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As a fpecimen of the ftyle and manner of thefe difcourfes, we fhail prefent our readers with the following paffage upon the fubject of fuicide.

There is a practice amongst us, which hath often been the effect of this difquietude,-the practice of felf-murder; a practice fo common, that every year, every month, every week, nay almost every day, furnishes us with fresh examples of it; a practice, which, dreadful and abominable as it is, hath been honoured by the tear of pity, and even fometimes encouraged by the fanction of public applaufe. How grievoufly must the fpirit be wounded, when that death which it had fo long contemplated with horror and averfion, fhall become the object of its defires: the ftorin of worldly afflictions must beat very hard upon us, when we fly to the grave for fhelter from it. When we cry with Job, Why is light given to him that is in mifery, and life unto him that hath an heavy heart? for I will fleep in the duft, and if thon feek me in the morning I shall not be found The good Job indeed, notwithstanding thefe his complaints, fubmitted to the heavy judgments of his creator: he knew, (as every wite and pious man muft know,) that God only had a right to deffroy that being which he had made; and that our own life is no more at our own difpofal, than that of others. The crime of fuicide is doubt lefs of all wickedness the most dreadful, because it admits not, like other crimes, of reparation or repentance. The deferter may return to the field of battle, and redeem that character by bravery which he had loft by cowardice; but when the fearful unmanly foldier has quitted his poft in this life, who fhall reftore him to his duty? How fhall he wipe off the ftain of his difobedience, or reconcile himfelf to his divine commander ? All that can be expected therefore, from a deed fo daring, must be, that we shall rush with added guilt into the prefence of our judge; that our fcene of mifery will only be changed, and inftead of the impotent rage and malice of weak man, we fhall incur what is infinitely more dreadful, the wrath of the living God. Why does the wicked man fhun darknefs and folitude, but becaufe there, he knows, man (on whom he trufts) will not be, but God may be there, whom he hath offended? He is afraid of every part of nature, becaufe every part was made by that Being whom he hath provoked, and for ought he knows may rife up against him, and vindicate their Creator. He is afraid, therefore, where no fear is. The wicked, fays Solomon, fees when no man pursueth. It is part of the curfe which attends on guilt, that it always makes men cowards; it makes them fee dangers where there are none, and feel calamities which are never inflicted. Since then, my brethren, fuch and fo dreadful are thofe wounds which are inflicted on the fpirit of man, what grand specific shall we find to foften and relieve them? Surrounded as we are with miferes, both of the foul and body, both natural and acquired; thus bifet with evils and calamities on every fide, to whom fhall we apply for fuccour and redress? Is there, as the prophet says, no baim in Gilead? is there, no phyfician there? Let us hear what reason and religion, thofe great phyficians of mankind, will prescribe untc us. And first, then, in regard to natural and corporeal evils, the com

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mon lot and portion of mortality, it may not be improper to observe the mutual actions of mind and body on each other in this life; which fhould make us extremely careful to preferve a proper temperament in both. When our weak frame is afflicted with diforders, it is impoffible for the foul abfolutely to preferve its tranquillity. Not all the affluence of fortune, nor the acquifitions of fame or power, can extirpate the fenfe of pain. All that the mind can do in regard to the infirmities of nature, is to prevent, if poffible, what it cannot cure, and to foften what it cannot remove. Temperance, therefore, may preferve us from many diforders; and if men were as careful to acquire and preferve health, as they are to accumulate riches and honours, they would not fo aften lament the want of it. But those natural and unavoidable evils, which it is not even in the power of temperance and virtue to prevent, refolution and courage fhould teach us to bear. To fhrink beneath the flighteft touch of calamity, to yield to the fofteft preffure, betrays a weakness of foul that debafes our nature, an infirmity unworthy of an immortal fpirit. We are placed by our great leader in a poft of dander, and it is our duty to maintain it againft all oppofition, if we hope from him preferment or reward. Let us not, then, be tamely borne down the ftream of adverfity, but endeavour to stem the torrent. If we refift evil, like the author of it, it will flee from us: let us fight the good fight, exert all our strength, defend ourfelves against every attack with all the power we are masters of, and then if we fall, we fall with honour, and if we rife, we rife to glory. But after all, the great prefervation of happiness, the only impene trable armour which can fhield us from the blows of fortune, and turn afide the arrows of affliction, is virtue. Nothing can heal the wounded spirit but the balm of innocence: by this alone the health of the foul can be preferved; by this alone it can be restored. If thou art fatigued with the toils and labours of this life, fhe will give thee rest; if thou art heavy laden with the afflictions of it, fhe will refresh thee; he that hath her, need not fear what man can do unto him. Are we forrowful? this is joy: Are we poor? this is riches: Are we fick? this is health. This, and this alone, can fuftain all our infirmities; this will fupport us under every calamity, in pain, fickness or adverfity, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment.'

These fermons are published for the benefit of the widow and family of the author; and we hope moft fincerely they will meet with a liberal reception from the public.

ART.

ART. XV. An Efay on the Actual Refources for re-establishing the Finances of Great Britain. By George Craufurd, Efq. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Debrett. 1785.

THIS

HIS effay on finance is the production of a native of North Britain, a gentleman of reputation and figure, who is now occupied, under the aufpices of the British minister at Paris, in negociating a treaty of commerce between the courts of London and Verfailles How far Mr. Craufurd is equal to the conduct of fo important a negoti ation, we affume not the province of determining: but, we will venture to affirm, that the effay before us, is one of the moft fingular productions, in the fcience of finance, that has appeared in any age or country. Had the effay, which is dated from Paris, appeared as an anonymous performance, it would have appeared, we muft own, in a very queflionable shape; and we fhould have been apt to have confidered it as a jeux d'efprit of fome French wit, who was amufing himself with the embarraffments of the British government. But our author is certainly ferious; and, in his ardour for the public fervice, has announced a fyftem, which, if adopted by the adminiftration of Great Britain, would form, in his, opinion, a fortunate and glorious era in the finances of this country.

The national debt he confiders as an excrefcence on the body politic, and fo inherent to the conftitution from its nature, that its growth has prevented worfe diforders; and confequently, that any operation to reduce it is impolitic and dangerous, while cutting it off would attack the principles of life.

Thus circumftanced, Mr. Craufurd reprobates the idea of a finking fund, as an expedient equally chimerical and delufive. He condemns the impofition of more taxes as deftructive of national energy. Yet he contends, that by loans acting fingly, without correfponding taxes, the nation may go on from year to year, and flourish in industry, in commerce, and in credit, to the end of time.

Every new tax leffens the produce of the pre-existing taxes, vitiates the circulation of money; and, by impairing the abilities and obftructing the induftry of the nation, exhaufts our resources, and involves us deeper in diftrefs. On the other hand, every tax fuppreffed renders the remaining taxes more productive, augments induftry, diminishes the public expence, and, by giving additional scope and energy to the national exertions, ultimately tends to render our public burthens more fupportable. This being established in theory, our author's ferious counfel to the rulers of the nation, is to the following purpose.-Supprefs tax after tax,

by

By degrees, as faft as poffible; but never attempt, by any furplus of revenue, to reimburse any capital, or to diminish in any degree the aggregate of the national debt. In any exigency of ftate alienate fome part of the public revenue, and this alienation will procure a loan which will answer abundantly all the occafions of government. Thus we are to look for falvation, without redemption; and, under this falutary regimen, the abilities of the nation rifing in a higher proportion than the annual demands, national credit will flourish to the latest ages.

Such are the great outlines of this extraordinary system; but, for the detail of the reafoning, we muft refer our readers to the pamphlet itself. The following fhort extract will vindicate us from the charge of mifrepresentation.

Every attentive reader may now, with fome degree of precifion, draw the confequences naturally refulting from the premifes which I have eftablished.

The fuppreffion of a part of the existing taxes muft, on one fide, augment industry; and on the other fide, decreate the public

expences.

The increase of industry will produce greater abundance to the revenue in the remaining taxes.

This greater produce will, in the courfe of time, be equivalent to the amount of the fuppreffed taxes, and by a natural reproduction, in proportion to the number of reprefentative figns reitored to their génerative quality, give fufficient means to defray the annual expences without further loans, if my fyftem did not demand, that they should not be defifted from at any time, because it would be checking the greatest good effects, which may be procured from them.

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Every increase in the exifting taxes must therefore be turned into further fuppreffions, until they fhall amount to little more than what is neceffary for the payment of the public annuities, and for the eftablishment of the civil lift.

• The care of every adminiftation will then be confined to retaining annual contributions at that point, without any regard to the perpetual increase of annuities granted, becaufe a natural increase of riches will provide for every neceffary effort.

The future refources of Great Britain will then be founded on a fure and folid bafis.

Her credit will alfo be regenerated as well as preferved in its greatest degree of perfection, and will arife out of that confidence, which her visible restoration by fimple and falutary means must infallibly create, and which a natural increafe of riches will fecure.

Whatever fums may be wanted on extraordinary occafions will be procured by the alienation of the fmalleft poffible annuity, and the increafing produce of the exifting taxes will thew, that the national refources are unbounded, while the prefent conftitution of government exifts, and while any poilible increafe in population, or extenfion and improvement in industry and commerce can take place.'

A great

A great financier in this country, we have been informed, on the perufal of Mr. Craufurd's pamphlet, was ready to afk, whether the author was not de anged in his understanding. But we are far from afking any fuch question concerning our ingenious author. His reafoning in feveral parts is correct and conclufive; but, with great deference for the man, we must confider the fyftem, on the whole, as vifionary and impractic

able.

On fuch precarious speculation the minifter, we fear, could not command the neceffary loans. The fale of public annuities would give an universal alarm, would be confidered as indicating the last stage of financial embarrassment, and would probably haften the catastrophe of public credit.

That period, we truft, notwithstanding our various and multiplied incumbrances, is ftill remote. The accumulation of our national debt, to use the language of a moft ingenious writer,* must be acknowledged to be a great evil; yet it is poffible, that the nature of that evil may be in fome degree mistaken, and its distant terrors exaggerated.

TH

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. XVI. Confiderations fur l'Overture de l'Escaut. Par M. Linguet. 8vo. 2s. 6d. coufu. Elmily. A Londres. 1784. HERE are politicians who affirm, that a ftate cannot be happily governed, or its interefts effectually pursued without injuftice. This affertion is as contrary to found wisdom as it is to equity. For, as in private conduct there is a wide difference between prudence and cunning, fo in the government of ftates there is an evident diftinction between the great maxims of policy which are founded on the general and conftant principles of human nature, and the temporary artifices of fuch rulers as fubftitute expedient in the room of fyftem, and grasp at present and temporary inftead of future and permanent advantages. Political focieties are under the fame obligations with regard to each other's rights, as the individuals, of which all focieties are compofed. The law of fovereign ftates is the law of nature: and in obedience to this law the happiness and the glory of nations will be found to confift. If a private perfon cannot pass through the world with ease and reputation, nor expect the approbation of his fellow-creatures unlefs he has the character of an honest man; neither can a nation be free from dangers, alarms,

*Effay on the right of property in land.

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