wanting where money, flowing from induftry, was plentiful; but if money is wanting, your population is of no confequence. All modern experience is but a collective proof of this. My principles are thefe: 'I mean to befriend population, and I think the only way to do it is to promote every branch of national induftry, and never throw out any restrictions, laws, or rules, with a view to population.-Ever let it be a fecondary object flowing from, wealth, if you would in fact have it the firft. Farmers, manufacturers, merchants, &c. conducting their business after their own ideas, and from the increase of their private wealth, enabled to be more active in their refpective provinces, and increafing the general consumption of all commodities, muft, in the very nature of things, promote population infinitely more than it is poffible for you to do by your cautions, regulations, and reftrictions.

Those who are fo eager in favour of population, should reflect, that a very numerous people, raised by any means but the gradual progrefs of wealth and induftry, would, in most, cafes, be burthenfome. Suppofe the farms fo fmall as to be just able to feed a family, and that the farmers were (as they must be in fuch a cafe) their own landlords-Suppofing by fuch a minute divifion of the territory the people should increase, but to what purpofe? Merely to ftarve one another; they can fell nothing, wanting the whole produce for their own fupport.Land-taxes on them would reduce them to beggary, and they can confume no excifable commodities, for how are they to buy them? Thus fuch a fyftem gives you no public revenuenor yields any products for exportation, fcarce any even for fale-of what good therefore is this part of your territory? Why it breeds people. True; but does it maintain them? No. Here therefore would be a furplus of population; but you want no fuch furplus-your army is full; your navy is full; and your manufacturers have far more hands than they can employ-why then increase your people? They can be nothing but a public burthen, if they do not leave a country which cannot fupport them.'

We shall leave thefe extracts to the judgment of the attentive Reader, and obferve upon the whole, that although we are not fatisfied with the ingenious Author's principles and reafoning on the subject of population, and think him rather deficient in point of respect and candour to thofe who have already diftinguished themselves in this department of political science, yet his book contains many juft and ufeful remarks on the ftate of agriculture in this kingdom, and on the general caufes that have contributed to render it fo far fuperior to that of some, neighbouring nations.

REV. Dec. 1774

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MONTHLY

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For DECEMBER, 1774.

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

Art. 10. An Appeal to the Fuftice and Interefts of the People of Great Britain, in the prefent Difpute with America. By an Old Member of Parliament. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Almon. 1774.

THE

HE Author of this Appeal is an able advocate for the colonists, not as compofing diftinct ftates, but as having, in common with British fubjects, an indefeasible right to an exclusive disposal of their own property.-He maintains with Mr. Locke," that the fupreme power, however it may make laws for regulating the state, cannot take away any man's property, without his confent:" that all taxes are free grants of the people, by their representatives, followed by an affent of the other branches of the legislature, according to the forms of legislation which are neceffary to authorize and prescribe the modes of collecting them: that fuch legiflative affent always fuppofes a previous grant on behalf of the people whofe reprefentatives for that purpofe have the exclufive right of originating money bills: and that the King gives thanks for the grant before he affents to the law for collecting it.-In fupport of this doctrine our Author cites various ftatutes, charters, &c. and enforces his arguments by numerous facts, drawn from the political history of this kingdom: by the practice of the clergy, who until they were admitted to a representation in the Houfe of Commons, enjoyed the exclufive privilege of taxing themselves in convocation; their grants afterwards receiving the affent of Parliament for the fame reasons that fuch affent is given to the grants of the laity by their reprefentatives the Houfe of Commons: by the cafes of Wales, Chefter, and Durham: and efpecially by that of Ireland; more particularly in the inftance in which King Edward the Third fummoned knights, citizens and burgeffes from thence to fit in the Parliament of England, the better to obtain fubfidies which the Parliament of Ireland had refused to grant. And this exclufive right of the people to difpofe of their own property independent of the fupreme legislative power, is, he fays, neither the difcovery of Mr. Locke, nor the peculiar provifion of the English conftitution. It was long fince fet forth by Cicero in these words: Hæc funt fundamenta firmissima libertatis, fui quemque juris retinendi ac demittendi effe arbitrium. It pervaded every feudal conftitution in Europe, and was exercised with as much precifion and jealoufy by the ftates of France, and the Cortes of Spain, as by the English Houfe of Commons. Auxilia, fays Bracton, fiunt de gratia et non ae jure ; cum dependeant ex gratia tenantium et non ad voluntatem dominorum. Dr. Robertson tells us (Hift. Ch. V.) "When any extraordinary aid was granted by freemen to their fovereign, it was purely voluntary;" and again, "it was a fundamental principle in the feudal fyftem of policy, that no freeman could be taxed unlefs by his own confent. Every one knows, from the most authentic accounts, that in the German conflitution, from its earliest date, all the people had a right to be prefent in their affemblies, and affent to what bound them.And I am well informed,

continues

"

continues he, that at this very day no taxes can be raised on the free cities of Bruffels, Antwerp, &c. without the confent of every indivi dual citizen who is prefent in the affembly." To the facred, eternal, and univerfal right of giving property, even a tyrant of the North has been obliged to bear his teftimony. We have heard the prefent King of Sweden publicly declare to his people, "That to be taxed by others was repugnant to the most precious part of their liberty, which confifts in taxing themfelves."-" To this right, fays he, of the nation to tax itself, I would have the greatest attention paid, because I am engaged, by oath, to let my fubjects enjoy their liberties and privileges without any reftriction." After thus denying the right, our Author proceeds to expose the impolicy of raifing a re venue in America against the will of the people; and this leads him to a fevere reprehenfion of our late measures, and an alarming prediation of their confequences.

Art. 11. A Letter to a Member of Parliament, on the prefent unhappy Difpute between Great Britain and her Colonies. 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Walter. 1774.

This Writer is an advocate for the measures of government, though we hope that they who direct thofe meafures will not own him as their advocate, or avow his opinions; fome of which are; that it is fafer to enforce a doubtful, or even pernicious, measure, than tamely to yield a point;'-that when the feveral eftates of the kingdom have once established a law, nothing on earth fhould be received to controul it, till the fubjects, by dutiful obedience to its mandates, place themselves in a fit condition humbly to petition or remonftrate, as the cafe may require, in confequence of the real and unaffected evils which they have experienced, under a full execution of the act or in other words, that a pernicious act of parliament fhould not be repealed until the people have fuffered all the evils it can produce:-and that to talk of a fupreme power, and ftrip it of a right of taxation, is downright nonfenfe.' Here poor Locke, and all the authorities cited in the preceding article, are, by a fingle elevation of this Gentleman's foot, kicked out of doors. We believe indeed this incivility to have been unintentional, and that the Gentleman was as ignorant of what he thus rejects, as he appears in other inftances to be of the nature of British government, and the political history and conftitutions of the colonies. He goes on to affirm,

that the fupreme power of parliament has been either expressly and directly, or tacitly and impliedly announced in every grant, charter, or public inftrument, iffued by the crown from the original fettlement of English plantations. And if, continues he, the Americans will produce any records in the face of this pofition, I will take upon me to fhew them their free and abfolute emancipation from all restraints, either of King or Parliament, fairly intcribed in legible letters on the back.'-Had fuch an obliging offer been made by thofe of fuficient power, it would doubtleis be accepted by the colonills, who, we fuppofe, among other "records," might produce the charter of Maryland.

66

This Writer, in the courfe of his Letter, often confounds the terms "power" and right."-The following paffage difcovers that he alfo confounds the ideas belonging to them: What I confider allo, fays he, as ridiculous in the conduct of the Americans is, that they

6

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fhould

should prefume to difpute a right which they have not firength to wreft from us. Power is very often the ultima ratio; but to question the rights of government without the ability to engage in fuch a conteft, is the perfection of folly and madnefs.-Thefe may ferve as fpecimens of opinions belonging more particularly to the Writer of this Letter, which opinions are however intermixed with fome of the arguments that have been often urged against the colonies, and not unfrequently answered. Though we do not mean to prescribe any particular employment for this Gentleman, we cannot advife him to perfevere in writing Letters to Members of Parliament, unless it be for better ends than he will probably attain from their publication. Art. 12. The Interefts of the Merchants and Manufatturers of Great Britain, in the prefent Contest with the Colonies, stated and confidered. 8vo. Is. Cadell. 1774.

The Author of this performance, to balance the disadvantages confeffedly imposed on the colonies, by restraints of their trade, enumerates. the fuppofed favours conferred on them by parliament; beginning with the act for prohibiting the cultivation of tobacco in England or Ireland, by which he means, as we fuppose, the act 12 Car. H.-But none of the favours he mentions can, as we think, be justly afcribed to a partial regard for the interefts of the colonies, which have always been confidered, at moft, but as fecondary to thofe of the parent ftate. And indeed the only true reafon for prohibiting the cultivation of tobacco in thefe kingdoms, is in the preamble of the act itself declared to be," that by planting thereof, your Majefly is deprived of a confiderable part of your revenue, arifing by customs upon imported tobacco;" for which reafon its cultivation has been likewife prohibited in France, where the government cannot be fupposed to have any particular folicitude for the prosperity of Virginia, &c.

·

But this Writer's principal endeavour is to prevent any interference of the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain, in behalf of the people of America, by reprefenting that the continuance of their trade to the colonies clearly and intirely depends upon the laws of England, having authority there:'-That it is their operation which binds the commerce of the colonies to this country, and gives fecurity to the property of the trader fent thither.'

Art. 13. A very short and candid Appeal to freeborn Britons. By an American. 8vo. 1 s. Axtel. 1774.

This Appeal confifts only of arguments often repeated before in favour of the colonies, and contains nothing which will be thought interesting by those who are even moderately acquainted with the prefent ftate of the American controverfy.

Art. 14. A Speech never intended to be fpoken, in Anfwer to a Speech intended to have been spoken, on the Bill for altering the Charter of the Colony of Maffachufets-Bay. 8vo. I s. Knox. The Writer of this fpeech declaims with fome spirit and plaufibility but when he condescends, or rather pretends, to reason, we can not but pity either the weakness, or the abuse of his faculties.-The fuppofed Right Reverend Author of the fpeech intended to have been spoken' had conceded all the rights claimed by parliament

* See Review for July, p. 7o.

over the colonies, and oppofed only what he thought a pernicious exercife of thofe rights: he imputed folly to the measures of government, rather than injuftice or oppreflion. His antagonist however has wantonly drawn the matter of right, into question, with a vain hope of proving what was already conceded: for this purpofe he advances, as a fundamental pofition, that by the conftitution repreJentation is not necessary to taxation.'-An affertion fo contrary to the letter and fpirit of numerous acts of ftate, as well as repugnant to all that has been written and believed of English rights or of English government, would feem at least to require one fubftantial proof; but instead of this we find only two confiderations;' the first is, that parliament in the times of our Saxon ancestors, from whom we boaft that the fpirit and form of our conftitution is derived, affeffed and levied taxes before the commons fat in parliament by reprefentation.' -Anciently all English freemen were admitted perfonally to parliament, and could therefore have no need of reprefentation. By the ftatute, de talliagio non concedendo, King Edward the First exprefsly declares, that no tallage or aid shall be taken or levied by us or our heirs in our realm, without the good will and affent of the arch bishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgeffes, and other freemen of the land. There are various other statutes alfo which make the confent of the fubjects in general necessary to authorise taxation; and this confent can only be given either in person or by representation; and the latter method, for convenience, was at length conftantly fubftituted for the former. In all times therefore the right of confent has remained: but could it even be proved, that there has been a time in which the people have had no fhare in the powers of legislation and taxation, they must then have lived under a form of government, very different from that which has fince been the boat and felicity of Englishmen, and it must therefore be very abfurd to conclude any thing concerning the nature of our prefent conftitution from practices prevailing before this conftitution was formed or established. His fecond confideration is, that there are more fubjects unrepresented in England and yet taxed, than there are inhabitants in British America.-The right of voting at the choice of reprefentatives belonged to every English freeman until the reign of Henry the Sixth, and its reftriction at that time, was a departure from the spirit of our free government. The right has however always exifted, though not in an equal divifion; (which indeed is not poffible) and those who have ceased to exercise the right, have by the conftitution been con⚫ fidered as enjoying a virtual representation; from which they have derived a real fecurity; being affected by no law or tax which does not equally bind the reprefentatives and their electors alfo: and this is a circumftance of great importance, because as Sidney has obferved, ⚫ the hazard of being ruined by those who must perish with us is not fo much to be feared, as by those who may enrich and strengthen themselves by our deftruction.' The people of America therefore, whilst taxed by partial laws, and wholly deprived of all reprefentation, confider their cafe as very different from that of another people, who enjoy that privilege, under the fingle defect of having it unequally fhared among them: and they particularly complain, that whilft every subject poffeffing freehold property in Great Britain, of

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the