with the tenderness of Rogers. Those, who have been delighted with The Daisy,' The SnowDrop,' The Lyre,' and The Grave,' extracted into several numbers of the Anthology for the last year, will purchase this little volume with readiness. We easily discern, that the author is little versed in the writings of his brother bards, and perhaps wholly ignorant of the works of antiquity; but, if his natural taste has not yet been cultivated to the utmost, we find, perhaps on that very account, more of originality of thought and simplicity of language. The first poem is pathetick, almost beyond whatever our language can boast in its ancient or modern ballads. However animating may have been the strains of Tyrtæus, of whom Horace tells,

...manes animos in Martia bella Versibus exacuit,.........

we cannot believe, they would bear the palm from the Battle of Alexandria.' The Remonstrance to Winter' contains the only verse in the volume, eminently exposed to

censure.

Spring, the young cherubim of love, An exile in disgrace, Flits o'er the scene, like NOAH's dove, Nor finds a resting place.'

Without a knowledge of Hebrew, the author might have learned, that our best writers use cherubim' only in the plural number. The offence against prosody, in the third line, is grating to the ear, and justifiable by no example. The beautiful thought, in this passage, will always be degraded by this mistake of quantity; but this single fault ought to be forgotten in the general harmony of the verses. The poem, which pleases all, must possess intrinsick merit. Montgomery is

defective, like all our great poets, in some matters of inferiour importance; but he has a magnificence of imagery, and a dignity of sentiment, that few have equalled. He has the life-giving stamina of originality, and will be numbered, by after ages, in the ranks of genius.

Ollis igneus vigor, cœlestisque origo. VIRG. They have a fiery force, and their origin is from heaven.

ART. 12.

Economica: a statistical manual for the United States of America. By Samuel Blodget, Esq. Printed at Washington. 1806. 8vo.

AS the profession of a statesman is generally the ambition of few, the science of finance, which regulates the publick revenue and expenditures, and the interesting study of political economy, have been but little attended to, and but partially understood. When it is considered, that the publick treasury is filled by contributions from all classes of citizens, in different proportions, and in various forms, an investigation of the principles and progress of accumulation must be acknowledged highly important.

navigation, and other subjects,tending to facilitate land or water transportation.

The Economica seems to have been undertaken with a laudable zeal to excite inquiries concerning such subjects, and had the work been more conformable to the title, or, which would have been less difficult, the title better adapted to the work, its aspect would have been less deceptive, and the reader less disappointed.

The author's plan is displayed in a letter to a young member of congress, in which he gives his own system of legislation, and earnestly calls upon the representatives to pay more attention to their duty, and modestly intreats all our young legislators to forget, at least for the time of their session, a part of their extreme locality; and to fancy, if possible, the apron-string of COLUMBIA as natural a tie to their affections, as that of an amiable mother or a beloved wife.'

Having long been engaged in statistical studies, and enjoying many opportunities of acquiring authentick data, the writer might have compiled a very valuable set of tables, with more ease and convenience to himself, and more entertainment and instruction to his readers, if he had devoted less time to legislation, and confined his ingenious speculations to the pursuits of political economy. But legislation is not his fort. In page 18 he says,

All taxes being hated, as if obnox. jous to the people, except in times of imminent danger, or when some noble monument, or charity, or university, or school, excites a noble emulation, they should be kept out of sight, and of feeling, if possible.'

Now, whatever may be the ideas conveyed by the term taxes,

they have always been found necessary for the maintenance of government, and all the ingenuity and wisdom of ancient or modern legislation have not been able to free the people from paying them, either in the form of imposts, duties, excises, customs, or subsidies, &c. Since taxation therefore, under one form or another, is the inevitable result of the social compact, an enlightened government should endeavour to render it light as possible, explaining the mode in which it is accomplished; although, at the same time, it may be always good policy to impose some direct taxes, that the people may not forget their occasional necessity. If, instead of this, we admit the odiousness of expense, and then, with a kind of state legerdemain, contrive to conceal its imaginary deformity, and create a revenue by a course of smuggling, we give occasion to jealousy and discontent, and all the evils which a dark and mysterious policy begets, but which an open and undisguised system of measures can alone avoid.

Next to the prefatory address the author presents us with a ' brief chronological detail of interesting facts, relative to the discovery and progress of the American states ;' with the constitution, and a statistical table of the population and general wealth of the union. This table consists of 6 pages, which serves as the text for 130 pages of notes, without any diviintellision, arrangement, or very gible application. Many valuable tables are interspersed among the notes, which form admirable resting places to the reader; and the occasional extracts from other authors, frees his mind from the perplexities and confusion in which the long periods, obscure senten

a

This, to be sure, might assist 'neat husbandry,' but does not seem calculated to preserve neat liberty. The impolicy and absurdity of such a law, requires no comment; and when he proceeds to state the impending dangers of over-grown landholders, we want better evidence than he has yet adduced.-He says,

'If it be true, that all republicks are finally ruined by the monopoly and tyranny of their over-grown landlords, we cannot be too well guarded against the danger in the older counties of the several states. All this will occur in due time, or an Agrarian must be the consequence, as in times of antiquity, unless the minor republicks, or monied as sociations, and generally commercial habits, should secure and perpetuate the glorious freedom of America.'

From this passage we may infer, that the writer entertains a comfortable hope, that, in due time,' the republick will be in danger of being overthrown by the power and influence of land-holders; but as his work is intended for the United States, he either reasons wrongly, or he forgets the innumerable acres in the western states, yet unoccupied, together with the unexplored and unknown territory of Louisiana. If any republick can be in danger from the land-holders, and such an opinion is not authorised by the history of any country, it must be a small one, and very populous; but, in a country where so much land remains unimproved, an Agrarian law would produce

of those the author contemplates.

After having represented the attachment which the Romans manifested for their capital city, and the enthusiastick love the French bear

to Paris; after relating the lamentahle sacrifice, made in the sale of publick lots at Washington, in tion of congress, to the project of 1802; and after calling the attenopening canals and turnpike-roads from the seat of government, in radial lines, to all parts of the union, he thus addresses them :

Fathers of the American people! be assured of this sacred truth! until you can agree, with heart and hand, to love THE HEART OF OUR UNION, the people will never respect their HEAD.'

To love with the heart is natural enough; but when love becomes so intense as to require the assistance of the hands, the lover is in a deplorable situation. We must confess, this apostrophe seemed a little strange at first, but the author has informed us in the prefatory address, that he owned several hundred house lots in the city of Washington:

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere

causas.

Whenever the circulating medium of a country is sufficient to answer all demands, for the commercial and ordinary transactions of its inhabitants, a further increase is not only unnecessary but injurious. Money was invented rather as a substitute for credit, than as a subject of trade, and whenever it shall not supply the common purposes of domestick use, the money price of all articles, and land, will be lessened. When the circulating medium is multiplied, the consequence is reversed, and the nomimal value of things seldom bought, will be increased. This is the only difference. But our author would increase it by foreign loans, that we may enhance the value of publick lands, and introduce a multitude of foreigners, to cultivate and improve them. If such an absurd theory can be sustained, the practice is impossible.

Many other erroneous principles will be discovered on perusing the * Manual,' which we shall not particularise. His ideas of a pubiick debt, and the process of paying it by an advantageous change of pubLick stock, are very questionable, and result from a false notion of the value of the vital fluid' of the state. Many of his tables are trifEing, and claim little credit; and his fall and perfect inventory of all the real and personal estate of the union, is rather a whimsical reverie, than an accurate and use

ful statistical document. This inventory amounts, in round numbers, to $2,505,000,000; but as articles of so great value seldom appear at market, we shall omit examining it.

Much credit, however, is due to the author for his labour in collect

ing materials and forming tabies, relative to receipts and expenditures,' imports and exports, and various other subjects, which come naturally within the course of sta tistical inquiries, and political economy. In the table, containing the list of banks in the United States, we noticed a difference we little expected. In Massachusetts alone there were twenty-two banks in 1805, while all the other states afforded but forty-six. The same disproportion in publick schools exists, much to its honour.

The style, in which the manual is written, will not bear a close examination. Like some pieces of painting, examine it closely, and its roughness offends; viewed at a distance, its disproportions are monstrous. There are too many repetitions, and weak and trifling expressions, which are altogether unfit for a work of this kind, where clearness and simplicity are peculiarly requisite.

Although the Manual of Mr. Blodget cannot with impunity pass. the ordeal of just criticism, his work will certainly claim attention for its novelty and importance. The inquiry into the causes of national prosperity, wealth, and happiness, can be looked upon with indifference only by those, in whom pecuniary or political aggrandizement has stifled all feelings of humanity.

Statistical inquiries originated and were first adopted in Germany, the publication of which gave rise to Sir John Sinclair's very