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418

Stockholders.-Mifcellaneous Obfervations.

That, call'd to second life, here laid alone,
No friend and he fhould quarrel for a bone,
Thinking, that were fome old lame grannam
nigh,

To get to heav'n, she'd steal his leg or thigh.
I am, fir, your very obedient fervant,
Warrington, 16th Dec. 1797. C. L.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

I the principles laid down by your core refpondent ***, in your laft Month's Magazine, relative to the claims of the national creditor, however exceptionable fome of them may be-but now only to correct an error he has certainly run into, in his statement of the number of stockholders, which he thinks to be about 60,000. I believe it is pretty certain, and I have good authority for afferting, that there are much nearer 200,000 in the whole amount, and doubt not in the leaft, there are 160,000, or 180,000. I have been affured, by gentlemen at the bank, there are as many as 60,000 in the 3 per cents. only; which he makes the amount of the whole. And withal, it fhould be confidered, there are two or three times the number of families that have perhaps their chief, or great dependance on the property of their parents or near relatives, which lies in the different fpecies of funds, or public fecurities. I am, yours, &c.

Do not mean to attempt to difprove

Bucks, 19th April.

S. E.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

Send you a few loofe reflections on fubjects defcanted upon in the laft number of your entertaining and inftructive Mifcellany.

Mr. Erfkine on the House of Commons. Your readers will undoubtedly feel themfelves much obliged to you for the publication of this paper; which at once throws fo much light upon an interefting branch of our political antiquities, and places in fo fair a point of view the confiftency and character of a man whofe virtues (notwithstanding a few foibles, and one unfortunate prejudice) are fcarcely inferior to his talents. We fee, by this collegiate exercife, that the patriotism and love of liberty which have diftinguished his forenfic and parliamentary exertions, are not to be confidered as the cant of the pleader and the partizan, but as the genuine effufions of a noble principle early imbibed and well digested. That the rights of mankind are prior and para

mount to all constitutions, and that "there is no ftatute of limitation to bar the claims of nature," are truths beyond the narrow and that " freedom upon English principale of technical fcience and authority; ples" includes the right of all who are the objects of the law, to be perfonally, or, by reprefentation, the makers of the laws," is a principle too broad and general to answer the mere purposes of any perfonal faction. It is, perhaps, on ac count of the energy with which Mr. E. has enforced the convictions refulting from the former of thefe principles, that the mere lawyers, the dull detailers of cafes and precedents, have endeavoured to depreciate his legal knowledge. Becaufe he was capable of looking beyond their ftumbling blocks, they imagined that he did not know where they were placed. With refpect to the latter, it is worth Mr. E.'s while to confider whether it does not establish a national claim to reprefentation on a much broader bafis than that to which, in concert with a refpectable knot of political characters, he has lately pledged himself. It makes (as all juft principle neceffarily muft make) perfons not property the first object of government, and the bafis of all juft legiflation.

That, in the hiftorical reafonings of this differtation, Mr. E. is strictly correct, I have no fort of doubt; and his expofition of the fource of that unmerited idolatry that has been paid to Saxon inftitutions, is equally acute and candid. If it were not for the frequent detection of thofe miferable fhifts and fophiftical fubterfuges to which the advocates of liberty are driven, when they want the boldness to face firft principles, one should be really aftonished to hear the champions of human rights fo loud in their commendations of thofe Saxons, among whom private confpiracies furnished the perfonal protection which ought to have been derived from public justice; and the mafs of the people were held in a vaffalage as abject as that of a Spartan helote, or a Weft India flave.

When I was young in inquiries of this nature, and fired with enthusiaẩm by the panegyric which every where prefented themfelves upon thefe wonderful Saxons, who, in the midst of barbarism and ignorance, feemed to have furpaffed in practical and fyftematic liberty all that had exifted in the times of Grecian science and philofophy, I inquired of a perfon well known in the political world for the zeal with which he has circulated thefe pane

gyrics,

Saxon Liberty.-National Debt.

gyrics, and contended that we ought to be free, because the Saxons were fo, in what treasuries of knowledge a fatisfactory account of thefe wonderful inftitutions was to be found? This information, I concluded, no one could be fo able to furnish as himfelf; and I was not a little mortified at finding all my inquiries evaded or repelled by general reflections, that " a man cannot have knowledge without labouring for it ;" that "the best way to understand any fubject, was to read every thing that came to hand," &c. obfervations which, however juft in themselves, I have fince found reafon to conclude, were artfully intended to get rid of a fubject which that celebrated politician well knew would not ftand the test of persevering inquiry. The fact is, that, with refpect to our Saxon ancestors, but little authentic information has been handed down. Even that little, however, is enough to convince every impartial reafoner, that the caufe of equal juftice would be the very reverfe of being promoted by an adoption of their political fyftem. It was a fyftem of ufurpation, violence, and oppreflion. And, indeed, how should it have been otherwife? The Saxons, like all the German nations, derived their plan of government from that fountain head of feodal tyranny, fo finely defcribed by Tacitus in his " Manners of the Germans;" and, notwithstanding all that has been fo frequently reiterated in praise of the inftitutions of thofe favages, they were, in reality, nothing but a crude hafh of tyranny and licentioufnefs; the leading principle in the compofition of which was, that the many were made for the few. In the words of Mr. E. "the lords, indeed, were free; but, for that very reason, there was no public liberty."

--

National Debt. Your correspondent GOURNAI (p. 258) obferves, that a confiderable part of the taxes levied in any country muft neceffarily be derived from the labour, that is to fay, be ultimately levied upon the laborious poor of that country. I believe he might have gone much further, and have proved, that, at leaft, till the taxation becomes fo exceffive, that either the poor can be pinched no closer, without being pinched to death, or that the very circulation of the produce of labour is to a confiderable degree reftrained; the laborious poor pay all the taxes of a nation, for they produce all; and all that is paid in taxes is a part of produce; while, on the other hand, all but the labourer have means (till the arrival of these crises) of fhifting the bur

419

then from their fhoulders to those beneath. If the hiftory of the progrefs of rentrolls, revenues, and luxuries, is confulted, this will be illustrated most fully. This statement neceffarily gives rife to fome important inquiries.-What right could any fet of minifters have (or could even the whole body of community have) to contract what is called a national 'debt? Can this, or any other country (meaning thereby the population of fuch country), be faid, in reafon and equity, to owe one fingle fhilling to any fet of perfons claiming to be public creditors? If I burthen my eftate with debts, it is right that my heir fhould pay them, because, if I leave him my debts, I leave him property wherewith to difcharge them; and he is no further refponfible than my effects will go; and if he does not choose to be fubject to the trouble and inconveniencies of the tranfaction, he may, by refufing to accept the estate, avoid the incumbrance of the mortgage. But the mafs of the people (by whom it is evident the intereft of what are called public debts are eventually paid) inherit neither eftate nor property from their ancestors; why, then, thould their industry be burthened with their debts? My conclufion is, that the property is refponsible, not the people (for the proprietors have been parties to the bargain, and the estates have defcended with the mortgages upon them). The fund-holder has therefore a right to foreclofe the mortgage, because thereby he enforces payment from his real creditor: but he has no right to receive the intereft, as he now does, because it is levied in taxes upon those who owe him nothing.

Circulating Medium.-It is truly aftonishing, that, after fo much has been faid upon this fubject, it should be fo little understood, and that men of penetration and reflection fhould ftill continue to confound together the property of a country, and the medium by means of which that property is transferred from hand to hand. Will it never be understood that money, whether paper, or gold and filver, is fo far from being the whole, that it is no part of the wealth of a nation? that it is, in reality, nothing but the counters or figns by which that wealth is defignated, as by figures and cyphers on a flate; and that, as a fmall number of the latter are fufficient, by means of repeated ule, to caft up and fettle the largest account; fo a fmall quantity of the former, by means of the arithmetic of circulation, is capable, alfo, of paying the most enormous

debts,

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422

Zimmermann.-Amfterdam Houfe of Gorrection.

that one every other was included. When happinefs is fled, what remains but that life which will foon cease to be a burden? Such, fir, are the reflections I have frequently had occafion to make; and thefe have now arisen from reading, in an account of the literary writings of the celebrated Zimmermann, an extract from an Eflay on Solitude, exhibited, no doubt, for the purpofe of producing a very different effect. Speaking of a beloved daughter, who died within two years after his removal to Hanover, the Doctor fays, "Diffident of her own powers, she liftened to the precepts of a fond parent.She had been the fubmiffive victim of ill health from her earliest infancy; her appetite was almost gone when we left Switzerland, a refidence which the quitted with her usual sweetness of temper, and without difcovering the fmalleft regret, although a young man, as handfome in his perion as he was amiable in the qualities of his mind, the obje&t of her firft, of her only affection, a few weeks afterwards put an end to his existence in de. fpair." It is unneceffary fo fay in what light this ftruck me.

That Zimmermann was a man of fine feeling and poignant fenfibility, and that he tenderly loved his daughter, cannot be doubted; but it is known to all Europe, that he was also vain and ambitious; and except, Mr. Editor, fome of your correfpondents, whofe information may enable them, will take the trouble to inftruct me better, I fhall continue to believe that this beloved daughter and amiable young man, were facrificed to the vanity and ambition of Zimmermann. May 8th, 1797.

0.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

SEE

EEING in your laft half-yearly Supplement, a defcription of the Marine School at Amfterdam, extracted from the MS. journal of the travels of M. THOUIN, into Belgium and Holland, I am induced to hope that the following account of the houfe of correction at Amfterdam, drawn from the fame fource, will prove equally acceptable to your readers.

The Amfterdam houfe of correction is, from the employment of the prifoners confined in it, called the Rap/buys (RafpingHoufe), and is deftined to the reception of such malefactors, chiefly thieves, whofe crimes do not amount to a capital offence. Their punishment cannot fo properly be denominated folitary confine

ment as a fequeftration from fociety during a limited term of years. The building is fituated in a part of the suburbs to the north east of the city. The exterior has nothing remarkable, neither with refpect to form or extent. It is detached from the street by a fpacious court, which contains the keeper's lodge, together with apartments for the different fervants belonging to the establishment. Over the gate, which opens from this court into the prifon, are placed two ftatues, as large as life, reprefenting two men in the act of fawing a piece of logwood.

The inner court is in the form of a fquare, round which are arranged the apartments of the prifoners, together with the neceffary warehoules. One part of the ground ftory is divided into different chambers; the other ferves as a depot for the logwood, and the implements employed in its preparation.

The keeper, whofe countenance, contrary to the general cuftom of perfons of his profeffion, was ftrongly indicative of urbanity and gentlenefs, introduced M. THOUIN into an apartment where two prifoners were at work in fawing a large log of Campeachy wood. The faw is compofed of four blades, joined together, with very ftrong, large and fharp teeth, which make a fciffure in the wood of nearly two inches in breadth. The operation is repeated, till the pieces become too fmall to undergo the faw, when they are ground in mills peculiarly constructed for this purpose.

This employment requires an extraordinary exertion of ftrength, and is, at first, a fevere penance even to robuft perfons: but habit, addrefs, and practice, foon render it eafy; and the prifoners, in a fhort time, become competent to furnish, without painful exertion, their weekly contingent of 200lb. weight of fawed pieces. After completing this task, they even find time to fabricate a variety of little articles in wood and ftraw, which they fell to thofe who vifit the prifon, or difpofe of, by means of agents, in the town.

M. THOUIN next infpected three apartments of different dimenfions, which opened into the inner court. The one was inhabited by four, the fecond by fix, and the third by ten prifoners. The furniture of the rooms confifted in ham, mocks, with a matrals, a blanket, and a coverlid to each, tables, chairs, and tools, glafs, &c. earthen veffels, and various other articles of convenience, Every

2

Amfterdam Houfe of Correction.

thing in thefe apartments was diftinguished by neatnefs and propriety, and notwithstanding the number of inhabit. ants allotted to each, was fully adequate to the dimensions of the rooms; the fenfes were not offended with any disagreeable fcent, and the air was in every respect as pure and wholesome as the furrounding atmosphere.

In an obfcure part of the building are a number of cells, in which, formerly, thofe prifoners who revolted against the proper fubordination of the place, or illtreated their comrades, were confined for a few days. But the keeper affured M. THOUIN, that thefe cells had not been made ufe of for upwards of 10 years. They are dark, gloomy dungeons, with only a fmall aperture for the admiffion of light and air. The fuppreffion of this barbarous and coercive punishment does honour to the humanity of government.

The ftore-rooms are filled with various kinds of wood for the purposes of dying; as the Haematoxylum Campechianum, the Morus Tinctoria, the Caesalpinia Sappan, &c. They are all exotics, with the exception of the Evonymus Europaus. The warehouses were not of fufficient extent to contain the quantity of wood, which was depofited in piles in different parts of

the court.

The prifoners, amounting to 76 in number, were uniformly habited in coarfe woollens; wear very good stockings, large leather fhoes, white fhirts, and caps or hats. They are, by the rules of the houfe, obliged to frequent ablutions, which greatly contribute to the prefervation of their health. There was only one fick perfon amongst them: and, what is not a little remarkable, almost all the prifoners had formerly lived in large commercial towns; very few villagers were amongst them. They had all been fentenced to imprisonment for theft; but it depends upon themselves, by reformation and good behaviour, to fhorten the term of their confinement, which many of them frequently do.

The keeper, whofe humanity towards the unfortunate perfons committed to his care, entitles him rather to the title of their protector than their gaoler (and M. THOUIN informs us, that the prifoners generally called him by no other name than father), affifts them with his counfels and friendly admonitions. He regitters, every week, in a book appropriated to this purpose, both the inftances of good and bad behaviour; which is annually fubmitted to the examination of MONTHLY MAG. No, XXXII,

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the magiftracy, who, from this report, abridge or prolong the term of confinement, according to the degree of indulgence which each prifoner appears to merit. Cafes frequently happen where a malefactor, condemned to an imprisonment of eight years, by his good behaviour procures his enlargement at the expiration of four; and fo, in proportion, for a fhorter term. But great attention is paid to discriminate between actual reform and hypocritical artifice.

The reward of good behaviour is not, however, confined to, or withheld till, the period of actual liberation. Their reftoration to fociety is preceded by a progreffive amelioration of their lot. Their work is gradually rendered less laborious, they are accommodated with feparate apartments, and employed in the fervices of domeftic œconomy. The keeper even entrusts them with commiffions beyond the precincts of the prifon, and scarce a single instance has occurred of their abufing this indulgence. this prudent management, a confiderable faving is effected in the expence of the establishment, at the fame time that it tends to wear away prejudice, and to initiate the prifoners by gradual advances into the reciprocal duties of focial life.

By

M. THOUIN made particular inquiries whether it was cuftomary for perfons after their difcharge, to be confined a fecond and third time, as is but too often the cafe in many countries, for a repetition of their offence. He was informed, that fuch inftances very rarely occur; but the cafe is not without precedent, as he obferved in the perfon of a young Jew, who was then in the Rafphuys for the third time. The cafe of this man is fomewhat extraordinary. During the period of his detention, he always conforms, with the most scrupulous observance, to the rules of the place, and gives general fatisfaction by his exemplary conduct. But fuch, as he himself avowed to our traveller, is his conftitutional propensity to thieving, that no fooner is the term of his imprisonment elapfed, than he returns with redoubled ardeur to his lawless courfes. It is not fo much for the fake of plunder, as to gratify his irrefiftible impulfe, that he follows this vicious life; and M. THOUIN adds, that he recounted his different exploits with as much exultation and triumph, as a veteran difplays when rehearsing his warlike atchievements.

Another falutary regulation in this inftitution, from which the best confe3 I

quences

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Circulating Medium.-Waste Lands.

debts, provided the party is but in poffeffion of property to command fuch circulation. Inattention to this fubject produced one of the fundamental errors in Paine's work upon finance-a pamphlet that may be regarded as a phenomenon in the hemifphere of difcuffion, inasmuch as it arrives at a conclufion which is truth itfelf, by premises, almost every one of which are palpably erroneous. Having calculated the quantity of bullion fuppofed to be in the bank, he fuppofes this to be the fum total of the dividend it can make to its creditors, not confidering that if it had no other property than the money in its coffers, banking muft always have been a lofing game; and that if it has fuch other property, this must bring back into thofe coffers to-morrow, &c. part, at leaft, of the money it pays out to-day. Similar is the error of your correfpondent CARACTACUS (p. 266). "If the national debt is to be difcharged, through what circulating medium fhall we difcharge it? Not by the paper, large as it is, now in circulation, much lefs by the fpecie; nor, indeed, by both united." And why not? In this very paffage, where he talks fo much about circulation, the writer forgets that any fuch procefs as circulation exifts. The queftion, in reality, ftands thus: Is all the property of the nation equivalent in value to the amount of the national debt If fo, and the proprietors are difpofed to pay it, the debt may be as easily, though not quite fo quickly, difcharged, by a circulating medium of 500l. as of 500,000,000; for the medium muft, of neceffity, return to the proprietors as often as they want it, till the commodities themselves are exhaufted. The difficulty of difcharging the national debt, then, arifes from a very different reason than the want of a medium of exchange. Waste Lands. -Your correfpondent AGRICOLA (p. 269) fays, "There is no land, either in Scotland or England, which has its furface at all covered with herbage, that ought not to afford at least fixpence an acre, in the year, to the landlord." I fubmit the following questions to his confideration :-Can there be, in common justice or common fenfe, any fuch thing as property in land, but that which arifes from the improvement of labour and cultivation? Is it expedient either for individuals or the community at large, that one man who will not cultivate should preclude another who would? On what pretence, then, fhould any landlord exact even fixpence a year per acre

for waste land? Would, it not be a de firable thing that an act fhould be paffed, that upon all waftes, the cultivation of which fhould not at least be commenced by a time fpecified, any perfons (under certain regulations for prevention of tumult and contention) fhould be permitted to take poffeffion of a specific quantity (four or five acres for example) for a given number of years, or for life, upon condition of building a cottage, and bringing the ground into immediate cultivation; the wafte ground in the parish or district, to be let out again in the fame fmall lots at moderate rents, and the produce to form a fund for the education of the children of husbandmen, cottagers, &c.?

This laft idea was fuggefted to my. mind by a circumstance of which I was witnefs during a late vifit to Hereford. Walking on the caftle-hill with an inhabitant of that city, he directed my atten tion to one of the neighbouring hills, now in a state of high cultivation even to the fummit, informing me at the fame time, that when the eftate firft came into polfeffion of the prefent proprietor, the whole hill was a perfect wilderness; and that the means he had adopted to bring it into its prefent ftate, was to build several fall cottages at convenient distances, and let them out to labouring men, on leafes of twelve or fourteen years, at very moderate rents, together with as much furrounding land as the cottager would undertake to cultivate. By this means a benefit has been conferred upon several poor families and upon the public; and a confiderable reverfionary property has been in a manner created to the proprietor and his family. Among the Welsh mountains many little patches are to be met with, that have all the appearance of having been brought into cultivation in a way not much diffimilar: and even at this inftant, through the branches of my orchard, I perceive the smoke rifing from a little cottage on the brow of one of thofe rude eminences that over-hang the Wye, in happy illustration of my subject. The venerable labourer, whose evening's mefs is now preparing on that spot, poffeffes about ten or twelve acres around his humble fhed, including his garden and his orchard, which he holds under three different lords of manors, for the term of his wife's life, at the moderate rent of feven fhillings a year to each. There he keeps his cow, and his four or five fheep; and did keep, till very lately, his little rugged Welsh poney, on which he rode to his work of a morning, &c. But the

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