enlightened, the great object ought to be an enforcement of the due execution of the laws now exifting. That this is not to be expected from the perfons to whom it is now entrusted, the Author fufficiently proves; and then proceeds to offer a plan for the better execution of the laws refpecting the poor; for the particulars of which we must refer to his pamphlet. It was our wish to infert it, but we want room. We fincerely wifh, that the fenfible observations contained in this letter, may meet with proper attention from thofe who have power to render them beneficial to the Public, by reducing the Author's plan into practice.

SLAVE TRADE.

Art. 19. Examination of the Rev. Mr. Harris's Scriptural Researches on the Licitnefs of the Slave Trade. By the Rev. James Ramsay. 8vo. 6d. Philips. 1788.

We

In our Review for April (p. 344.) we gave a fhort account of Mr. Harris's publication in defence of the flave trade, on the ground of fcripture authority and fanction; and we then expreffed our apprehenfion, that his Scriptural Researches might tend to confound and perplex fome of thofe well-meaning perfons who are laudably aiming at the fuppreffion of Negroe flavery in the Weft Indies, &c. therefore recommended the task of refuting Mr. Harris, to Mr. Ramfay, or Mr. Clarkson; and our wifh, in this respect, is completely gratified the great cause of liberty is here ably defended, and the Scriptures are fully vindicated from the implied charge of countenancing the moft enormous oppreffion of our fellow-mortals, that one human being can poffibly inflict on another.

Scriptural Re-
By the Rev.

Art. 20. An Answer to the Rev. Mr. Harris's “ fearches on the Licitnefs of the Slave Trade.' W. Hughes, M. A. 8vo. 1 s. Cadell. 1788. A fecond champion here enters the lifts against the reverend affertor of flavery, on fcripture principles. We were forry to fee the facred writings involved in this controverfy; but they will, probably, find many competent vindicators of their credit, against the specious charge of countenancing a practice founded in manifeft injuftice, and fupported only by the iron hand of power: but POWER is not RIGHT. -Mr. Ramfay and Mr. Hughes have, very laudably, led the way; and there is no doubt but they will be followed by other able defenders of the great cause of humanity.

Mr. GILBERT'S POOR BILL.

Art. 21. A fummary View of the Objects and beneficial Provifions in Mr. Gilbert's new Bill, intended to recommend it to public Notice and Encouragement. 8vo. Is. Debrett. 1788.

A familiar explanation of Mr. Gilbert's bill, which is now rendered of little ufe, as the bill has been fet afide by the House of Commons. The Public are certainly under great obligation to that gentleman for his indefatigable labours on this great object; and though it might not be deemed prudent to adopt his plan, the dif

*See the preceding article.

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cuffion

cuffion it has given rife to, has caufed the nature of our poor laws to be more generally and better understood than they were before. Art. 22. Curfory Remarks on Mr. Gilbert's laft Bill, for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor, &c. and his Confiderations thereon in a Letter to that Gentleman. By H. Bate Dudley, Clerk, one of his Majefty's Juftices of the Peace for the County of Effex. 8vo. IS. Debrett. 1788.

Mr. Dudley's objections to Mr. Gilbert's bill appear to be well founded, and are clearly stated. He has fummed up his character of it in few words: Your plan departs too widely, and wildly, from the fimplicity of our eftablished fyftem of poor laws, multiplying, rather than diminishing, the difficulties of redrefs.' The Houfe of Commons feem to have been of the fame opinion. He thinks our prefent poor laws fufficient for their purpose, if properly enforced, and to that end recommends an intermediate officer, under the name of comptroller, with a falary, between the juftice of the peace and the parish officers, to keep the latter to their duty. The high conftable, he thinks, might execute this truft.

The extraordinary petition of Mr. Wilkinson, the great iron manufacturer, of Bradley in Staffordshire, to the Houfe of Commons, praying that his workmen might be deemed extra-parochial, and of courfe exempted from removals to fettlements, and engaging to provide for his poor among themselves, as cited by Mr. Dudley, may hint to us on the authority of a mechanical head, (and fuch heads may be trufted in all points that affect their own intereft), that the number of poor in an induftrious community, is no formidable cause of apprehenfion; and that the fmaller the districts, the eafier the helpless poor may be fupported; cheaper to thofe who pay, and more humane to thofe who receive.

Art. 23. Remarks upon the late Refolutions, &c. published by Henry Zouch, Clerk (a Juftice of the Peace), in the Year 1776, and now republished by a Member of Parliament. Together with a few Remarks upon Mr. Gilbert's prefent Bill, which is fhortly to be offered to the House of Commons. 8vo. 1s. Cadell. 1788. Thefe Remarks on the Refolutions of the Houfe of Commons were first noticed in our Review, Vol. liv. p. 334; and the Remarks now added on Mr. Gilbert's bill are not more friendly to it than those of Mr. Dudley above mentioned, but predict its operation and tendency in very alarming terms.

WOOL-BILL.

Art. 24. A Letter to Arthur Young, Efq, on the Bill now depending in Parliament to prevent the Exportation of Wool. By Thomas Day, Efq. 8vo. Is. Stockdale. 1788.

Mr. Day reprobates, with a becoming warmth, the principles of the Wool-bill, and throws out many pertinent obfervations that would well have merited the attention of our legiflators; but we think he apprehends greater danger from it than there is reafon to fear; or, at leaft, that the danger is of a different fort from what he forebodes. Such abfurd laws as this, cannot tend, we should think, to undermine the conftitution. Their operation must be too

fhort

fhort-lived to produce that effect. For, however weak, or inconfiderate, our law-makers may be at an unlucky moment, they will foon be brought to think more juftly by the good fenfe of a Mr. Day, and others, who will point out their mistakes; and a speedy repeal must be the confequence. The conftitution will not, therefore, be deeply affected; but trade and manufactures are of fuch a delicate nature, that they may be ruined by an injudicious measure continued only for a fhort time, and cannot be re-established by a repeal of the obnoxious law. When a manufacture is once abandoned, it cannot be resumed at pleasure; and when trade is, by any accident, diverted from its ufual channel, we feldom fee that it ever can be brought back to its former courfe. We fear for the lofs of our woollen manufacture; a lofs which, when it takes place, will be feverely felt; but which will not be recovered by unavailing complaints. Now is the time to look forward, and to avoid evils which an injudicious conduct in our legiflators may too fpeedily accelerate. Mr. Day's well-written pamphlet contains many judicious observations on the nature and tendency of the Wool-bill.

Art. 25. A Speech on the Wool Bill, that might have been spoken in the House of Commons, May the 1ft, 1788, on the Question of adjourning the Confideration to that Day three Months. 8vo. 6d. Nicoll, St. Paul's Church-yard.

Our youthful and enterprifing Premier laid himself open to the lash of cenfure, by an inconfiderate and ill-digefted fpeech in the Houfe of Commons, on the queftion mentioned in the title-page of this tract; and the acute writer of these remarks has expofed the abfurdities of the fpeech, and pointed out the pernicious tendency of fuch rafh measures with much force of argument. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, he fays, declared that he had not had leifure to examine the facts on which the question turned, yet he did not hefitate to give a clear and decided opinion on a queftion that materially affected the interests of the country. He had not (it is here obferved), according to his own confeflion, examined the facts, yet he takes all the affertions, on one fide, as facts uncontrovertable, without paying the fmaileft attention to thofe ftated on the other fide of the question.-He boldly advanced, then, blindfolded, to decide; and after him followed his ever faithful adherents-but when the blind lead the blind, we know what to expect, as the natural confequence.

We recollect once to have heard of a man who conftantly prayed that it might please the Almighty never to make him a king.-We, humble reviewers, have fometimes been tempted by Satan, and have in our hearts wished to be admitted among the envied fraternity of parliament men." But, although we are not yet entirely devoid of ambition, we folemnly proteft by our ink-horn and goofe-quill, the ever faithful companions of our folitary hours, that we rejoice, on the prefent occafion, that we cannot be numbered among the fervum pecus belonging to that auguft body.

The man whofe fituation, in a great kingdom, enables him to difpenfe favours and diftribute rewards, we are ready to admit, has need of more than an ordinary fhare of found fenfe, and an enlightened understanding, because the opinion of fuch a perfon alone

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frequently

frequently determines queftions that may be in the highest degree beneficial or hurtful to the community. A wife man, a good man, even a prudent man will, therefore, in that fituation, be cautioas how he gives a decided opinion. In doubtful cafes, where his own intereft, at least, is not immediately concerned, he will allow things to take their natural course, and not make himself responsible for the errors of others. It would, perhaps, have been lucky for the premier, had the fpeech here prefented to the public, been spoken on the occafion that gave rife to it. It might poffibly have faved him the mortification of being obliged, at fome future time, avowedly to condemn the measures he, at that time, fo warmly fupported.

Art. 26. The Question of Wool truly ftated. In which the Facts are examined for and against the Bill now depending in Parliament. 8vo. 6d. Nicoll, St. Paul's Church-yard. 1788.

This little pamphlet might ferve as a model for compofitions of this fort. Important facts, on which hang the true merits of the queftion, are flated with a diftin&tnefs, perfpicuity, and brevity, that muft prove highly fatisfactory to every candid enquirer. The author is evidently mafter of the subject him felf, and he compreffes into a fingle page more real information than is ufually to be found in whole volumes, written on commercial questions.

He begins with obferving that no fet of men should come to parliament to demand an alteration of the subsisting laws, unless they can fhew,

ift. That they are under the preffure of fome general or particular evil, which is of magnitude fufficient to call for the interference of the legislature.

zd. That the fpecific method of removing fuch evil, which they propofe to be adopted, is beft calculated for doing it, with the leaft poffible inconvenience to others.

He next enquires, whether, in the prefent cafe, the allegation of the woollen manufacturers, that their trade is declining, be well founded. On this head he fhews, from a ftatement laid before the houfe of commons, that the average exports of woollen goods were as under, viz.

For seven years, from 1776 to 1782

£3,162,428

Average of 1783 and 1784

Average of 1785, 1786, and 1787

3,427,984 3,697,653

From which it appears that woollen manufactures, for exportation, are not on the decline, but much the reverse.

Though it be more difficult to afcertain the amount of the manufacture for the home market, he clearly fhews that the fame thing has taken place with regard to one of the greatest manufactures in the kingdom, the Yorkshire fabric of broads and narrows, from the following statement of the quantities ftamped: Average of four years 1779*, 1780, Broads

1781, 1782

Together

Narrows

3,446,838 2,625,282

6,072,120

Average

*Mitprinted 1789.

That the manufacture of fuperfine cloth has advanced in a yet higher ratio, he concludes from the following statement of the quantities of Spanish wool imported during the fame period :

And the year 1787 is £4,188,280, being the greatest import ever known.

These facts, taken together, prove in a very fatisfactory manner, that there is no decline in the woollen manufacture at the present time.

He next proceeds to enquire if the complaint of the great increase of fmuggling of wool be well founded? And here, controverting Mr. Anftie's statement of this article (according to which it would appear that the average from 1783 to 1787, both inclufive, amounts only to 11,000 tods *), he fhews, by an authentic account of the wool imported into France from England, produced by Sir Jofeph Banks, that it was as under:

1787

208,062

286,328

219,862

253,005

262,320

104,591

Livres

312,126

389,201

344,612

390,439

357,649

183,128

This account is corroborated by another produced by Mr. Arthur Young, from which it feems proved that fmuggling of wool is not gaining ground, but has actually of late greatly declined.

He then fhews that the price of wool (Spanish wool excepted) is nearly 100 per cent. dearer in France than in England, and of course that smuggling, in one way or other, must ever prevail while that disparity fubfifts; but that at the higheft, as the quantity of wool grown in this country amounts (according to a statement produced by Mr. Erfkine) to about 600,000 packs; and the average export to France, even according to Mr. Anftie's ftatement, to no more than 11,000; this must appear fuch a trifling quantity as to deserve no parliamentary notice.

These are valuable facts, and we have chofen to transcribe them, thinking they might be of ufe to many of our readers. The remaining part of the pamphlet confifts of pertinent remarks on the

Should not this be packs? A tod is only 281b. a pack is 240lb.
Wool

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