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leged, that money being fcarce, the making fuch profits on the enemy ought not to be neglected; and that this lucrative business fhould not be driven into other countries by a prohibition here.-Several worthy members of parliament took pains to enquire into the true ftate of this bufinefs, and to find out, whether in reality Great Bri tain was fo much benefited by foreign insurances as was fuggefted; and many difinterested merchants impartially declared their opinion thereon to the following effect:--that the fuppofed profit of 3 per cent. on a premium of 30 per cent. faid, in fome of the above-mentioned fpeeches and calculations, to be actually made, is quite uncertain; that in proportion as the number of the British ships of war, and privateers increafe, much more than is calculated to be gained, may be loft; and that when only 18 per cent. premium was paid for infurance here, the infurers, as well as others, actually knew they were great lofers by fuch rifques:-that no merchants, by any skill in computing of chances, or by any other means, can demonftrate what the profit on any voyages will be; and that all that can be known is, that thofe alone have reafon to promise themselves advantage from infurances, who, in proportion as the premiums rife and fall, and the circumftances are more or lefs dangerous, underwrite, or do not underwrite, greater or lefs fums:-that we have more or lefs reafon to expect profit, or lofs, from foreign infurance, in proportion as there is a greater or lefs number of perfons who have fufficient experience, and know how to make a proper choice:- that it is evident, if more clear money be paid for loffes upon foreign infurances, than the grofs fums received for premiums, and all charges, amount to, the articles, fet forth in the above-mentioned calculations, of commiffion, brokerage, and deductions, are by no means to be confidered as certain and indifputable items of profit; for though they bring clear fums into the pockets of the factors, or brokers, who negociate fuch infurances, the loffes paid by insurers may greatly exceed the whole foreign difburfement; and confequently the balance will be a national lofs: this point, therefore, as mentioned above, is extremely difficult to afcertain; but there is a plain, and incontestable argument against foreign infurances being made for an enemy, which will always fubfift, fo long as Great Britain has the fuperiority of naval power, viz. that the great object of a maritime nation fhould be, to take advantage of any rupture with another trading flate, to defroy and diftress their fhipping, and commerce, and to cut off all refources for naval armaments; but to permit fuch infurances is manifeftly to defeat this end, and is contradictory to common fenfe; for the government, and private merchants are, on one hand, fitting out veffels at a great expence to make captures, and to annoy, and dif trefs the enemy; whilft another fet of merchants make good the loffes, and furnish means for the continuance of their commerce :that when orders come for infurances from places, where the eager purfuit of premiums is as ftrong as it is here, it fhews a higher premium has been there infifted on; and as people on the fpot can be better judges of the nature of the concern, the navigation, fhips, commanders, &c. than thofe at a distance, there can be little hopes of profit by insurances which they reject:—that as it is now cuftomary to accept of eflimations, in which the foreigner infured, in cafe

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of a lofs, finds his account better than if the veffel had not been loft, or taken; nay, it is agreed to pay fuch a fum infured, whether on board the ship or not; it is evident that fuch agreements have a bad tendency, as they give fo much room for frauds :—that no perfon ever had proved to a certainty, whether by infurance on foreign trade, more, on the whole, had been gained than loft:-that it was contrary to found and good policy, to grant afifiance to undertakings which were contrary to the general intereft, and diametrically oppofite to the intention of prohibiting the trade with France; the natural confequence of which fhould have been the prohibition of infuring their hips and goods :-this is to be understood only in times of war, for in thofe of peace, fuch infurances fhould be confidered as a bufinefs that is to be left to the free will of the merchant.

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5. It has been further obferved, that although our infurers may be gainers, upon the whole, by the credit fide of their premiums exceeding the debit fide of their loffes; yet the question is, out of whofe pockets do fuch premiums arife in time of war?-If they wholly arofe from our enemies who infured, then our enemies would pay more for the price of infurance than they loft; which cannot be the cafe-from whom then does this furplufage of premiums arife, which make our infurers gainers, but from our own British merchants? and, if fo, when an enemy's fhip is taken that has been infured by our infurers, the lofs does not fall either upon the infurers (if they are gainers on the whole) or upon the enemy, but it falls upon our own British merchants, whofe premiums must pay it:befides, as our enemies do not feel the lofs, are they not enabled the better to fit out more fhips of war and privateers to annoy our own merchants? does not this neceffarily tend to raise the price of infurance ftill higher and higher upon them? and does not this ftill the better enable our infurers to infure the fhips of our enemies, and to be inftrumental to the prolongation of the war? do not these high in furances clog our whole trade at fuch times, leffen the public revenue, and add to the evil of war?—— Finally, it is added, that our principal merchants, being the greatest underwriters, become difinclined to fit out privateers to cruize on, and diftrefs the enemy, ra ther contenting them felves with the expectation of gaining the premiums from them; and therefore wifhing to contribute to the fafety and arrival of their property, and the fuccefs of their com

merce.

6. REMARKS. It is the opinion of fome civilians that the infuring the property of enemies is in itfelf illegal, and a fpecies of treafon against our country; therefore it is evidently hull and void :" -no British fubject can have a right to infure the enemy's losses, more than he has to affift him by main force, as both ultimately tend to the fame point, the Support of the power intended to be overthrown all ftates, at the commencement of hoftilities, commence them in hopes of victory; but underwriters, of the clafs in queftion, reverse this order, and infure in hopes of defeat:-hence many of them are the beft of fpies for our enemies, giving every intelligence by which their fhips may be enabled to efcape, and by falfe lights decoying thofe of their country into the hands of its foes.- -In every policy, therefore, the case of war fhould be expressly excepted, in order to REV. Sept. 1781. prevent

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prevent cavil; but this precaution is not abfolutely neceffary, as the law of nations, which must be founded on good fenfe, abfolutely prohibits fuch a commerce:-every contract, by which a public enemy is upheld, must be illegal; and in the prefent inftance, where the contest is about commerce, no method more effectual for upholding the enemy can be devised. As the intention of infurance is to render navigation and commerce more fafely, cafily, and conveniently carried on, it is plain that the reafon of war altogether requires that the infuring of the enemy's property be not allowed. When the States General were at war with Spain in 1622, they proclaimed all infurances void, which were made before or after the edict, by the inhabitants of the United Netherlands, upon effects belonging to the fubjects of the king of Spain, laying a penalty upon those who should do fo; which feems very juft, because in all declarations of war, or commiffions of hoftilities, every one is commanded to do as much damage to the enemy as he can, fo that he is alfo forbid to confult the convenience of the enemy: the general law of war requires it.— It appears a matter of much uncertainty whether the infuring of the fhips and property of enemies be profitable even to the infurers, notwithstanding the opinion of Sir John Barnard was in the affirmative; but it is pretty certain that, if the expence of armaments, victualling, manning, wages, wear and tear, damage, &c. &c. &c. of men of war, privateers, letters of marque, with various other detriments and difadvantages, be taken into the account, not to mention the temptation it is to give intelligence to the enemy, and to the commiffion of frauds by them, the balance on the whole cannot be well in favour of the nation.-The Dutch, who have feldom overlooked any advantage to themselves in trade, have always thought it neceffary to prohibit this kind of infurance.- -Upon the whole, therefore, the act of the British parliament 21 Geo. z. made to prohibit infuring the enemy's fhips and merchandifes, during the continuation of the then war with France, appears to have been highly politic and worthy of much approbation.

7. Les Anglois font encore dans la maxime, que l'affurance des vaiffeaux ennemis doit être permife & favorifée: fi on leur objecte, que le vaiffeau étant pris, il ne revient à la nation qu' une partie de la chofe qu' elle devoit avoir toute entiere; ils répondent, que cette perte eft couverte pour l'état qui raffemble toutes les affurances, par la valeur de la prife qu' il gagne. Son gain feroit-il plus grand s'il abandonnoit le profit des primes? Non, fans doute, puifque ce profit eft reglé fur l'etendue des rifques. L' affureur, ou la nation, étant toujours la maîtreffe d'affurer, ou de na pas affurer, a foin que la proportion entre la prime & les rifques foit en fa faveur; d'où il réfulte que la fomme des primes réunies excede néceffairement la valeur des vaiffeaux qui tombent dans le cas d'être pris.-Dia. du Citoyen.

8. Nothing belonging to a declared enemy of the kingdom fhall be infured, under penalty of the insurance being void, and the delinquent to forfeit the amount of the fum to which he had subscribed, one half to go to the informer, and the other to the cheft of the infurance court established by us.-Ordin. of Stockh.

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9. See Capture, Confifcation, Contraband, Flota, France, Freedom of Navigation, Interest, Law of Nations, Prize, Property, Treaty, War.

The detached articles are well connected by cross references; but as the heads and cafes under each, are numbered, it would have been an improvement to have referred to the number under each head where the collateral matter is to be found.

N.

ART. VI. Thoughts on Hunting, in a Series of familiar Letters to a Friend.4to. 7 s. 6d. in Boards. Salisbury, printed, for Elmfly, &c. in London. 1781.

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HERE appears to be fo little affinity or correfpondence between hunting and literature, upon a general comparison of the profeffors of each, that a didactic treatife on the art of hunting, was rather an unexpected acquifition; and still more fo to find the precepts delivered in an eafy agreeable ftyle! The work before us, however, does not only come from a keen sportsman, but from a man of letters; a coincidence the lefs to be wondered at, if we are juftified in conjecturing his profeffion from fome cafual hints that have efcaped his pen *.

The Author very justly observes, that there is not any one of those branches of knowledge, commonly dignified with the title of arts, which has not its rudiments or principles, through which a competent knowledge, if not perfection, may be obtained: whereas hunting, the fole bufinefs of fome, and the amufement of the greatest part of the youth of this kingdom, seems left alone to chance. Its purfuit puts us both to greater expence, and greater inconvenience, than any thing befides, and yet we truft our diverfion in it to the fole guidance of a huntfman: we follow just as he chufes to lead us; and we fuffer the fuccefs, or difappointment, of the chafe to depend folely on the judgment of a fellow, who is frequently a greater brute than the creature on which he rides. I would not be understood to mean by this, that an huntfman fhould be a fcholar, or that every gentleman should hunt his own hounds: a huntsman need not be a man of letters; but give me leave to fay, that, had he the beft understanding, he would frequently find opportunities of exercifing it, and intricacies which might put it to the teft. You will fay, perhaps, there is fomething too laborious in the occupation of a huntsman for a gentleman to take it upon himself; you may also think that it is beneath him; I agree

"Before you have been long a fox-hunter, I expect to hear you talk of the ill luck which fo frequently attends it.-I affure you it has provoked me often, and has made a parfon fwear." p. 288. Relating foon after a fox chace, where, after the hounds had killed two, a third was dug out and killed, that might have been reserved for another day's fport; he adds-" However, it answered one purpose you would little expect: it put a clergyman present in mind that he had a corpfe to bury, which otherwife had been forgotten," p. 293. This was a fortunate recollection; but, had the worst happened, he might at least have had the confolation to be reminded over the evening bowl, in full chorus,-"A corpfe, Mofes, can't run away, Toll de roll."

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with

+ Written by Peter Beckford, rays of Stapleton, Dorsets dire

Tee p.400.560.

with you in both,-yet I hope, he may have leave to understand it.If he follows the diverfion, it is a fign of his liking it; and if he likes it, furely it is fome difgrace to him to be ignorant of it."

The task of laying down fome principles of hunting has thus devol on the Writer under confideration; and perhaps the bufinos could not have been left in better hands. He gives his correfpondent the following account of his intentions:

I am glad to find you approve of the plan I propofe to obferve in the course of thefe letters, in which it fhall be my endeavour to omit nothing, that may be neceffary for you to know; at least, as far as my own obfervation and experience will give me leave. The expérience I have had may be of ufe to you at prefent; others perhaps hereafter may write more judiciously and more fully on the fubject : you know it is my intereft to wish they would. The few who have written on hunting, refer you to their predeceffors for great part of the information you might expect from them: and who their prede-. ceffors were, I have yet to learn, Even Somervile is lefs copious than I could wish, and has purpofely omitted what is not to be found elfewhere; I mean receipts for the cure of fuch diseases as hounds are fubject to. He holds fuch information cheap, and beneath his lofty mufe. Profe has no excufe, and you may depend on every information I can give. The familiar manner in which my thoughts will be conveyed to you in thefe Letters, will fufficiently evince the intention of the Author.-They are written with no other design than to be of use to sportsmen.-Were my aim to amufe, I would not endeavour to inftruct. A fong might fuit the purpose better than an effay. To improve health by promoting exercife ;-to excite gentlemen who are fond of hunting to obtain the knowledge neceffary to enjoy it in perfection; and to leffen the punishments which are too often inflicted on an animal fo friendly to man, are the chief ends' intended by the following Letters.'

In thefe Letters the Author treats of the best conftruction of kennels, giving a neat plan and elevation to illuftrate his defcription, of the choice of hounds, their management in the kennel, rules for breeding hounds, with a vocabulary of names for them; of their education, their difeafes and remedies; of the. huntsman and whippers-in, hare hunting, defcription of a fox chafe, and copious inftructions for fox-hunting in all its parts. Thefe principal fubjects, with many fubordinate articles of information, enlivened with a number of field anecdotes and little ftories, fill twenty-four very entertaining Letters. As a fpecimen we fhall present our Readers with the thirteenth letter containing the defcription of a fox chace.

A fox chace is not easy to be defcribed-yet as even a faint. defcription of it may ferve, to a certain degree, as an anfwer to the various questions you are pleased to make concerning that diver</ fion, I fhall profecute my attempt in fuch a manner, as I think may fuit your purpose beft. As I fear it may read ill, it fhall not be long. A gentleman, to whofe understanding nature had most evidently been sparing of her gifts, as often as he took up a book, and

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