In the first place, every cargo that departs from the cuftom-house, appears on the books as an export; and, according to the custom-house balance, the loffes at fea, and by foreign failures, are all reckoned on the fide of profit, because they appear as exports. Secondly, Because the importation by the smuggling trade does not appear on the custom-house books, to arrange against the exports. No balance, therefore, as applying to fuperior advantages, can be drawn from those documents; and if we examine the natural operation of commerce, the idea is fallacious; and if true, would foon be injurious. The great fupport of commerce confifts in the balance being a level of benefits among all nations. Two merchants of different nations trading together, will both become rich, and each makes the balance in his own favour; confequently, they do not get rich out of each other; and it is the fame with respect to the nations in which they refide. The cafe muft be, that each nation must get rich out of its own means, and increases that riches by fomething which it procures from another in exchange. If a merchant in England fends an article of English manufacture abroad, which cofts him a fhilling at home, and imports fomething which fells for two, he makes a balance of one fhilling in his own favour: but this is not gained out of the foreign nation or the foreign merchant, for he alfo does the fame by the article he receives, and neither has a balance of advantage upon the other. The original value of the two articles in their proper countries were but two fhillings; but by changing their places, they acquire a new idea of value, equal to double what they had at firft, and that increafed value is equally divided. There is no otherwife a balance on 'foreign than on domeftic commerce. The merchants of London and Newcastle trade on the fame principles, as if they refided in different nations, and make their balances in the fame manner: yet London doth not get rich out of Newcastle, any more than Newcaftle out of London: but coals, the merchandize of Newcastle, have an additional value at London, and London merchandize has the fame at Newcastle. Though the principle of all commerce is the fame, the domestic, in a national view, is the part the most beneficial; because the whole of the advantages, on both fides, refts within the nation; whereas, in foreign commerce, it is only a participation of one half. The most unprofitable of all commerce is that connected with foreign dominion. To a few individuals it may be beneficial, merely because it is commerce; but to the nation it is a lofs. The expence of maintaining dominion more than absorbs the profits of any trade. It does not increase the general quantity in the world, but operates to leffen it; and as a greater mafs would be afloat by relinquishing dominion, the participation without the expence would be more valuable than a greater quantity with it. But it is impoffible to engrofs commerce by dominion; and therefore it is ftill more fallacious. It cannot exist in confined channels, and neceffarily breaks out by regular or irregular means, that defeat the attempt; and to fucceed would be fill worse. France, fince the revolution, has been more than indifferent as to foreign poffeffions; and other nations will become the fame, when they investigate the fubject with refpect to commerce. To the expence of dominion is to be added that of navies, and when the amount of the two are fubtracted from the profits of commerce, it will appear, that what is called the balance of trade, even admitting it to exist, is not enjoyed by the nation, but abforbed by the government. The idea of having navies for the protection of commerce is delufive. It is putting the means of destruction for for the means of protection. Com- of advantages to all; and the only interruption it meets, is from the prefent uncivilized state of governments, and which it is its common interest to reform. merce needs no other protection than the reciprocal intereft which every nation feels in fupporting it-it is common stock-it exists by a balance OBSERVATIONS on CHARTERS and CORPORATIONS. [From the SAM E.] It a n tright. It word. He is not free of the nation, T is a perverfion of terms to fay, Englishman in the full sense of the operates by a contrary effect, that of taking rights away. Rights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights in the majority, leave the right by exclufion in the hands of a few. If charters were constructed fo as to exprefs in direct terms, that every inhabitant, who is not a member of a corporation, fhall not exercise the right of voting,' fuch charters would, in the face, be charters, not of rights, but of exclufion. The effect is the fame under the form they now ftand; and the only persons on whom they operate, are the perfons whom they exclude. Those whose rights are guaranteed, by not being taken away, exercise no other rights, than as members of the community they are entitled to without a charter; and, therefore, all charters have no other than an indirect negative operation. They do not give rights to A, but they make a difference in favour of A by taking away the right of B, and confequently are instruments of injustice. But charters and corporations have a more extenfive evil effect, than what relates merely to elections. They are fources of endless contentions in the places where they exist; and they leffen the common rights of national fociety. A native of England, under the operation of thefe charters and corporations, cannot be faid to be an in the fame manner that a Frenchman is free of France, and an American of America. His rights are circumfcribed to the town, and, in fome cases, to the parish of his birth; and all other. parts, though in his native land, are to him as a foreign country. To acquire a refidence in thefe, he must undergo a local naturalization by purchase, or he is forbidden or expelled the place. This fpecies of feudality. is kept up to aggrandize the corporations at the ruin of towns; and the effect is visible. The generality of corporation towns are in a state of folitary decay, and prevented from further ruin, only by fome circumftance in their fituation, fuch as a navigable river, or a plenti- ful furrounding country. As population is one of the chief fources of wealth, (for without it land itself has no value) every thing which operates to prevent it must leffen the value of property; and as corporations have not only this tendency, but directly this effect, they cannot but be injurious. If any policy were to be followed, instead of that of general freedom, to every perfon to fettle where he chofe, (as in France or America) it would be more confiftent to give encouragement to new comers, than to preclude their admiffion by exacting premiums from them *. The perfons moft immediately interested * It is difficult to account for the origin of charter and corporation towns, unless we fuppofe them to have arifen out of, or been connected with, fome fpecies of garrifon fervice. The times in which they began juftify this idea. The generality of thofe towns have been garrifons; and the corporations were charged with the care of the gates of the towns, when no military garrifon was prefent. Their refufing. or antBb 2 ing terested in the abolition of corporations, are the inhabitants of the towns where corporations are established. The inftances of Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield, fhew, by contraft, the injury which thofe Gothic inftitutions are to property and commerce. A few examples may be found, fuch as that of London, whofe natural and commercial advantage, owing to its fituation on the Thames, is capable of bearing up against the political evils of a corporation; but in almoft all other cafes the fatality is too visible to be doubted or denied. Though the whole nation is not fo directly affected by the depreffion of property in corporation towns as the inhabitants themselves, it partakes of the confequence. By leffening the value of property, the quantity of national commerce is curtailed. Every man is a customer in proportion to his 3 ability; and as all parts of a nation trade with each other, whatever affects any of the parts, muft neceffarily communicate to the whole. As one of the houses of the English parliament is, in a great measure, made up of elections from these corporations; and as it is unnatural that a pure ftream should flow from a foul fountain, its vices are but a continuation of the vices of its origin. A man of moral honour and good political principles, cannot fubmit to the mean drudgery and disgraceful arts, by which fuch elections are caried. To be a fuccessful candidate, he muft be delitute of the qualities that conftitute a juft legislator: and being thus difciplined to corruption by the mode of entering into parliament, it is not to be expected that the representative should be better than the man. A Curious Hiftorical Account of LONDON, in the Reign of HENRY II. To the EDITOR of the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. SIR, The aftonishing Degree in which the Buildings of this great Metropolis have increased within a very few Years paft, and ftill increafing, may render an Account of it as it exifted in a remote Period, a Subject of curious Contraft to those who are fond of tracing the Progress of Society from its early rude State to the Elegance of modern Civilization. I have, therefore, fent you an Account of London, by William Fitz Stephen, a Monk, in the Reign of our fecond Henry, who seems to have confidered as magnificent Objects what would not be regarded as abject and contemptible. I am, &c. The fituation of London. AN ANTIQUARY. her head fo much the higher. Happy she is in the wholesomeness of the air, in the Chriftian religion, her AMONG the noble cities of the munition alfo and strength, the nature of her fituation, the honour of her citizens, the chastity of her matrons. Very pleafant alfo in her fports and paftimes, and replenished with honourable perfonages, all which I think meet proper feverally to confider. world, honoured by fame, the city of London is the one principal feat of the kingdom of England, whofe renown is fpread abroad very far; but fhe tranfporteth her wares and commodities much farther, and advanceth ing admiffion to ftrangers, which has produced the, cuftom of giving, felling, and buying freedom, has more of the nature of garrifon authority than civil government. Soldiers are free of all corporations throughout the nation, by the fame propriety that every foldier is free of every garrifon, and no other perfons are. He can follow any employment, with the permiflion of his officers, in any corporation town throughout the nation. The The temperateness of the air. In this place the calmnefs of the air doth mollify men's minds, not corrupting them with venereal lufts, but preferving them from favage and rude behaviour, and seasoning their inclinations with a more kind and free temper. Of Chriftian religion there. There is in the church of St. Paul a bishop's fee: it was formerly a metropolitan, and, as it is thought, fhall recover the faid dignity again, if the citizens fhall return back into the ifland; except, perhaps, the archiepifcopal title of St. Thomas the martyr, and his bodily prefence, do perpetuate this honour to Canterbury, where now his reliques are. But feeing St. Thomas hath graced both thefe cities, namely, London with his birth, and Canterbury with his death; one place may alledge more against the other, in refpect of the fight of that faint, with the acceffion of holiness. Now, concerning the worship of God in the Christian faith; there are in London and the fuburbs, thirteen greater conventual churches, befide 126 leffer parish churches: [139 churches in all.] Of the ftrength and fcite of the city. It hath on the east part a tower palatine, very large and very ftrong; whofe court and walls rife up from a deep foundation; the mortar is tempered with the blood of beafts. On the weft are two caftles well fenced. The wall of the city is high and great, continued with seven gates, which are made double, and on the north dif tinguished with turrets by spaces. Likewife on the fouth London hath been inclofed with walls and towers, but the large river of Thames, well ftored with fish, and in which the tide ebbs and flows, by continuance of time, hath washed, worn away, and caft down those walls. Farther above, in the weft part, the king's palace is eminently feated upon the fame river; an incomparable building, having a On the north fide are fields for pafture, and open meadows, very pleafant; among which the river waters do flow, and the wheels of the mills are turned about with a delightful noife. Very near lieth a large foreft, in which are woody groves of wild beafts; in the covers whereof do lurk bucks and does, wild boars and bulls. Of the fields. The arable lands are no hungry pieces of gravel ground; but like the rich fields of Afia, which bring plentiful corn, and fill the barns of those that till them with an excellent crop of the fruits of Ceres. Of their wells. There are alfo about London, on the north of the fuburbs, choice fountains of water, fweet, wholesome, and clear, ftreaming forth among the gliftening pebble ftones: in this number, Holywell, Clarkenwell, and St. Clement's well, are of most note, and frequented above the reft, when scholars, and the youth of the city take the air abroad in the fummer evenings. Of the citizens' honour. This city is honoured with her men, graced with her arms, and peopled with a multitude of inhabitants. In the fatal wars under king Stephen there went out to a mufter, men fit for war, efteemed to the number of 20,000 horsemen armed, and 60,000 footmen. The citizens of London are known in all places, and refpected above all other citizens for their civil demeanour, their good apparel, their table, and their discourse. of Of the chastity of their matrons. The matrons of this city may be paralleled with the Sabine women. Of their schools. How the affairs of the city are difpofed The several craftsmen, the feveral fellers of wares, and workmen for hire, all are distinguished every morning by themselves, in their places as well as trades. Befides, there is in London upon the river's bank a public place of cookery, among the wines to be fold in the ships, and in the wine cellars. There every day we may call for any dish of meat, roaft, fried, or boiled; fifh both fmall and great; ordinary flesh for the poorer fort, and more dainty for the rich, as venifon and fowl. If friends come upon a fudden, wearied with travel, to a citizen's house, and they be loth to wait for curious preparations and dreffings of fresh meat, let the fervants give them water to wash, and bread to ftay their ftomach, and in the mean time they run to the water fide, where all things that can be defired are at hand. Whatsoever multitude of foldiers, or other ftrangers enter into the city at any hour of the day or night, or else are about to depart, they may turn in, bait here, and refresh themselves to their content, and fo avoid long fafting, and not go away without their dinner. If any defire to fit their dainty tooth, they take a goofe; they need not to long for the fowl of Africa, no, nor the rare Godwit of Ionia. This is the public cookery, and very convenient for the ftate of the city, and belongs to it. Hence it is, we read in Plato's Gorgias, that next to the physician's art is the trade of cooks. In London three famous fchools are kept at three principal churches, St. Paul's, the Holy Trinity, and St. Martin's, which they retain by privilege and ancient dignity: yet, for the moft part, by favour of fome perfons, or fome teachers, who are known and famed for their philofophy: there are other schools there upon good-will and fufferance. Upon the holidays, the mafters with their fcholars celebrate affemblies at the festival churches. The scholars difpute there for exercife fake; fome ufe demonftrations, others topical and probable arguments; fome practise enthymemes, others do better ufe perfect fyllogifms; fome exercise themselves in difpute for oftentation, which is practifed among fuch as ftrive together for victory; others difpute for truth, which is the grace of perfection. The fophifters, which are diffemblers, turn verbalifts, and are magnified when they overflow in speech and abundance of words; fome alfo are entrapped with deceitful arguments. Sometimes certain orators, with rhetorical orations, fpeak handfomely to perfuade, being careful to obferve the precepts of art, who omit no matter contingent. The boys of divers fchools wrangle together in verfifying, or canvafs the principles of grammar, or difpute the rules of the præterperfect and future tenfes. Some there are that in epigrams, rhimes, and verfes, ufe that trivial way of abufe. Thefe do freely abufe their fellows, fuppreffing their names, with a fefcennine railing liberty: thefe caft out molt abufive jefts; and with focratical witty expreffions, they touch the vices of their fellow, or perhaps of their fuperiors, or fall upon them with a fatirical bitternefs, and with bolder reproaches than is fit. The hearers, prepared for laughter, make themselves merry in the mean time. Of Smithfield. Without one of the gates is a certain field, plain, (or fmooth) both in name and fituation. Every Friday, except fome greater feftival come in the way, there is a fine fight of good horfes to be fold: many come out of the city to buy or look on, to wit, earls, barons, knights, citizens, all reforting thither. It is a pleasant fight there to behold the animals, well fleshed, fleek, and fhining, delightfully walking, and their feet on either |