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made laces to stimulate agriculture, and not foreign wines and teas; his hopeful recommendation to wear more coats than we want; his strange project for a standing navy, &c. &c. But our limits forbid us; and we have already extended this article so much further than we expected, and so much beyond what the size and merits of the pamphlet might seem to require, that we must hasten to a conclusion.

Though a regard to what we believe to be truth, and a sense of the folly of exciting false hopes, have induced us to declare very fully our entire dissent from Mr Spence's opinion on foreign trade, yet we are by no means inclined to be blind admirers of this species of commerce. Every rational political economist considers it as greatly inferior, both in magnitude and importance, to the internal trade of a country; and always places it below its two elder sisters, agriculture and manufactures. But, besides this view of its relative inferiority, in which the Economists, Dr Smith, and almost all modern writers agree, we have a few other objections to it, which we will shortly state.

In the first place, we think that it may be said of it, more peculiarly than of agriculture and manufactures, that it contains within itself the seeds of its own decay. It is scarcely possible for a peculiarly flourishing state of commerce to take place in any country, without such an influx of the precious metals as must occasion a universal rise of prices; or, what comes exactly to the same thing, without a paper currency, which only prevents this influx, by standing at a level a little lower in point of value than would have been the case, if the metals had been allowed to take their natural course; and which, therefore, must have the same, or rather a greater, effect on prices. This, we conceive, according to the principles of that admirable illustration of the balance of trade given by Hume, is the natural check to foreign commerce; and it is instructive to observe, that the greater is the industry, the skill, the capital, and colonial richness of any country, the lower will be the value of its currency, or the higher its general prices, before a check to its foreign commerce occurs. To such a prosperous state of foreign commerce, as

would

With or without the Bank reftriction, when, from an unusual a bundance of exportable commodities, the current of the precious metals would naturally fet ftrongly into this country, the Bank may increase its ifue of notes without any apparent depreciation. But when, by means of this iffue, the exchange with foreign countries, from being in our favour, quickly returns to par, the level, in point of value, at which the currency ftands, will be at the leaft fully as low as if the balances had been paid in bullion, and the precious metals increafed in quantity.

would naturally have occasioned a great influx of the precious. metals, with this influx, checked only by a paper currency attended with rather aggravated effects of the same kind, we are inclined to attribute, more than to all other circumstances combined, that rapid advance of prices which has taken place in this country during the last twenty years, and has occasioned so much. discussion. And though, owing to the peculiar advantages we have enjoyed, this cause has not as yet affected our commerce; yet we think, that, proceeding in the same course, it must do so ultimately; and that, for a similar reason, foreign commerce cannot be expected permanently to bring into any country such a rapid accession of wealth as of late years has flowed from it into Great Britain, though there is no natural necessity that the check to it, when it comes, should either be very violent or very sudden.

Our second objection to foreign commerce is, that it is from its nature greatly exposed to external violence; to such checks, in short, as that under which we are apprehensive of suffering at present. And if a nation has habitually conducted itself upon the true principles of acquiring wealth, and has purchased all its commodities where they may be had the cheapest, it may have become dependent upon other countries for some of the most necessary and important articles of its consumption. Under these circumstances, a sudden check to foreign commerce from violent causes, can hardly fail of being attended with the most distressing consequences; and its liability to checks of this kind, forms with us a sufficient reason against pushing it to an excessive extent, and habitually importing articles of the first necessity which might be raised at home.

Our third objection to foreign commerce is, that, as we entirely agree with Hume and Dr Smith, in thinking that nations may be great and powerful without much foreign trade, and that the internal commerce of a country is of infinitely greater consequence than its external; we hate to hear our exports and imports talked of as if they were exclusively the barometer of our public prosperity. In particular, we have a great dislike, when any plans are proposed which have for their object to elevate the character of the poor, to give them greater independence, and to endeavour generally to improve their conditions, to hear it immediately ob

Ff4

jected,

* There can be no doubt of the truth of Bishop Berkeley's opinion, that a nation with a large and fertile territory might grow richer every year, although furrounded with a wall of brafs a thousand cubits high; but it would neither grow rich fo falt, nor to such a degree, as if it had the advantage of foreign commerce.

jected, that they may tend to raise the price of labour; that Great Britain will be undersold in foreign markets; and that her vent for woollens, cottons, and hardware will be contracted. We certainly are most ready to acknowledge, that the sale of those articles abroad tends to enrich Great Britain; but we think at the same time, that there are other objects worthy of the attention of Great Britain besides mere riches. When the question is between wine and hardware, we have no hesitation in rejecting the hardware; but if the question were, between wine and an improvement in the condition of the poor, we are confident that we should as little hesitate in rejecting the wine; and in this feeling, we hope that Great Britain and her senators will always sympathize with us.

In these objections to foreign commerce, we trust that Mr Spence will see nothing inconsistent with the remarks which we have ventured to make on his pamphlet; as we evidently object to the great extension of this species of trade;-not because we agree with him in thinking that it is not productive of wealth, but because we think that its great extension is naturally attended with a bad consequence, similar to the excessive accumulation of the precious metals; because we think, that security and independence, with moderate wealth, are preferable to greater riches subject to frequent reverses; and because we think, that the happiness of the Jower classes of people ought not to be put in competition with the sale of a few more woollens and cottons.

It is unnecessary to say any thing of the style of this pamphlet. Our readers will see, from the extracts given, that it possesses no very commendable qualities; but it is good enough for the purpose, if the substance which it conveyed were of value.

ART. XII. Elisabeth, ou les Exilés de Sibérie. Par Me Cottin. A Paris. Reimprimé à Londres.

1806.

WE E are not, in general, particularly fond of novels founded on fact, but we must make an exception in favour of any thing fo well executed as that which is before us. The daughter of a wretched exile in Siberia had the courage and filial piety to undertake and to perform a journey to Petersburgh, for the purpose of foliciting her father's liberty. This achievement, worthy of immortality, is the groundwork of Madame Cottin's tale, and we give her no mean praife in faying that fhe has done full juftice to its merits. In one only refpect is the unfaithful to her model. She has diminished, in her ideal picture, the dangers which the

- true

true heroine actually furmounted, from the fear, as fhe informs us, of incurring the charge of extravagance. This, therefore, must add one to the many inftances, in which the miracles of truth have foared above the level of fiction, and in which imaginary must yield to real virtue.

The character of Elifabeth, as here drawn, is in its general form and feature fuch, as might, we think, have been expected from the hand of a lady-artist. It is fo natural that women fhould love to make their heroines a little heroic! that they fhould delight to place female excellence in attitudes noble no lefs than charming! that, refigning to us the empire of perfonal, and perhaps of intellectual power, they fhould ftill maintain an equal claim to the moral fubfime,-to that higher fort of greatness which, like angels, seems to be of no fex!

To those women who have any real elevation of thought, nothing can be more difgufting than the character of a Thaleftris. They hate, as much as we do, the vigorous females who appear to conftitute the link between the fexes; and will not condefcend to write the hiftory of a virago, who is the exact duplicate of her ftupid lovers, fights and drubs every one of them whofe offers difpleafe her, and beftows her hand only on him who is found to have a stronger and harder one of his own. Their heroine is in a different style. Perhaps the is not particularly diftinguifhed even for that chaftened loftinefs which may confift with virgin delicacy, the loftiness of a Portia or a Corinne, of la dime Romaine or la Sibylle triomphante; perhaps fhe is not even an Elifabeth, innocently, and, as it were unconsciously magnanimous; but is reprefented as all gentleness and diffidence. Still we fhall find her infenfibly led through fcenes which fhow her to poffefs fortitude and difinterestedness and other virtues of the first order; we fhall be feduced into refpect, where we were defired only to love; with the weaknefs that folicits protection, we fhall find blended, not only all the sweetness that attracts, but much alfo of the dignity

that ennobles it.

We are aware of the numerous exceptions to this rule; but, that it is not therefore imaginary, may appear from a reference to the Delphines and Corinnes of France; and to the Cecilias, the Ellenas, and the Belindas of England. In the fame manner, the delineations of female excellence by the other fex, often prefent us with a figure of imperial majefty; but we cannot help thinking that, when they draw after their own notions and conceptions rather than from books, they are more likely to give us an Ophelia or a Defdemona.

Madame Cottin has, in one respect, been particularly happy. Her heroine has been educated in fuch folitude and inacquaintance

with

with the world, that her childlike fimplicity, and engaging innocence of demeanour, feem perfectly in character, though they are the accompaniments of a heart uncommonly great and noble. There is nothing in her features hard or haughty; nothing that feems to exclaim with one of the heroines of Corneille,

Je me fais des vertus dignes d'une Romaine.

But, indeed, the mind that conceived this character, can beft do it juftice; and the reader fhall therefore be indulged with a trait or two of the reprefentation.

• A deux ou trois verftes de Saïmka, au milieu d'une forêt marécageufe, et remplie de flaques d'eau, fur le bord d'un lac circulaire, profond et bordé de peupliers noirs et blancs, habitoit une famille d'exilés. Elle étoit compofée de trois perfonnes, d'un homme de quarante-cinq ans, de fa femme et de fa fille, belle, et dans toute la fleur de la jeunesse.

Renfermée dans ce défert, cette famille n'avoit de communication avec perfonne; le père alloit tout feul à la chaffe, jamais il ne venoit à Saïmka, jamais on n'y avoit vu ni fa femme ni fa fille; hors une pauvre payfanne tartare qui les fervoit, nul être au monde ne pouvoit entrer dans leur cabane. On ne connoiffoit ni leur patrie, ni leur naiffance, ni la caufe de leur châtiment; le gouverneur de Tobolsk en avoit feul le fecret, et ne l'avoit pas même confié au lieutenant de fa jurisdiction établi à Saïmka. En mettant ces exilés fous fa furveillance, il lui avoit feulement recommandé de leur fournir un logement commode, un petit jardin, de la nourriture et des vêtements, mais d'empêcher qu'ils euffent aucune communication au dehors, et furtout d'intercepter févèrement toutes les lettres qu'ils hafarderoient de faire paffer à la cour de Ruffie.' P. 5, 6.

After a very striking sketch of Siberian scenery, the writer proceeds

A l'eft de cette grande plaine, une petite chapelle de bois avoit été élevée par des chrétiens; on remarquoit que de ce côté les tombeaux avoient été refpectés, et que devant cette croix qui rappelle toutes les vertus, l'homme n'avoit point ofé profaner la cendre des morts. C'eft dans ces landes ou fteppes, nom qu'elles portent en Sibérie, que, durant le long et rude hier de ce climat, Pierre Springer paffoit toutes fes matinées à la chaffe: il tuoit des élans qui fe nourriffent des jeunes feuilles du tremble et des peupliers. Il attrapoit quelquefois des martres zibelines, affez rares dans ce canton, et plus fouvent des hermines qui y font en grand nombre: du prix de leur fourrure, il faifoit venir de Tobolik, des meubles commodes et agréables pour fa femmes et des livres pour fa fille. Les longues forrécs étoient employées à l'inftruction de la jeune Elifabeth; fouvent affife entre fes parents, elle leur lifoit tout haut des paffages d'hiftoire? Springer arrêtoit fon attention fur tous les traits qui pouvoient élever fon áme, et fa mère, Phédora, fur tous ceux qui pouvoient l'attendrir. L'un lui montroit toute la beauté de la gloire et de l'héroïfme, l'autre tout le charme des fentiments pieux et de la bonté modefte: fon père lui difoit ce que la vertu a de grand et de fublime;

fa

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