Toward the conclufion of the volume, Mr. Pickbourn inquires into the queftion, WHAT IS A VERB? and decides it by adopting Dr. Lowth's definition, that it is a word fignifying to be, to do, or to fuffer." He here likewife digreffes into a difquifition concerning the origin of language: he confutes, very juftly, Dr. Adam Smith's idea that the verb I am required the most metaphyfical and abftract thought in its formation: he gives us, however, as wild a conjecture of his own, that the verbs it rains, it thunders, were formed from the rapid pronunciation of raining or rain is, thundering or thunder is, or is not: (by the bye, what becomes of the rapid pronunciation of thunder is not?) he imagines, that fuch words as raining might be applied to what was prefent, and rained to what was ended: but he gives no reafon for the fuppofition: he remarks, too, that in procefs of time, pronouns would no doubt be introduced,' &c.: but this is the play-ground of the grammarian, where he, who, has conned his dry tafk, may furely be allowed to fport, when the hours of restraint and fchool difcipline are over.

We here take our leave of Mr. Pickbourn, whofe differtation we recommend to all inquirers into the nature of grammar, as evincing much thought and grammatical knowlege.

ART. XV. Memoirs of the Literary and Philofobical Society of Manchefter. Vol. III.

[Article concluded from vol. v. p. 272-280.]

POLITICAL PAPERS.

An Inquiry into the Principles and Limits of Taxation, as a Branch of Moral and Political Philofophy. By Thomas Percival, M. D. F. R. S. &c.

PER

ERSUADED, as every man of an enlightened mind must be, that nothing tends more to the establishment of just authority, than the free and temperate inveftigation of the reafons on which it is founded, Dr. Percival has endeavoured, in this paper, to trace the origin, to explain the principles, and to determine the extent, of the duty of paying taxes:" a duty, he fays, which, though edential to the existence of fociety, and of equal importance to the governors and governed, has not

Future indefinite,

Future definite imperfect,
Future definite perfect,

Definite terminating or limiting
perfect tentes,

I shall write.
I fhail be writing.

I thall have written.

I have been writing.
I had been writing.

I hell have been writing.
hitherto,

hitherto, he believes, received a specific denomination in any language. His inquiry into this fubject, is very satisfactory. It contains multum in parvo. After fhewing man to have a natural right to life, liberty, and property;-and after proving, from his inability in his individual capacity to defend his rights, and to punish the aggreffor, the neceffity of a state of society, where the right of each is made a common right to be defended by the collective power, confolidated, as it were, in the civil magiftrate, and at the united expence of the community;—he rationally deduces the moral obligation to pay taxes, which he ftates to arife from the allegiance due to the fovereign power, for the protection it affords to life, liberty, and property, and for the energy it exerts in the promotion of order, industry, virtue, and happiness."

This obligation (fays he) is common to the fubjects of every government; but under the happy conflitution of Great Britain, where fubfidies are never claimed by the fupreme magistrate, without the confent of parliament, we become bound, by a VOLUNTARY COMPACT, made by our delegates, to contribute to the public exigencies, in fuch proportions, and according to fuch modes, as they have deliberately enacted.

And, by the refufal to grant fuch contributions, or by the evafion of them, we not only injure the public weal, but, indirectly, INVADE the PROPERTY of our FELLOW CITIZENS, who muit bear the burden of additional impotts, in confequence of our contumacious exemption.'

Thus does this learned and refpectable writer affift the minifter in making taxes productive, by enforcing their payment, on the principles of morality. He is not, however, an advocate for non-refiftance and paffive obedience. Though he afferts government to be of divine authority, as it originates in the law of our nature, yet he contends that it can be no otherwife fo, than as it is adapted to the interefts and felicity of its fubjects, and, of courfe, that the moral obligation in the fubject, of fubmitting to impofts, has its limits. We may pay for protection at too high a rate. A tax can have no moral obligation, when the claim to allegiance is abfolutely forfeited; it is of imperfect obligation from mere general allegiance, and, to give it full and complete validity, it should be A LEVY MADE

ON THE COMMUNITY BY LAWFUL AUTHORITY; ACCORDING TO PRESCRIBED FORMS; IN AN EQUITABLE MODE AND PROPORTION; AND FOR THE PUBLIC WEAL. We fhall leave politicians, who manage the important concerns of government, to confider how far our excife laws agree with this definition of a tax morally obligatory on the fubject.

This inquiry is confiderably enlarged fince it was first read to the fociety.

THE

THE APPENDIX to this paper, placed at the end of the volume, entitled, Supplemental Notes and Illuftrations, confifts of a number of fhort but excellent differtations on the following fubjects: Property not the mere Creature of Civil Society-The Influence of the Crown;-Doctrine of Paffive Obedience;-The Doctrine of Non-refiftance merely speculative-The Advantages of the British Government ;-Taxes on the Neceffaries of Life-Statutes of Excife;-Oaths;-Turpitude marked by the grofs Defect of good Principles.

Dr. P.'s obfervations on these topics prove him to be not only a man of reading, and found judgment, but to be inspired by the beft fpirit of patriotifm, viz. that which promotes obedience to government by demonftrating its neceffity and advantages; and which animates to virtue, as being the great principle by which rulers and fubjects fhould be fwayed, in their endeavours to promote national happiness.

Propofitions refpecting the Foundation of Civil Government. By Thomas Cooper, Efq. *

If no difcoveries, in the important tcience of government, be exhibited in this paper, yet it contains the fubftance of many interesting difcuffions, compreffed into a number of diftinct, though connected, propofitions. Mr. Cooper, with a mathematical clofenefs and concifenefs of reafoning, expofes the fallacy of thofe ftatements which reprefent government as flowing from a fource diftinct from the popular will; and he demonftrates, that the right of exercising political power, whether about to commence, or actually exifting, is derived folely from the people. Here he lays it down as an indifputable propolition, that the authority of the governors is derived from the confent of the governed;-that the happinefs of the community is the great object and end of civil fociety; and that all the functions of government ought to be means adapted to that end. He ftates, moreover, that the will of the people (that is, of the majority, for the majority, in a practical view, are fynonimous with the fociety,) atcertained as correctly as the nature of the cafe will ad-mit, is of itlelf a fufficient reafon for any change whatever in the conftitution of a kingdom, and in the officers of its government.

In Prop. 26, he difcuffes the difficult queftion, whether the right of juffrage fhould in any degree be regulated by the poffeflion of property, or fhould be confidered as a right fimply attached to the perfon. Here Mr. Cooper reafons more like an efquire than a pennylefs philofopher inveftigating the natural rights of man. For my own part, (fays he,) after much confideration, I incline to think that a line of exclufion may be drawn, and Author of "Tracts, Ethical, Political," &c. See our last vol. P. 244. et seq.

that

that no injuftice is done by debarring those from voting in the choice of national reprefentatives, who, on account of their poverty, are exempted from the payment of taxes.' Opposed to this pofition, and to the reasons which follow to confirm it, we might afk, Is the object of chooling reprefentatives merely for the purpose of taxation? Suppofing this to be the cafe, where are the poor who are exempted from the payment of taxes? Do not all taxes on articles of confumption fall very heavily on them? If fome laws relate to objects in which the poor have no intereft, are there not many which nearly affect them?-Viewing politics through the medium of pure philofophy, it appears that all who have natural rights, are entitled to a voice in the appointment of that delegated power by which thofe rights may be affected: but Mr. C. would exclude the very poor, because the exclufion itself would operate as a ftimulus to exertion. Those who wish to perufe Mr. C.'s reasons at length, will find them at p. 502, 503.

Mr. C. is fo ftrenuous an allertor of the rights of man, and fo warm an advocate for civil and religious liberty, that he concludes his paper with expreffing his hope of the day not being far diftant, when, in Europe at least, not one ftone of the fabric of political oppreffion will be left on another.

POPULATION.

Obfervations on the Bills of Mortality for the Towns of Manchefter and Salford. By Thomas Henry, F. R. S. &c. According to the statements and calculations given in this paper, the population of Manchester and Salford is nearly double what it was in 1773. In that year, the inhabitants of thefe united townships were estimated at 29,151; in the beginning of the year 1788, Mr. Henry, in a note fubjoined to this paper fince it was first read, calculated their number to have been 55,364; and if, from that time to the prefent, the inhabitants have continued increafing, they must have nearly doubled themselves in the space of eighteen years. Hence Mr. Henry infers, that large manufacturing towns, inftead of being destructive of, are propitious to, population. He obferves that the encouragements in them to matrimony are confiderable; and that if life be more fpeedily wafted, it is, probably, produced in a far greater ratio. We perfectly, in this refpect, coincide with Mr. Henry in opinion: but though large manufacturing towns promote marriages, the fruit of them is not an

* Mancheiter and Salford, though diftinct townships, are only feparated by the river Irwel, and communicate by means of feveral bridges. In the year 1757, the number of inhabitants was no more than 19,839.

healthy

healthy and an hardy race; they rather tend to debafe the human fpecies; and were not their influence counteracted by mixtures with thofe in more healthy fituations and pursuits, their bills of mortality would, in a courfe of years, exhibit a melancholy picture. Mr. Henry, in fact, confeffes this, when he fays that, to find numerous inftances of longevity, we must leave the widely-extended commercial city, where plenty of employment, though it furnifh abundance of the comforts and conveniencies of life, to the labouring part of the people, and. thereby is preventive of many difeafes, yet fupplies alfo the means of intemperance, (he might have added alfo, facilitates debauchery,) which though flowly, yet certainly induces fickness.'

An Account of the Progrefs of Population, Agriculture, Manners, and Government in Pennfylvania. In a Letter from Benjamin Ruth, M. D. and Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennfylvania, to Thomas Percival, M. D. F. R. S. &c. The information here communicated, refpects the method in which the wilds of America are gradually brought under cultivation, and points out the ftages which mark the progrefs from favage to civilized life; and this relation is peculiarly valuable, fince it is not built on the vague reports of others, but on Dr. Ruth's own knowlege and obfervations. He defcribes three kinds of fettlers in Pennfylvania. His picture of the first we shall copy for the amufement of our readers:

The first fertler in the woods, is generally a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts of the ftate. His time for migrating is in the month of April. His first object is to build a small cabin of rough logs, for himfelf and family. The floor of this cabin is of earth, the roof of fplit logs, the light is received through the door, and in fome inftances, through a fmall window made of greated paper. A coarfer building, adjoining this cabin, affords a fhelter to a cow and a pair of poor hories. The labour of erecting thele buildings is fucceeded by killing the trees on a few acres of ground near his cabin. This is done by cutting a circle round the trees, two or three feet from the ground. The ground around thefe trees is then ploughed, and Indian corn planted in it. The feafon for planting this grain is about the twentieth of May. It grows generally, on new ground, with but little cultivation, and yields in the month of October following, from forty to fifty bushels an acre. After the firit of September, it affords a good deal of nourishment to his family in its green or unripe ftate, in the form of what is called roafting ears. His family is fed, during the fummer, by a fmall quantity of grain, which he carries with him, and by fish and game. His cows and horfes feed upon wild grafs, or the fucculent twigs of the woods. For the felt year, he endures a great deal of distress from hunger, cold, and a variety of acciREV. OCT. 1791. dental