In playing this tune upon the lyre, Dion indeed fays, that you ftruck the outermoft ftring, or Saturn, firft; then every fourth firing inclufive in their order. But it appears by the old musicians, that there were feveral ways of beginning this tune, and that you might fet off from different ftrings. In reckoning the days of the week, they plainly began with the fourth: and it is allowed by the judges of mufic, that ftriking the firft ftring laft would make the compofition more harmonious. Dion's obfervation about the antiquity of this custom feems to be as well grounded. He fays, that the ancient Greeks knew nothing of it. It is certain, that the univerfal reception of it among the Greeks and Romans could not be long before his time. Ovid would scarce have loft an opportunity of embellishing his Falli with the ftory of fome of thefe hebdoma dary deities, if this had been the ufual practice in that age. Reckoning the month, and confequently the year, by weeks, was very ancient. Philo and Jofephus affure us, that this diftribution of time was univerfally received among all nations. The practice of affigning each day of the week to a particular deity was, as Herodotus informs us, an invention of the Egyptians : from thence it came by flow advances into Italy and Rome. Most of the Egyptian cuftoms had been long held in great contempt by the Romans; but after Vefpafian had affumed the purple, and eftablished himself in the empire, they began to be more fashionable at court. This invention, whenever it was received there, came from thence to our ancestors the Saxons; and is one inftance, among many others, of their great difpofition to imitate the Roman customs. MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. Thoughts on the Caufis and Confequences of the prefent bigh Price of Provifions. - Privatus illis cenfus erat brevis Commune magnum. Tfions, and all the necefla HE high price of provi ries of life, is an evil fo inconvenient to all conditions of men, and fo intolerable to fome, that it is not furprising that all should fuffer it with much difcontent, and many be drove by it into defpair, or into riots, rapine, and all kinds of diforders. The latter, indeed, we cannot but expect, if we confider, that the enemies of all government and fubordination, fo numerous in this country, will not fail to avail themfelves of this favourable opportunity, to fpread univerfal diffatisfaction, and inflame the minds of the people to feek redress by fuch infamous and dangerous methods. This they endeavour, too fuccefsfully, to effect, by daily reprefenting in the public papers, that this calamity arifes from the artifices of monopolizers, regraters, foreftallers, and engroffers, encouraged, or at least connived at, by minifters defirous of oppreffing the people, and parliaments unattentive to their complaints. It is hard to say, whether the ignorance of these writers, or their malevolence, is fuperior; or, whether the abfurdity of their principles, or the mif. chief of them, is the greatest: but one may venture to affirm, that our people, notwithstanding the present scarcity, are till better fed than taught. This une doubtedly makes it neceffary, at this time, that the true causes of this evil fhould be explained to them; which, if it leffens not their wants, may in fome measure abate their ill founded indignation. To this end I fhall endeavour to fhew, as concifely as poffible, that the prefent high price of provifions. arifes principally from two fources; the increase of our national debts, and the increase of our riches; that is, from the poverty of the public, and the wealth of private individuals. From what caufes thefe have been increased, and what have been the effects of that increafe, fhall be the fubject of the few following pages. It will farely be unneceffary to inquire into the caufes of the late immenfe increase of our national debt; whoever remembers the many millions annually borrowed, funded, and expended, during the laft war, can be under no difficulty to account for its increase, To pay intereft for thefe new funds, new taxes were every year im M 3 pofed, pofed, and additional burthens laid on every comfort, and almost every neceffary, of life, by former taxes, occasioned by former wars, before fufficiently loaded. Thefe muft unavoidably increase the prices of them, and that in a much greater proportion than is ufually underflood: for a duty laid on any commodity does not only add the value of that duty to the price of that commodity, but the dealer in it must advance the price double or treble times that fum; for he must not only repay him felf the original tax, but mult have compenfation for his loffes in trade by bad debts, and lofs of intereft by his increafed capital. Befides this, every new tax does not only affect the price of the commodity on which it is laid, but that of all others, whether taxed or not, and with which, at first fight, it seems to have no manner of connection. Thus, for inftance, a tax on candles must raife the price of a coat, or a pair of breeches; because, out of thefe, all the taxes on the candles of the wool-comber, weaver, and the tailor, must be paid a duty upon ale muft raise the price of fhoes; because from them all the taxes upon ale drank by the tanner, leather-dreffer, and fhoemaker, which is not a little, must be refunded. No tax is immediately laid upon corn, but the price of it muft neceffarily be advanced; becaufe, out of that, all the innumerable taxes paid by the farmer on windows, foap, candles, malt, hops, leather, falt, and a thou fand others, must be repaid: fo that corn is as effectually taxed, as if a duty by the bushel had been primarily laid upon it; for taxes, like the various ftreams which form a general inundation, by whatever channels they separately find admiffion, unite at lait, and overwhelm the whole. The man, therefore, who fold fand upon an afs, and raised the price of it during the late war, though abused for an impofition, moft certainly acted upon right reafons; for, though there were no new taxes then impofed either on fand or affes, yet he found by experience, that, from the taxes laid on almost all other things, he could neither maintain himself, his wife, or his afs, as cheap as formerly; he was therefore under a neceffity of advancing the price of his fand, out of which alone all the taxes which he paid must be refunded. Thus, I think, it is evident beyond all doubt, that the increase of taxes must increafe the price of every thing; whether taxed or not; and that this is one principal cause of the prefent extraordinary advance of provifions, and all the neceffaries of life. The other great fource, from whence this calamity arifes, is certainly our vast increase of riches; the caufes and confequences of which I will now briefly confider. That our riches are in fact amaz-, ingly increased within a few years, no one, who is in the leaft acquainted with this country, can entertain a doubt: whoever will caft his eyes on our public works, our roads, our bridges, our pavements, and our hofpitals, the prodigious extenfion of our capital, and in fome proportion that of every confiderable town in Great Britain; whoever will look into the poffeffions and expences of individuals, their houses, furniture, X tables, tables, equipages, parks, gardens, cloaths, plate, and jewels, will find every where round him fufficient marks to teflify to the truth of this propofition. This great increase of private opulence is undoubtedly owing to the very fame cause which increafed our national debt; that is, to the enormous expences and unparalleled fuccefs of the late war; and indeed very much arifes from that very debt itfelf. Every million funded is in fact a new creation of fo much wealth to individuals, both of principal and intereft; for the principal, being eafily transferable, operates exactly as fo much cash; and the intereft, by enabling fo many to confume the commodities on which taxes are laid for the payment of it, in a great meafare produces annually an income to discharge itself. Of all the enormous fums then expended, little, befides the fubfidies granted to German princes, was loft to the individuals of this country, though the whole was irrecoverably alienated from the public: all the rest annually returning into the pockets of the merchants, contractors, brokers, and ftock-jobbers, enabled them to lend it again to the public on a new mortgage the following year. Every emiffion of paper-credit by bank-notes, exchequer and navy bills, fo long as they circulate, anfwers all the purposes of fo much additional gold and filver as their value amounts to. If we add to thefe the immenfe riches daily flowing in, fince that period, from our commerce, extended over every quarter of the globe, from the new channels of trade opened with America, and the amazing fums imported from the East-Indies, it will not fure be difficult to account for the opulence of the prefent times, which has enabled men to increafe their expences, and carry luxury to a pitch unknown to all former ages. The effects of this vaft and füdden increase of riches are no less evident than their caufe: the first and most obvious effect of the increafe of money is the decrease of its value, like that of all other commodities; for money being but a commodity, its value mult be relative, that is, dependant on the quantity of itself, and the > quantity of the things to be purchafed with it. In every country where there is great plenty of provifions, and but little money, there provifions must be cheap, that is, a great deal of them will be exchanged for a little money: on the contrary, where there are but little provifions in proportion to the number of confumers, and a great plenty of money, or what paffes for money, there they will inevitably be dear; that is a great deal of money must be given to purchase them. Thefe effects must eternally follow their caufes in all ages and in all countries; and that they have done fo, the hiftory of all countries in all ages fufficiently informs us. The value of money at the time of the Norman conqueft was near twenty times greater than at prefent; and it has been gradually decreafing from that period, in proportion as our riches have increased: it has decreafed not less than one third during the prefent century; and I believe one half at leaft of that third fince the commencement of the laft war, which, I doubt not, could it be M 4 exactly exactly computed, would be found to be in due proportion to the increafe of its quantity, either in real or fictitious cath; and that the price of provifions is advanced in the fame proportion during the fame period. The increase of money does not only operate on the price of provifions by the diminution of its own value, but by enabling more people to purchafe, and confequently to confume them; which muft unavoidably likewife increafe their fcarcity, and that muft ftill add more to their price. Twenty rich families will confume ten times as much meat, bread, butter,, foap, and candles, as twenty poor families confifting of the fame number; and the prices of all the fe muft certainly rife in proportion to the demand. This effect of the increase of wealth, in many countries of Europe, is very visible at this day, and in none more than in the northern parts of this ifland, who, having of late acquired riches by the introduction of trade, manufactures, and tillage, can now well afford to eat roast beef, and therefore confume much of thofe cattle, with which they were formerly glad to fupply us; and will not part with the reft but at prices greatly advanced. The confump tion of every thing is alfo amazingly increafed from the increafe of wealth in our metropolis, and indeed in every corner of this kingdom; and the manner of living, throughout all ranks and conditions of men, is no lef amazingly altered the merchant, who formerly thought himself fortunate, if, in a courfe of thirty or forty years, by a large trade and ftrict economy, he amaffed toge ther as many thoufand pounds, now acquires in a quarter of that time double that fum, or breaks for a greater, and vies all the while with the first of our nobility, in his houfes, table, furniture, and equipage: the hopkeeper, who used to be well contented with one difh of meat, one fire, and one maid, has now two or three times as many of each; his wife has her tea, her card-parties, and her dreffing-room; and his prentice has climbed from the kitchen-fire to the front-boxes at the playhouse. The lowest manufacturer and meanest mechanic will touch nothing but the very best pieces of meat, and the finest white bread; and, if he cannot obtain double the wages for being idle, to what he formerly received for working hard, he thinks he has a right to feek for a redrefs of his grievances, by riot and rebellion. Since then the value of our money is decreafed by its quantity, our confumption increafed by univerfal luxury, and the fupplies, which we ufed to receive from poorer countries, now alfo grown rich, greatly diminished, the prefent exorbitant price of all the neceffaries of life can be no wonder. From what has been here offered, I think this may be readily accounted for, without having recourfe to foreftallers, regraters, engroffers, monopolizers, higglers, badgers, bounties, poft - chailes, turnpike-roads, enlarging of farms, and the extenfion of the metropolis, with all that ridiculous catalogue of caufes, which have been affigned by effay-writers to this evil, and frequently adopted by the abfurdity of their readers. How far all or any of thefe |