tefact, Abington, Shrewsbury, Hellefton, Bedford, Sudbury, Wigton, Whitehaven, New-Gallow and Stranraer; Poole, Shafton, Haslemere, Clockmannan, Lannerk, St. Ives; North-Berwick, Haddington, Lauder, Jedburgh and Dunbar. To the hiftory of each cafe, the author hath added explanatory notes, and to each volume a proper index, which cannot fail of rendering this collection of cafes a valuable repertory for gentlemen of the law, as well as all fuch as are interested in parliamentary proceedings on controverted elections.

ART. III. A Philofophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade, of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. Continued from page 278.

In Book the Vth, with which the SECOND VOLUME of this inftructive and entertaining History commences, the Author treats of the trade of Denmark, Oftend, Sweden, Pruffia, Spain, and Ruflia to the Eaft Indies. Of this in its feveral branches, together with an account of the state of the different nations, at different periods, he gives a well-digefted and copious defcription: to which he adds reflections on the expediency of Europe's continuing its trade to the Indies. and the mode of such continuance. On the former fubject, he observes that

Univerfal fociety exists as well for the common intereft of the whole, as by the mutual intereft of all the individuals that compofe it. An increafe of felicity muft, therefore, refult from a general intercourfe. Commerce is the exercise of that valuable liberty to which Nature has called all men, which is the fource of their happiness, and indeed of their virtues. Men are never fo truly free as in trade ; nor is any thing fo conducive to freedom as commercial laws and one particular advantage derived from it is, that as trade produces liberty, fo it contributes to preferve it.

We must be little acquainted with man, if we imagine that in order to make him happy, he must be debarred from enjoyments. We grant that the being accuftomed to want the conveniencies of life, leffens the fum of our misfortunes; but by retrenching more on our pleasures than on our forrows, we are rather brought to a state of infenfibility than of happinefs. If nature has given man a heart too fufceptible of tender impreffions; if his imagination is ever employed in fearch of objects to gratify his reftlefs and involuntary defires; he should be left at full liberty to purfue the wide circle of enjoyments. Let reafon teach him to be fatisfied with fuch things as he can enjoy, and not to grieve for thofe that are out of his reach; this is true wifdom. But to require that reafon fhould make us voluntarily reject, what it is in our power to add to our prefent enjoyments, is to contradict nature, and to fubvert the first principles of fociability.

Cc 3

"How

"How fhall we perfuade man to be content with the scanty pittance that moralifts think proper to allow him? How fhall we afcertain the limits of what is neceffary, which varies according to his fituation in life, his attainments, and his defires? No fooner had his industry made the means of procuring a fubfiftence more eafy, but he fpent his time in extending the limits of his faculiies, and the circle of his enjoyments. Thence fprang all his factitious wants. difcovery of a new fpecies of fenfations excited a defire of preferving them, and a propenfity to find out others. The perfection of one art, introduced the knowledge of feveral others. The fuccefs of a war, occafioned by hunger or revenge, fuggefted the notion of conquet. Navigation put men under a necefity of destroying one another, or of uniting together. It was the faine with commercial treaties between nations parted by the feas, as with focial compacts between men fcattered upon the fame earth. All thofe connections began by combat, and ended by affociations. War and navigation have intermingled focieties and colonies. Hence men came to be bound together by dependence or intercourfe. The refufe of all nations mixing together during the outrages of war, are refined and polished by commerce. The intent of commerce is, that all nations fhould confider themselves as one great fociety, whofe members have all an equal right to partake of the conveniencies of the reft. The object and the means of commerce equally fuppofe a defire and a freedom, agreed upon by all nations, to make all exchanges that may be fuitable to both. The defire and the liberty of enjoyment, are the only two fprings of industry, and the only two principles of fociability among men."

After obviating the objections ufually made to fo extenfive a commerce, in its favour, he comes to the difcuffion of the queftion, whether Europe ought to lay open the trade to India or carry it on by exclufive charters.

"All the nations of Europe, that trade to India, fays he, carry on that commerce by exclufive companies; and it must be confeffed, that this practice is plaufible, because it is hardly conceivable that great and enlightened nations fhould have been under a mistake for above a hundred years on fo important a point, and that neither experience nor argument fhould have undeceived them. We must conclude therefore that either the advocates for liberty have given too great a latitude to their principles, or the favourers of exclufive privilege have too ftrenuously afferted the neceffity of fuch limitations; poffibly, both parties, from too great an attachment to their re fpective opinions, have overfhot the mark, and are equally diftant from the truth.

"Ever fince this famous question has been debated, it has always been thought to be a very fimple one; it has always been fuppofed that an India company must neceffarily be exclufive, and that its existence was effentially connected with its privilege. Hence the advocates for freedom have afferted that exclufive privileges were odious; and, therefore, that there ought to be no company. Their opponents have argued on the contrary, that the nature of things res quired a company; and therefore that there must be an exclufive

charter,

charter. But if we can make it appear that the reasons against charters prove nothing against companies and that the circumstances which make it neceffary to have an India company, do not fupply any argument in favour of a charter; if we can demonftrate that the nature of things requires, indeed, a powerful affociation, a company for the India trade; but that the exclufive charter is connected only with particular caufes, infomuch that the company may exist without the charter, we fhail then have traced the fource of the common error, and found out the folution of the difficulty."

Purfuing this inveftigation, he labours to prove, that although the nature of things requires that the fubjects of one country should unite into one company, both for their own intereft and that of the ftate, it does not thence follow this company should be an exclufive one. On the contrary, he conceives, that the exclufive privilege, always granted to thefe companies, relates to fomething that is quite foreign to the effence of this trade.

"When the feveral nations in Europe, fays our Author, began to find that it was their intereft to take a part in the trade of India, which individuals refufed to do, though that commerce had long been open to all, they found themfelves under a neceffity of forming companies, and giving them all the encouragement that fo difficult an undertaking required. They lent them money; they decorated them with all the attributes of fovereign power; they permitted them to fend ambaffadors; they empowered them to make peace and war, and unfortunately for them and for mankind, they have made but too much ufe of that fatal privilege. They found it neceffary at the fame time to fecure to them the means of indemnifying themselves for the expences of fettlements which must be very confiderable. This gave rife to exclufive privileges, which at first were granted for a term of years, and afterwards made perpetual from the following circumstances.

The

The brilliant prerogatives granted to the companies, were in fact fo many impediments to trade. The right of having fortreffes, implied the neceffity of building and defending them: that of having troops, implied the obligation of paying and recruiting them. fame held good with regard to the permiffion of fending ambaffadors, and concluding treaties with the Indian princes. All this was attended with expences that were merely for fhew, only fit to check the progrefs of trade, and to intoxicate the agents and factors of the companies, who fancied themselves fovereigns, and acted accordingly.

"Nations, however, found it very convenient to have a kind of colonies in Afia, which feemed to cost them nothing; and as it was but reasonable, whilft the companies bore all the burden of the expences, to fecure to them all the profits, the privileges have been continued. But if, instead of attending only to this pretended oeconomy, which could be but temporary, they had extended their views to futurity, and connected all the events which muft naturally be brought about in the courfe of a number of years, they must have forefeen that the expences of fovereignty, which can never be ascertained,

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becaufa

because they depend upon numberless political contingencies, would fooner or later abforb both the profits and the stock of a trading company that then the public treafury must be exhaufted to affift the chartered company, and that their favours, coming too late, could only repair the mifchief already done, but would not remove the caufe, and would leave the companies for ever in a state of mediocrity and languor.

"But why fhould not governments at laft fuffer themselves to be undeceived? Why should they not take upon themselves a charge which properly belongs to them, and the burden of which, after having crushed the companies, muit finally fall upon them? There would be then no further need of an exclufive privilege. The companies, which now exist, and are valuable on account of their old connections and established credit, fhould be carefully preferved. The appearance of monopoly would vanish for ever, and their freedom might enable them to purfue fome new track, which they could not think of, whilst they were encumbered with the charges annexed to the charter. On the other hand, the field of commerce, being open to all the members of the community, would fertilize and thrive in their hands. They would attempt new discoveries, and form new. enterprizes. The trade from India to India, now fure of a market in Europe, would grow brifker, and extend farther. The companies, attentive to all thefe operations, would measure their dealings by the progrefs of private trade; and this competition, which would not be injurious to any, would be beneficial to the feveral states,

We apprehend this fyftem would conduce to reconcile all interests, and is confiftent with all principles. It feems to be liable but to one rational objection, either on the part of the advocates for the exclusive charter, or of thofe who contend for a free trade.

"If the former fhould affert, that the companies without the exclufive charter would have but a precarious existence, and would foon be ruined by private traders; I fhould answer them that they were furely then not in carneft, when they affirmed that private trade could never fucceed. For, if it is able to ruin that of the companies, as they now pretend, it can be but by engroffing every branch of their trade against their will, by a fuperiority of powers, and by the afcendent of liberty. Befides, what is it that really conftitutes our companies? It is their flock, their fhips, their factories, and not their exclufive charter. What is it that has always ruined them? Extravagant expences, abufes of all kinds, vifionary undertakings; in a word, bad adminiftration, far more destructive than competition. But if the diftribution of their powers is made with prudence and œconomy; if the fpirit of property directs their operations, there is no obstacle which they cannot furmount, no fuccefs which they may not expect.

"If this fuccefs alarms the advocates for freedom, if they should fay on the other hand, that thofe rich and powerful companies would terrify private men, and partly deftroy that general and abfolute freedom which is fo neceflary to trade; we should not be furprised to hear them fart this objection; for men are almost always guided by reports, both in their actions and opinions. I do not except from

this error the greatest part of our writers upon revenue. Commercial and civil liberty are the two tutelar deities of mankind, which we all reverence as well as they. But we are not to be feduced by words, we chufe to attend to the idea they are meant to convey. I would afk thofe refpectable enthufiafts for liberty, what they would with; whether they would have the laws abolish the very name of those ancient companies, that every citizen might boldly rush into the trade, and that they should all have the fame means of procuring enjoyments, and the fame refources to raise a fortune. But if fuch laws, with all that parade of liberty, are in fact very exclufive laws, let not the deceitfulness of this language induce us to adopt them. When the state allows all its members to carry on a trade that requires a large stock, and which confequently very few are able to undertake, I would ask what the bulk of the nation gets by this regulation. feems as if we meant to expofe their credulity, in permitting them to undertake impoffibilities. If we totally fupprefs the companies, there will be no India trade at all, or it will be only carried on by a few capital merchants.

It

"I will go further ftill, and, bating the article of the exclufive charter, I will venture to affirm that the India company, by the manner in which they are fettled, have made many people fharers in their trade, who would otherwife never have been concerned in it. Confider what a number of proprietors in every station and of all ages partake of the profits of this trade, and you will allow that it would have been far more circumfcribed if it had been in private hands; that the existence of companies has only diffused it, whilft it feemed to restrain it; and that the moderate price of the shares must be a powerful motive to the people, to with for the prefervation of an establishment, which opens to them a track that would for ever have been shut againft them, by a freed trade.

In truth, we believe that companies and private men might equally profper without injuring one another, or creating any jealou fies between them. The companies might still purfue thofe great objects, which, by their nature and extent, can only be managed by a wealthy and powerful affociation. Private men, on the contrary, would confine themselves to fuch objects as are in a manner overlooked by a great company, but might, by proper oeconomy, and the combination of many fmall powers, become a fource of riches to the parties concerned."

Book VI. treats of the discovery of America; the conquest of Mexico, and the fettlements of the Spaniards in that part of the new worid. The short parallel between ancient and modern history, at the beginning of it, affords an extract that we conceive will not be difagreeable to our readers.

"Ancient history prefents to us a magnificent fcene. The continued reprefentation of great revolutions, heroic manners, and extraordinary events will become more and more interefting, the more uncommon it is to find occurrences that bear any resemblance to them. The time of founding and of destroying empires is patt. The man, before whom the world was filent, is no more. The different nations

of