and of the French Parliament. The essay on the manners is the most considerable of these productions, and will bear a comparison both in respect to style and substance with any historical work of ancient or modern times; and of all histories it is certainly by far the most amusing. No body had previously thought it consistent with the dignity of this kind of writing to relax from a steady and sustained gravity, and it was usual to observe almost as much form and ceremony in describing the actions of kings and princes, as in approaching their persons. Voltaire being no respecter of authority, dead or living, enlivens his narrative with satirical sallies against the follies of these personages, often not less prominent than their crimes; and this, it may be safely said, was the only way of treating with success the barbarous and bloody period which he had chosen for his subject. The work loses something of its interest by the extreme rapidity with which the reader is carried from one event to another. The introductory volume was written at a later period of life when the author's abhorrence of fanaticism had degenerated into fanaticism itself, and has but little value. The Age of Louis XIV is even more finished and agreeable, as a piece of composition than the Essay, but the writer with all his philosophy appears to have been dazzled by the military glory of the early part of this reign, or else was making court to his hero's successor. The picture of Louis is too much flattered, and the historian dwells with a foolish complacency upon the showy pageants which were exhibited at court, and which, as every one knows, are not only too frivolous to be worth the public attention, but are mortally tiresome to every body engaged in them, even while they are going on. The Age of Louis XV is an unfinished sketch, but contains some fine passages, as the description of the battle of Fontenoy. The History of Charles XII is a charming little work, with all the interest of a novel, and is probably more read than any other historical production. The other two are of inferior merit.

Besides the works now mentioned, which compose the solid materials of the reputation of this great genius, there is a crowd of lighter and smaller productions in prose and verse, that are almost eclipsed under the superior splendor of the larger works, but which, had he never written any thing else, would have conferred upon their author the most brilliant reputation. Some of them are tainted in a greater or less de

gree with a vice which luckily for his reputation, is not to be found in his more important works. Candide is of this class, the sharpest satire that ever was composed, and one which has gaiety enough, if such a thing were possible, to redeem its grossness. The fine little story of Zadig is free from this exception. It was written expressly for a princess of the royal family of France, and in her house. In addition to this mass of publications in almost every walk of literature, Voltaire found time for an extensive correspondence with most of the distinguished literary characters, and many of the first political ones in Europe, as Frederic the Great, Catherine II of Russia, the maréchal de Richelieu, president Henault, D'Alembert, and others. The greater part of this correspondence has found its way into the collection of his works, and will probably, as we have hinted before, form not the least interesting portion of it, in the opinion of posterity. As one of the multitude of proofs with what a reverence approaching to idolatry, this celebrated person was regarded, it may be remarked that it was debated in the French Academy after his death, whether the chair which he had occupied in that body should not be left forever vacant. The proposition passed in the negative, but as far at least as regarded his immediate successor, it seems to have been acted upon in substance. Ducis, a small poet of the day, took his place and found himself as much at ease as the snail in La Fontaine's fable that froze to death in a lobster shell.

We shall draw these remarks to a close with a trifling anecdote, which perhaps may be new to our readers, and which we lately met with in a French newspaper. We think it carries internal proof of authenticity. It relates to the etymology of the name Voltaire, which this writer has rendered so illustrious, and which we believe is commonly thought to have been either entirely arbitrary or taken from some little estate, according to the custom with French gentlemen of that day. It is now said however to be merely a transposition of the letters composing the original signature which he employed in early life. His family name, it is well known, was Arouet, and having an elder brother he used to sign his name when young Arouet l. I.-le Jeune. The word Voltaire is an anagram or transposiof the letters in this signature.

In conclusion we have to observe, that we have not so far distrusted the moral sentiment of our readers, as to imitate

the example of some of the most distinguished of our brethren abroad, and fall into passionate exclamations upon the immorality disclosed by this work, as well in the state of society as in the individulals, whose names occur in our article. No person needs be told that many in the higher classes abroadwe are not aware that any considerable exception is to be made of one country over others-are scandalously corrupt, in the article of private morals. We read their works, recognize their talents, do justice to their accomplishments, mingle as one may say in their company, with this exception, and are on our guard in this point. We indeed, in this country, where the suspicion of laxity in the sacred relations of domestic life fixes a stigma on its subjects, might claim a right to bear loud testimony, did it serve any good purpose, against European corruption. But we would gently hint to our English brethren to abstain from any similar denunciations of French society, till that great scandal of the civilized world now under the consideration of the peers of the British realm, shall have been disposed of.

ART. IV.-Report of the Committee of Merchants and other's of Boston, on the Tariff. Wells & Lilly, 1820, 8vo. pp. 20.

THE Commerce and navigation of the United States have been subjected to a variety of experiments, that were not so much designed directly to advance their prosperity, as to serve other temporary and particular ends. Under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, the commerce of the country was wielded as a powerful instrument of war; and the restriction of it intended to produce the effects, which are generally brought about by armies and navies. But those were days of party feud and violence. The non-intercourse and embargo systems were more generally censured or approved, than examined or understood. Men took sides for or against them, not merely from motives of private interest or views of public policy, but from political feeling, according to the party to which they happened to belong.

A new system of measures powerfully affecting our commercial interests, has recently been projected; and it is fortunate, we think, that it comes forth under the protection of no political banner. No administration is now to be support

ed or opposed; and no party dethroned or defended, by the sacrifice of national interest or public industry. The field is open to a fair controversy, and the intelligence of the nation sits as a judge over the skill and adroitness of the combatants.

But notwithstanding the experiments to which it has been subjected, the commerce of the United States has, upon the whole, enjoyed the favour of the national government, and has been protected with care, kindness, and success. The ablest of our statesmen have devoted their talents to its service; the investigations of our acutest political œconomists have explained the theory of its prosperity; the experience of the most eminent merchants has contributed to the practical utility of the laws by which it has been regulated; and the community and the government have thus conspired to secure its regular growth and permanent duration. This protection has not been extended to commerce from blind prepossession, or any theory of party politics, but because at every period of our national existence it has been manifest, that the commerce of the country has more than rewarded all the pains which have been taken to promote it; that if it be the child of the nation, it is not as it has been ungently called, the spoiled child, enfeebled by misplaced kindness, but the healthy offspring of which we have as much reason to be proud, as of the financial credit and the naval power, of which our commerce has been not so much the friend and patron, as the creator. In a coun try so large and a community so extensive as ours, it is unavoidable that commerce should have its enemies, who are jealous of its importance, and would willingly subject it to restraints and checks. But it is not without its friends, able to prove its claims to protection. and to demonstrate its ability to return the favors it receives. To this latter class we are indebted for the powerful and well written defence of its rights, contained in the paper before us.

The danger which now threatens the commerce of the United States, and has recently attracted the particular attention as well of its advocates as its opponents, arises from the propositions reported at the last session of congress, by the committee on manufactures. These propositions are known in familiar terms as the new tariff,' but have for their object not only a projected change in the laws of imposts and tonnage, but essential alterations in the whole commercial system, particularly as to drawback, credit on duties, and sales by auction. The

report before us is confined to the tariff regulating the amount of duties; that being the subject referred to the committee, by which it is reported. The design, however, of the remainder of the propositions alluded to is, equally with the tariff, to direct and control the occupations of one class of men, viz. of commercial men, by granting specialiprivileges to those engaged in other pursuits, viz. in domestic or internal manufactures.

Perhaps this mode of expression may not be approved by the advocates of the new system. But we suppose they would readily admit and even defend the design of building up, by the aid of legislation, the manufacturing classes of the community, of enabling the people of the United States to make all they wish to consume, and to render the use of the productions of any foreign country unnecessary and impracticable, if the same articles, or those which will supply their place, can be produced at home; and that should the consequence of these plans be the serious reduction of the foreign commerce of the United States, it would not, in their view, be a fatal objection to their design. Looking then upon this as the acknowledged object of the measures in question, we cannot but express our surprise that a plan, forcibly to change the employment of that immense population, who live directly or indirectly on the commerce of this nation with other nations of the globe, could ever have been seriously contemplated; or in this age of intelligence and reason perseveringly pursued. In the year 1816, the population of the United States amounted to 7,239,903. At the same time there were enployed in the merchant service, 71,000 seamen. Adding to this number of male adults, as most of them are, the average number for the women and children corresponding to this number of men in the census, and the result will give one twentieth of the whole population directly concerned in the commerce and navigation of the country. In the four atlantic New England States, the proportion is much greater. With a population of 1,254,078 souls, they had 596,819 tons of shipping. Calculating the employment of six men for every hundred tons, and adding the proportion of females and children as before, it will be found that nearly one seventh of all the people of New England have a direct employment in navigation. This calculation moreover is upon a fair average; because though less than six men to one hundred tons