Patino. The journey by land is dangerous, and presents no one object deserving of particular notice; excepting Hexamilia, of which I shall speak in the next chapter.'

The author then proceeds to give an account of his voyage from the Sigæan promontory to the isthmus of Hexamilia; in which we have not time to accompany him, though desirous of being entertained and improved by his ingenious observations.

We should gladly transcribe for our readers the concluding chapter, on the means of defending Constantinople in case of an invasion by sea, (which also contains the best methods of attack,) as being highly interesting, especially at this time; but, as it is too long for our limits, we must content ourselves with extracting the author's general observations respecting the Euxine; with which we shall conclude this article.

The Euxine possesses the advantage of having not one rock, and of affording several harbours, roadsteads, or anchorages, on all its coasts; yet every year witnesses frequent shipwrecks, occasioned by the ignorance and inexperience of the Turkish mariners, who sail without charts, without rule, and almost as chance directs. No observations are to be expected from them, on the actual position of places, on the currents, nor even on the coasts and their soundings. They have never given particulars of that nature; they scarcely ever improve by practice; and their vessels are also very ill-constructed, and badly provided.

The five principal rivers which pour their waters into the Euxine must necessarily produce currents, the force and direction of which it would be highly advantageous to know. These rivers convey into it a prodigious quantity of sand; which, being diffused in all the creeks and bites of the shores that are most distant from their mouths, is drifted by the winds so as sometimes to form a sort of downs. It has already been remarked that the coast of the Euxine is generally steep, and formed of layers of rock frequently inclined, and intermixed with strata of clay or gravel, covered at top by a good black mould, sometimes stoney, but extremely well adapted to cultivation. No sand is found any where but at the mouths of the rivers; and the shores even of the Dniepr and of the Dniestr, on the margin of the sea, are composed of strong land which resists the pick-axe: whence it may be inferred that the sands which they convey come from a greater distance, and that those which are lodged in the creeks are carried thither by the force of the currents. It has likewise been observed that the steep shores being incessantly worn by the violence of the waves, the winds, and the currents, the figure of the coast is changed; which also produces an alteration in the sand-banks. The destruction of a cape is sometimes sufficient to choak up a creek, which before afforded a safe anchorage for ships.

The commerce of the Euxine is capable of being rendered more beneficial both to Turkey and to European nations, if it were carried on by more able mariners and more intelligent merchants: but the slow

nese

ness of the navigation causes the expence of freight to be excessive: and the unskilfulness of the merchants, who are also destitute of spacious warehouses for their goods, still farther enhances the price by etarding the departure of the vessels. It is partly for this reason that the Turks prefer small craft to larger ships for coasting this sea; loading them indifferently with all goods which offer, without any regard to their stowage. No public work is executed for the benefit of commerce; and the bad condition of the roads contiguous to the several maritime towns, with the want of commodious quays or wharfs for shipping or unshipping the cargoes, always occasion additional expences and prejudicial delays.

The principal exports from this country are, grain (usually restricted to Constantinople), wool, timber, tar, hemp, wax, honey, leather, cotton, and copper. The articles which might be carried thither are cloths, coffee, sugar, and gold and silver lace: but for this purpose, factories should be established at all the sea-ports, protected by the Turkish government, to secure them from the plunder of the pashas and other subaltern authorities.'

M. LE CHEVALIER himself visited most of the places which he describes; and we see no reason for doubting either the veracity of his accounts, or the accuracy of his observations.

THE

ART. VI. Essai sur l'état actuel, &c. i. e. An Essay on the present State of the Administration of the Finances, and of the national Riches, of Great Britain. Ly FRIDERIC GENTZ. 8vo. pp. 247. Hamburg. 1800. Imported by Debrett, London. THE Cerman journals, we understand, are in the habit of painting in gloomy colours the means and resources of Great Britain. One of them lately asserted that British Bank notes are government securities, and that they are circulated to the amount of one hundred millions. Another reported that the whole of the national property did not exceed four hundred millions in value, while the interest of the public debt amounted to eighteen millions. To obviate mistakes of this sort, and to give foreigners correct and authentic information on the subject, is the professed object of the present tract: the author of which appears to be a complete master of all our late publications and parliamentary specches relative to finance. Being in full possession of the information which is to be collected from these sources, he states it in the treatise before us with method and perspicuity; rendering it an acceptable present not only to strangers, but even to British subjects themselves.

M. GENTZ divides his work into three parts. In the first, he inquires into the resources of this country; and he makes the whole of our national revenues amount to two hundred millions per annum, Comparing the accounts given by the English

and

and French writers on political economy, he finds that the territorial revenues of England alone, without including those of Scotland, equal those of France as they were estimated previously to its late convulsions: but we cannot help suspecting that there must be some fallacy in this statement; and that, if the different value of money in the two countries be taken into the account, with the effect of the restraints to which the commerce of the interior of France was subject at the period in question, a different result would be obtained. The subject is important; the fact is capable of being ascertained; and therefore it certainly ought to have due attention paid to it.

In the IId. part of this work, the author treats of national debts in general, and of the British in particular. His account of the rise of the funding system is clear and concise; and the same character belongs to that which he gives of the sinking fund. We are sorry, however, to be here required to observe, that he seems to render the late ingenious and amiable Dr. Price unwilling and scanty justice; while treating of the plans for reducing the national debt, it was not fair (in our judgment); to devote the text wholly to Mr. Pitt, and to confine the learned Doctor to a note. Is it not praise enough for the minister, that he has adopted the Dr.'s plan, has introduced into it those improvements which habits of business were likely to suggest, has followed it up, and has acted on it with perseverance, in the face of difficulties almost insurmountable? This surely is very meritorious. Dr. Price looked for no other reward for his labours, than fame and the gratitude of his country. Why should his right to these possessions be invaded? This sort of injustice is impolitic, and literary men should be the last to manifest it. Had M. GENTZ been' better informed, he would have known,—or had he been less prejudiced, he would have acknowleged, that, on subjects of financial calculation, Dr. Price, even by the side of Hume, Smith, &c. was not to be represented as a minor writer.

The concluding part of this essay treats on the Bank of England, and on its connection with government; forming a neat and judicious summary of the information contained in the discussions to which the late. stoppage of the Bank gave rise. The author is very anxious that it should be believed that the Bank did not become bankrupt: but he confounds bankruptcy with insolvency; the Bank was as clear of the latter, as it was indubitably chargeable with the former.

We extract the following observations on the subject of circulating coin, as a specimen of the writer's style and of his turn of thinking:

In every state which has arrived at a certain degree of civilization, its circulating coin forms but an inconsiderable part of the national wealth; and in comparing different states together, we shall always find that the ratio, which this sum bears to the commodities which it represents, is less in proportion as the general wealth is greater; so that, paradoxical as the proposition may appear, we may safely maintain that, all other things being equal, the richest state will possess, proportionably, the least ready money. This appears to be principally founded on the three following reasons:

1. The more the industry of a country flourishes, the more rapid will be the circulation of specie; and therefore the less will be necessary to support that circulation. Ten millions, which, in a given space of time, pass eight times from hand to hand in one country, will answer the same purpose as forty millions in another, which only change hands twice in the same period.

2. The more activity there is, the more extended will be the sphere; and the more credit there exists generally, the more easy will it be to introduce paper as a substitute for money;—an instrument of circulation far less expensive than that of the metals.

3. The greater is the progress, which a state has made in all the branches of industry, and of public and private economy, the more capable it will be of maintaining an exact equilibrium between the mass of its coin, and the demands of circulation A nation, little versed in the arts of industry and commerce, has often more coin than is necessary, or than it can employ; while the nation which nicely balances its interests will have no more than the demands of circulation enjoin. As a skilful merchant retains in his chest no more money than strict necessity requires, so a nation, all the individuals of which are capable of accurately judging of their wants and means, will maintain the mechanism of circulation with as little expence as possible; and it will consider every superfluous million as an useless wheel in the machine. This fully explains why, of all the countries of Europe, (without excepting Russia and Sweden,) England, in proportion to its wealth, has the least coin in circulation, and what a false test of the real wealth of a country is derived from the sum of its circulating specie.'

Though this work professes to be printed abroad, and to be the production of a foreigner, we think that the strong predilections which it manifests, the nice details into which it enters, and the light shades of opinion which it traces, bespeak it to be of home growth. Be its object and its origin, however, what they may, its claim to the character of being an able production, replete with valuable and authentic information, cannot be disputed; and we consider the author as intitled to the acknow legements of the country in whose favour he has employed his pen, as well as to the thanks of those foreigners who feel a desire to become acquainted with the strength and resources of Great Britain.

ART.

ART. VII. Des Causes qui ont amené l'Usurpation du Général Bonaparte, &c. i. e. On the Causes which have led to the Usurpation and will effect the Downfall of General Bonaparte By Sir FRANCIS D'IVERNOIS. 8vo. pp. 378. 8s. Boards. De Boffe, &c. London. June, 1800.

FRE

RESH Consolation is here offered to Great Britain, in the prophecy of the speedy failure of the French resources, the downfall of the Consulate, and the restoration of the Bourbon line. In the opinion of Sir FRANCIS D'IVERNOIS, these are matters about which it would be folly or ignorance in the extreme to entertain a single doubt. He exhibits France as thrown, by her financial derangements, at the feet of the coalesced powers, and the coalition as giving her peace on condition that she restores royalty.-The victory of Marengo, the successes of Moreau, and the congress at Luneville, do not exactly square with these agreeable forebodings: but future commentaries from the prophet's own pen may shew that there is no discordance.

all

Paul, Francis, and Frederic, are allies of little note compared with one who makes a very conspicuous figure in this elaborate treatise. This friend from whom we may expect sorts of wonders, this redoutable auxiliary of the coalition, our readers will have anticipated, is no other than General Deficit. What the bands of Austria and the hordes of Russia attempted in vain, Deficit will soon effect. As it was this which overturned the late French monarchy, so we are told by the author that Citizen Deficit is to act the chief part in restoring it, and to rear up again that which he once destroyed!-Frederic forsook us, Paul broke with us, Francis can no longer act with us; and we greatly fear that Deficit will serve us much in the same way, and fall short of the brilliant promises here made to us on his behalf. Suppose Deficit to hurl the Chief Consul from his throne, and Louis XVIII. to step in to fill the vacancy: what security has the restored monarch, against experiencing a similar fate! We had always conceived that Deficit was the enemy of principalities, powers, and potentates; and that he could prove their best friend is, we imagine, a discovery of this author, worthy to be ranked with his predictions already mentioned.

If Louis XVIII. were restored; if he, instead of Bonaparte, now held levies at the Thuilleries; and if the scattered nobles filled the antichambers of the palace, instead of the sons of enterprize who surround the Chief Consul; would these cir cumstances render the taxes more productive? The King, in the present state of France, would require establishments, civil