion, their 
Caufes and Remedies,” are well worth 
attending to: the author infifts upon the 
neceflity of a maximum. The author of 
an eflay On the Principle of Population 
has publifhed, “ An Inveftigation of the 
prefent high Price of Provifions.” This 
writer fuppofes, that the fyftem of poor 
laws and parifh allowances have operated 
principally in raifing provifions to their 
prefent price. In fhort, numerous as are 
the phyficians who have volunteered 
their prefcriptions for the body. politic, 
we find fearcely two of them who agree 
in their opinion of the origin and caufe 
of the difeafe which affliéts it. A plen- 
tiful harveft will probably be the moft 
effeciual remedy. We could enumerate 
many more pamphlets on the prefent 
fubjeé&t, but our readers, probably, like 
ourfelyes, would rather be releafed from 
it. The laft work, therefore, which we 
fhall notice under the head of Political 
Economy, is a pamphlet, containing ‘ Se- 
leétions from the Correfpondence of Gee 
peral Wafhington and James Anderfon, 
LL.D. &c. Thefe are very interefting 
pages; for, although we are difappoint- 
ed in finding but.a fingle letter from 
the pen of General Wafhington, we 
are amply gratified in the manly fenfe 
and acute reafoning which, on Dr. An- 
derfon’s fide of the correfpondence, we 
find relative to the economical regula- 
tions in this country. Dr. A. in commony 
we believe, with every unprejudiced in-, 
Gividual who has eenfidered the ee 
with 
