THE

NORTH-AMERICAN REVIEW.

A Statistical view of the Commerce of the United States of America; its connection with agriculture and manufactures, and an account of the publick debt, revenues, and expenditures of the United States. With a brief review of the trade, agriculture, and manufactures of the Colonies, previous to their Independence. Accompanied with tables illustrative of the principles and objects of the work. By Timothy Pitkin, a member of the House of Representatives of the United States, from the State of Connecticut. Hartford, printed by Charles Hosmer, pp. 427, 8vo.

THERE is little in the early periods of the existence of any nation, to reward research into its history. All the movements of society, in its first stages, are so entirely regulated by temporary and local considerations, its energies are necessarily so weak, and its spheres of action so circumscribed, that the causes of its progress are, for the most part, to be ascribed to the qualities, which distinguish particular individuals, rather than to those of a more general and permanent character. Men must advance far beyond the state of huntsmen and fishermen and shepherds, before the general results of their civil condition become objects of useful inquiry and analysis. After property begins to accumulate, and wealth to be concentrated in the hands, comparatively of a few; after the course of a society is shaped less by the activity of particular individuals, than by the mass of intellectual, moral, and physical powers, which time and circumstances have placed under the control of its rulers, then it is important that facts relative to the civil condition of a people, should be known and be collected and generalized; that this knowledge should be extended and that means should be afforded for the calculation of the force of the nation, and a general understanding diffused concerning the particulars, upon which its strength depends.

Truths of this kind are applicable to the people of the United States, as they have been to every other. Antecedent to our revolution, the Colonies had grown rich and great. This had been effected, however, almost wholly by the opportunity which the extent and unoccupied condition of the soil afforded to individual enterprise and exertion. Little, if any, of those riches and that greatness, is attributable to the arrangements of the society; still less to any general principle of policy, or economies, which any of the master spirits of the state had devised and put into operation, for the express purpose of improving its condition.

The effect of the revolution, was to create something like a general will by the universal impulse, which that event, in its course and completion communicated. Under the first confederation, attempts were made to give substance. and efficiency to the exertions of the nation. These failing, and a general condition of the necessity of more vigour in the national government, being produced, prepared the way for the adoption of the federal constitution; under the auspices of which, we seem advancing, if we have not already attained to a state in which a knowledge of our civil condition will be something more than the gratification of mere curiosity. The internal proportions of power and of influence, which the component parts of the nation have a right to claim, and which they ought to vindicate, as well as the relative weight and importance of the whole nation, compared with those of cotemporaneous external states and empires, are only to be ascertained by a knowledge of the facts belonging to the condition of our society. These, therefore, are to be sought, and ought to be studied by all who aspire to regulate, or improve the state of the nation; and even by all who would judge rightly of their duties as citizens, and who are conscientiously scrupulous, even in private life, of so casting their influence into the scale of parties, as best to promote the general happiness and prosperity.

It may, however, be doubted, if the United States have yet arrived at that stage of national existence, in which a great degree of practical advantage can justly be expected from statistical knowledge, in whatever degree it may be minute, or accurate. And it is certain, that there are circumstances in the condition of our country, which will be

likely, for a long time, to put at fault all calculations founded on those common facts and data, from which the politicians of Europe reason and conclude concerning the fates of the nations of their own hemisphere. Among these, may be enumerated the unparalleled freedom of our Constitutions, which leaves so narrow a sphere for the operations of general regulations, and so wide an one for the caprice and talent of individuals; the unexampled influx of foreigners into our country, and the efflux of our own population into the new lands of the west; and, in general, the want of fixity of national character, the result of these and other causes, both moral and territorial. History, in the long course of its annals, presents no nation, which in the early periods of its existence can be compared to the United States, in the points of greatness, complexity, and number of its relations. In a current of affairs, such as that in which this country is involved, rapid, powerful, accumulated in the mass, and uncertain in the direction of its waters, it is scarcely possible for the mind to fix upon any data on which to rest as the ground of policy or just calculation. Before the work of reason is completed, all the foundations are changed; the land is gone from under us, and new points emerge to view, destined in their turn, also, to disappear and to deceive those who put confidence in their permanency.

Reflections of this kind, however just, ought not to make us neglect, or prize at a mean rate, a knowledge of such general facts, relative to our condition, as we are enabled, in so shifting a scene of things, to attain. All knowledge is desirable. And that which makes us acquainted with the general relations subsisting in our country had many claims. of interest, and gives some promise of utility; notwithstanding, in this respect, it is necessarily less than what would result from similar labours, in a state of society more advanced and less fluctuating than that which at present exists in our country.

Political Arithmetick is an art daily growing more important in the United States. It may be hoped, that in proportion as men approximate towards certainty in their judgments concerning the facts which indicate the condition of the nation, parties will be likely to draw nearer to each other in their plans of policy; that principles, in their nature coherent and uniform, will be laid at the foundation

of every system of administration, and thus render them less liable to be shaken by the changes, or by any of those other alterations in the character of rulers, to which republicks are so proverbially subject.

To aid in advancing towards the attainment of this certainty, the work of Mr. Pitkin is eminently calculated. The opportunities he has enjoyed for prosecuting this undertaking with success, have been great, and he is well qualified both by his talents and turn of mind for the purpose. The requisites for such a work, are industry, accuracy, fidelity, a discriminating intellect, and a love of research into the details of business; not to be disgusted by what is dry, and not to be deterred by what is difficult. All these qualifications, besides others of a different, and, in vulgar estimation, of a higher, but, for a work of this nature, of a less essential character, it is manifest, from the evidence this volume contains, that Mr. Pitkin possesses, in a very distinguished degree. Our country has never yet produced a work, more indicative of extensive, accurate, and laborious research. It is a manual of political knowledge relative to our country, which every statesman and man of general science ought to have in his library; on the subjects on which it treats, its authority is complete. Every thing it contains is practical information. Nothing is yielded to theory. Nothing is added for the sake of display. A book of tables and figures and arithmetical results may not meet, on its first entrance into the world, any noisy or vivid marks of general approbation. It will, however, work its way, not only into the closets of the curious, but to the desks of men of business, and secure for itself a well earned, because a laborious and useful fame, both with its cotemporaries, and with posterity.

Antecedent to the publication of this volume, there existed but one formal work on the subject of American sta tisticks. “Economica, or a Statistical Manual for the United States," published in 1806, by Samuel Blodget, junior. This work contained some facts useful to be collected, and many calculations and reasonings, having a tendency to excite interest and attention to the subject. It was not, however, written in a style suited to acquire popularity, either for itself or its subject, nor published under circumstances of a nature to attract publick confidence. It was, therefore, oftener consulted than quoted, and more frequently used

than acknowledged. Blodget was neither precise in the objects of his research, nor distinct in his design, nor discriminating in the selection of topicks appropriate for such work. Much that he inserts belongs to general history rather than to statisticks. A considerable portion of his volume is made up of chronological details. He republishes the constitution of the United States, and treats of the policy pursued by former legislatures of the Union, with an asperity of censure, and of that, which future ought to pursue in a style of authority, not calculated either to win favour or excite conviction. Blodget's mind was bold, ardent, original, and speculative. In the latter period of his life, when his book was published, he was an observer of the scenes which passed, rather than an actor in them. His book partakes of the character of a mind so constituted and so circumstanced. He has the merit, and it is no small one, of baying been the first in this country to enter on this field of authorship. And although his work may be superceded by those of recent date, and by those framed under happier auspices, yet his merit ought not to be wholly passed in silence. Those who follow the track he first took, must inevitably derive some aid from his mistakes, as well as from his example. A passing recollection seems to be due to one who first undertook to explore, and first made a location in a part of science, which before, was in this country, little else than a wilderness.

The work of Mr. Pitkin was commenced and prosecuted under circumstances in every respect auspicious. A member of congress, engaged in the active debates of the time, realizing, from his situation, what was necessary to be known, and from his official station not only enabled to seek, but often to command information from the departments of State, in forms the most favourable to his pursuits, it is to be expected that his work should possess all the accuracy of detail and precision of object, that the relation in which he stood to the country, enabled him to attain. And there can be no doubt, that he has availed himself of the advantageous circumstances in which he was placed, with a zeal, an industry, and intelligence, as exemplary, as it is in relation to such a work for the purposes of confidence and utility, indispensable.

The branches of the art of political arithmetick includes the population, the wealth, and all the circumstances which