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OBSERVATIONS ON THE ABOVE.

The above was written, as appears by its date, before the present stagnation of credit had begun to take place. This very circumstance furnishes an additional argument against the undue influence of that manufacturing and commercial system, the excesses of which only were reprehended in the papers alluded to. Pofsibly the best thing that could be done, would be to leave agriculture to make a fair competition with manufactures, as this correspondent seems to approve of. But it ought ever to be adverted to, that the manufacturing and commercial system, by exposing the undertakers to greater risks, leaves a much greater chance of accumulating sometimes a great fortune on a sudden, than the other, which tends to promote a greater equality in wealth; therefore it would seem to be wise, if regulations are avowedly made to favour either system, that they fhould lean to the side of agriculture; but as the public are ever fond of any kind of lottery that holds forth the tempting bait of a sudden acquisition of great wealth, at whatever risks, there is reason to suspect the opposite conduct will always tend to render a minister popular, and therefore it must be his interest tó favour it, whatever it may be to the country at large.

On these principles M. Colbert, towards the beginning of this century, attempted to give very undue encouragement to manufactures at the expence of agriculture, the baneful effects of

59 which are now well known. Can we say that similar things have never been done by the ministers of Britain ?

Indeed an attempt to favour either the one or the other, by such short sighted mortals as we are, usually produces effects the very reverse of what was intended. At this moment the commerce of this country is cramped, and the price of bread corn remarkably enhanced, by the operation of an unwise law lately made. When legislators attempt to regulate the businefs of individuals, they usually produce great mischiefs, and expose themselves to derision, if not to detestation.

We are too little acquainted with the internal state of China to be able to reason on particu lars respecting that country; but we know in general, that that country has continued in a state of augmenting prosperity, for a number of centuries so much longer than any European state has existed, as to admit of no sert of comparison with them ; and that agriculture, and domestic manufactures and internal trade are the chief employments followed there. If those who wish to change their situation in cases of necefsity, are prohibited from doing so, it must be a cruel regulation; but that this is not the case, is I think evident from this circumstance, that at Batavia, and many other parts of India, the Chinese abound very much. That there are not foolish political regulations in China as well as elsewhere, I am far from supposing. Wherever men are to act, they will be liable to be influenced by ignorance or prejudice, and of course to error and improprieties of conduct.

J. A.

ANECDOTES OF DISTINGUISHED BRITISH OFFICERS, WHO FELL IN THE RUSSIAN NAVAL SERVICE DURING THE LAST WAR WITH SWEDEN. BY ARCTICUS. For the Bee.

Continued from p. 19.

Third.

SAMUEL ELPHISTON, Esq. Captain of the first rank. SAMUEL ELPHISTON, esq. was eldest son of captain Elphiston of the British navy, a gallant and brifk officer, who made the Turks tremble whilst admiral of the Rufsian fleet in the Archipelago, and may with justice be said to have paved the way for the brilliant naval victories afterwards gained over them, from the panic his bold actions had already struck on these seas,-victories, however, which he always had his share in, although no longer commander in chief, when under a superior flag.

Both the admiral's sons were early made midshipmen in the Russian navy, and acted under their father whilst he chose to remain in the service; but it is much for the honour of Great Britain, that both he, and sir Charles Douglafs before him, gave up the superior rank of admiral, to return to that of captain in their native country. Samuel, the eldest son, and subject of this article, at the conclusion of the Turkish war, went to gain experience and laurels in the British navy, then making head against

such a combination of hostile powers as the world had never seen leagued together, under the pretence of aiding liberty, although the meaning of the word was unknown in their own dominions, and is so still; for men must be gradually trained to the sober enjoyment of virtuous liberty, not let loose at once, as the hero of la Mancha discovered to his cost, long before Louis XVI.

He seems to have succeeded pretty well, as we find him a lieutenant under Rodney, in the famous battle with de Grasse, and honoured with the command of his fhip the Ville de Paris, to carry her into Jamaica, after the victory. He re-entered this service at the end of that war, in which Rodney, Elliot, and Hastings supported the British renown in the four quarters of the world, equal, if not superior to what it had ever been carried to, during any period of its honourable history.

This brilliant young officer added much to the reputation he had gained in the West Indies, by quelling a mutiny in a most spirited manner, which broke out in a ship of the line at Portsmouth, at a time when insubordination and mutiny were but too frequent. Thus early had those principles appeared in Europe, which have since rent to pieces one of the greatest nations of modern times, and would already have laid another in the dust, had not the frantic excefses of a mob, raised by a lunatic, opened men's eyes to their danger, and strengthened the hands of government at a critical moment, when the power of

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the civil magistrate was no more, and the aid of the military servants of the public so unpopular, even when called upon legally to support the laws, that licence reigned triumphant.

Mr Elphiston, as his reputation had preceded him, was immed ately received into this service as post captain, or captain of the second rank, full of experience for his years; and as he applyed himself afsiduously to the Rufsian language, and the intricate detail of this service, he was often employed on courts martial, and other duty of the kind, where that species of knowledge, joined to strict honour and impartiality, are required.

war.

He married at Cronstadt, the Portsmouth of Rufsia, the daughter of admiral Cruse, and was living happily in a domestic state, when called to more dangerous duty by the breaking out of the late Turkish Captain Elphiston was appointed to a fhip of the line, in the fleet destined to the Archepelago under admiral Greig, when the Swedes furnished them with occupation nearer home. In the first battle against the new enemy, our young hero fought one of the most desperate actions with the Swedish flag fhip recorded in the annals of any country, and certainly had all the merit of taking her, although Wachmaster did not strike till Greig bore down upon him, disdaining to deliver his sword to an officer below his own rank; his admiral received the other Swedish flag, but Elphiston carried off the fhip's ensign, as a trophy of his hard earned victory.

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