Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

lion, or a much smaller sum, would be immediately felt. If, therefore, all the sums, which are annually poured into the king's treasure had remained a dead stock in his hands, there would not now have been a single piece of gold in Persia. There is no corresponding influx of bullion. Persia exports yearly three hundred and fifty thousand tomauns in specie to India; to meet this drain there is indeed an inadequate supply from their trade with Russia, which purchases with gold all the silk of Ghilan; and again with Turkey, which pays in gold for all the shawls and the little silk which it exports from Persia.'

The right inferences here lie so near the surface, that it is surprising to see them so egregiously missed by a man of the good sense which Mr. Morier possesses, however little he may be trained to philosophical thought. Could he not have reflected that, if any part of the circulating medium was withdrawn from the business of circulation, by confinement in the king's coffers, it would necessarily raise the value of that which remained in circulation, and consequently would afford an inducement to every man who had bullion to convert it into coin? If it were still withdrawn till bullion itself became scarce, the value of bullion would consequently be increased, and it would be the interest of somebody to import it. The nature of commodities, in general, wherever ingress and egress are free, is to leave the country in which they are cheap, and pass to that in which they are dear. The precious metals, of which the expense of carriage is small in proportion to their value, always follow this course, on comparatively minute variations; and whatever might be the quantity of gold and silver shut up in the king's coffers, the country would not stand deficient of one ounce of those metals which the state of its commodities and of its circulating medium might require. It is idle to tell us of no corresponding influx of bullion. There is no influx of air when no absorption takes place: but, if we produce the absorption, we may depend on the influx: or, if we produce on the other hand an accumulation, we may with equal certainty depend on an efflux. With regard to the treasure in the coffers of the king of Persia, instead of supposing it, with Mr. Morier, to be immense, we are perfectly satisfied that it is little or nothing: but we make this conclusion on reasons very different from those which lead Mr. Morier to reject its perpetual accumulation: our assurance arises from a knowledge of the difficulty of collecting such a treasure in Persia, and the facility of spending it; of the perpetual existence of such reports, and the perpetual discovery of their falsehood.

In confining our report of this volume to those features of it which more immediately form the national portraiture of Persia,

we have been obliged to pass over a great number of minute and incidental circumstances which much contribute to its variety and its interest. On the subject of monuments of ancient history and remains of ancient art, to which Mr. Morier occasionally attends with laudable diligence and curiosity (as particularly at Persepolis and Shapour) our boundaries now compel us to be silent; and the same cause restricts us from gratifying our readers with the author's biographical account (p. 220-223.) of Mirza Abul Hassan, the late Persian envoy to our court, whom he accompanied to England, and who excited much attention while in this country. The anecdotes also relative to this personage, during his passage to Europe, which Mr. M. has inserted in the Conclusion,' are amusing and informing. We recommend the remark of one of his attendants, on seeing the waltz danced at a ball given by the English ambassador at Constantinople, to the consideration of all lovers of that now fashionable whirl:-" Pray," said he, "does any thing ensue after all this?”

A number of plates greatly enrich and satisfactorily illustrate this work.

De l'Esprit de Conquete, &c. i. e. On the spirit of Conquest and Usurpation, viewed in connexion with the present state of civilisation in Europe. By Benjamin de Constant Rebecque, formerly member of the tribunate, but removed from his seat (elimine) in 1802; and correspondent of the royal society of sciences at Gottingen.

[From the Monthly Review.]

Ir appears, from a notice in the preface, that this treatise is only a part of an extensive work on politics which was prepared several years ago, but withholden from the public in consequence of the fettered condition of the continental press. The recent revolution in politics has fortunately removed this formidable obstacle, and put it in the power of every writer to contribute to general utility in the full proportion of his zeal and information. In the opinion, however, of this author, the time is not yet come for the examination of abstract questions on the principles of politics; a consideration which has induced him to narrow the scope of his reasoning, and to confine his present investigations to topics of immediate interest.

ON CONQUEST AND USURPATION.

167

M. de Constant is one of the few who aim at great precision in the division and subdivision of their materials, since he has arranged a tract which scarcely exceeds the pamphlet size into thirty-five chapters: of which the first fifteen treat of the spirit of conquest, and the latter twenty of its twin-sister usurpation. The author takes pains to describe the qualifications under which he comes forwards as the adversary of the warsystem, and premises that, so far from considering war as wholly and absolutely pernicious, he admits it to be favourable for the display of our greatest and noblest qualities. In the present state of society, however, war can deserve this eulogium only when founded on justice, and on the cordial cooperation of the people at whose charge it is carried on. Now in these important points modern Europe differs, he says, (p. 6 and 7.) most essentially from the condition of ancient Greece and Italy. Instead of petty states living in perpetual jealousy, and almost always at open variance with each other, we have now nations of vast population, united under one sovereign, secured by their numbers against the dread of foreign invasion, and cultivating those habits which cause war to be felt as a severe burden. Productive industry is now the channel for arriving at those possessions which, in the days of antiquity, were accounted the meed of warlike exertion; or, in other words, we endeavour to obtain by an appeal to the interest of our fellow-creatures tha which our forefathers demanded by a less gentle course. War,' says the author, 'is the impression of a savage mind; commerce is the result of civilized calculation.' Among the ancients, successful hostility produced large additions to individual property, in the shape of slaves, tribute, and territory; among the moderns, the spoils of war are almost invariably inferior in value to the results of peaceful industry. The Roman government, in giving a military turn to the spirit of the people, proceeded in concurrence with the leading circumstances of its situation; while a modern government, desiring to imitate the policy of the Roman, would have to encounter the most serious opposition from the condition of its subjects.

[ocr errors]

M. de C. proceeds to examine, in the same philosophical style, the various relations of his subject, under the heads of 'Character of a military race acting merely from interested motives;-Influence of such a military spirit on the interior of a state; Tyrannical measures required to circulate false impressions; Various disadvantages of the military system as to the progress of knowledge;'-and he concludes with what most of our readers will regard as an argument more to the viz. a demonstration that the successes of a conpurpose,

quering people must necessarily be of short duration in the present state of Europe, because they are at variance equally with the happiness of the nation in question, and with that of all her neighbours.'

Such is, in substance, the first part of the work; and the second discusses, in the same methodical manner, the incompatibility of usurpation with the present state of society. Here are passed under review the repulsive effects of arbitrary power on our various habits and feelings, our intellectual progress, our social sympathies, and our religious impressions. The inefficacy of despotic measures to support an unjust authority for any length of time is next considered; and the general result is that, whether we look to the usurpation of power at home or to the forcible acquisition of territory abroad, the efforts of the most daring or most able rulers can be successful only for a

season.

The au

Our readers will easily perceive that this is nothing else. than an attempt to reduce to general reasoning the wonderful occurrences of the present day; and to prove that the signal overthrow, which followed the destruction of the usurper's force in Russia, would have sooner or later been effected by the natural operation of less extraordinary causes. thor discovers considerable ingenuity and knowledge of history, together with the talent of conveying his thoughts in that animated strain which is so natural to Frenchmen: but his style is by no means free from those metaphysical effusions which so easily find admittance into the abstract reasonings of our Gallic neighbours; and the nature of his composition, while it gives unquestionable evidence of ability, is calculated to suggest the idea that he has not examined his subject in that complete manner which enables a writer to keep out of sight minor and collateral points, and gives him the power of thoroughly fixing the attention of his reader on the leading features of the argument. It was said of lord Nelson that, in describing the arrangements for a complicated sea-fight, his language was so plain as to impress even persons who were strangers to the profession with the belief that they could execute with the greatest facility the orders which he was about to give; a proof that the whole plan was so familiar to his mind, as to enable him to explain it with as much ease as another person would find in giving directions respecting an ordinary occurrence in domestic life. To this degree of intimacy with his subject, M. de Constant has by no means attained; and his essay comes before the public in a state more likely to extract approbation from a pains-taking student, than to excite the attention of ordinary readers.

[ocr errors]

Maria Neville, a novel, in three volumes. By the author of Charles de Montfort. Paris.

[From La Belle Assemblée.]

THE plan of this romance is simple and well-conceived. The author is desirous of tracing an amiable picture of one of the softer sex, whose constancy, resignation, and tenderness, are opposed to the inflexibility, perfidy, abuse of power and authority, of one of the superior sex. Women, however, like Maria Neville, are hard to be found: in the meantime, such is the skill of the romance writer, that the graces and virtues with which he has endowed his heroine, have by no means an appearance out of nature.

We are well persuaded, however, that it is not in the bus tle of the world we are to look for such a character: the education which young people receive in the midst of pleasure and dissipation, necessarily blunts the edge of sensibility, and the amiable qualifications and virtues, such as Maria is possessed of, are crushed in their bud. Thus the author has wisely placed his heroine in the quiet of retirement. It is in an ancient castle, situated on the coast of England, that Maria passes her early years, with a whimsical father and a tender mother, whose counsels and examples are engraven indelibly on the heart of her daughter, and which serve to render her a model of feeling and duty.

Deprived at a very early age of this excellent guide, Maria soon after loses her father, who, however, before his death, has had time to name a protector to his daughter, in a husband. Every thing seems to ensure the happiness of Maria; an excellent education, an immense fortune, a young husband, endowed with every advantage of body and mind: but, alas! these precious gifts are a cover for the most atrocious conduct and a corrupt heart.

Giving himself up to violent and destructive passions, sir Lauderdale rapidly runs through his own fortune as well as the inheritance he has obtained through his father-in-law; every day he commits some new folly, or is guilty of some degrading action, not to say crime, which soon develops his character to the unhappy Maria, who, like a submissive wife, or rather a devoted victim, is patient, mild, and forbearing, and meekly and generously endures the odious behaviour of her imperious master, who is a stranger to the feelings of gratitude, and who only returns the tender affection of Maria with harshness.

In the meantime, this injured wife, who finds it almost impossible to love such a husband, is nevertheless endowed with

[blocks in formation]
« ZurückWeiter »