4 JULY 1840, Page 16

THE NEW SUPPLEMENT TO M'CULLOCII . S COMMERCIAL DICTIONARY.

IN the guise of an ample pamphlet, this publication contains the type and the information of a volume, and more indeed of either than is to be fbund in many volumes. The object of this Supple. ment is to keep both the Dictionary and its purchasers up to the tittles; whether the change arise from increased light upon a sub- ject—as American Banks and Funds, the progress of society—a Railroads, or from legislative enactments—as the new Postage. To enumerate the contents of this publication, would be to write a dictionary of commercial words ; but we have observed no omission of importance, and the settle and mode of treatment appear to be considered with relation to passing interests. For example, there is an elaborate paper on Ships, handled with regard to the pro. bible effects of the new regulations fbr classifying vessels, which the underwriters, who smart so terribly from shipwrecks, arc endea- vouring to establish at Lloyd's, in order to place insurances upon a sounder principle ; Emigration ; Sugar, with respect to the opera- tion of the Abolition Act, and the rise in price which consumers are beginning to feel; Tea, as relates to the results lions the open- ing of the trade with China ; Opium, ill respect to the war, (very gently handled.) The late close run at the Bank of England, and the American State Funds, with the probable prospects of the English creditors, are also treated. As regards the last subject, the publication says- " There can, of coarse, lie no further doubt as to the law on this important subject after Mr. Webster's letter to Messrs. Baring ; and we trust that the States will respectively evince that high moral sense and determination to Ray their just debts, for which their distius'uished countrymen gives them credit.. We confess, however, that we are not without our misgivings on this point.

The extreme facility with which loans on American account have recently been raised in Europe, and especially in this country, on all manner of secu- rities, will turn out in the end a serious loss to America ; inasmuch as it has tempted her citizens to engage, without sufficient consideration, in the most gigantic undertakings, and to generate and diffuse a spirit far more akin to gambling than to the pursuits of sober industry. In consequence, a vast

amount of capital has been unprofitably expended, and to little better purpose, in fact, than if it had been absolutely thrown away. Now, the question which our countrymen, who are so fond of investing, in American securities, would do well to ponder is, will the States continue, after the excitement of the period

of expenditure is gone by, regularly to pay the interest of these debts ? Sup- pose that a system of universal suffrage were established in this'country, and that we had several millions a year to pay to France or Russia for loans bor- rowed from them, and expended less perhaps for the public advantage than for the private benefit of the parties who negotiated the loans,—under such cir- cumstances, we rather incline to think, should any thing occur to excite our prejudices against our foreign creditors, that there would he no small risk of a serious interruption taking place in the payments due to them. And if such a thing might, in the supposed case, be not unreasonably predicated of England, i

it is not uncharitable to suppose that it may also occur in America." The majority of the longer papers exhibit nothing of the dry character of an encyclopaedia, or the forum! jogtrot of compilation ; but are vigorous, racy, and homogeneous. They are in fact a series of articles in Mr. M'Cum.oen's best style—broad, earnest, full of information, and based on principle ; but occasionally so one- sided and positive as to the rightness of the writer's views, as to remind one less of an advocate than of a penny-a-liner writing upon a subject about which there is a tremendous sensation. Mr. IVI`Cui,i,oen is too often forcefid beyond the occasion. One curious feature, obvious in looking over the work, is the bearing the results of some of the statistics it teems with have upon passing events, or the points they suggest. For instance, under the head of East Indian Finance, we find the Com- pany's revenue in 1834-5 fell short of the ordinary expenditure by upwards of half a million; \diem(' we infer, that the extraordinary expenses of the Cabul war, and the Chinese derangement conse- quent upon the opium question, will add pretty considerably to their debt and financial difficulties. There emigrated from the United Kingdom, in 1839, to the United States 33,536 persons, to the Australian Colonies 15,786, to the North American Colonies only 12658; but in 1831 and 1832 the numbers of emigrants ar- riving at Quebec were upwards of fifty thousand in each year. The number of British and foreign vessels entered upon Lloyd's books in 1833, which suffered shipwreck, were 811 ; the crews of thirty- eight ships were entirely drowned, and those of many others par- tially shared the same fate : iii1835, there were 752 ships wrecked, with a loss of property at the most moderate computation amounting to upwards of two millions. Mr. .M'Cum,oen enters into a long discussion to show that great part of these losses are owing to the incompetency of till masters, the bad character of the men, and the mode of classifying vessels adopted at Lloyd's. We make no doubt ot'it ; but the easiness or caution with which under- writers effect insurances, would seem to have some operation. At all events, the numbers oscillate up and down in a curious way in alternate years, as if vessels were rejected one year in consequence of former. losses, and the next year insured on account of the no- minal filling off in business ; which gives some colour to an asser- tion that many ships are fraudulently wrecked. See No, of ships.

464 811 752 399

The table on the distribution:of the Slave-compensation-money is singular in its facts, from the varying value of the slaves in dif- ferent colonies ; which scents to fluctuate beyond any difference of prices or economical eh cumstances, though the value steadily rises with the fertility of the soil. Lt the Bermudas, a sort of penal settlement, ptsolueing nothing of consequence, the average price of a slave was 27/. 5s.; in the Bahamas, exporting woods and a little cotton, but not growing any strictly tropical production, 29/. 188. 10d.; in sonic of the smaller islands, the price varied from 30/. to 431. 8s. 3d. ; in Jamaica it was 44/. 15s. 2d. ; in densely- peopled Barbados, 471. 1:38.; in fertile Grenada, 59/. 68. ; but in the rich soil of Trinidad the price rose to 1051. 4s. 5d., and in the still richer Guiana it reached 114/. I Is. (id.; in the small settle- 'tient of Honduras, tier some reason we do not perceive, it was as high as 1201. 4s. 7d. The total value of the slaves in our Colonies was 45,281,7381. ; the sum paid for them 20,000,000/. Looking at this cempensation, and the present plight of the planters, they have DO great reason to hug themselves upon their bargain. What the country at large has gained, will be better known when the maxi- mum price of colonial produce with the minimum of revenue it yields arc reached, and the measures necessary to be eventually adopted are before the world.

This Supplement contains two large maps—one of British North America, marking also the disputed territory, and the arbitration- line of the King of Rolland; another of Great Britain and Ireland, constructed to show their commercial fficilities—as the navigable rivers, canals, railroads, and lighthouses.

lear.

1832

1833

18:34 1835 1836