.

mentioned as mathematicians.' Now, if these gentlemen are incompetent to appreciate the merits of M. Wronski's Investigations, by what means is Mr. Nolan enabled to judge of them?for we have never understood that he advanced any very high claims to mathematical knowlege, or, at any rate, to greater than the gentlemen above named. We certainly applaud the moral feeling that dictated the measure which he has adopted: but we shall always think that he has been deceived, unless M. Wrönski can make out a clearer statement of facts than any that we have been able to find in the several papers now before ns.

For our own part, we have no hesitation in stating it as our opinion, that a more absurd piece of quackery was never produced than this pretended discovery of the supreme law of mathematics. We are thoroughly aware of the danger that we incur, in thus giving our opinion, of being classed with the mere children in mathematical science' to whom we have already referred: but we must do our duty, notwithstanding the humiliation of such a comparison, and of being placed in such company.

In offering these reinarks, we have made no reference to any one in particular of the pamphlets of M. Wronski; because under whatever title they are given, the subject is still one and the same, viz. the supreme law of mathematics, the ill usage which a learned foreigner' has received from the British Board of Longitude, and the littleness and emptiness of the pretended knowlege of all the most distinguished mathenaticians of England, Germany, and France.

ART. XI. Miscellaneous Notices relating to China, and our Commercial Intercourse with that Country; including a few Translations from the Chinese Language. By Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart. 8vo. pp. 384. 10s. 6d. Boards. Murray. 1822.

ART. XII. Report of a Committee of the Liverpool East India Association, appointed to take into Consideration the Restrictions on the East India Trade. Presented to the Association at a General Meeting, 9th May, 1822, and ordered to be printed. 8vo. Pamphlet. Liverpool.

WWE are now again called to record and to commend the attention bestowed by Sir George Staunton on oriental affairs, to which his education and habits have rendered him so competent; and we are pleased to find him so ready in imparting to the British public that information on these subjects which they would naturally expect at his hands. Of the present volume, however, 120 pages are devoted to literary topics,

and

and the remaining 260 are occupied with a dissertation in support of the charter of the East India Company, and the monopoly of the China trade enjoyed by that body. It is with reference to Sir George's views on mercantile questions, that we have been induced to comprehend in this article a pamphlet composed under very different impressions; and in which, among other points, the benefit arising to the community from the exclusive privileges of the East India Company is questioned with great freedom, and many arguments are urged against the renewal of the Company's charter.

We regret that, as to the literary portion of this work, we cannot speak so favorably of these remnants from Sir George's cabinet as we did a little time ago of his more complete productions. We are here presented with little more than fragments of translations from the Chinese, and meagre notices of one or two publications relating to China. Some few notes, indeed, are interspersed, relating to the rites and ceremonies of the Chinese, and one that is very curious on the subject of the Catholic missions; containing among other things a list of the missionaries at Pekin, about the year 1792, which was procured by Lord Macartney at the period of his embassy. The lapse of thirty years, however, has made a great difference in the state of the mission; most of the pastors then living being now dead, and the number of the flocks having been diminished by severe persecutions. We have also a labored note on the court-ceremony of the Ko-tou, in which the author makes some quotations from Valerius Maximus and Cornelius Nepos, as well as a long extract from a memoir by Dr. Morrison, all in justification of Lord Macartney; and Sir George offers another display of learning in a note, in which he discusses the Chinese game called Tsoey-moey, which exactly corresponds to the common Italian game of Morra. Putting literal construction on the old phrase quicum in tenebris mices, he gravely assures his readers that it is not probable that the Chinese have ever such confidence in each other as to play at the game in darkness, as above alluded to.'

The remaining portion of the volume, intitled Considerations upon the China Trade, consists of a very elaborate discussion on the privileges of the East India Company; and on this question, as most of the arguments of Sir George Staunton are in substance though not in form directly met by the able commercial pamphlet which is also before us, we shall briefly contrast the principal reasons adduced by the contending parties.

As about eight years have passed since the chief out-ports of this country were admitted into a participation of the East

India trade, perhaps sufficient time has elapsed to enable us to form a correct estimate of the advantages resulting from it; and it must be admitted that it is at length an opinion almost universal that the opening of the trade, partial as it is, has been of signal service to this country: although individuals, who have entered more spiritedly than discreetly into it, may have met with great and indeed ruinous losses. A taste for our British manufactures has been acquired by our Asiatic fellow-subjects, in consequence of the ample supply of our goods in their market; and if true to the extent alleged, it promises to be of the highest importance to us, since an article first used as a luxury soon becomes ranked among the necessaries of life.

The first restriction justified by Sir George Staunton is that which requires all free merchant vessels from England to be of 350 tons burthen; such a tonnage being alleged to be a protection against smuggling, and it being deemed insecure for vessels of a smaller burthen to make so long and hazardous a voyage. The regulation is thus successfully combated by the Liverpool Committee:

Your Committee may appeal to experience to show the fallacy of these opinions. Infractions of the revenue-laws are as rare in the out-ports as in the metropolis; and since the trade to India has been extended to the former, a very extensive commerce has been opened with the western coast of South America; a voyage nearly as long, and more difficult and hazardous than that to India; and yet the greater proportion of the ships employed in this trade is considerably under the rate which the laws have fixed for those employed in the intercourse between India and this country. Vessels of 100 to 200 tons proceed at all seasons round Cape Horn; and as the trade continues to be carried on in vessels of this description, it may be inferred that their owners find them adapted to the voyage. However, putting out of view the extreme injustice of excluding from any branch of lawful trade so large a portion of the subjects of this country, it is indisputable that, in many cases, a small vessel may be profitably employed where a large one cannot be employed at all.

The expense of navigating a small vessel may be comparatively greater, but the advantage of despatch will frequently more than counterbalance it. A cargo may often be procured for the one, when it cannot for the other. A particular adventure may require only a small vessel, whilst the existing necessity of employing a large one would render that adventure altogether impracti

cable.

As a proof of the expediency of permitting the trade with India in vessels of any size, it may be mentioned, that a profitable and extensive traffic with the countries situated on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, and the islands of the eastern Archi

pelago,

pelago, is chiefly carried on in American vessels of about 200 tons, and in vessels belonging to Calcutta of various sizes, but mostly of a small class. It would be of great importance to the manufacturing interest, if every possible degree of encouragement and facility were given to this branch of commerce, as many of our fabrics are particularly suited for the consumption of those countries. Already our manufactures constitute a principal part of the means by which those who now carry on this trade are enabled to pay for the products of those countries; but as the British merchant would be able to furnish them direct, on much more moderate terms, it may be reasonably concluded, that a corresponding increase in the consumption would be the consequence.

That so singular a prohibition should be suffered to exist, can only be attributed to some unfounded apprehensions as to the security of the revenue; but why extraordinary precautions should be deemed necessary with vessels arriving from India, your Committee are at a loss to conjecture. The high duties to which many articles, imported from the continent of Europe, are liable, hold out the same temptation to the smuggler, and the promixity of the ports of shipment must afford him facilities in making his arrangements, which cannot apply to vessels arriving from so great a distance. In fact, it is the height of absurdity to suppose, that any person designing to smuggle East Indian products into England would commence his operation by despatching a ship from Great Britain to import a cargo from India, when he might, with so much greater facility, commence that operation in the neighbouring ports of the Continent; all arguments, therefore, as to the danger of the revenue upon this ground, are futile.'

The second restriction considered is that which confines British ships to the principal settlements, and excludes them from the minor ports of India, while foreign vessels are under no such prohibition. If it be asked, What reason is assigned for the indulgence thus shewn to foreigners and denied to our countrymen? the reply is, That the Company entertain fears for the safety of their government, if English merchants should have free access to any but the Company's principal settlements. The injustice of this partiality can only be equalled by the incompetence of the reasons alleged in its defence: for surely the free admission of foreigners into our Asiatic possessions is more likely to place the government in jeopardy than the like admission of our countrymen.

One particular in the restrictions still enforced by the policy of this country is not sufficiently discussed by Sir George Staunton; viz. the exclusion of the British merchants from that branch of the Chinese trade in which the East India Company themselves do not engage. The trade thus neglected by the Company consists in the export of British manufactured goods to the Indian Archipelago, and the fur-trade between

between the western states of America and China; and although it is probably the most productive that merchants could now pursue, British merchants are precluded from participating in it, while the Americans have full opportunities of carrying it on even from our own ports. Two reasons only are assigned for the exclusion of British traders from this commerce. The first is, that the East India Company furnish the Chinese with all the produce of our industry which that country is capable of consuming, and that the trade will not admit of farther extension: an argument which seems to be unfounded in fact. -The other reason is, that the Chinese are such an extremely jealous nation, that it might put the whole trade to hazard if it were thrown open to British adventurers indiscriminately. It has been alleged before a Parliamentary Committee, "that the American seamen are of so orderly a character, so much under subordination, and so superior in their general conduct, that there is no danger of their getting into any dispute with the Chinese; whilst the British seamen are such irascible insubordinate beings that it would be quite impossible to keep them within bounds, and that if admitted into China indiscriminately they would be certain to commit some act that would cause the Chinese to stop entirely the trade with British subjects." This imputation is considered as palpably unjust, and the apprehension entirely chimerical. From the recent misunderstanding at Canton, the difficulty of maintaining a good correspondence with the Chinese by the British may, by some persons, be supposed to be verified: but, as the circumstances are (it is said) about to undergo a judicial investigation, it would be premature to hazard a conjecture on the real merits of the disputants. Suffice it to observe, that British merchants and British merchant-seamen were not implicated in the disturbance in question, but that the dispute arose between the Chinese and some of the crew of a British frigate; and that, while no men in the world are less disposed to submit to designed insult than sailors in the British navy, yet none are less prone to acts of insubordination or wanton hostility.

So far on the question of a free trade as between the British merchants and the chartered Company. On the next question, which is discussed in the pamphlet before us at considerable length, viz. the restrictions imposed on the importation of sugar from the East Indies, and which is in fact rather a contest between the East India merchant and the West India planter, we shall offer very few animadversions.

The Committee state that the grounds on which the West' Indians claim protection are threefold:

1. The