into this manageable, this really tangible form, Buonaparte naturally enough conceives the project of turning it at once into gold, or commodities which are to be purchased only with gold. He has no desire to bind France to America, to render himself in some degree dependent on America, by being constantly the creditor of America, that is to say, by having in her hands a large quantity of stock, which she can at any time sequestrate, and, if necessary confiscate: no; Buonaparte has no wish of that kind; it is above the reach of his mind, and therefore, he modestly leaves it to great financiers, such as Mr. Addington and Mr. Pitt, who, in a possession like that of which we are speaking, would have descried the foundation of another "solid system of finance," and would, probably, have made out of it another sinking fund. Buonaparte, who understands nothing at all of these means of " husbanding resources," instantly abandoned all the immense advantages of interest upon interest, and, like the boy with the golden-egg goose, set on foot a scheme for getting into his clutches the whole of the principal at once. But, where was he to look for a purchaser of his stock? Who was he to apply to for that purpose? Where but in England? To whom but to Englishmen ? In short, as was before stated, the bargain is said to have been made, some time ago, by Sir Francis Baring and Company, the same merchants, on whom, during the late peace, the merchants of Philadelphia drew for payment for the provisions and stores supplied to the French army in St. Domingo. It is not meant to insinuate here, or in any other part of these remarks, that there was, or is, any thing either unlawful or even blamable in the transactions of these traders. Individual interests are frequently at variance with the interests of the nation, without any fault on the part of the individual, who, if a trader, will act like a trader, that is, he will get money, if he can; and if, in this pursuit, he injures his country, and yet acts lawfully, the fault is with the government of that country. To return to the subject immediately before us, the bargain with Buonaparte appears to have been concluded about the time that it was said to be in negotiation, as will be evident from the date of the following document, which is a correct copy of a certificate for a portion of the stock, of which we have been speaking. TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS "LOUISIANA SIX PER CENT. STOCK. "No.-Treasury of the United States, Register's Office, December the 24th, 1803. 'BE IT KNOWN, That there is due from the United States of Ame'rica, unto FRANCIS BARING AND COMPANY, of London, Merchants, or "their assigns, the sum of two thousand dollars, bearing interest at Sir per Centum per Annum from the twentieth day of December, 1803, inclusively, payable in London, semi-annually; viz. on the first days of July and January, and at the rate of four shillings and sixpence, sterling, "for each dollar, being stock created by virtue of an act, entitled, An "act authorizing the creation of a stock to the amount of eleven millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of carrying into effect, the convention of the 30th of April, 1803, between "the United States of America and the French Republic, and making "provision for the payment of the same,' passed the 10th day of "November, 1803, the principal of which is payable at the Treasury of "the United States, by annual instalments of not less than one-fourth "part each, the first of which will commence fifteen years after the 21st day of October, 1803; which debt is recorded in this office, and is "transferable only by appearance in person, or by attorney, at the proper office, according to the rules and forms instituted for that purpose." "(Signed) JOSEPH NOURSE, Register." To trace this transaction to its ultimate consequence would be next to impossible, because that consequence may be materially affected by intervening events; but, it requires no great degree of penetration to discover, in its operations, effects very far indeed from advantageous to this country. Superficial observers are apt, upon such occasions, to say: "Well, if Sir Francis Baring has so much money to advance, it only serves to show the immense riches of this country; and, as he will, of course, duly receive his interest, it is as well for him to employ his "money in this way as in any other." That Sir Francis Baring is merely the speculator, is understood; because nobody imagines, in the first place, that he has three millions of money; and, in the next place, if he had, no one can suppose, that he would keep it all in Louisiana stock. He is the mere dealer, and, in order to make good his bargain, he, of course, sells his stock, just as loan-mongers sell slices of their omnium. In order, however, to preserve as much simplicity as possible, in the statement and reasoning upon this subject, it may be convenient to consider the wholesale dealer as being, in this particular instance, the sole holder of the stock that he has purchased..... But, this discussion would, I perceive, require a much greater space than I can, at present, allot to it: I shall, therefore, postpone it till my next, when an endeavour shall be made to render the subject familiar to the minds of those, who may happen not to have turned their attention towards it.* TRADE AND REVENUE. TO THE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION OF THE PUBLIC. SINCE it must be evident to every reflecting person, that our ability to support the present contest, and, of course, that of preserving the throne of our Sovereign and our own liberties, depends, in a great degree, upon the pecuniary resources of the country, it is not too much to hope, that, notwithstanding the dryness of the subject, an exposition of the true state of those resources will, at this time, meet with a serious consideration. That the minister, now better known by the name of the Doctor,† has, *This subject was not further treated of as here promised.-ED. The father of Mr. ADDINGTON was a physician, and the medical attendant of the great Lord CHATHAM. Hence the nickname of "Doctor," which is said to have been originally applied by Mr. CANNING. The following (from the Register, vol. v. p. 203) relates to the house of Mr. ADDINGTON (now Lord SIDMOUTH in Richmond Park :- upon all convenient occasions, deceived the public upon the several points belonging to this subject, it has, as my readers will have observed, fallen to my lot frequently and repeatedly to show. On many of these points, however, the Doctor has still been believed; because the refutation of his statements and calculations depended upon facts, which could not, as yet, be ascertained; and, because, in such cases, the public, not making a due distinction between the Doctor's character and that of former Chancellors of the Exchequer, have, from feelings of habitual and becoming respect for persons high in office, concluded, that till his assertions were disproved by facts, they ought to be credited, though opposed to the assertions and the arguments of other persons. The facts have, however, at last, come to light; and, grounded upon these indubitable facts, I am about to offer to my readers a concise exposition of the actual state of our TRADE, REVENUe, Expenditure, and Debt. : FIRST with respect to the trade of the country, I beg leave to refer to that memorable speech of the Doctor, whence the motto to this paper has been chosen. I have no particular desire to recall the public attention to the apprehensions of those who thought that a diminution in our commerce would be produced by the peace; but, that such apprehensions were entertained must be and ought to be remembered. The Doctor, when he came to the Parliament with his flattering display of the 10th of Dec. 1802, could not, in the fulness, or, rather, the emptiness, of his vanity, forbear to make a triumphant allusion to those apprehensions, in the words contained in my motto. But, he was reminded immediately afterwards, that his triumph was ill-founded and would be of very short duration; for, that the opposers of the peace had never said that an immediate falling off in our trade would take place, and that, the excess of trade in 1802, was owing, in a great degree, to temporary causes, to causes, the operation of which would cease with that very year.* Time has been swift in visiting vengeance upon the Doctor. We have now, at the end of only sixteen months from the day when the thoughtless boaster rose crowing upon his tip-toes, an account, presented to the Parliament from his own office, in which all his estimates and all his promises are clearly proved to be false, and in which he is proved to have been grossly ignorant of the concerns intrusted to his management, or, to have intentionally deceived the nation, by whom he and his family are maintained, and the Sovereign, under whose authority he acts. -Trade naturally divides itself under two heads, imports and exports. To form a just opinion as to the state of either of these, in any given year, we must compare their amount with the amount of the imports or exports of the EPIGRAM. In Richmond's shades the Premier sat, Discoursing o'er his wine; "What name, dear Hiley, shall we give, "To this sweet place of mine?" A wicked wag the question heard Behind a neighb'ring tree; "Call it, dear Doctor!" straight he cried, "The VILLA MEDICI." The early volumes of the Register contain many similar specimens of wit, in derision of" the Doctor" and his administration. Mr. CANNING was the author of most of them.-ED. * See Pol. Register, vol. ii. p. 794. preceding year. But, in the present instance, this mode of comparison is not sufficient for our purpose; because, if we should show, that, in the year 1803, the imports, or exports, have been much less in amount than they were in 1802, the safe politicians will exultingly remind us, that 1802 was a year of peace. To avoid this, we must take the three years ending with December 1803, which period, while it embraces the last year of last war, the year of peace, and the first year of this war, does also embrace the three years of the Doctor's administration. To begin then with the IMPORTS; their amount (exclusive of corn and other grain), in the official value, was as follows: Imported in 1801.... £24,145,500 1802...... 24,413,473 1803...... 20,634,099 The "official value" is only a sort of standard, or mode, which is made use of at the Custom-house, of rating according to the quantity of the goods, the real value being very difficult to ascertain. Probably the real value is nearly double the official value, but, as to our present inquiry, that circumstance is of no importance. The figures speak for themselves here, and much plainer than words possibly can. They show, not only that there has been an interruption to the Doctor's "continual increase,' but, that the increase has been turned into a most alarming decrease; and, they show, that, if such an increase be "an indubitable proof of the growing wealth and resources of the country," the wealth and resources of this country are fast upon the decline. But, that description of persons, who may be called balance-of-trade-men, will, perhaps, assert, that a decrease in the imports is a mark of prosperity; and, I must confess, that such an assertion could not very consistently be contradicted by those who admit the principle of a balance of trade. At once, however, to blast the hopes which might arise from this source of deception, it is sufficient to state, that the decrease of imports has not taken place in articles which are the growth or produce of other nations, but, in those articles which are the growth or produce of our own West-India colonies; in the articles coffee, sugar, and rum, as will appear from the following comparative statement between the years 1801 and 1803 By looking back to the comparative statement of the total of the imports, during the three last years, it will be seen, that the year 1803 has fallen below that of 1801 in much about the amount of the decrease of these articles of the growth of our own colonies; so that, here is no source of comfort to the balance-of-trade men, to those wise-acres, who imagine, that the sending of valuable things out of the country to a greater amount than that of the valuable things received into the country is a proof of national prosperity; to these persons the present state of our imports affords no hope, because, as it has been shown, the decrease in the imports has been produced by a falling-off in the amount of the things coming from another part of our own dominions, and being the property of our fellow subjects.- -The EXPORTS are divided into two classes, " Foreign Merchandise," and, " British Produce and Manufactures." The latter of these comes certainly more home to us than the former, but the former consists principally of the growth or produce of our own colonies, and, therefore, any falling-off in its amount must be regarded as of great consequence. The decrease in the amount of this class of goods exported will appear from the following statement : Exported in 1801 ... £16,601,892 1802...... 19,127,833 1803...... 11,537,148 This decrease is almost incredible; and one would wonder how any minister could, after such estimates as those made by the Doctor in all his financial speeches, find the hardihood to present this statement to the House of Commons! But, the Doctor knows his men.- -I am anxious to keep in view, that it is not a comparison between a year of war and a year of peace that I am making, but between 1801 and 1803, that is, between a year of the former war and a year of the present war. Nor do I wish to confine the comparison to the last year of the former war: take any year for seven years back, and you will find no one in which there was not more foreign merchandise exported than in the year 1803. The statement now presented, therefore, by exhibiting a comparative view of the different effect of war upon trade, before, and after, the treaty of Amiens, demonstrates the ruinous tendency of that compact, which tendency will, however, still more clearly appear when we come to examine into the nature of the decrease in the exports of our home produce and manu factures. Exported in 1801.... £25,699,809 1802......26,993,129 Here the total of the exported British produce and manufactures in 1801 amounts to nearly three millions and a half more than in 1803, for, it is between these two years that I particularly desire to continue my comparison. And, in what articles of produce and manufactures has this decrease taken place? Not in those which consist chiefly of materials first brought from other countries and afterwards wrought up in this; but, in those precisely, which are almost entirely the growth, and entirely the fabric, of this country : in linens, and particularly in woollens, the great staple commodity of England, as will appear by the following figures: Linens. Woollens. 6,487,263 In the linens there is a decrease of nearly one-half, and in the woollens of something more than two-sevenths. There is a decrease of nearly onehalf in wrought silks, and of one-third in the haberdashery and stockings. But, the woollens form the most important object of our consideration. They are made almost entirely of materials which are the growth of our fields, and the labour bestowed on them is entirely the labour of our people, a very considerable portion of whom are fed by the produce of this |