many, and to support them with dignity requires peculiar force of mind. Adverfity often places both fexes in fituations wholly unexpected; against fuch tranfitions, the voice of wisdom admonishes each to be prepared, by early initiation into general principles fuited to fortify the mind, to fuftain the unavoidable ftrokes of fortune with firmness, and to exert the most prudent means to obviate their confequences; but the bias given to the female mind in the present fyftem of education, encourages the keeneft fenfibility on the noft trifling occafions, its chief defign being to polish, rather than to ftrengthen. The regulation of the temper, is of all qualities the most useful to conduct us steadily through the vexatious circumftances, which attack, with undiftinguishing annoyance, the profperous and the unfortunate; and is fupereminently neceffary to women, whofe peculiar office it is, to fmooth the inconveniences of domeftic life; though as a moral obligation, equally incumbent upon men. A well governed temper is the fupport of focial enjoyment, and the bond of conjugal affection; deficient in this qualification, a mother is incapacitated from prefiding over the education of her children, and a mistress unfitted to govern her fervants. The self-command recommended, differs widely from that apathy of difpofition, which is the effect of conflitution; in order to ensure respect and love, it muft poffefs an equability, which can only refult from reflection and habitual culture. Such a fubjection of the angry paffions to reason and duty, accommodates itfelf to circumftances, and the difpofition of others with whom we are connected; it gives a decided fuperiority in every contest, and is of ineftimable value to the poffeffor, on every occafion of trial.' P. 29. As a remedy for thefe mifchievous tendencies, Mrs. Wakefield propofes feveral fyftems of education fpecifically adapted to the stations likely to be occupied by various claffes of females; and alfo inculcates the neceffity of multiplying their lucrative employments. Several ingenious occupations mentioned by Mrs. Wakefield, are, if we mistake not, already purfued with fuccefs by a confiderable number of the fex; fome others which are propofed are perhaps of a nature repugnant to that delicacy, which, in our opinion, ought to be preferved even among indigent women. Our author properly ftigmatifes the injuftice and cruelty of excluding, from what is called genteel fociety, females honourably exercifing. their industry and talents for a fubfiftence. In this animadverfion we heartily agree with her, and hope that it will not be unproductive of effect-the abfurd and pernicious pride of which it complains is, we believe, chiefly to be found in opulent provincial towns. From the gratification we have experienced in reading the production before us, we are induced to recommend its perufal. We are not fond of the amazonian innovations which pretend to confult the dignity of the female sex at the expence of its delicacy and foftnefs. There are phyfical diftinctions and moral confiderations peculiarly relative to women; and the fyftem-mongers, who confound or overlook them, deferve perhaps fomething more than contempt. A practical plan, not liable to any fuch objection, for the amelioration of the female condition, is, on the contrary, entitled to praife, as a valuable addition to the fcience of political economy-a refpectable portion of this praife we do not he fitate to beftow on Mrs. Wakefield's Reflections. MONTHLY CATALOGUE. POLITICS....POLITICAL ECONOMY. Anti-Revolutionary Thoughts of a Revolutionary Writer: from The Secret Hiftory of the Revolution of France,' by Monfieur François Pagès. 8vo. 35. Wright. 1800. M. PAGÈS is better known in this country as a traveller and circumnavigator than as a politician, although at Paris he sustains this latter character with no inconfiderable degree of credit. In the year 1797 he published a work in two volumes, 8vo. entitled, Hiftoire Secrete de la Révolution Françaife,' which comprised a range from the affembly of the Notables in 1789 to the revolution of the 14th Vendemiaire, (Nov. 1) 1796; and it is from this work the pamphlet before us is drawn up. Whatever merit may refult from an ardent attachment to the prefent chancellor of the exchequer the tranflator before us must be allowed to poffefs in a fupereminent degree. To adopt his own language, the great obligations which England owes to Mr. Pitt are perpetually prefeating then felves before him.' The time will come,' continues this zealous adherent, when in the cool and impartial page of history it will be feen with aftonishment, that although in Europe the most complicated courfe of politics that ever embroiled the interefts of nations, and at home the most ambitious and giddy faction that ever fought to hamper the wheels of government, have refpectively occurred under the adminiftration of Mr. Pitt; yet his well directed exertions and fteady zeal for the public welfare, have not only delivered this country from the very jaws of deftruction, but have raised it to a flate of profperity, wealth, and national confequence, unprecedented in the British annals.' P. X. By way of contrast to this flaming encomium, we are imme diately afterwards prefented with a picture of the ' Corfican adventurer,' who 'for two reafons,' we are told, appears to form an enemy, if poffible, more mifchievous to the welfare of France, and to the interefts of Europe in general, than perhaps any of his jacobin fore-runners. Firft; he unites in his nature all the ambition, cruelty, hypocrify, which conftituted the characteristic of the feveral tyrants who preceded him; with more craftiness to conceal, and more boldness to discover their workings, as occafion fhould require. Secondly; every fcattered particle of jacobin-fpirit is now as it were concentrated; and the people, haraffed with past sufferings, and dreading to incur feverer ones by refiftance, are forced to stoop under the present yoke.' P. xiv. The object of the writer, in felecting the paffages before us, is to bring under the eye of the reader the teltimony in foro confcientia of M. Pagès, an ardent devotee to French revolutionary principles;-one who, while under the influence of rapturous enthufiafm, nay, in the middle of a climax of democratic rant, that turgid eloquence of the modern Parifian school, appears at times as if the fpirit of truth infpired him ; and like Balaam, who blessed thofe he came to curfe, reprobates his countrymen, whom it was his intention to approve.' P. vii. In pursuing this object, the tranflator appears totally to have outwitted himself. If he had meant to have held up the advocates of the prefent government of France in a light of deteftation or derifion, he should have brought forwards a man, in poffeffion of prefent power, juftifying all the cruelties, treacheries, and blafphemies of the partifans of former revolutionary governments. But the paffages here tranflated reprefent M. Pagès in a point of view ftrictly amiable, condemning in terms as fevere as our author himself could make use of, the doctrine of equality, and the error of advancing metaphyfical theorems in politics, which are inapplicable to the focial ftate of man; as well as the fophifms, factions, infurrections, and barbarities of the jacobins, and indeed of all the different revolutionary parties to the prefent period. We find him condemning the proceedings that anteceded the murder of the king with a freedom which we rejoice to fee permitted in the republic, and with a warmth of indignation which could fcarcely have been furpaffed by Mallet du Pan himself. And finally, we behold him fpeaking with high veneration of the political conftitution of England, and pointing out the advantages which would have refulted to France from an early adoption of a similar system. And yet this, gentle reader, is the man whom our author reprefents as fubject to the ftarts of fanaticism,' and curfed with the spirit of Balaam,' and whom he has felected as an instance of one of the chief monsters in the prefent government of France! We could not avoid fmiling at the following conceit expreffed in a note at p. 67, and we will clofe our review by communicating this smile to our readers. If M. Pagès had looked into Milton's Paradife Loft, he would have traced the pedigree of the jacobins, and found their lineal CRIT. REV. VOL. XXX. December, 1800. 2 I defcent from Sin and Death. Surely their great progenitor Satan Immeasurably, all things fhall be your prey." Congress at Raftadt.-Official Correfpondence between his Excellency Count Metternich, Minifter Plenipotentiary of the Emperor, the Deputies of the Empire, and Citizens Treilhard, Bonnier, Roberjot, and Jean de Bry, Minifters Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, affembled at Raftadt for the Purpofe of negotiating a Peace between thofe Powers. Containing the Whole of the State Papers from the Commencement of the Negotiation, in December 1797, to April 1799, the Period of its Diffolution. From the Original Papers; with an English Translation. 8vo. 95. Boards. Wright. 1800. At a period when negotiations follow each other with fuch ra pidity, and fo little is done by them, the correspondence of a congrefs which, from the time occupied in minute and trifling af fairs, feems never to have intended to enter seriously on the im portant point for which it was affembled, cannot be expected to excite a great degree of curiofity: yet to the ftatefman, and to perfons employed in a diplomatic character, these papers are of high importance, and the collection of them is an ufeful fervice to the public. In thefe papers are feen the difficulties attending the boundaries to be fettled between the Imperial and French republics, the rights of the princes of Germany in both countries, and the eafe by which negotiation is kept up when both parties do not come with a determination to haften the great object of their meeting-the return of peace. A Determination of the Average Depreffion of the Price of Wheat in War below that of the preceding Peace; and of its Re-Advance in the following; according to its Yearly Rates from the Revolution to the End of the laft Peace: with Remarks on their greater Va riations in that entire Period. By J. Brand, CL. M. A. &t. &c. Svo. 25. Rivingtons. 18co. The calamitous war in which we are engaged, and the mifery occafioned in the country by the fcarcity, are two events affociated together by one party, and feparated entirely by the other. The one allows that the fcarcity has, in part, arifen from the badness of the feafons, but infifts upon the mifery being owing to the war; the other attributes the mifery entirely to the feafons, and denies that the war has any tendency to raife the price of provi fious. In the latter clafs ranks the author of the work before us, who produces various tables and arithmetical calculations in fupport of his favourite opinion, maintained on general grounds, that war depreffes, and never raifes, the price of human fuftenance. In thus treating the question, he feems not to have taken a fufficiently extenfive view of his fubject; for the nature of every war must be contemplated before we determine on its effects as to this point. If an enemy overrun a country and befiege the capital, the productive powers of that country being diminished, and the introduc tion of food being rendered impracticable or attended with exceffive difficulties, the inhabitants must be put to great ftraights, or expofed, as in the famous cafe of the fiege of Jerufalem, to all the 1 invade an horrors of famine. On the other hand, one country may other, fubfiit its troops on the enemy's quarters, and bring back plunder and provifions to itself: in which cafe, fince many of the inhabitants ceafed to confume the produce of the country, and provifion was also imported, the war will be the caufe of an additional cheapnefs of provifions. Thus, fince war may make things either cheap or dear, according to its exifting circumstances, we can by no means accede to the author's opinion, that it has an univerfal tendency to deprefs the price of provitions. But, to prove the pofition, a reference is made to the ftate of provisions in this country fince the Revolution, taking their average during the terms of war and peace in which it has been alternately engaged. And here, fortunately for this ifland, these tables are very inconclufive data; the miferies of war have feldom been deeply felt in antecedent hoftilities; and till we unluckily entered into the prefent fatal war, it was very difficult, if not impoffible, to afcertain the effect of prior contefts on the ftate of the country. Antecedently hereto the ifland was rifing to its highest pitch of profperity, and had fo nearly attained it, that the wars in which we were engaged could not materially affect it. Whence it fhould happen that fo much more evil fhould be generally attributed to the prefent than any preceding war is a very curious queftion, and the prefent writer might have thrown fome light upon it when he was obferving, that the effects of war in the corn-market will be as our exertions; and, when those are small, the former will not be difcernible in the prices, being entirely concealed by the much greater effect of the variation of the products of feafons." This remark fuperfedes the neceffity of a very rigid examination of the tables, and of fome ingenious methods of interpolation, ufeful to the arithmetician, and deferving his minute attention. From his next fubject, however, the increafe of the circulating medium called gold, owing to fome regulations in Spanish America, we have derived much ufeful information as to the fact itfelf, and its effect on the object of our author's inquiry; for he obferves justly here, "that, if the quantity of commodities to be purchafed by it continue fixed on increase in a lefs proportion than coin, the real value for which this univerfal equivalent will exchange will perpetually diminish." Now the two cafes have taken place fo obviously in this war, different from all preceding wars, that we cannot refrain from expreffing our aftonishment at the author's carrying us from Spain to Mexico, from Mexico to Portugal, from Portugal to the Brazils, giving us calculation upon calculation, long tables and difficult interpolations, charges of fedition and infinuations of treafon, when he might have rendered his fubject fhort and eafy to all his readers. The exertions of this war have been far greater than those of any other period, according to himself; therefore their effects must be more difcernible in the prices of the corn-market; and these effects have been rendered ftill more obvious by the unfavourableness of the feafons. Again, from the decrease of provifions, and the increase of the circulating medium of paper, ftanding in the place of gold, beyond all bounds of conjecture, it naturally follows, from the author's own data, that more of this circulating medium must be given |