favorable eye. He states broadly (p. 194.) that it is a losing game for a country to export articles of the first necessity and import articles of luxury, the money-values of both being equal. If France exports silks into Poland of a given money-value, and imports corn from Poland of the same money-value, he asserts that this commerce enriches France and impoverishes Poland; because the first gives an article of little intrinsic utility in exchange for another of great intrinsic utility, and vice versa. What can be more preposterous? France manufactures more silk than she can consume, and Poland grows more corn than she wants: each exchanges her superfluous produce for the superfluous produce of the other, and equally to the advantage of both: for France would not import Polish corn unless Polish corn were cheaper than her own, nor would Poland import French silk if she could rear the worms and manufacture the article cheaper at home. What did the Author of the world intend by giving different soils, climates, and inclinations to the people of different nations, but that by a free communication they should interchange their respective products; and that each should profit, not by its own peculiar gifts alone, but by the peculiar gifts bestowed on all the rest? It is this deprecated taste for luxury which sets the labor and ingenuity of man in motion. The people of Poland devote their skill and industry to the growth of corn, because they can exchange their superfluous produce for French silks but once persuade them that they impoverish their country by exchanging that superfluity for any article that may gratify their pleasure and their vanity, and we take away every inducement to continue their exertions: they will become indolent and stupid, and lose their taste for all but the lowest articles of clothing and subsistence. Perhaps, however, it may be said that they would turn their attention to manufactures and the mechanic arts; that their leisurehours would be employed in the culture of science and philosophy, of legislation, and political economy ! - No. A nation of agriculturists, rejecting the refinements and luxuries introduced by foreign commerce, and degrading themselves to the rank of men who have just quitted the savage state of hunters and fishermen, such a nation, instead of rivalling the manufactures of foreign countries, and aspiring to their attainments in art and science, would inevitably sink into the most contemptible ignorance and sloth.

In his eighth chapter, however, where the works of Mr. Malthus come under examination, M. L. SAY relaxes a little from the Spartan severity of his doctrine, (p. 254. et seq.); and articles of luxury are here allowed to be constituent

though

though subordinate portions of national wealth. How inconsistent, then, to affirm that the people of Poland impoverish themselves, by purchasing these subordinate portions of wealth at less cost from France than they must have paid for them if manufactured at home. Poland is poor, and badly peopled, and does export corn for laces and silks: true, but these are not cause and effect, and M. SAY has himself accounted for the poverty of Poland a hundred pages farther on in a very rational way. It arises from the viciousness of her political institutions, and the unequal distribution among its inhabitants of the productions of the soil: in consequence of the state of vassalage in which the Polish cultivators are placed, the proprietor runs away with seven-eighths of the harvest; while in France, for corn, it is only about one half. The portion which goes to the cultivators is so small, and they are reduced to such a degree of wretchedness, that they cannot afford to buy wheat, but are obliged to live on rye. The bulk of the people in Poland doubtless prefer wheat to lace: but wheat goes out of Poland, and lace comes in, because certain individuals amply stored with corn choose to sell their own superfluity, and buy luxuries from France.'

Two doctrines are taught by Mr. Malthus, of which we are glad to have the concurrent reprobation of M. SAY. This gentleman has, we think, too great a propensity for verbal disputation and hypercritical subtleties: but the reader of his work will find in it much sound matter and much excellent feeling. The doctrines to which we advert are, 1. that it is absolutely necessary for a country which has large means of production to maintain a class of unproductive consumers: in other words, a body of drones to eat the honey of the working bees; 2. that it is necessary to keep down population either by legal enactments, or by deterring the poor from marriage with the threat that their offspring shall be "shut out from the table of nature."

We have not space at present to extract any part of M. SAY's refutation of Mr. Malthus: but it is unnecessary; for these doctrines, however soothing to the higher classes, are almost generally abandoned. We regret more the not being able to translate, as we had intended, a considerable portion of the introductory chapter of this work, which we read with satisfaction and acquiescence unalloyed. The political optimism of M. Le Viscomte de Saint-Chamans, who wrote a book to prove that governments promote the public prosperity by squeezing all the money that they can get from the pockets of the people, and by spending all that they obtain in dissipation, frivolities, and maintaining in opulence a large APP. REV. VOL. XCVIII.

I i

class

class of lazy consumers, is exposed in a tone of sarcasm which M. SAY has exclusively reserved for this author. The Viscount has a great horror of machinery, and a corresponding love of duties and imposts: but then he is a Maître des Requêtes, un Conseiller d'Etat, and un Préfet. His opinion, therefore, that imposts are excellent things is very natural, observes M. SAY: but, when he wants to make a nation believe that these imposts enrich it also, he is assuming the existence of rather too large a share of folly. We have never seen his work, but from the extracts here presented we should imagine that it would be in high favor at the Tuileries.

ART. IV. Manuel Diplomatique, &c.; i. e. A Diplomatic Manual, or Summary of the Rights and Duties of Diplomatic Agents; to which is added a Collection of Acts and Official Documents, serving as a Guide to Persons about to engage in a Political Career. By Baron CHARLES DE MARTENS. pp. 622. Paris. 1822. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price

14s. sewed.

8vo.

M ANY people have said of the French that, whatever they lose in the field, they regain it in the cabinet. Indeed, the tact of their foreign ministers in exactly adapting their tone and gestures to the circumstances around them; in knowing precisely when and how high to menace, or when and how low to bow; how to retreat while preparing for an advance, or how to advance while securing a retreat; their dexterity in parrying, thrusting, feigning, falling back, and lingering; is altogether proverbial. We do not remark this sarcastically or with reproach. If-without making particular allusions -our own foreign ministers have at any congress, or in negotiations for alliance, holy or unholy, granted concessions injurious to the honor of their country; if they have omitted any opportunity of promoting its interest by commercial treaties; if they have degraded its character by secretly assisting to suppress the rising liberties of other countries, as well as by refusing an asylum to those who flee from persecution into this; if they have at any time been outwitted, circumvented, and rendered instruments for promoting the ambition and consolidating the despotic authority of other nations at the expence of British honor and British glory; the disgrace is theirs, the misfortune is ours, and the triumph, such as it is, belongs to the shrewder tacticians who have cajoled them.

It has sometimes been found exceedingly difficult for an ambassador to pay the homage required by a foreign poten

tate

tate without compromising the dignity of his own sovereign; while, if he refuses to render that homage, the chances are that the object of his mission is frustrated. This difficulty has occa sionally been felt in all ages. When Conon, the Athenian, was sent by Pharnabazus to disclose the treachery and desertion of Tissaphernes to the Persian monarch, he first went to the Chiliarch Tithraustes, without whose introduction no person could be admitted to a conference; and the latter informed him, as the Mandarins of China informed Lord Macartney, that, on entering the royal presence, he must conform to the Persian usage and prostrate himself before the King.* Conon, like a proficient in diplomacy, replied that, personally, he could not have any objection to pay the reverence required by Artaxerxes: but, said he, I think it would be a disgrace to my country, accustomed as it is to command other nations, if I were to comply with the slavish ceremony imposed on barbarians. He accordingly declined submission, and evaded the difficulty by communicating the object of his mission to the King in writing. Lord Macartney was scarcely so successful: the compromise which, after much chaffering and altercation, he effected with the Mandarins in order to get rid of the revolting ceremony of prostration before the Emperor, was very ungraciously conceded; and it has been much doubted whether the embassy did not sustain considerable mortification, and even whether its object was not in some measure defeated, by his Lordship's demeanor, dexterous as it was, in the dilemma to which he was exposed.

The object of the work before us is to present, 1st, a Summary of those Principles of the Law of Nations which are at present recognized by all the Powers of Europe, touching the Rights, Prerogatives, and Immunities, which Diplomatic Agents enjoy in all the different Courts; 2. to give some general Notions concerning the Duties and Functions of a Diplomatist who is charged with any specific Negotiation, or is sent to a Foreign Court and accredited on a permanent mission; 3. to lay down general Principles as to the Form,

* Artaxerxes, Necesse est, si in conspectum veneris, venerari te regem; quod #poonvvεiv illi vocant." (Nepos in Vit. Conon, § 3.) + Mihi, inquit, non est grave quemvis honorem habere regi; sed vereor, ne civitati meæ sit opprobrio, si, cum ex ea sim profectus, quæ cæteris gentibus imperare consueverit, potiùs barbarorum quàm illius, more fungar. Itaque, quæ volebat, huic scripta tradidit." Ibid. One of the Athenian ambassadors is recorded to have submitted to this ceremony of worshipping, or prostrating the body on the ground in the presence of the Persian King; and to have been put to death in consequence by his indignant countrymen. Ii 2

Style,

Style, and Ceremonial to be observed in the different Kinds of Political Compositions. To illustrate this third division, considerably more than half of the volume consists of StatePapers, and Diplomatic Correspondence, not merely between eminent negotiators on the most important subjects, but likewise the personal correspondence of sovereigns themselves. These are alphabetically arranged, beginning with acts of abdication, accession, &c.; to which is added a catalogue of a select Diplomatic Library, under the respective titles of, 1. Works treating on the Rights of Nations; 2. Relating to the History and Interpretation of public Treaties; 3. To the General History and Policy of Modern Europe, with the particular History of certain Periods; 4. Geography and Modern Statistics; 5. Policy, the Science of Government, and Political Economy; and, 6. History.

A preliminary chapter on the Science of Diplomacy and its importance presents the Baron in a favorable point of view:

Its legitimate end and object,' says he, must be to provide for the safety and harmony of states; it should endeavor by prompt explanations and amicable interposition to prevent wars, or as soon as possible to put an end to them; it should facilitate the intercourse of the people of different countries by advantageous treaties of commerce, and contribute by liberal measures to unite them in one common society of brethren and friends. All diplomacy which, from principle and without the most imperious necessity, disunites, is mere Machiavelism, and deserves to be reprobated. It should avoid being turbulent and too officious; it should not, without a grave and serious motive but from a mere spirit of restlessness, busy itself in the too frequent exercise of its official functions, and in overtures of negotiation, without a legitimate or useful end; otherwise, misunderstandings and ruptures will soon follow. We have had but too much experience of the fermentation which may be excited in cabinets by so many agents, authorized to question the sovereign as to his intentions and proceedings; adopting on all sides a system of espionage and corruption, in order to serve the interests of their own prince, and under the mask of friendship engaging in the most mischievous practices. Although the major part of diplomatic agents disdain the employment of such means in promoting their views, it is sufficent to produce the most disastrous consequences that others are less scrupulous.'

In bespeaking indulgence for the occasional errors even of the most skilful negotiators, the Baron observes that we ought never to forget that the science of politics is more or less placed under the empire of accident, and is affected by the versatility of the human mind, by the caprices and passions of men, and the uncertainty of events. An unexpected death, a

change