of the government, which has never yet been broken with the subject. To discover what the materials are that compose the public and private property of the British dominions; that accumulation of wealth, which, aided by credit and character, has raised this favoured nation to the highest pitch of grandeur, and set her on an eminence far above all other empires, forms the subject of the second chapter of Mr. Colquhoun's volume, and its corresponding table. He sets out with observing, that the same rules and principles, to which individuals resort, on all emergencies, will apply to the affairs of nations; that the object of both is to have recourse to an accurate view of the resources in possession, and to the means of rendering those resources as productive as possible; that the resources of nations are derived from the productive labour of the people; and that this labour is augmented or diminished according to forms of government, and the intelligence, ability, and zeal, or the want of them, in those who direct the affairs of states and empires; implying, however, we take for granted, a corresponding capital and expenditure for the maintenance of that labour. Our author also thinks, and in this we are disposed to concur with him, that, considering the limited territory and population of the British islands, when compared with those of many other states and kingdoms in the world, we may legitimately conclude, that the rapid strides it has made towards wealth and power, may fairly be attributed to the form of its government, and the wisdom of its councils ;--we would add, however, to the solid good sense of the people at large, who have co-operated in giving effect to those councils which they judged to be conducive to the public good. The simple fact of our rapid progress to a state of wealth, power, and prosperity, unparalleled in the history of nations; the noble stand which, with our seventeen millions of people we have been able to make against a population of more than one hundred millions; the conquests we have made of every foreign possession and dependency of our most deadly and inveterate foe, who had the persons and property of all these millions at his disposal;-the annihilation of his navy and his commerce,- -are invincible proofs of the unexampled power and prosperity of the British nation. To ascertain what the vast resources are which have enabled this nation to accomplish such great and extraordinary events; to trace the elements of which they consist, and to estimate their value upon the same principle as commercial men estimate their stock in trade, is, indeed, an arduous task;' and though, as Mr. Colquhoun observes, accuracy, to a point, in so extensive and complicated a range, is impracticable, yet, on a subject of such importance, an approximation to the truth, if attainable, we agree with him, must be very valuable. 'In In forming the estimates,' says Mr. Colquhoun, which are exhibited in the Tables annexed, the ablest writers in this branch of political economy have been consulted, and copious notes have been introduced, calculated to elucidate, as far as elucidation has been practicable, the grounds upon which the author has proceeded. From the scarcity of materials, much has been left to the exertion of the mind, and to laborious and intricate calculations, when information could not be derived from books or public documents.'-(p. 51.) The Table No. 2, which is annexed to this chapter, contains the estimate of the public and private property in Great Britain and Ireland, with its dependencies, and is divided into eight general sections, as under : 1. Exhibiting the value of landed and other public and private property, in Great Britain and Ireland, amounting to Total 53 colonies and dependencies 8. Territory of India under the control and management of the East India Company Total estimated value of the landed and public and private property of the British empire in all parts of the world £2736,640,000 -22,161,330 46,575,360 100,014,864 75,220,000 4,770,500 38,721,090 £3024,103,144 1072,427,751, - £4096,530,895 It would be too long for us to enter into a detail of the particulars on which Mr. Colquhoun has constructed the table of which this is an abstract; we must therefore content ourselves with briefly stating the component parts of the first and most important article in that abstract. They are classed, in the first place, under the three general heads, of 1. Productive private property; 2. Unproductive private property; 3. Public property. These classes are again subdivided into a variety of branches, and the value of each branch is set down in four columns, one for England and Wales, the second for Scotland, the third for Ireland, and the fourth for Great Britain and Ireland. At the end of the line, enumerating the subdivisions of property, is a reference to 'explanatory notes,' shewing the authority from which the several sums, have been taken or the principle upon which the computations have been made. Our readers may wish to see, and it is all we can af ford ford to extract, that column which exhibits the total value in Great Britain and Ireland of each distinct branch of property. 1. Productive Private Property. *Lands cultivated in grain of all sorts, grass, hops, possession of the clergy Mines and minerals Canals, tolls, and timber Dwelling-houses, including warehouses and manufactories Manufactured goods in progress to maturity and in a finished state, deposited in manufactories, ware- 1200,640,000 80,000,000 75,000,000 50,000,000 400,000,000 140,000,000 Foreign merchandize, deposited in warehouses, shops, &c. either paid for, or virtually paid for, by 40,000,000 British shipping of every description, employed in trade, including vessels on the stocks 27,000,000 Agricultural property, consisting of grain, hay, straw, cheese, butter, and other productions of farms, 45,000,000 183,000,000 Animals, namely, horses, horned cattle, sheep, hogs, goats, asses, deer, wild animals, and poultry Fisheries round the coast of Great Britain and Ireland, including inland fisheries Total of Productive Private Property 10,000,000 £2250,640,000 * As a specimen of Mr. Colquhoun's Explanatory Notes,' we extract the following: 'It appears, from the returns to the Tax Office for the year ending 5th April, 1804, that the rental of real property in England and Wales, including mines, canals, &c. calculated on 37,334,400 statute acres, amounted to 38,000,000: it is, however, known to have much increased since that period. The cultivated lands may be distributed as follows Lands cultivated in Scotland, estimated at one-fifth of England and Lands cultivated in Ireland, estimated at two fifths Making a total for Great Britain and Ireland, of 30,620,000 acres, 750,400,000 150,080,000 300,160,030 1200,640,000 2. Unpro 2. Unproductive Private Property. Waste lands, at present unproductive, after including 132,000,000 185,000,000 20,800,000 Plate, jewels, and other ornamental articles in dwelling-houses 44,200,000 Specie in circulation and hoarded, namely, gold, silver, and copper coin, including Bank dollars and tokens 15,000,000 £397,000,000 Total of Unproductive Private Property 3. Public Property. Public buildings, as palaces, churches, hospitals, pri- Dock-yards and all materials for ship-building and : Ships of war, in number about 1000, of which 261 are of the line, in employment, including those in ordinary and building Military and naval ordnance, and other public stores Total of public property Aggregate value of every species of property, public and private, in Great Britain and Ireland, as mentioned in the first of the eight general heads into which the Table, No. 2, is divided 27,000,000 17,000,000 10,000,000 25,000,000 10,000,000 £89,000,000 £2736,640,000 Of the immense property of 4081,530,895l., Mr Colquhoun estimates the colonies and dependencies taken from the enemy during the late war, exclusive of ships and other floating property captured since 1792, to amount to 106,917,190/; and the captures by sea and land, he thinks, may amount to fifty or sixty millions more but of these we surrendered at the peace of Europe, colonies to the value of 87,707,130l. This will reduce the amount of the national property to 3993,823,7651., which, he says, will be found on the strictest examination to fall considerably short of its real value. 'It exhibits,' says Mr. Colquhoun, in glowing colours, the proud height to which this great empire has arrived in the scale of nations. It proves incontestably the immense resources of the state, and the rapid growth of the wealth of the people; and what is of more importance, the faci lity and power of rendering this wealth productive to a greater extent than prevails in any other nation of the world.' To what extent this productive capital is carried, it is the object of the third chapter and its accompanying table to explain. 6 This chapter professes to be an attempt to estimate the new property annually created in the British empire, by the labour of the people employed in agriculture, manufactures, trade, commerce, navigation, fisheries, and other branches of productive industry.' The attempt is certainly a bold one; but the author' entertains a confident hope, that the estimates will be found, in all the different branches of productive labour, to fall short of the actual value of the new property created.' He tells us fairly upon what principle the different calculations have proceeded; and he endeavours to elucidate them by copious explanatory notes; so that every one may judge for himself how far the author is borne out in his conclusions. In the pursuit of a species of statistical knowledge interesting to all nations, and particularly to the British nation, he laments that the official materials are so scanty; but he assures us, that no labour, on his part, has been wanting to supply this deficiency, by obtaining the best information that could be had on each particular branch of the subject, and that the aid of official documents has been called in wherever they could be rendered available. This curious inquiry commences, as indeed it ought to do, with agriculture, that being the most important branch of national industry; which, in Great Britain and Ireland, is presumed to give employment and afford support to 5,500,000 of the population or nearly one-third of the united empire. The population of Great Britain and Ireland, including the army and navy, was estimated, in 1811, at Estimated increase in three years, since that time 17,096,803 903,197 Probable population in 1814. 18,000,000 depending principally on the soil of the British islands for sub sistence.* It is calculated that the grain, potatoes, hops, fruit and vegetables, butter and cheese, grain, hay, tur nips, &c., for cattle, poultry, &c. will amount to. £127,690,541 For the food of horses, horned cattle, sheep, hogs, goats, &c., and labour in feeding and attending 75,117,376 * We wish the British islands were made to produce this subsistence, of which they are surely capable-yet in the year 1802, the value of corn, flour, and other grain imported, amounted to the enormous sum of ten millions sterling, which, after all, was little more than one month's consumption. In 1810, the value of corn, &c. imported, amounted to nearly five millions sterling. Wool, |