the course of my travels, as may not be unentertaining || it existed at that moment. It was our wish that this to your readers of both sexes. I shall perhaps occasionally let the public into several things both at the West and East end of the town, which may make some persons I know look a little foolish; for my title of Nabob, and my condition of batchelor gain me an admission every where; and I make such good use of my privileges that there are few things of consequence either public or private that escape my notice. view should be more comprehensive and minute than those hasty ones which we had generally seen presented to the public; and composed of materials lying somewhat below that common surface of things, which furnishes the details of the vulgar historian, and the foundation of the reasonings of the ordinary speculator. We have yet seen no reason to retract any of the opinions, or correct any of the representations which we then offered, nor can we help being somewhat confirmed in the belief of their correctness, by the partiality with which a most respectable class of readers has received them. By this labour of the year which is past, the general view of the political world which we are called upon to exhibit at the beginning of a new year, is reduced to a very narrow compass. The changes which have taken place in the state of Europe have not been of great importance; in every other respect the account delivered of that state at the beginning of last year, applies to it at the beginning of this; and to enter any further into the subject, than to specify and appreciate those changes, would only be to repeat what we have already advanced. I have indeed often resolved to quit this desultory mode of life, as you may have observed from several advertisements in the morning papers, stating, that a gentleman in easy circumstances, with a tolerable person and a hale constitution, would be glad to meet with a lady of the middle age, who understood music, could sketch a little, and, along with an agreeable face and person, possessed that address which captivates all societies, and a little of that necessary article fortune without which no society can be enjoyed. The fear of having my natural liberties entrenched upon, has hitherto deterred me from explaining myself to any of the numerous correspondents who replied to these advertisements: but nevertheless my enquiries after the fair writers have been both diligent and successful; and I purpose one day to surprize my friends with the portraits of as choice a collection, as is to be found in London, of middle-aged ladies of moderate fortune; faithfully copied from the original by an artist particularly skilled in taking like-which have taken place in this are very small. The nesses at church. The first and the greatest among the constituents of a political state is the condition of political opinion. This is the foundation on which all government rests, the despotism of the Grand Signior, and the mild au thority of the King of England. Now the changes ideas of the people of Europe in matters of government You will receive my observations, Mr. Editor, in are not perceptibly different at this moment from what numbers, as soon as they are written, and you may they were twelve months ago. They are very little in distribute them into your Journal just as you find con- any country either debased or improved since that time. venient; only I must insist upon a corner every fort-They appear not to be much better directed towards night till my materials or my diligence are exhausted. I must also be indulged with a motto at the top, in order that there may be at least one smart or sententious thing in each paper; and although I know it will turn the laugh against me at the British, I will venture to sign the name I am best known by Spring-Gardens, January 12th, 1804. THE NABOB. P. S. As I know from experience that many people are extremely willing to give a hint of what is going forward, when they think they will not appear in it, such persons as have any thing of this sort to communicate, may direct their observations to The Nabob, at the Office of the Literary Journal. true liberty, but neither do they appear to be at all more conformed to slavery. They have not received much new activity; but we do not discern any symptoms of encroaching torpidity. Very little alteration too we conceive to have taken place in the degree of favour or disinclination borne by the people of the different countries to the governments under which they live. That passion to root up every thing old, and plant something new, which was inspired by the French revolution, had subsided during the course of ten years, and men taught by what had passed before their eyes, had become afraid to risk those advantages of the social order which they enjoyed, without ceasing to va lue those of which they knew themselves to be deprived. Thus it is a kind of divided respect which the subjects in most of the countries of Europe pay to the governments to which they yield submission. They do not wish to see them overturned; but they very much wish to see them altered; and this wish in each country is proportioned to the light diffused among the people, and the imperfections of the government under which they live. In France, for example, we believe it to be very strong. In many parts of Germany we believe it to be not much weaker. In several parts of Italy we have reason to WHEN we commenced the Literary Journal, at think it has considerable strength. In all the counthe beginning of the preceding year, our first dis-tries lately revolutionized by France, we believe it to courses on the subject of government were intended be intense. In the most southern, and the most to exhibit a view of the political state of Europe, as northern parts of Europe, knowledge is by far the. [We shall be glad to receive the Nabob's communications; and as an excuse for at any time delaying their insertion, we trust he will recollect that the article MANNERS, is designed to receive the favours of various Correspondents.] VOL. III. POLITICS. Changes produced in 1803. D during the last year; and that she is already greatly relieved from the difficulties into which she was thrown by an arduous and unsuccessful war. Her armies have all been recruited up to their full comple ment, and several new regiments have been raised. With regard to the commerce of Austria, we mention one circumstance, in which a prediction of ours, made at the beginning of last year, has been amply fulfilled. We said that the acquisition of the Venetian territory, affording an inlet to foreign commerce, must be of singular importance to Austria; and was an object of great value to us; affording a receptacle to our commerce, which was independent of the trostile efforts of France, and which must soon furnish a larger demand than we should be able to supply. The fact has even surpassed our expectation, and greater quantity of shipments has been made for Venice and Trieste, since the interruption given to our commerce by the war with France, than in so short a time we believed possible. This is a fact of nó little importance to all Europe. The rapid intercourse of the nations by means of commerce is one of the main springs of their improvement; and it infinitely concerns them all that this grand object should not be in a situation to be affected by the caprice or malignity of any one of them. The more it is extended, the more free and independent it must always become. And if all Europe were com mercial, to which it is strongly tending, the other nations would be little affected by the selfish and unwise measures of any one or two of their neighbours. most scantily distributed; in these countries therefore, in Spain for example, and Russia, we suppose the sense of political grievances is the least pungent; there the people are in a state in which they as little think of being offended by the imperfections of the government, as by the intemperance of the atmosphere, or the sterility of the soil; the laws of nattire and the laws of government they regard with very little sense of difference; and submit to both as equally parts of that inevitable necessity which subdues them. Though the changes, however, which have taken place in the course of last year, in the political sentiments of the people of Europe, are too small to be perceptible, or capable of being described, we are not of opinion that there has been in them an ́absolute stagnation. This we conceive to be a thing impossible. In the sentiments of individuals, and likewise of nations, there is a continual flux. Perfect rest is never produced. The motions are sometimes quick and sometimes slow; the changes are sometimes in matters of importance, and sometimes the contrary; but motions and changes do perpetually go on; nor have they ceased during the year which has lately closed. The changes which have happened in the state of political opinion, though not great, we conceive to have been all good. Those important particulars in the general circumstances of Europe, which lead to improvement, have been at work, and though their operations have been not a little retarded by the pernicious influence of war, they have not been altogether suspended. Knowledge has increased, and been more widely diffused. The influence of old prejudices and superstitions has been weakened. Just views of the social order, and a clearer discernment of the means of securing its advantages have been gradually diffusing themselves. And some progress, however small, has been made towards that important point, where men are equally removed from a stupid reverence to old abuses, and a giddy forwardness to fash innovation. In the outward and visible circumstances too of the greater number of the kingdoms, very little alteration has been produced. The boundaries of each are nearly the same as they were last year. The resources of the governments, and the condition of the people have received scarcely any change. The grand circumstances which checked improvement on the one hand, or forwarded it on the other, have very little altered their relative power. In every part of Europe, the latter have the ascendancy, but that ascendancy is not much greater now than it was twelve months ago. Let us begin with Austria. In her circumstances very little change has been produced. Some reforms, of considerable consequence, were indeed executed towards the beginning of the year. The old institution of the Aulic council of war, into which a multitude of abuses had crept, was abolished; and the military part of the government placed on a footing more conformable to the circumstances of the present time. A number of improvements likewise in the collection and management of the revenue, but too minute to be here described, have been introduced; and there is every reason to think that the financial sat of Austria has been considerably improved Prussia is the country next to Austria. The whole of her administration, both civil and military, is in the same state exactly in which it was last year. It is understood that she has obtained some advantages in the arrangement of indemnities; but they cannot be material. The circumstance by which she has been chiefly affected, is the direction which the British commerce has received, by the present war. During the last, as well as during this war, the transit of the British commerce into Germany, has been in a great measure through the Prussian states. The blockade of the Elbe and the Weser has considerably altered its course in the present war. But we doubt whether it has altered it in any degree to the disadvantage of Prussia. We suppose that as great a proportion of that commerce passes just now through the Prussian states, as would if the commerce of Hamburgh were open. Prussia can hardly have failed, notwithstanding the discouragements arising from her government, to improve her resources, and her relative power, by the peace which she has enjoyed while her neighbours were involved in the most destructive wars. To Russia, the preceding year has probably been more favourable than to any other part of Europe. The improvement of that country has been urged on with uncommon force since its commencement. Nothing has occurred in the course of last year to obstruct the causes which, during half a century, have been operating these beneficial effects. A mild sovereign has not contented himself with an idle and careless view of the benefits already obtained for his country, but has applied his hand with vigour to increase them. afflicted with the war, those accumulated treasures, the capitals of the trader, manufacturer, and cultivator, the means of maintaining labour, and of prompting ingenuity, which are the great cause of wealth and prosperity, not only to the countries which possess them, but to all those with which such countries have any dealings. He seems to have discerned with admirable perspicacity | the causes which keep his states behind the more improved parts of Europe, the very two causes which held fast the chains of misery upon all Europe for ages the feudal privileges of the great proprietors, and the ignorance of the people. He has applied himself with energy to reduce the power of the nobles, to emancipate the peasants from their subjection to these arbitrary masters, and to render both subject to the same laws. This most important object has been fully accomplished in several parts of the empire. This prince has set himself to the task of removing the ignorance of his people in a manner truly great.ever, and those of the first consequence, are perfectly He has not satisfied himself with any puny halfmeasure. A grand system of education for the whole mass of the people, of every class, and in every corner of the empire, has been matured under his eye, and finally carried into effect. Colleges have been established in all the cities of the empire, for communicating all the parts of a liberal education; and schools have been erected in every village for teaching the primary and more essential branches. A scheme equal to this in grandeur and beneficence has not yet been executed by any other government in Europe. One great object, however, necessary to obtain all the good effects of these improvements, is yet wanting-the liberty of the press. So few books have as yet been written or printed in Russia, that restrictions with regard to them cannot hitherto have been the cause of much evil. But the restrictions with regard to the importation of foreign books, are very severe and arbitrary, and impose a strong check on the progress of intellectual improvement. The commerce of Russia has been advancing in uninterrupted prosperity. The ships of all nations are invited to her ports, and find new inducements to repair to them in the increasing industry, wealth, and civilization of the people. In the shores of the Black Sea, the Hellespont, Archipelago, and the Mediterranean, she has possessed herself of a new and most important source of wealth and improvement to her states, of which happy effects the last year has yielded a very promising earnest. She appears to be sensible likewise of the means which the Black Sea affords her of becoming a maritime power, by the orders issued to build ships in it, and maintain a fleet. The last particular deserving to be mentioned, is the augmentation which her military force has lately received. She has at this moment a greater army on foot, than at any other period of her history. No very accurate estimate can be formed of the changes actually produced in the countries at war. That which we can form with regard to France, both as it is a foreign country, and in a more unsettled, and new state, is the most vague. Certain things, howascertained. The foreign commerce of France, at least all that part of it which is sea-borne, and must in every country be nearly the whole, is cut off; and all that part of the industry of France, which was dependant upon foreign commerce, must be destroyed. Much of this there was not indeed to destroy, since very little could be created in the short and feverish interval of peace. But there was some, and that was daily growing more. The entire colonial traffic of France is in like manner ruined. This, however much disordered by the unhappy situation of the colonies, excited the strongest attention, and hopes, and, encouraged the highest speculations in France; and from the unequalled value of the colonies, the interest raised by them was most natural. To the accomplishment of perhaps the most favourite of all the present objects of French ambition, the creation of a navy, this traffic was of first and indispensable necessity. The great change which has been produced in France is in the removal of a great number of men from the productive employments to the business of war; and in the wealth spent in the apparatus, and maintenance of the war. The number of soldiers at present maintained by the republic, is stated in some prints at six or seven hundred thousand, and is cer tainly not less than five hundred thousand. With regard to the importance of this we shall cite the opinion of men of the first eminence for political knowledge. Montesquieu in his "considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains, & de leur Decadence," chap. 3, says, "An uninterrupted experience has established the fact in Europe, that a prince who has a million of subjects, cannot, without ruining himself, maintain more than ten thousand troops." This proportion is that of one to a hundred. Now, if we take the number of inhabitants in the territory of the republic at her own estimate, 30 The most important change which has taken place millions, the number of troops which she can mainin the state of Europe in the course of the preceding tain, without self-destruction, is 300,000; and it year, is the change from peace to war between the appears that she has doubled, or nearly doubled that two leading nations. This is an event which affects number. If another great authority be wanted to to a considerable degree every other nation in Europe. confirm this point, we may name Dr. Smith, who in It renders the tranquillity of every state less secure. his Wealth of Nations, book 5, chap. 1, says, It interrupts the circulation both of commodities, and "Among the civilized nations of modern Europe, it of inhabitants among the nations, and thus obstructs is commonly computed, that not more than one one of the most powerful of all the causes of improve-hundredth part of the inhabitants of any country can ment.. It turns a great part of the industry of each state which is employed in supplying the wants of its neighbours from its most natural and profitable channel. It wastes and destroys, in the countries be employed as soldiers, without ruin to the country which pays the expence of their service." One of the best informed and most profound of all the French writers in politics since the era of the revolution, appeared that the revenue had become a good deal more productive. The reason given for it by the minister of finance on presenting these accounts was, that government by the advantage of peace, had been able to attend to, and prevent an infinite number of enormous frauds and abuses in the collection, and management of the revenue, which they had been obliged to overlook in the confusion, and agitation of war. This confusion and agitation is renewed, and as nothing had been done to improve the system of finance, which is still in that disordered condition described above, these frauds and abuses must recur, and the burthens of the people be augmented. The enormous burthens of the French war laid upon a must make an extraordinary change in their situation. The only military exploit has been the overrunning, and plundering of Hanover, which has afforded the maintenance of some months to a detachment of the French army, and a portion of riches to a few of the officers. the author of Considerations sur l'Organization sociale.' He thus expresses himself in the end of the year 1802, on the subject of the finances and armies of France."The really enlightened and patriotic men know that the disorders of our finances cannot be remedied without reforming at once our laws political, civil, agricultural, and commercial; and that three hundred thousand soldiers cannot be maintained without ruining the state." Besides the ruinous expence of maintaining five or six, or according to some accounts seven hundred thousand men, France has in the short duration of the present war, incurred an expence much greater. For her magnificent project of invading England, an enormous apparatus was necessary; the whole of which she had to create.people already groaning under the miseries of poverty All the energy and resources of the French government have been now directed to this object for nearly a year; and it is not yet completed. Whoever has any idea of the expence of ship-building, of building even the smallest craft, will need no words to inform him how vast must have been the sums expended in the flotilla with which we are threatened. To have a We come now to consider the changes produced just idea of the change produced in the state of France during last year in the state of Britain. The war has by this expence, we must think of the exhausted con- affected in sorne degree her trade, it has produced very dition in which she was when the war began. The unusual military preparations, and has occasioned a readers of the Literary Journal have probably not heavy expence. The effect which the war has had forgotten the extraordinary documents which we pre- upon our trade, we were lately endeavouring to apsented to them on this subject, in the spring of last preciate, and have little at present to add to what we year. The disordered state of the finances of France then advanced. It is now proved by experience that is another cause that the change produced in her situa- it has not been in the power of the war even in its tion by the war must be very great, and very un- first year, to diminish the commerce of this country. favourable. With regard to the system of taxation, Yet the stagnation of trade in former wars has always the author last quoted uses the following terms: been greatest at the beginning. The reason is, that "It oppresses property, it arrests circulation, it ex- the hostile nation or nations have it generally in their tinguishes agricultural, manufacturing, and commer- power to interpose obstructions to it in certain chancial industry; in fine, it destroys all the proportionnels, and it requires time to enable it to find its way into which ought to subsist between the wants of the others. In the present case the interval of peace had national treasury, and its resources. The more we been so short, that the channels of commerce during the examine the foundation, and the effects of this war had been scarcely shut; it was therefore no difficult ruinous system, the more we perceive that it is im- matter to open them. The violent attempt of the French possible to get out of the labyrinth in which we are to obstruct the navigation of the Elbe and the Weser, bewildered, so long as we are not convinced that it is has been more prejudicial to the countries supplied by impossible to establish good order in the finances by these rivers, than to Great Britain. The unabated oppressive taxes, by confiscations, or by bankruptcies; prosperity of the British trade is proved by the full and that it is the riches of individuals which constitute employment of all the manufacturing districts; by the the riches of the state. In a word to deliver us from stability of the mercantile houses; by the complete our present confusion, a complete change is required occupation, and high wages of all the labouring peoin the notions which we have long pursued." Toward ple; and above all by the prosperous state of the the end of his chapter on finance, the same author revenue. The produce of the taxes on the articles of adds the following words: "To these considerations almost every branch of trade has increased instead of we will join a remark, peculiar to France. Her diminishing since the commencement of the war. The government cannot dissemble that there exists a con-profits of this trade are such, that the annual increase siderable deficit between its receipts and expences. In vain should it hope that peace will destroy this deficit, because the source of it is much more in its financial laws than in the expences of the war." This was spoken at the end of a year of peace. In a note on this passage he gives a statement, from the documents of the minister of finance, of the deficit for the year 1800, which he carries to 146,519,561 francs. According to him the net amount of the taxes for that year, was only 470,072,5+3 francs.wise do. Thus the deficit is little less than one-fourth part of he whole revenue. In the accounts of last year it of riches is much greater than the annual expence of the war. When we have taken the annual expence of the war, therefore, out of the annual profits of the nation, we have the whole of our old riches behind, with a certain surplus every year, by which tơ augment them. The effect of the war upon our riches, therefore, is not to diminish them, not even to prevent them from encreasing, but only to prevent them from encreasing quite so fast as they would other With regard to our military preparations, the num ber of the regulars is stated at 167,669 men, and that however enormous the means we have to support it, it is too visible what occasion we have to desire that we should not long be required to maintain it. Any change produced as yet in the state of Britain by the expences of the war is not visible. Stocks are at a very reasonable price; the demand for exchequer bills is great; the old taxes have been more productive than before; and a very small part of the war taxes has yet been levied. We know not whether we should call the late commotions in Ireland, a change or not. They were nothing but an occasional manifestation of that spirit which existed, and which will exist, till the great | healing measures, which alone can alter it, be cordially and effectually applied. Ireland was apparently quiet at the beginning of the year, disturbed in the middle of it, and quiet in the end. But we re Changes of some consequence in the state of our colonial possessions in the West Indies, have taken place. The whole of the Dutch settlements may now be regarded as ours; and their value, if we had not too many settlements already, is great. Some of the smaller islands of France, too, have fallen into our hands; and St. Domingo itself may be considered as lost to the mother country. of the militia in England and Ireland at 68,000, making in all 235,669 real soldiers. The number of the army of reserve which may be added, will probably carry the total to 250,000 men. This estimated by the rule laid down above, from Montesquieu and Smith, is an establishment greatly too burthensome. The population of Great Britain and Ireland cannot be stated at more than 16 millions. The hundredth part of this is only 160,000, the whole number of soldiers which by that rate this population can sustain. But the number we have is more than one half greater. To this yet remain to be added 100,000 seamen. The number of men, therefore, permanently employed in warlike operations by this country at the present moment, is not as one to a hundred in the population, but is rather more than as one to fifty; so that it is somewhat more than one half greater than it ought to be. In speaking of the excess in the warlike establish-gard it as having been in the same state all the while. ment of France, we took no notice of her seamen; because, in reality, they are scarcely so numerous as to deserve notice. But when we include the seamen of Great Britain in her establishment, it is right to observe, that a great part of all those persons employed in preparing, and keeping the great flotilla of France, are in respect to burthens to be considered in the light of seamen, and are a much greater proportional number than the seamen of this country; so that the ex- Little more remains to be said to conclude the Policess in the establishment of France, even in respect tical Review of last year. Spain and Portugal were of numbers, is much greater than that of Britain. crouching beneath the sword of the French republic, But the productive powers of Great Britain render at the beginning of the year, and they are so now. that difference more enormous. The improvements Their subjection has been lately made available to the which have been made in this country in the division Consul, in the shape of a little money; and their deand distribution of labour, in the skill, and persever-gradation has had a fresh exposure to the eyes of the ance of workmen of all descriptions, and in machinery and contrivances to abridge labour, authorize the assertion that the labour of every man in this country, at a machine, is equal to that of any two men in almost any other part of Europe. If then, it be computed, that the ignorant and enslaved, and idle population of the despotic countries of Europe can maintain one in the hundred for national defence, we may safely conclude that this country can maintain one in fifty without retrenching any more upon the comforts and the means of prosperity of the nation. neighbouring nations. The causes which are working the ruin of the Ottoman empire have not been interrupted; some strong effects were lately exhibited; and that unseemly mass is now tottering to its fall. The great Transatlantic nation, whose origin and pursuits connect her so closely with Europe, has obtained some valuable favours of fortune. The rupture between Great Britain and France bestowed upon her the province of Louisiana, on which she sets a great value. It removes from her a dangerous neighbour, it bestows upon her a valuable territory, of which she had no want; and it gives her the free navigation of a river, which renders a fine country she had already planted more highly valuable. An extension of her foreign trade must be the effect of the disturbances of the Europeans; but she would have as much as is good for her without these disturbances. We have not yet mentioned the volunteer system. Into the general problem, what is the value of this armament, as a mean of defence? what are the effects which it promises, good or bad, on the liberty and good order of the nation? we cannot at present enter. We shall reserve it as the subject of some future inquiry. The volunteers, rank and file, in England, have been stated by ministers at 340,000. The portion Political History, Foreign and Domestic. of his time bestowed by each man upon his military Of the many weeks barren of intelligence which have exercises, cannot be reckoned at less than one twenti- elapsed since the beginning of this war, the last two eth. By every twenty volunteers there is as much time have not been the least remarkable. The accounts employed on military business, as would be by one which we are able to give of the military movements man entirely engaged in them. It is proper, accord-in France are very insignificant and vague. The ingly, to consider the volunteers as equal, in point of burthen to the nation, to one twentieth part of their numbers entirely soldiers. This twentieth is 17,000; which added to the numbers of soldiers and seamen specified above, brings the number of men entirely engaged in warlike affairs to one in every 45 of the general population. This effort is enormous; and alarm which was propagated of an immediate invasion has blown over; it arose from false information communicated to the minister. The whole of the French and Batavian military force in Holland and Zealand, is not thought to exceed 40,000 men, garrisons included. Movements however, are daily kept up among the different bodies of the soldiers to favour |