The greatest project, by which any nation ever endeavoured to enrich itself, was certainly that of peopling America with a civilized race of inhabitants. It was a fair and legitimate mode of extending her means of acquiring riches; but Britain failed in the manner of obtaining her object, though not in the object itself, and the United States promise to support the industry of England, now that it has humbled its ambition, far more than both the Indies, which gratify it so much.

It is highly probable, that America will increase more rapidly in wealth and population than in manufactures, such as she at present takes from Great Britain; but if the ratio merely continues the same that it is now, the purpose will be completely answered, and a market for British manufactures insured for ages to come. In 1802, by the last census, the inhabitants of the United States amounted to about eight millions; and, for several years together, the exports of British goods have amounted to seven millions, so that is is fair to reckon a consumption equal to sixteen shillings a year to each person. It was about the same in 1774, previous to the revolt; and, as the population doubles in about fifteen years, in the course of thirty years more, the exports to that country alone would amount to 24,0co,ocol. provided we continue to be able to sell at such rates as not to be undersold by other nations in the American market.

There is nothing great, nothing brilliant, in this commerce, all is solid and good; it is a connection founded on mutual wants and mutual conveniency, not on monopoly, restriction, or coercion; for -that reason it will be the more durable, and ought to be the more valued, but it is not. Governments, like individuals, are most attached to what is dear to purchase and difficult to keep. It is to be hoped, however, that this matter will be seen in its true light.

One circumstance, that makes the matter still more favourable for Britain is, that the western country of America, by far the most fertile, as well as the most extensive, is now peopling very rapidly. The labour and capital of the inhabitants are entirely turned to agriculture and not to manufactures, and will be so for a great number of years; for, when there are fifty millions of inhabitants in the United States, their population will not amount to one-half of what may naturally be expected, or sufficient to occupy the lands. The fertility of the soil will enable the Americans, with great ease to themselves, to make returns in produce wanted in Europe, so that we may expect a durable, a great, and an advantageous trade with them. In British manufactures, our trade was not near so great before the revolt, for we then supplied America with every article.

This, however, will depend partly on our circumstances; for, if wages and the prices of our manufactures rise, as they lately have done, our merchants will buy upon the continent of Europe, what they otherwise would purchase in England, to supply the American

market.

• America is the only country in the world where, with respect to the wages of labour, and the produce of industry, money is of less value than in England. The Americans will then be able to afford to purchase English goods, when other nations will not; but then,

they

they will only purchase such articles as cannot be had elsewhere; for though they may and will continue able to purchase, they will not do it if they can get goods that suit them elsewhere *.

No country, that we read of in history, ever enjoyed equal advantages with the American states; they have good laws, a free government, and are possessed of all the inventions and knowlege of the old world. Arts are now conveyed across the Atlantic with more ease than they formerly were from one village to another. It is pos sible, that a new market of so great an extent being opened may do away those jealousies of commerce, which have, for these two or three last centuries, occasioned many quarrels, and which are peculiarly dangerous to a nation that has risen high above its level.

All those things, with care and attention, will prove advantageous to Britain in a superior degree. They afford us much reason for hope and comfort, and do away one of the reasons for fearing a decline that has been stated, namely, the being supplanted by poorer nations, or by not having a market for our increasing manufactures.'

Shortly afterward, it is remarked by this writer:

There is still, however, something wanting to increase our advantage. Any person acquainted with the manufactures of England will naturally have observed, that they are all such as meet with a market in this country. We have no manufactories for goods, for the sole purpose of our foreign markets; so that, though we consider ourselves as so much interested in foreign trade, yet we have adapted all our manufactories, expressly, as if it were to supply the home market.

This observation will be found to apply very generally though there are a few exceptions, and though the quality of the goods manufactured, and intended for exportation, is adapted to the market for which they are destined. This last, indeed, is very natural, nor could it well be otherwise, but that is not going half the 'length necessary.'

This hint deserves notice; but the matter has not been so wholly overlooked as is here stated. In many of our manufacutures, the taste of foreign nations is particularly consulted. It is but justice to Mr. Playfair to add that we might easily accumulate interesting extracts from the concluding part of his performance, in which the facts adduced are well chosen, most of the observations are pertinent, some of them are very important, and in which his views throughout appear to be patriotic, and his sentiments liberal :-indeed, excepting the

England begins already to lose the market for linen-cloth, window-glass, fire-arms, and a number of other articles. It would have entirely lost that of books, if any nation on the continent of Europe could print English correctly. As it is, they are printing in America, in place of our keeping the trade, which we might have done with great profit and advantage.'

part

part which relates to monopoly, there is little in this work that calls for severe censure. In a future edition, we hope that Mr. P. will very much curtail the first and second parts, which traverse a beaten track; and that he will labour and enlarge the concluding portion. His composition also admits of much polish and correction.

ART. II. An Illustration of the Monastic History and Antiquities of the Town and Abley of St. Edmund's Bury. By the Rev. Richard Yates, F.S.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge. With Views of the most considerable Monasterial Remains, by the Rev. William Yates, of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. 4to. pp. 39. 11. 6s. Boards. Miller.

IT has been asserted that local History is usually characterized by "size, expence, and soporific qualities;" and this representation, to the correctness of which Mr. Yates appears inclined to subscribe, is not wholly inapplicable to the present volume, though it is perhaps as generally amusing as the subject will admit. In addition to the common expedients of a large type and an ample margin, the author, or we will rather suppose his printer, has adopted another mode of increasing the bulk and consequently the expence of the publication for in some pages almost all the sentences are disjointed, and formed into so many separate paragraphs, however intimate may be their connection with the preceding and subsequent passages: a plan not less unpleasant to the eye than to the pocket of the reader. The soporific effects of Mr. Yates's performance, however, must not be understood to extend to those who have a taste for antiquarian research, or who feel an interest in the local concerns of Bury. To both these classes, it offers a fund of interesting information; since the author, though he will not rank as a profound antiquary, appears to have neglected no endeavours to collect the materials which his plan required.

The first two chapters of the work are occupied with an investigation of the origin of the town of Bedericksworth, the antient Bury, and the scarcely less uncertain history of the kingdom of East Anglia, previously to the accession of St. Edmund. In chapter III. the history of the royal Saint is extracted at considerable length from the Abbot of Fleury, generally called Abbo Floriacensis, and other monastic writers. The account of the martyrdom of Saint Edmund appears to be in conformity with the generally received tradition. After a long and laboured speech, in which the King

is introduced as rejecting the disgraceful propositions of the Danish Invaders :

Inguar and Ubba, incensed at this answer to their embassy, march to Eglesdene; and Edmund surrenders to their superior force without further contest; and still refusing to comply with the conqueror's terms, is bound to a tree, and beaten with "short bats." They then wantonly made him a mark to exercise the skill of their archers, and his body was covered with arrows like a porcupine with quills. Inguar, still finding his mind invincible, ordered his head to be struck off. "And thus he deied, "Kyng, Martyr, and Virgyne," on the 20th Nov. A. D. 870, in the 15th year of his reign, and the 29th of his age. His faithful friend, Bishop Humbert, suffered at the same time with his royal master.

The Danes were now masters of East Anglia, and ravaged the country uncontroled during the winter. Upon the approach of spring, they marched into Mercia, and other parts of the country that afforded more plunder to gratify their rapacity; but maintained the supreme authority in East Anglia, and soon after established themselves there under Godrum, or Gothrem, who, in A. D. 878, entered into a treaty with King Alfred, and embraced Christianity: this Danish Prince, on his decease, was interred at Hadleigh in Suffolk.

The circumstances relating to St. Edmund, which took place on the retreat of the Danes, and which have formed a favourite theme for the monkish writers, and a favourite subject for their painters and sculptors, are given with miraculous embellishments by Abbo; and, from his account, transcribed, with various degrees of amplification, by most of the subsequent monastic poets and historians.

To offer the utmost indignity to the martyred King the Pagans cast his severed head and body into the thickest part of the woods of Eglesdene. When the departure of the Danes removed the terror their presence inspired, the East Anglians, prompted by affection for their late sovereign, assembled, in considerable numbers, to pay his corpse the last duties of attachment. After a sorrowful search, the body is discovered, conveyed to the neighbouring village, Hoxne, and there interred; but the head could not be found. The zealous and dutiful subjects therefore divide themselves into small parties, and search every part of the wood Terrified by the thickness and obscurity of the wood, some of them cry out to their companions-"Where are you?" A voice answers, "Here, here, here!" They hasten to the place whence the sound proceeded, and find the long sought head in a thicket of thorns, guaided by a wolf-" an unkouth thyng and strange ageyn nature." The people, almost overpowered with joy, with all possible veneration, take the holy head, which its guardian quietly surrenders to them, and carry it to the body. The friendly wolf joined in the procession; and, after seeing the "precious treasure," that he had with so much care protected, deposited with the body whence it had been severed, with doleful mourning, and without shewing any fierceness, returned into the woods.

This was about 40 days after the matyrdom of the Saint.

6 The

The head was some time after observed to have united with the body; and the mark of separation appeared round the neck like a "purpil thread "

Chapter IV. is more particularly devoted to the history of the monastery of St. Edmund. It is arranged under several heads, by which the narrative is rendered more distinct, but less interesting than it would have been if the annals, incidents, &c. had been judiciously interwoven. The shrine of St. Edmund does not appear to have been at any time very fertile in miracles: but the standing prodigy, on which the credit of the Saint rested, was the incorruption of his body, certified by the testimony of some of the attendant priests and monks, and by the awful punishments inflicted on those whose bold scepticism had urged them rudely to penetrate the sacred arcana. Within a few years after the translation of the body of St. Edmund to Bury, the growing reputation of the Benedictine monks enabled them to expel the secular clergy, to whom the custody of the shrine had been originally confided. Their next step was to procure from Canute, Hardicanute, and the still more profuse bounty of Edward the Confessor, a considerable enlargement of their temporal possessions and immunities. William the Conqueror endeavoured to gratify his new subjects by the same species of liberality; and these four princes are distinguished as the principal benefactors of the monastery.

Section II. of this chapter exhibits a concise summary of the privileges of the Abbots; and the third relates to the successful resistance opposed to the claims of the bishops for exercising spiritual authority and jurisdiction over the Monastery. The next section is occupied by the contests between the monks and the mendicant friars who endeavoured to establish themselves

in Bury. After several violent struggles, the dispute was compromised: the friars resigned the buildings which they had erected in the town; and the monks granted them a part of their possessions, called Babbewell, where a suitable establishment was formed, which flourished till the dissolution.

The fifth section, intitled Contests with the Townsmen', is very interesting. No distinct idea can perhaps now be formed respecting the nature and extent of the supremacy exercised by the Abbot over the town of Bury. It appears, indeed, never to have been very accurately defined, and was perpetually the subject of violent contests; which, assuming a character analogous to the turbulent spirit of the times, were not unfrequently productive of scenes rather inconsistent with that profound veneration in which the monastic character was at that period usually held.

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