but this writer has brought forward no evidence to fhew that the in⚫'dignant account which he has given of the oppreffions practifed on the inhabitants of Indoftan is entirely unfounded.

Major Scott is an unobjectionable witness in the cause in question. He had the very beft means of information, and his character as a man, and a gentleman, was unimpeached, and unimpeachable. It was therefore equally needlefs, and below his dignity, to enter into any remonftration with Mr. Belfham, who had, in the first place, fhewn himself fo wretched a critic in hiftorical evidence, as to found his decifions on the miferable rants of parliamentary orators, and the anonymous pamphlets of difappointed men; and, in the second, had obftinately perfifted, after the fulleft conviction, in the repetition of injurious, if not voluntary and malicious errors. It was equally unworthy of Major Scott, to enter into any remonftration with the anony mous fabricators of a bookfeller's Regifter, for whom alfo Belfham's Memoirs are published, prone, according to the miserable phrafeology in ufe among fuch writers, to take the tone their em ployer wishes to reign in the work in which they are employed; and who have nothing better to say in vindication of Mr. Belfham, than that it was incumbent on Major Scott to prove a negative; to prove that Mr. Belfham's account is entirely unfounded. Mr. Scott, however, undertakes this hard and iniquitous task, and fets forth many instances in which it is utterly impoffible for Mr. Belsham to elude the charge of grofs and wilful mifrepresentation, otherwife than by a confeffion, that he has been unpardonably negligent in the felection of his materials. This is fo far good, as it must be grateful to every candid mind to fee obloquy more and more confounded. Yet ftill, in this work, our author has, by his condefcending to enter into difputation, done great honour to Mr. Belfham, little to himself, and ftill lefs to the dignified character that forms the fubject of the difpute. While the iffue of the long-protracted trial was uncertain, there was, for the vigilant affiduity of Major Scott, in repelling the most obfcure and impotent attacks, a ready excufe. Unanswered accufations, though falfe, might produce, imperceptibly, a hoftile bias in the minds even of the auguft tribunal by which Mr. Haftings was to be judged; and it was of no little importance to a man of fenfibility, to whom the fympathy or antipathy of his fellow-men was not an object of indifference, to enjoy fome fhare of the public countenance, before the termination of a trial, if trial it might be called, that seemed not unlikely to be prolonged beyond the period of his mortal life. By the iffue of that trial, the name of Haftings is configned, in the ftate trials, and in the juridical and political history of his country, to immortal

fame.

fame. Why should the Major fatigue himself unneceffarily in kicking a dead dog? There is a fascination in print that feduces us to overvalue the importance of books of all kinds; and to be more hurt at the abufe with which they may be fraught than we ought to be. Of the many thousands of books and pamphlets annually prefented on the theatre of the world, not one in a thousand goes down to pofterity. If there were not a strong corrofive or digeftive power in nature, the face of this terraqueous globe would come, in time, to be incruftated with books. But there are ftill, fortunately, a thousand ways by which the world gets rid of printed lumber. Befides the chandler's + and other fhops, ovens, kitchens, tobacco-pipes, &c. &c. the worm is inceffantly at work, and the active air, furely though flowly, reduces the neglected volume to afhes. The art of printing, alone, cannot, any more than that of writing, confer immortality on an uninterefting and difcredited compofition. In vain would an author attempt to fecure his works from corruption and death by multiplying copies. It is not to the great numbers of copies only, that we are indebted for the prefervation of Homer, Ariftotle, Plate, and other celebrated. ancients, but to the high esteem and reverence in which these men and their works were held, at all times, even the darkest and moft fuperftitious, by Greeks, Arabians, Africans, and other nations. The germ of their immortality lay not in the mute letters, and inanimated papyrus or parchment, but in the living energy of the fouls of men, who carefully preferved, repaired, and renewed, their writings, and cherished every effort for recovering fuch copies as were loft, or hidden by various accidents from the fight of the world: and thus the writings of the most towering geniuses enjoy that kind of immortality which nature has bestowed on the different claffes of animated beings; an immortality confifting in reproduction. The individual perifhes; the fpecies is continued from age to age. As this is a matter, as far as we know, but little attended to, if the doctrine be not entirely new, we fhall illuftrate it a little farther. From the times of the authors above mentioned, and others, to the prefent, one man, or race of men, has communicated their merit and their fame to another; and thus their works have been preserved, by reproduction, like animal and vegetable bodies. Had an age, or even a fhorter period, ever existed, in which the names of Homer, Plato, Ariftotle, and other writers

See, on this fubject, the English Review for May 1796, under the article of the Hiftory of the Trial of Mr. Haftings.

+ Vicum vendentem Tus et oderes.

of celebrity, had been utterly unknown, their manuscripts, undiftinguished among thousands of others, muft have perished in the devouring gulf of time. The facred fire that thus preferves the beft, while it confumes the worst books, or permits them to be confumed, burns, not in the rubbish of palaces and monafteries, but in the temple of the human breaft. The lamp of one race of men kindles that of another. Manufcripts and printed books, without fuch traditionary recommendation, would remain dead and filent like the cells in which they are depofited. It is but a very few books to whofe fhare this traditionary recommendation can fall; and it would be most injurious to many writers of the prefent day, including many fincere advocates and panegyrifts of Mr. Haftings, to fuppofe that Mr. Belfham's Memoirs may be one of them.

ART. XIII. A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis.

THE

[Concluded from our last Number.. ]

HE various and most interefting matter of the volume.before us is arranged under different heads, in a very natural, luminous, and comprehenfive order. It fets forth the evils that prevail in this great city; the fources whence these spring, moral depravity, the imperfection of the criminal code, a deficient fyftem of police, and the means by which thofe evils are to be remedied.

In a copious introduction, he takes a general view of the evils. arifing from thofe caufes. Chap. I. confiders the prominent caufes of the increase of crimes; calculates the depredations committed on public and private property, in the metropolis, at two millions one hundred thousand pounds fterling annually; and proposes a plan for the improvement of public houses. Chap. II. explains the caufes and progrefs of fmall theftsRemedies.-Chap. III. the vast extent of property laden and unladen, in the port of London, in the courfe of a year. The pillage and plunder of merchandife and naval ftores upon the wha fs and quays, and from hips and veffels in the river Thames. Remedies.-Chap. IV. Reflections on the Causes of the prevailing Abuses, Frauds, Plunder, and Pillage, in the public arfenals, and in fhips of war and tranfports. Remedies. Chap. V. On the Perpetration of the more atrocious Offences of Burglary and Highway-robbery. Remedies.-Chap. VI. On the Coinage and Circulation of Bafe Money. Remedies.Chap. VII. Forgeries, Frauds, Cheating, Swindling, and

Gambling.

-

Gambling. Remedies. Chap. VIII. Receivers of Stolen Goods. Remedies.-Chap. IX. Means of detecting Offenders. Chap. X On the Prosecution of Offenders.-Chap. XI. Crimes and Punishments in general.-Chap. XII. On Punishments. Various Improvements fuggefted with regard to the Mode of Punishment, with an immediate View to the Prevention of Crimes. Chap. XIII. The Police of the Metropolis considered and explained. General Reflections on the Remedies proposed in the preceding Chapters.-Chap. XIV. On Municipal Police. Suggestions for the Improvement of that of London -Chap. XV. A fummary View of the various Evils detailed in this Work. A general view of the different remedies fuggefted in this work, collected and arranged under eight separate heads: Morals-the Prevention of Crimes-Plunder on the Thames Frauds and Thefts in public Arfenals and Ships of War-Base Money-Punishments and Pardons-Imperfections in the prefent Syftem of Police-Evils not provided for by the existing Laws. Our author concludes thus:

After travelling over fo extenfive a field, where every step is Bained with turpitude and depravity, it is natural to fuppofe, that the contemplation of fuch objects will deeply affect the mind of the reader, and generate notions unfavourable to the human race.

Such impreffions, however, must be recollected, that extenfive as the injuries appear to be, in the light in which they are placed, in order to appreciate their true amount, rhey must be measured by the fcale of a large metropolis, full of temptations. The depredation committed, will cease to be a matter of aftonishment when com pared with the vaft property that is constantly afloat; and, on the whole, the evils are, perhaps, not to be imputed fo much to the inéreafed or general depravity of the human character, as to the deficiency of the laws; in not advancing progreffively in the means of prevention, in proportion to the introduction of luxury, and the additional temptations which the influx of wealth, and the intercourfe of commerce, occafion in every country.

Mankind have ever been the fame in all ages. It ought never to be forgotten, that thofe who have been exhibited, in this treatise, as the moit deformed part of the human race, were once innocent, and many of them, at least, became victims to the deficiency which has been fhewn to pervade the fyftem, with refpect to the prevention of crimes.

Charity, then, claims a tear of pity for their forlorn condition; and the fame principle of benevolence muft create a defire, wherever the remedies fuggefted in this work ftrike the mind as being practicable and proper, to promote their early adoption; that while those who are innocent, but ready to rufh into the fame gulf of mifery and crimes, are arrested in their progrefs, and faved to the community, the more depraved, who are already completely abandoned to crimi ENG. REV. VOL. XXVIII. DEC, 1796. nality,

nality, may be difpofed of in fuch a manner as to guard the public against their reiterated acts of fraud, violence, and depredation.'

To the present, being the third edition of this work, there is fubjoined a copious index, referring to information concerning an infinite variety of particulars of great curiofity and importance. It is a moft entertaining as well as inftructive and useful book. It is a useful monitor to the private perfon; to the statesman, a faithful and judicious counfellor. It is a profound and a fine observation of Lord Bacon, and that with which he introduces his new engine for the improvement of science, that • nature is conquered by obedience to her laws; and that the power of man (the interpreter of nature) is in proportion to his knowledge.' This is true of moral and political, as well as of natural knowledge. He is the beft legiflator and statesman who knows the general fprings of human nature, and the parti cular modifications which it undergoes by being placed in particular circumstances; who is capable of entering into laborious details, as well as mounting up to general principles; of rifing from effects to caufes, and, by the establishment of general caufes, of producing a number of particular effects. It is only by diffufing that fpecies of knowledge which this book contains, that the executive government are to be informed, aided, and ftrengthened, in bringing forward those remedies against vice, and an imperfect fyftem of policy, which become every day more neceffary in this immenfe city, which, with so many incitements to evil actions, prefents fo many ways of escaping detection and punishment. It is the head and the heart of the empire. But when, in the emphatic language of the facred scriptures, the ⚫ whole head is become fick, and the heart faint,' the extremities, with all the members, are affected.

It is not enough that wife laws are enacted. Provifion should also be made for their execution. There are laws, we underftand, in being, against the over-driving of bullocks, and the over-loading of the tops of ftage-coaches. They are in being, on parchment, but not in force. Scarcely a week paffes by without an accident arifing from one or both of these causes. A poor bullock, driven to madnefs by the favage ferocity that ftill reigns among the lower claffes of this carnivorous country, is oppofed as you walk down Holborn in front; a ftage-coach, at full fpeed, tottering under its weight, preffes on you in the rear. The law is fet at total defiance. Every perfon is authorifed by law to feize the bullock-hunter; but who will, in fact, feize him? or who will purfue the over-loaded coach, and take the

*Novum Organum.

trouble