industry, as the remittances of tribute from the provinces of Rome, in the form of grain, ruined the agriculture of the Roman territory.

The fum and fubftance of this argument may therefore be reduced to the following propofitions. The practice of borrowing in England, for the fervice of Ireland, occafions a violent change in the commercial intercourfe between the two countries, and forces a quantity of Irish produce into the English market, proportional to the intereft of the fums borrowed; and thus tends to undermine the manufacturing industry of England. We purposely leave out of view a variety of points ftated in the fubordinate parts of Lord Lauderdale's inquiry; and, in order that the way may be cleared for the difcuffion of the main argument, we offer no objections to his statements of the fums mentioned in the above abstract of his computations. Our diffent is quite general, and is entered against his fundamental principles; nor can it be affected, we conceive, by thofe farther illuftrations which he promifes to give, fhould his doctrine be controverted. (p. 46.)

The place where a loan is most advantageoufly contracted for any part of the empire, muft depend upon the distribution of thofe maffes of unemployed capital which naturally feek the fervice of the state, in the manner frequently defcribed in former articles of this Journal. The metropolis of the empire is, from a variety of circumftances, the chief refort of the proprietors of that capital; but it is not the only refort; and portions of ftock are accordingly drawn from the moft diftant provinces into the public funds. The greatest faving, however, is made to the Government and to the country, when the loan is contracted in the place of greateft refort of capitalifts; because their competition gives the Government better terms, and becaufe the lenders fave the expence of transport and infurance. If a loan is opened in Dublin, a portion of English capital must travel thither, unless it is maintained that all the money wanted can be found in Dublin; and the contracting of the loan in London, will afluredly not prevent fome Irish capital from finding its way across the Channel. But in order to prove that the loan fhould be contracted in Dublin, rather than in London, Lord Lauderdale muft begin by fhewing that the kind of stock in question abounds more in the former than in the latter place. The lofs incurred by fending over to Ireland, capital borrowed in England for the Irish service, is evidently out of the queftion: for, had the loan been opened in Dublin, the fame capital muft have travelled thither at the fame expence; and the expence muft have been defrayed by the fame parties, i. e. by the borrowers, either in actual payment for its tranfport, or, which is the fame thing, in a bonus to the receivers of the loan to tempt them to fend it,-unlefs, indeed, the portion which comes

from

from this fide of the water, is fo inconfiderable, that the whole terms of the tranfaction may be regulated by the fums obtained immediately in Ireland. All these confiderations have been neglected by Lord Lauderdale, who seems to view the place where loans are contracted on the cheapest terms, as a matter of arbitrary arrangement, and whofe whole argument proceeds upon the affumption, that the entire capital lent to the government, must belong to the spot where the loan is opened. Borrowing in England, according to him, lays Ireland under annual contribution to the whole amount of the intereft, as if the Irish capital which would be lent to the Government, were the transaction carried on in Dublin, can be held as excluded from this channel by the circumftance of opening the loan in London. It furely need not be demonftrated, however, that the fame portion of Irish ftock will either be vefted directly in fuch a loan, or will fill up the vacancy occafioned by English ftock being drawn thither. Whichever of these things happens, the interest paid by Ireland, will go precisely to the fame quarters as if the loan had been contracted in Dublin. If the Irish capital is vefted in the loan, the intereft will be paid to its proprietors directly; if that capital fupplies the place of British stock lent to Government, its profits will be returned from Britain to Ireland, at the fame time that the intereft of the capital which it fupplants is remitted from Ireland to Britain. In like manner, the opening a loan in Dublin could never prevent a remittance of the interest to Britain, unless it is pretended that such an arrangement would create a clear furplus capital in Ireland; for a great portion of British capital would either be drawn over at once, and lent to the government in Dublin, or would be attracted to replace the Irish capital which was to be lent to Government; and, in both cafes, its profits would be remitted to Britain. This is a fundamental objection to all Lord Lauderdale's fpeculations. But other confiderations naturally fuggeft themselves in oppofition to his tenets, even upon the peculiar grounds on which he has placed the difcuffion.

The great difficulty, according to Lord Lauderdale, confifts in providing the intereft which Ireland muft continue to remit for the fums borrowed from England, after the affiftance of new loans fhall fail. Admitting, then, what this argument takes for granted, that the act of raifing the loan in London draws more English capital into the fervice of Ireland than would otherwife go to that quarter; let us look at the whole extent of this difficulty. The fums tranfmitted from England, are furely not annihilated in Ireland; they continue, in various forms, to yield a revenue which will permanently aflift in defraying the intereft to be paid for the use of them. But, placing this confideration entirely out of view;-either Ireland has within her own bounds capital to

the amount of the loans, or fhe has not. If fhe has not, there is an end of the argument against borrowing in England. If the has, the revenue yielded by that capital will fuffice to pay the intereft due to England; for it will remain in the hands of individuals, in various channels of profitable employment; and a part of its annual returns will be remitted to the creditor country.

But the manner of making this remittance, affords our author the chief part of his argument. The intereft of the debt must be fent over, according to him, in Irish manufactures, fo cheap as to ruin our own. Now, we may ask, how the neceflity of making this remittance to England, instead of keeping the intereft in Ireland, can alter either the total supply of, or the total demand for, Irish manufactures? The fame induftry will be exerted, in the one cafe, as in the other; and the fame perfons will continue to want Irish goods, whether the Irish funds are the property of perfons refiding on the east or on the weft of the Channel. Suppofing that the rate of exchange furnished a temptation to fend thefe goods at low prices into the English markets, what would become of the former purchafers,-of the perfons in Ireland, or in America, who ufed to buy them before the exchange was unfavourable? Thofe perfons muft ftill buy them, and muft furnish a price which can be paid to the English creditors of Ireland, or, which is the fame thing, muft buy them of thofe creditors. The fupply of, and the demand for English manufactures, must also remain the fame. So that no change whatever can be produced upon the market for goods produced by both countries, unless it is afferted that the remittance of interest is attended with a clear addition to the total amount of goods manufactured in the debtor country; and if this happy confequence is admitted to flow from the arrangement in queftion, it furely requires no farther defence, and admits of no higher praise.

It may, however, reduce the whole of this difcuffion to a more narrow compafs, if we now remind our author, that there is no one view of the subject which does not apply to the finan cial arrangements between different parts of Great Britain. Every thing which can be afferted of loans raifed in London for the fervice of Ireland, must be applicable to loans raised in London for the service of Yorkshire. The channel which separates the two iflands, cannot furely affect this question. He who maintains that the loans wanted for the public fervice in Ireland, fhould be negotiated in Dublin, muft, if he is confiftent, recommend that a loan fhould be opened in every county town, for the fervice of the diftrict. Certainly, the very fame difficulties lye in the way of remitting, from Yorkshire to London, the fums required to defray the hare borne by that county in the pay

ment

ment of the public creditors, which Lord Lauderdale has alleg ed will prevent Ireland from paying her English creditors their yearly revenue. Luckily, the fame facilities exift in the two cafes; and the internal circulation of the Iland is as little af fected by the arrangement which makes London the centre of its financial operations, as the great internal circulation of the empire, compofed of both Iflands, is deranged by extending the fame improvement a ftep further, and making their common -metropolis alfo the centre of the whole imperial adminiftration of finance.

It is not difficult to perceive in what manner this circulation. is carried on, fo far as affects the prefent difcuffion. Let us fuppofe that there are no more loans required for the service of Ireland, and that the intereft of former loans continues to be remitted from thence, just as the intereft of the loans, fhared by capitalists in London, continues to be remitted from the provinces, after the event of a peace precludes the neceffity of borrowing every year. Ultimately only one effect can follow from the conftitution of the debt and the confequent payment of intereft the creditors must receive part of the taxes raised in the debtor country. Suppofe they refide in the debtor country, ftill they must receive it; and the fame circumstances that enable the payers of taxes to contribute when the public creditor refides in their neighbourhood, muft enable them to contribute to the very fame extent when he refides at a greater diftance. The manufacturer who paid taxes by the profits on cloth fold in Ireland, and thus contributed part of the intereft paid by Government to the capitalist refiding in Dublin, will furely fell his cloth for the fame profit after that capitalift fhall have removed to London; and the expence of tranfmitting the intereft from Dublin to London is all that can enter into the prefent queftion, -an expence occafioned by the want of capital in Ireland, and not at all affected by the choice of the place where the loan is contracted. When one part of the intereft has been fent over, Irish commodities will be fold in England to bring it back, or in other countries to replace it. The difficulty is not to get money, but goods; and if Ireland can manufacture enough to pay the intereft of her debt in Dublin, fhe will find it eafy to make the fame payments in London.

Thefe confiderations, it appears to us, exhaust the whole queftion; yet it is impoffible to difmifs it entirely from our confideration, without taking fome notice of the grofs mifapplication of language, of which the noble author has been guilty, in fpeaking of the apprehended competition of the Irish manufacturers as " a violation of the freedom of trade!' The whole

VOL. VI. NO. 12.

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of

of his argument, indeed, is exactly of a piece with the exploded reafonings of those who formerly contended against this very freedom. It is a pleading in behalf of the monopoly of the Englifh manufacturers; and feems to us to lead much more naturally to a fyftem of reftraining and prohibitory laws againft importation from Ireland, than to any alteration in the practice of borrowing in this country for the fervice of the fifter kingdom. If the goods of which we ftand in need can be furnished cheaper from Ireland than at home, it is our wifeft policy to let Ire land furnish them; and if our manufacturers are tempted to emigrate to that country by the profpect of greater profits, it is for our intereft that they fhould be allowed to emigrate. We are not of opinion, indeed, that any fuch confequences are likely to follow from the arrangements which have excited Lord Lauderdale's apprehenfions: but if they were to follow, we conceive it to be quite evident that they must be confidered as proofs of the freedom of trade, and not as inftances of its violation.

ART. III. Isabel, from the Spanish of Garcilaso de la Vega, with other Poems and tranflations from the Greek, Italian, &c. &c. By Robert Walpole, Efq. Cambridge. 1805.

MR R Walpole, as we collect from his preface and the substance of his book, having determined to learn the Spanish and Italian languages, judicioufly provided himself with a copy of the Parnafo Efpanol and the London felections of Italian poetry. Efteeming it the best way of maftering thofe tongues, he immedi ately began to tranflate with the afliftance of a dictionary; and, being fufficiently pleafed with the productions of his pen, he has fince committed them to the prefs. In the title-page is a motto from Taffo, Nè leggano i feveri i detti noftri.' We are in doubt, whether the author meant by thefe words to deprecate the feverity of criticifm, or to warn thofe, whofe delicacy might be eafly offended, that his poetry might not be found congenial to their notions of morality. As the author profeffed that thefe tranflations were made for the purpose of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the languages, we conceived that they must, at all events, be faithful copies; and, as fuch, whether executed with more or lefs fkill, they could not fail of raifing fome intereft. But we find that, when he purchafed the Parnafo Efpanol, he received from the late tranflators of Anacreon and Camoens, that magic wand which can embellish the fimpleft productions of ancient writers with rich and voluptuous imagery. Without this affiftance, the

volume,