this paper, as it appears in the Doctor's pamphlet ; and shall only remark-that we believe a plan of our Author's would have. been altogether as acceptable to the Public, as any thing of the kind from whatever LORD, or GREAT MAN. The genuine, original fentiments of a perfon fo refpectable for his abilities, and for his private character, as Dr. Price, could never want the fanction of titled names, or of any men who derive their eminence from the figure they make at the head of a party.We do not mean, however, to caft any invidious reflection on Lord S. or his plan. His Lordship has thrown out fome very good hints; and we heartily with they may now be attended with more effect from this publication, than they appear to have produced in the place where they were first delivered.

In his Appendix, which is chiefly intended to illuftrate what he has advanced, in the body of his work, on the Policy of the War in America, our Author has particularly ftated our national expenditure and income for ten years, from 1764 to 1774.

From this account, fays the Doctor, it will appear, that the money drawn every year from the Public by the taxes, falls but little fhort of a fum equal to the whole Specie of the kingdom; and that, notwithflanding the late increase in the productiveness of the taxes, the whole furplus of the national income has not exceeded 320,000l. per ann. This is a furplus fo inconfiderable as to be fcarcely fufficient to guard against the deficiencies arising from the common fluctuations of foreign trade, and of home confumption. It is NOTHING when confidered as the only fund we have for paying off a debt of near 140 millions. -Had we continued in a state of profound peace, it could not have admitted of any diminution. What then must follow, when one of the most profitable branches of our trade is deftroyed; when a THIRD of the empire is loft; when an addition of many millions is made to the public debt; and when, at the fame time, perhaps, fome millions are taken away from the revenue?'

We have not room for our Author's calculations at length, Some objections have been raised against them, by the anonymous author of The Rights of Great Britain; who has, thro' undoubted information, difcovered fome inaccuracies in the Doctor's ftate of the revenue and national debt; but thefe do not affect, materially, the general argument, nor ferve, in any degree, to obviate the Doctor's melancholy conclufions.

At the clofe of the pamphlet, the Doctor (though with little hope of being much attended to, where attention might take effect) has offered fome proposals for the retrieval of our public concerns, particularly the fpeedy reduction of the national debt : but for thefe hints, and calculations, we muft refer to the work itfelf. They appear to be of great importance; and their worthy

• Mentioned in the Review for February.

I

Author

Author is firmly perfuaded that, if carried into execution, we' fhould, in a few years, from the operation of the means here proposed, fee this country ABOVE ALL ITS DIFFICULTIES.

After we had put a period to this Article, as above, we looked into the Fifth Edition of these Obfervations; in which we find that the Author has very prudently availed himfelf of the corrections made in his eftimates, by the abovementioned author of The Rights of Great Britain; fo that we have now a better authenticated and more exact account of the NATIONAL DEBT, and APPROPRIATED REVENUE, as they ftood at Midsummer laft, than the Doctor was able to give in his First Edition: his work is, therefore, confiderably improved in its value to the Public.

N. B. Since this account of thefe celebrated Obfervations was fent to the press, we obtained a fight of an estimate of the na tional debt, expences, and revenues, formed by the Earl of S***r, and (as we are told) upon the most authentic evidences. This eftimate places the ftate of public wealth in a much more unfavourable point of view than that in which Dr. Price has left it. We are not at liberty to mention particulars on this topic;-fuffice it, therefore, when we fay, that from the refults of the eftimate in queftion, only feven millions of the public debt have been difcharged fince the termination of the last war; and of thefe only three millions were paid from the ordinary revenues of the ftate: the refidue having been liquidated by accidental tranfitory fupplies produced and left by the war, and which are now exhaufted and gone-fuch as the annual contribution of 400,000l. paid by the Eaft-India Company to Government for feveral years, but which has now ceafed the fums arifing from the fale of prizes taken in the laft war, and from the fale of lands in the newly ceded WeftIndia islands :-the fums received for the maintenance of French prifoners during the late war, &c. &c. amounting in all to about four millions.

From the fame eftimate it likewife appears that the annual difference between the amount of the public income (fuppofing no diminution of it to ensue by a lofs of the American trade) and the public expenditure is less than 300,000l. This dif ference, then, is the only fund on which we are to borrow the immenfe fums neceffary to carry on the prefent American war, and the only means left us for paying the intereft of what we may thus borrow; but if the lofs of our American commerce fhould (as it moft certainly will) fo far diminish the public re

• To this new Edition is added, befide a fecond Preface, a POSTSCRIPT, containing an account of public debts difcharged, money borrowed, and annual intereft faved, from 1763 to 1775.

venue as to annihilate this remaining annual 300,000l. what can then preserve us under the additional debts now contract. ing, from a national bankruptcy?

A

FOREIGN LITERATURE

(By our CORRESPONDENTS.)

ART. I.

GENEV A.

N interesting and inftructive work has lately made its appearance here, in two volumes, large octavo, intitled, Inftructions d'une Pere á fes Enfans, fur la Nature & fur la Religion: i. e. The Father expofing to the View of his Children the Works of Nature, and the Truths and Duties of Religion.This refpectable, this excellent Father, is Mr. ABRAHAM TREMBLEY, Fellow of the Royal Society, and known with diftinction in the Republic of Letters, by his curious discoveries in natural history. The inftructions he gives his children on these important fubjects, are conveyed in forty-five difcourfes; and thefe difcourfes bear the amiable characters of candid fimplicity, paternal tendernefs, religious fenfibility founded on the moft rational views of Deity, and a perpetual and zealous folicitude to draw from philofophy its proper fruits, to make it the guide, the comforter, the ornament of the mind, the fource of internal ferenity, benevolence, virtue and happiness. The whole strain of this work discovers these effects of philofophy in the heart of its Author, and give him an aspect of dignity and usefulness, which the cloud-cap'd fceptic will never derive from the moft ingenious efforts of his barren and uncomfortable fophiftry. In a word, we fee the blended characters of the true philofopher, the good man, and the rational Chriftian, in these two volumes.

In the first five difcourfes of this useful work, the Author treats, among other things, of Happiness and the means of arriving at it, of the Origin and Nature of Man, of Life, Death, and Immortality, of the Knowledge of the Deity, as the true fource of felicity; and of the Contemplation of his Works, as the fource of that knowledge. To open interefting views of the Divine Operations, Mr. Trembley, in the feventeen fucceeding difcourfes, takes a large and circumftantial furvey of the Vegetable and Animal Worlds, confiders the external and diverfified forms, the nutrition and growth, the internal fructure and organization of plants and animals. From the twenty-second to the twenty-feventh difcourfe inclufive, he confiders the fenfibility, knowledge, and natural character of the Animal World in geneneral, their wants, inftinels, and means of self-preservation, the impreffions they receive from heat and cold, from the fucceffion of day and night, and from the viciffitudes of the feason. He

points out the tender and touching scenes of parental affection they exhibit in the spring, the various aspects of union, fociability, and industry they offer to the view of an obferver; as alfo their perfect and imperfect affociations, and the precautions Nature has taken for their prefervation and fupport. These objects form the principal contents of the first volume.

In the fecond volume, Mr. TREMBLEY continues his furvey. In the ten fucceeding difcourfes, he paffes in minute review the inanimate fcenes of Nature, the Earth, with its atmofphere, its elements, and minerals; and MAN, in that mixed nature by which he ftands allied to matter and spirit, to time and to eternity. From hence he rifes to the other globes that compofe, our Solar Syftem, confiders their laws, motions, and influences; and, though in the courfe of this affiduous contemplation of nature, he never lofes fight of its great Author: yet, in the nine laft difcourfes, he afcends more profeffedly from the works to the Worker. Here he expatiates with complacence and fenfibility on the noble fubject, expofes the abfurdity of Atheism, demonftrates the neceflity of a firft caufe, treats of the Divine Perfections and Providence, and proves the perfect, the infinite wisdom, power, and goodness of the Deity, notwithstanding the feeming or real diforders that take place in this tranfitory, fpot and period, of the natural and moral world. Such is the general tenor of the work before us, which CHARLES BONNET will put with a fraternal kind of pleafure upon the fame shelf with his own refpectable and delightful volumes, and we think it will live, with them through fucceeding ages, in the efteem and veneration of the worthy and the wife.

* We find, by an advertisement in the papers, that this work has been imported by Owen.

+++ We are obliged to poftpone the remainder of the FOREIGN ARTICLES to our next, in order to make room for fuch of our DOMESTIC Publications as, being of a TEMPORARY as well as of a very IMPORTANT Nature, must be fuppofed to intereft, in a pe culiar manner, the attention of our Readers.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For MARCH, 1776.

AMERICAN CONTROVERSY.

Art. 14. A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Price, on his "Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, &c." 8vo. 6d. Evans, &c. HE lefs argumentative parts of Dr. P.'s Obfervations are con

claims against the Doctor's declamation. He fays he could eafily have refuted, at large, the whole argument of Dr. Price's perform

ance,

ance, on the Doctor's own premises, and on indifputable facts,'had he thought it of any falutary confequence, in the too critical circumstances of this country. But he declines the tafk; for as the day of grace, fo the hope of falvation is paft.'-We are forry for the Author's want of hope; but we wish him not to despair, however; because it may happen that the day of grace is not paffed; and, confequently, that falvation may yet come,-whether from the North or the South,—and how little foever we may deserve it. Art. 15. Remarks on Dr. Price's "Obfervations, &c." 8vo. 1 s. Kearsley.

This Remarker cannot reason, but he can rail; and where he fails to confute, he fails not to call names.

SPECIMEN.

Mr. P. [for he nowhere allows the Doctor his D, but in the title-page of thefe Remarks] is a Diffenting preacher, born and nourished in the very bofom of Sedition. I do not fpeak the language of bigotry or perfecution; but I cannot help confidering the Diffenters as fecret enemies to government.'-If this be not the language of bigotry, we should be glad to know what language it is. Art. 16. The Honour of Parliament and the Justice of the Nation Vindicated. In a Reply to Dr. Price's " Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberty.' 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. W. Davis.

This Defender of the Honour of Parliament is rather lively than folid. He exclaims, without mercy, against the Americans, as rebels, traitors, parricides, &c. &c. and is not a little farcallic on Dr. Price's profeffion, as a preacher among the Diffenters.-The advocates for America will reprobate the politics of this Writer, while the friends of Government will affert that he has given his antagonist many a fmart rap on the knuckles. A moderate byeftander will probably deem both fides too warm to judge impartially of his merit. Indeed, IMPARTIALITY and CANDOUR feem, at prefent, to have little chance of being heard, with their ftill, fmall voice, amidst the tumult and violence of our American difputants. But when paffion fubfides, both parties, we doubt not, will honeftly own that they have been in the wrong.

Art. 17. The Critical Moment, on which the Salvation or Deftruction of the British Empire depends. Containing the Rife, Progrefs, prefent State, and natural Confequences of our American Disputes. By Janus. 8vo. 2 s. Setchell. 1776.

In tracing the rife and progress of the prefent dangerous mifunderstanding between Great Britain and her American Colonies, and in deducing its fuppofed fatal confequences, this Author fhews a more comprehenfive knowledge of the fubject, than is common to the pamphleteers of the times. His general view is to point out former mistakes, to explain the prefent dangers, and to offer a new mode for allaying our unhappy ferments.' He appears to be particularly well informed of the prefent ftate and circumflances of Ame rica, and of the true grounds on which our fellow-fubjects in that quarter of the globe have taken arms against us. Poffibly [but this is a mere random conjecture] he is a native of fome part of that country at least, his zeal for the Colonies, and the acrimony with