the British merchants; amongst whom, if any disputes or controversies arise, the directors of the college of commerce very wisely order it for arbitration among the British merchants, who are selected for that purpose. "This is a sort of court of equity in commercial matters, the decisions are prompt and attended with little expence, as the impartiality of the judges is at least equal to what could be found in the common courts of law: it is attended with advantage. Here it may not be improper to observe, that it is certainly of advantage in commercial matters, that differences should be decided speedily, not only because witnesses are generally ready, and the facts recent, and well remembered, but that it prevents the interruption and suspension of business, which would otherwise be occasioned. Inferior and prompt courts of this sort may be always corrected by the power of appeal, therefore they deserve approba tion.' whilst from Rendsburgh to Holtenau, nearly "The surface breadth of this canal is one 24 9 "As this canal may in the present state of Europe be greatly frequented, more gene.al formation and use of those who may avail of and minute particulars are given for the init, and which here follow "All ships, to whatever nation they may belong, are allowed to pass through on the same conditions, without any exception. We know not why Mr. Oddy should have preferred to spell bracker instead of broker, which is our usual form of writing the word. If commerce is thus to naturalize all the synonyms of her native terms, and to incorporate them in the lingua Franca of the counting-house, sir Herbert Croft will not be able to confine his supplement for Johnson's dictionary to the reduplication which he has already an- No unloading or discharging of any fo nounced. The progress toward a univer- reign goods and merchandize is permitted in sal language will be very rapid, when all any other place situated on this canal, than at the words of the earth are acknowledged Holtenau and Rendsburgh; but only inlat-d to be English but an Englishman willed to be taken in and unloaded at the sluices produce, manufactures, and timber, are allow then find it as difficult to learn to speak, at Knoop, Gros Konigsforde, and Kluwenas a Chinese to learn to write. siek, and likewise by the bridges at Sucksdof and Landwehr, and by the Tilekiln at Rade, under the inspection of the officers of cus toms. The Holstein canal deserves notice, praise, encouragement: from this description it does not appear that the Sound duties are levied on ships adopting this course. "The Holstein canal was begun in the year 1777, and was completely finished on the 4th of May, 1785, but op ned in 1784. The whole undertaking cost 2,512,432 rixdollars. There are six sluices, which cost 70,000 rixdollars each. "This canal on the side of the Baltic commences about three English miles north of Kiel, at a place called Holtenau, where is a sluice, another at Knoop, and a third at Rathmansdorff, till it comes to the Flemhude lake, which is the highest point; and from this lake, on the side of Rendsburgh, there are three other sluices, one, at Konigsforde, another at Kluvensiek, and the last at Rendsburgh; these are on what is called the Upper Eyder, and the Lower Eyder is from Rendsburgh to its mouth, running by Tonningen, below which place it falls into the sea, betwixt Eyderstadt and Dithmarschen. The distance is about one hundred English miles, and vessels inust either sail or tide it, or both; "The masters of all ships and vesse's, coming out of the Baltic, are to give an inmediate notice of their arrival at the custour house at Holtenau, and to declare their placeof destination. "As soon as a ship or vessel enters the ca nal, then the master of the same is to make a general statement in the following form: 'I, N. N. master of the ship [brig, or bark] called, bound from to with a cargo of, [or with ba last] do hereby mention the arrival of the same at the royal custom-house at Holtenau, the N. N "The custom-house officer at Holtenau then furnishes the master with a passport, ac cording to the statement made; with which he may continue his voyage to Rendsburgh. "In case the cargo of a vessel arriving at Holtenau is either discharged in the whole, or in part, then the statement, examination, and payment of duties of such part of the cargo, is to be made according to the royal prescription, dated the 23d of November, 1778; if not, an exception is made with respect to those transit goods and merchandize which are landed and stored here. "The duties to be paid on inland produce, manufactures, and goods, loaded within the banks of the canal, and not passing the limits of the Rendsburgh custom-house, are to be paid at Holtenau, when passing that place. "The masters of ships and vessels, proceeding from Rendsburgh to Holtenau, are to make an immediate declaration on their arrival to the custom-house officer at that place, who will then, without any further examination, allow them to continue their voyage, on producing the passport they have received from the custom-house at Rendsburgh; no further statement in writing of the cargo they have in, will be necessary to be made, as the duties on those ships and merchandize passng through the canal by Rendsburgh have already been paid at the custom-house there. "In case there should be any goods and merchandize on board of a vessel coming from Rendsburgh, which are to be unloaded at Holtenau, then the note received from the custom-house at Rendsburgh is to be delivered to that at Holtenau. The said goods and merchandize may then be discharged and oclivered according to the prescription of the 3d of November, 1778, and the customhouse officer will make out a particular pass port for the remainder of the cargo. The same is done for those vessels coming from Rendsburgh to Holtenau, in order to complete their cargo, with which they are to proceed to other inland places. "Vessels which only take in ballast at Holtenau are exempted from making any statement in writing. "All ships and vessels arriving at Rendsburgh are to deliver as soon as they arrive there, the passports they have received from the custom-house either at Holtenau or Tonrogen to the custom-house at Rendsburgh, where the duties are to be paid on all goods and merchandize passing through the canal. "The masters of vessels which have taken in their cargoes at any foreign ports, must necessarily be provided with bills of lading and invoices drawn up in a due and regular form, Containing the quantity, quality, and value of the goods; which documents, the masters of such vessels are instantly to deliver up to the stom-house, in order to be signed: it is refore necessary that such documents should be drawn up in as complete and plain 2 manner as possible, in order to prevent dely, which will otherwise take place. Those ships or vessels which have taken in their cars at any Danish port, may be exempted from making up a specified statement of the same, on the master's delivering to the custom-house at Rendsburgh a passport in which the goods and merchandize he has on board ut his ship are duly and plainly stated. "The masters of such ships and vessels as have taken in their cargoes in any foreign port, and are proceeding therewith to any foreign port, are allowed a premium of four per cent. to be deducted from the amount of the duties they are to pay, which is immediately deducted in the account of the canal duties. "After the duties and other expences take ing place in passing through the canal have been duly paid, a passport is granted to the masters of the vessels for the further continu ation of the voyage. Although the master of a vessel may have a cargo on board, which he is to discharge at Rendsburgh, in order to remain within the territories of his Danish majesty; or if even he takes in native produce and manufactures in return, yet he is to pay the duties laid upon such foreign or native goods and merchandize, in the act of the 23d of May, 1778. "The custom-house officers at Tonningen are to proceed in the dispatch of ships and vessels sailing out of the canal, or entering into the same, according to the prescription of those at Holtenau. Those ships and vessels arriving from Rendsburgh at Holtenau, without having passed through the canal, or likewise those proceeding from the Elbe river and the North Sea to Rendsburgh, are to prepare themselves with respect to the payment of duties according to the act of the 23d of May, 1778. "Those regulations are general, and there are no exceptions. the canal, is not demanded from vessels under "Payment of lastage in passing through the following circumstances: 1. "Those passing through without loading or discharging any goods or merchandize in any part of the canal. 2.." Those small vessels which only trade in the canal, or on the Lower Eyder, from one place to another. 3. "Those ships which do not load or discharge in any place on the banks of the canal, above the fourth part of their burthen. 4. "Those ships which, on account of damage or a leak, received during the voyage, are obliged to discharge the cargo. 5. "The packet boats regularly sailing between Kiel and Copenhagen, if they load or discharge in the canal.” This author is somewhat timid and courtly, in his commentaries. He has occasion to mention the blockade of the Elbe and of the Weser, so ridiculously undertaken in our own wrong; and he mentions it without a word of censure. It obliged English goods to take a circuitous course, which greatly increased their expence to the consumer, and did not the least injury to the enemy. On the whole this work is replete with fact; and gives the newest and most authentic information concerning the state of commerce, in countries where its state has greatly altered of late years; so that it may be cond dered as the only account extant which approaches authenticity. With the superfluity of detail we are dissatisfied: one forgets the leading facts amid the multiplicity of particulars: one is annoyed, as by a druggist's labels, with lists of what is sold but once in a twelvemonth. Some theoretical passages occur toward the conclusion of this valuable collection of phenomena, from which the author appears to think it of great consequence that we should grow at home every thing we want. He complains that we do not rear, but import from Spain, the fine curled clothier's wool; that we send to Sweden for pitch and tar, instead of planting the highlands of Scotland; that we import corn, hemp, and various other commodities not incapable of being produced at home. We recommend to the author an attentive perusal of those chapters of the fourth book of Adam Smith which relate to the choice of a market. He has fully and irreversibly proved that it is for the interest of a community, as well as of an individual, to buy where it can buy cheapest, without any attention to the patria of the produce. If corn can be fetched cheaper from Odessa, than it can be grown in Norfolk, it ought thence to be brong's and so with clothier's wool, with pi and with hemp. To purchase of fore ers facilitates sale to foreigners: and : by buying naval stores in Russia, instea of producing them, we enable the Bsians to buy our manufactures, and the put into circulation between the two cozatries a capital which would else be de mant, we have done better for ourselv than if we had grown at home t stores. The greatest possible circula is the ultimate end of the wisest comp:cial lawgiyer: this end is best promo by not growing at home the raw prod tions of barbaric half-taught indus The true art of increasing the comme: of Great Britain is to seek for distant wa Can the produce of the butter-trees Africa not be rendered a necessary at breakfasts? Can the candleberry-my not be allowed to furnish a cheaper s more beautiful sort of tapers than tom now burnt on our card-tables? But t the duties on exports and imperts, a th sand experiments on foreign products would be made, which would gradu!, expand the gratifications of luxury and the dominions of commerce. ART. XLIII.-The Conveniences, Principles and Method of keeping Accoun's with Bankers in the Country and in London; with accurate Tables adapted to the calculating of Int Accounts with Ease and Dispatch; and to the discounting of Bills of Exchange: wha the Table of Interest for one Day is extended to One Million Pounds, for calculating le terest Accounts on the Principle adopted by the London Bankers. Also, other users' si extensive Tables. To which is added, a concise and practical Treatise on Bills of t change and Promissory Notes, including Bankers' Cash Notes and Checks, InTuole By WILLIAM LOWRIE, Sheffield. 8vo. pp. 294. THIS author sets up for an instructor of tradesmen: p. 6 he tells us that on both sides of an account with a banker the interest is generally calculated at five per cent. There are few bankers who allow more than three per cent. for deposits, and many who allow nothing. His interest-tables are less compendious, but more complete for five per cent. calculations than those already in use; but for interest at every other rate, the old books are seemingly more convenient. Mere inspection is perhaps an insufficient ground of decision." In 1786 Mr. Thomas Hurry, of Great Yarmouth, published tables of interest for one day from one pound to five hun millions; in which the fractions of f things are made integral in the leak favour. That book appears to us b adapted than this to abbreviate the of a banker's clerk, and to increase the p fit of his master. Now that Great Britain is become. lending nation, and advances vast to colonial non-residents and to foreig ers, it would be a public advantage to re lerate the advance of legal interest fr five to six per cent. Pope Clement V declared the exaction of interest to heretical: such heresy is useful at lea this world. ART. XLIV.—Sketch of the Political State of Europe in February, 1803. THE state of Europe is so much changed in the short period of one year, that a sketch of its condition in February, 1805, is of no more value than an old alar A vast confederacy was then formisz set limits to French domination: it since been dashed to pieces, and France has acquired a transalpine Gaul. This sketch was intended as a sort of manifesto for that confederacy. Whatever inveighs against the ambitious, encroaching, restless violence of the French sovereign, is in its place. Not so some other passages. The antichristian sect domineers in continental literature; and Bonaparte is there hated for the restoration of catholicism. Instead of sighing over the irreligion and republicanism of the Montesquieus and Rousseaus, this writer should have invoked the reprobation of philosophy against the apostacy of the converted slaves of Napoleon, and their hypocritic adoration of Pius VII. Nor ought the assumption of a new imperial title by Austria to have been blamed. The dissolution of the German empire was at hand; and, without the assumption of a new imperial title, the rank of Austria would then appear to have declined. The flattery bestowed on the king of Sweden is sufficiently in its place: so is the conciliatory language expended on Prussia: but ministers ought to have been awate, though authors need not, that these two friendships were nearly incompatible. The king of Prussia coveted Stralsund, which we were paying Sweden to fortify and defend. The lesser should have been sacrificed to the greater object; and Sweden neglected for the cabinet of Berlin. Holland ought early in the summer to have been powerfully invaded; as well in order to detain, from the invasion of Austria, the Gallo-Batavian division of the French army, as in order to have a gift, wherewith to allure the co-operation of Prussia. The Russian troops landed at Naples might earlier have been landed at Venice, and offered to the archduke. The confederacy has failed through the improvidence of man. Of the Russian emperor Alexander more civil things might have been said. By founding such comprehensive institutions of public instruction, by conceding so great a liberty of the press, by limiting so considerably the institutions of vassalage, he has done much already for the ci vilization of Russia. ART. XLV.-Thoughts on the Civil Condition and Relations of the Roman Catholic Clergy, Religion and People of Ireland. By THEOBALD M'KENNA, Barrister-at-Law. 8vo. pp. 193. LIFE is frail, and power more so. How seldom the accidents of birth confide inherited authority to the virtuous man! how much more rarely does the wisdom of society correct the lottery of nature! It is, therefore, of high importance, and incumbent duty, to seize, as soon as theyoccur, the opportunities of political beneficence: they are lent but rarely, and never for long. There are public services, which to postpone is to endanger: of this class is the catholic emancipation; which, opposed, as it always will be, by the personal deference of the sovereign for the church, can only be conceded by his prudence in a time of national calamity, as the price of an union necessary to our safety. This is a most instructive dissertation concerning the condition of the catholic clergy, and people of Ireland. It describes, in curious detail, their manners, prejudices, and reciprocal relations, and is well adapted to remove the apprehensions of the timorous, concerning the probable effects of withdrawing restriction. This pamphlet, however, seems drawn up for the instruction of a set of men of detail, such as one may suppose the Addington inistry to have been, who could not ascend to those higher points of view, whence the statesman has to regard. Instead of supporting the catholic case on the grand principles of justice and policy; and of pointing to the useful glow of allegiance which gratitude will inspire; a vast quantity of parish information is given, to shew that if the catholic priests have farms allowed them, and little salaries from the government, and the opportunity of domestic, instead of continental education, they will become attached to a patronising sovereign, and that they can and will attach to him a numerous ignorant savage multitude, of which they are the expedient instructors. These remarks are well worth the attention of office; as, even after the emancipation of the catholics, some subordinate patronage may be awhile necessary thoroughly to recover affections so harshly spurned aside. A more expedient form of patronage than the regium donum proposed by Mr. M'Kenna, surely, would be a repeal of the act of uniformity; and the consequent permission for catholic patrons to present the livings of their respective parishes to catholic priests. The Gothic king Theodatus said, "God keeps many religions, why should not we?" The present revenues of the hierarchy are amply suffi. cient for endowing all the clergy who ought to be paid by the state. The plan here suggested is thus sketched: "The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland consists of twenty-six prelates, and the warden of Galway, a dignitary enjoying episcopal jurisdiction. A moderate income annexed by government to each of these stations, and to a certain number of dignitaries in each diocese, together with the offices and professorships of the Royal College already founded, would, I think, be found sufficient to induce Roman Catholics, of good condition, to permit their children, when so inclined, to engage in the ministry; and to prevail on persons of pretensions, who have engaged, not to abandon the original sphere of their duties. The advantage must be incalculable, in forming the general character of the order, if you can draw within it, and afterwards retain in the country, men of education and tadents; men who are accustomed to be respected, and who have the feelings incidental to that habit; men, whose early or whose long-continued impressions have been liberal. The number of Roman Catholic parish priests in Ireland actually exceeds one thousand; it would probably be expedient, (for the reasons and purposes already stated,) to encrease the number by an addition of about pne-half. "The expence of his peculiar worship, to a tolerably substantial farmer or mechanic, in the most opulent and Roman Catholic countries, amounts to about five shillings annually; the common labourer is, in the greater number of places, excused; where he is required to contribute, the accustomed rate is one shilling; this includes the contribution of the entire family, and for this the priest is bound to attend them when sick, even at the most unseasonable hours, and to administer confession when they apply to him. He is also to keep his chapel in order, to celebrate divine service, and preach on Sundays and festivals. In what I have denominated the Northern district, the emoluments of the Catholic parish priest are on an average, as I apprehend, from about thirty to fifty pounds per year; in the other parts of Ireland, these emoluments run from sixty to ninety pounds, varying with the opulence or with the customs of particular districts. In Munster the perquisites are highest, on account of a greater liberality in paying for marriages, which immemorial usage has established; the towns produce from one hundred to one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and thirty pounds per annum; in some very few instances they go so high as two hundred pounds. The bishops receive a small donation from every marriage, and a voluntary assessment of one to three guineas from each parish priest in the diocese. The bishop has always one parish; in some instances, where his receipts are inadequate to his expences, he holds a second by commendam, which he administers by a curate. The bishop usually visits his diocese in each year, and holds assemblies of his clergy, called conferences, for the purposes of communication, discipline and instruction. There is perhaps a single instance of a bishop, whose living exceeds four hundred pounds; in general the income of this class, including the parish, amounts to about that sum in the best circumstanced districts. In other places they receive from three hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds. "The stipend levied for the parochial clergy of the Catholics thus appears adequate to the comfortable subsistence of a single man; but it is precarious; it is obtained by mean sokcitation; it induces habits inconsistent with any degree of firmness or elevation of mine, such as you would desire in the minister and magistrate of morality; such as you would emphatically desire, where a rude and unreflecting people are to be formed to more tractable habits, to be guided and not unfre quently resisted-it is not a necessitous, but a dependant and degraded order. "The towns are in a good measure to be set apart from the present description. There is a sort of regular assessment in these places, which, with the occasional dues for marriage and christening, and the kind and generous devotion of procuring and requiting prayers for the deceased, renders the condition of the clergy tolerably reputable and commodious In the North of Ireland, the Roman Catholics are, with inconsiderable exceptions, the poorest of the people; this circumstance accounts for the small recompence of the clerical function in that district, and for the greater difficulty in obtaining it. The main fund in the North arises from a pitiable, and almost ludi crous exhibition at funerals, which indeed daily declines, but which ought altogether to be removed, as an impediment to civilization. I cannot censure the priest, who has no other means of subsistence; but whist he lives by such means, no respect or credit can be annexed to his character, especially in this age, when we advance so rapidly atier our neighbours in the refinements or decencies of life, and when we are so much accus tomed to confine our sentiments of respect to those who are placed by their situation above the appearance of necessity. In Con naught there is a very considerable body of Roman Catholic gentlemen, and the lower class are, with few or no exceptions, of the same religion; but the former are above at tending minutely to the occasions of the clergy, and the latter are too poor to be of any assistance the substantial peasant, who labours and thrives by his industry, is not as yet so common in that district. The gentle men, if the priest does not render himself ob jectionable, are ready to give him a liberal and hospitable use of their houses, and are. I believe, accustomed to make presents in kind of the several articles of agricultural produce, |