in value when scarce. I had not only to wrestle with the rude theory of Montesquieu, but with the more refined doctrine of Hume. The main matter is this:-Men, collectively, are not inclined to give more money for a thing, because they abound more in money: but with their increase of money they desire to purchase more conveniences and enjoyments. This capability of enlarged enjoyment does not depend so much on the positive augmentation of appropriated money among the people, as on an increased rapidity of circulation; which oftener puts within the power of each, money that he can employ in the satisfaction of his wants. Now this increased rapidity of circulation depends on the multitude and variety of occupations in a nation; and these are a consequence of the increased supply of money. The common notion that money is a sign, a symbolic measure of the value of things, appears to me fraught with no practical advantage. I know that this book is the most abstruse of my whole work: yet I would not require every one to study it with all the attention which I should claim from a writer on political economy. The third book treats of internal circulation, which I hold to be far more important than external. In the first section, I describe it in as much as it is occasioned by the free occupations of the members of society, and indicate 17 essential conditions of an administration wisely directed to render a people rich in the greatest possible quantity of productive property. Here I had to speak of well-being: and I believe I have said what is most important and most new on the proper condition of the husbandman, and indeed of the whole productive class of the nation. -The second section presents it under the influence of political institutions. Here I digress concerning military establishments, public debts, and taxes, which I divide into taxes on fixed property, on consumption, and on the wages of labor. This distinction appears to me so important, and so interwoven with the theory of commercial affairs, that I propose to print concerning it a separate pamphlet, which will by no means be a mere extract from my former work. The fourth book is closely connected with the third. It treats of the various subdivisions of occupation, to which increased circulation progressively gives rise. Were I young enough to undertake a revival of this whole work, I would much extend my dissertation on the unproductive classes, and on the effects to be expected from the dismission of two of them, the nobility and the clergy, by the Great Nation which has recently undertaken that experiment: but which is beginning anew to tolerate the latter; without, however, an appearance of conceding to it in future any considerable power over internal circulation.. • The fifth book treats of external-or rather compound-circulation between different nations. It contains the germ of many opinions concerning commerce, which, in the present work, I have again advanced and farther evolved. I have warned rulers against that narrow-minded anxiety, with which they often endeavour to resist the exportation of coin. I have proved that an extensive foreign commerce is not always, nor at all, necessarily attended with great great populousness. - This fifth book is closely connected in subjectmatter and theoretical principle with all my subsequent writings on commerce, and forms indeed the basis of them. It contains many wholesome cautions against regulations, which are continually occurring in the vicious commercial system of modern nations. The sixth book is broken into six sections; in which I have endeavoured to arrange those matters, which, if treated at large where they first occurred, would have given a disproportionate extent to certain previous sections. In the first section, I went into an analysis of what may be called the symbolic value of money. The distinction there made between the symbol of value, and the produce of circulation, still appears to me to afford a just view of the difference between money and commodities; and to account for the distinct Iaws by which they rise and fall. I also gave a preference to money which circulates for more than its intrinsic worth, over money which circulates for less: -but on this subject the curious reader will consult my Work on Bank-money, Coin, and Confusion of Specie (Ueber Bankgeld, Münze, und Münzverwirrung, 1789). The third section exhibits the effect of the labors of the husbandman on internal circulation. This led me to digress concerning the feudal system and vassalage; and to propose some commutation for those services which, in Bohemia, were to have been too hastily abolished. The fourth section treats of usury, or supposed excessive interest:-interest of money seems to me incoercible. The fifth section treats of the provision of a sufficient demand and reward for labor, and contains the principles on which is founded my plan for the regulation of the poor, now so happily executed in Hamburgh. The sixth section shews the connection which subsists between circulation and political economy in general, which is now become nearly altogether the art of administering a country so as to draw from it the greatest revenue. I there brought forwards my reasons for declaring against the physiocratic system, and for deeming it of all others the least calculated for this purpose. This occasioned me to go over the principal points of controversy between the abettors and detractors of this famous system.' Professor BUSCH declares (p. 222) against the utility of a chartered bank in London. He seems to think that the monopoly should be abolished, the banking trade thrown open, and every one be left at liberty, as in the provinces, to issue notes on his private security. As a pay-office, and as a register-office for the transfer of stock, the bank of England is become indeed more important than ever; notwithstanding the apparent shock given to its credit by the unusual but patriotic defalcation of its specie. - From the consideration of the London bank, this chapter proceeds to review the condition of the banks at Amsterdam, Venice, Genoa, and in Switzerland, and to bring together much useful information relative to com mercial finance. At p. 259 the Professor takes into consideration the new measure of the French, which the Directory wishes to substitute for the pied royal. He makes merry with their metromania, and observes that their basis is absurd, because incapable of unequivocal ascertainment, and that they might as well have fixed on a ten thousandth part of the height of Montblanc for their metre, and, in reply to the question-how high is Montblanc? have answered as they do now, that is not yet made out, but in the mean time our perfect measure is calculated on the ten thousandth part of the supposed height!! - On this subject we have already spoken, Rev. Vol. XXVI. p.505. Condamine's project for a basis was to take the length of a pendulum swinging seconds in 45 degrees latitude. Vol. II. A remarkable project communicated by the author to Baron Von der Horst, who enjoyed a ministerial office in Prussia under the celebrated Frederic, occurs at p. 77. It may be defined a hand-in-hand assurance office for securing mercantile credit. The plan is to permit no merchants to trade without subscribing to this office; and to entitle them, in proportion, to their subscriptions to loans in cases of pressure, and to donations in cases of bankruptcy. Moses Mendelsohn drew up, at the minister's request, objections to this plan (in order that it might be reduced into the best possible form) which ought not to have been withholden from the public; and which appear to have been eventually fatal. The most important disquisition in this book (but it is much too long for us to extract) relates to what Professor BUSCH denominates Strand-right, or the mass of usage and of law relative to things wrecked and stranded. Many iniquitous practices of different European maritime countries are here censured with becoming spirit. Some jurisdictions of this nature have a stronger tendency to consult the profit of the sovereign and of his agents, than the permanent interests of the subject; and they do not commonly excel in the expedition and cheapness of their proceedings. Yet to such courts, and not to juries of merchants and ship-owners, are intrusted in most countries the decision of maritime causes. Vattel has well treated the law of nations*: but there is a department of law in which not the sovereigns but the subjects of different nations are principally interested:-it might be called cosmopolitical jurisprudence. (See Rev. Vol. XXI. N. S. p. 582.) This branch of law yet wants its Vattel. He who should aspire to indicate to the different nations of Europe those in * For the works of this respectable writer, we refer to our General 1 Index, Vol. I. stitutions stitutions to which, for the common interest, they ought se verally to intrust inviolably the decision of causes which involve the interests of persons resident under different sovereigns; and to collect those general maxims inferred from past experience, which ought to form the basis of decision in such mercantile tribunals; would do well to consult with attention this elaborate chapter of the work before us. How vast a subsisting sequestration of British property, in Spain, has resulted during the present war from a rash condemnation of some silks belonging to the Count of Yranda! This donative of a few thousands to our sailors cost to our manufacturers the confiscation of millions. It is important, then, that to tribunals independent of any government, to such tribunals as administer in Great Britain the internal laws, should be confided the arbitration of all alien interests; of which Strand-right is no inconsiderable part. ART. III. A Letter, from Germany, to the Princess Royal of England; on the English and German Languages. With a Table of the different Northern Languages, and of different Periods of the German: and with an Index. By the Rev. HERBERT CROFT. 4to. pp. 96. Printed at Hamburgh, and sold in London, by Edwards. : 1797 THE author of this letter expresses much disappointment at the neglect shewn by the British nation, to his proposals for publishing a new English Dictionary. On this subject, perhaps, it is fair to ask, was he at that time qualified properly for the undertaking? Is it not in consequence of his visit to the continent, and by means of his recent study of the Low and High Dutch * dialects, and of the philological antiquaries and philosophical grammarians of Germany, that he has first acquired a valid claim to the patronage of his country? Is he likely henceforwards to miss it? Now that the deficiencies of Johnson's dictionary are generally experienced and known: that the grand intrusion of Gallic revolutionary neologisms is probably at an end; and that a wish to turn back to the springheads of English, undefiled, begins to characterize our more careful writers; there is no sufficient reason for doubting that an extensive and liberal encouragement will be given to a lexicographer, whose knowledge of all the sister idioms of the Gothic tongue enables him to investigate the derivation, and * Mr. Croft (p.81) censures this use of the word Dutch: but it is the primitive use of it, and is abundantly authorized. Can he approve the practice of calling the Hollanders, Dutch? to estimate the purity, of our national and provincial, our obsolete and current terms: whose familiarity with classic writers must have furnished him with an interesting and instructive hoard of quotations for examples; and whose industry, so long ago as in 1793, had collected (p. 3) more than 20,000 sound English words not contained in the dictionary of Johnson. By this time, no doubt, the supplemental matter would equal in magnitude the original work. The rambling pen of this author unwillingly confines itself to the topic with which it sets out. A comparative table is indeed given of the different periods of the language of the Germans: some translations, word for word, of passages in their poets are introduced; and a list of their prepositions occurs at p. 49, without any sufficient commentary to account for the insertion :- but much of the letter is taken up with remarks on other subjects, often useful, often ingenious, indeed, but too often unconnected. Three new literary enterprises of the author are announced: 1. An edition of Young's Night Thoughts, to be elucidated by the valuable notes of his German translator Ebert. 2. An edition, accompanied with an English verbal translation, of Alkmar's Reynard the Fox. 3. A version, line for line, of Klopstock's Messiah, on the plan of the following specimen: • So draws nigh the Pestilence, in midnight hour, To slumbering Cities. There couches upon her broad-spread wings, Beneath the ramparts, Death; and exhales destroying vapours. Now lie the cities, as yet, undisturbed: by his nightly lamp Watches, as yet, the sage; as yet, converse superior friends, Over unprofaned wine, in shelter of odoriferous bowers, Of the soul, of friendship, and of their immortal duration. But soon will frightful Death, in the day of affliction, Spread himself over them! in the day of quail and of perishing moans! When, with wringing hands, the bride for the bridegroom makes lamentation; When, now of all her children bereft, the desperate mother, tinues.' * This * It would surely be possible to translate the Messiah into English hexameters constructed by the same law which governs those of Klopstock; who substitutes, at will, a trochee for a spondee. The above passage might with little variation run thus : S. |