advantages of brevity in book-keeping, he has involved his ideas in more diffuse and complex language than we could have supposed to be possible, on a subject so much calculated to suggest a plain and direct phraseology. He is, however, perfectly right in premising that very few mercantile houses keep their books posted to the current day; and indeed the practice of monthly entries, and not unfrequently the want of a proper distribution of labour in a countinghouse, are the causes of delay to an extent by no means suspected by persons out of business. These delays are attributed by Mr. Power, and with some reason, to the circuitous mode now followed in making entries. Before a sum is charged to an individual in his definitive account, in the ledger, it has generally passed through three or four preliminary books, each adapted to exhibit the course of transactions in a particular form; these books are different in different houses, but they consist most commonly in a cash-book, waste-book, and journal. On the contrary, he proceeds on the plan of disusing the journal, and of posting entries at once from the waste or cash-book into the ledger.

It was formerly a general practice to make a record of all transactions in a waste-book as a kind of basis for the subsequent entries; which record consisted in notes or memoranda made by the partner or the clerk, who had transacted the business in question, and was generally couched in plain terms, without reference to the technical forms of book-keeping. To reduce it to the latter was the charge of the professed book-keeper, who posted these entries daily, weekly, or monthly, into a regular journal. In late years, merchants have disused the waste-book; and the book-keepers have posted the journal at once from certain auxiliary records, such as the cash-book, bill book, invoice-book, account of sales-book, &c. This was a considerable improvement, inasmuch as perspicuity and accuracy are promoted by classing cash, bills, &c. in separate books; and, when once entered there, they needed no repetition in the waste-book. Mr. Power acknowleges the advantage of these auxiliary books, but is inclined to retain, for certain transactions, the old method of a waste-book-entry. He gives to the latter, however, the plain name of memorandum-book, and considers that it should be open to every clerk of the house who may have a transaction to record. He makes it a receptacle for noting all bargains, and their principal conditions, as soon as they are settled: but this is nothing new; and the merit of his system rests almost exclusively on the question of the propriety of omitting the use of a journal, and of posting entries directly to debtor and creditor in the ledger. In order to make his plan more intelligible, he exhibits examples by way of contrast between his method and that of Mr. Jackson. It is at present common among merchants to make the ledger-entries very short, little more, indeed, than a reference to the journal: but Mr. Power makes the ledgerentry minute and particular, thinking that a full explanation can be placed no where with so much propriety as on the face of the account. The circuitous form of regular book-keeping has made many merchants adopt, for personal accounts, the more direct plan of an account-current-book: but this, under Mr. Power's rule, is unneces

sary,

sary, the ledger serving the same purpose both in fullness of expla nation and in promptitude of posting.

Mr. P. admits that his plan is useful chiefly to persons who keep their own books, and who will naturally prefer dispatch and diminu tion of trouble to the arguments generally alleged in favour of the present system: those who keep clerks are less likely to forsake the established plan. He has, however, unluckily brought forwards his arguments with too much pomp of language; his method being nothing more than that which, to our knowlege, has occurred to indivi duals who had practised, in their partnership-concerns, book-keeping on the established plan, but were contented to keep their private books in the summary mode which, to Mr. Power, appears in the light of so fortunate a discovery. We do not, indeed, wish to represent the plan as generally known: but it has long been the custom in some houses of trade to disuse journal-entries regarding cash-transactions, and to post the ledger from the cash-book at once; and this was a considerable approximation to Mr. Power's method. The journal is generally recommended as a duplicate of the ledger in the event of accident; but, in lieu of it, Mr. P. suggests the propriety of a regular transcript of the ledger. He recommends, also, that the inventory or general statement of a merchant's affairs should not appear in the journal; a book which is open to every clerk in the house. He admits that his method is not so favourable to fine writing in books as the established practice, but he argues that it is quite as little or indeed less liable to error, because mistakes frequently occur in the repetitions, which are necessary in the course of the different modifications of the present plan.

We are fully satisfied, with Mr. Power, that book-keeping may be considerably improved; and that it would be highly expedient to put merchants on a plan which would have the effect of preventing the occurrence of the delays at present so frequent in posting their accounts but the mode of doing this is involved in difficulty, parti cularly as different branches of business require distinct applications of the rules of book-keeping. By way of general observation, we would throw out the idea of rendering the task of book-keeping, which in general is irksome, the joint occupation of two persons, whenever such co-operation is practicable. Nothing tends more to animate or quicken labour than arrangements of this description. Even in a house of consequence, the entries for the transactions of week might be made in the course of a few hours by two persons, one, of whom should be qualified to dictate to the other. Another idea, not undeserving of attention, is the propriety of confining to a private. ledger those explanations relative to the capital and profits of a house,, which at present are open to the eye of the clerks in the same way as transactions in which secrecy is not in any degree an object. Art. 23. Letters addressed to Two absent Daughters. By Mrs." Rundell. Crown 8vo. 8s. Boards. Rees. 1814. Mrs. Rundell prefaces these letters by saying that she lays no claim to originality, but desires to obtain credit for the goodness-ofher intentions;' and this praise needs, not be denied, since her book is uniformly moral, and contains some sensible and useful reflections; particularly

Y 3

particularly those an death (in page 131.) and on friendship. (P.135. to 137.) It might, however, have been rendered more lively, if a few of those letters had been inserted which the young ladies are supposed to address to their mother; and, to make it grammatically cor. rect, the following passages should have been altered; Page 124. * Avoid writing very small, as though pretty to look at, it is often illegible.'- Page 253. I never knew a person that was addicted to lying who had not other faults; far where it exists there must be something to conceal,' &c,

Art. 24. Sixth Report of the Directors of the African Institution, read at the Annual General Meeting on the 25th of March 1812. To which are added an Appendix, and a List of the Subscribers. 8vo. pp. 183. 2s, Hatchard,

With extreme satisfaction, we observe and record the spirited and persevering exertions of this truly philanthropic society. Its object is threefold, viz. to procure the complete suppression of the SlaveTrade; to ameliorate the condition of those negroes who are transported into the West Indies; and to diffuse the blessings of knowlege and civilization over the vast continent of Africa. The present Report commences with lamenting that, notwithstanding the efforts of the British Government to extinguish this nefarious traffic in human flesh, it has in fact revived to even a greater extent than that which was noticed in the last Report *; and that the Directors have reason to believe that, during the year 1810, not fewer than from 70,000 to 80,000 Africans were transported as slaves from the western coast of Africa to the opposite shores of the Atlantic. They inform us that this enormous traffic was chiefly confined to that part of Africa which lies between Cape Palmos and Benguela; that the Portuguese settlement at Bissao furnished the slave-traders with a point from which they could carry slaves without the risk of capture; and that divers collusions and frauds were practised by the owners of slave-ships, to elude the prohibitory enactments of the law which aims at the abolition of the Slave-Trade. By a variety of documents given in the Appendix, much light is thrown not only on the efforts of the slave-dealers to render the act of Abolition unpopular in Africa, but on the arts adopted by slave-merchants in Europe and America to prevent the seizure of their ships, As the Directors are fully awake to all the iniquity which is exercised on this occasion, we trust that their endeavours, with the aid of Government, will be ultimately crowned with success. • Cases have been very numerous, in which subjects of the United States have been found, under the disguise of Spanish and Portuguese flags, prosecuting this nefarious traffic.

Respecting the treatment of slaves in the West India islands, details of a very affecting nature are communicated: but, while we read with horror of the brutality displayed by Mr. Hodge, a planter of Tortola, towards his slaves, our minds are relieved by the informa tion that this monster in a human form was brought to justices and

See M. R. Vol. lxvi, N. S. p. 446.

we

we applaud the noble conduct of Governor Elliot, who resisted the application for mercy made by the jury after having found Hodge guilty of murder, and who put the island under martial law that no attempt might be made to obstruct the execution of this atrocious offender. Such a commendable example cannot fail of striking terror into slave-owners; and it will lead all planters to remember the kind and degree of legal protection which their slaves enjoy.

The last objects of this report, the condition of the African continent, and the means of its improvement,-open a very wide field of inquiry; and the Directors of this Institution have presented us with such interesting and amusing information, as they hope will lead to the adoption of some new and beneficial measures with respect to Africa. Large districts of this continent are found to be susceptible of the most profitable cultivation; and the Directors have very humanely sent persons to different African chiefs, to convince them that they would obtain more riches by employing their people in cultiyation than by selling them for slaves. It appears from actual experiments that indigo, cotton, coffee, the sunn-plant of Bengal, which produces excellent hemp, and other profitable vegetables, may be raised in Africa. An extract is made from a journal of one Isaac, which anounces the death of Mr. Park; who, after having reached the Niger, was murdered on that river: but the Directors do not vouch for the truth of the statement; they add, however, that the parrative of Mr. Park himself, and also that of Isaac,' (the publication of which is promised, and probably by this time has made its appearance,) afford convincing evidence as to the great natural capacities, both agricultural and commercial, of this neglected quarter of the globe.' Completely to make out their case, the Directors proceed one step farther, and endeavour to prove not only the good qualities of the soil, but the capacities of the African race for improvement; a fact which some persons have presumed to call in question. The Directors state that they have long felt a strong persuasion of the capacity of the African to fill the same place with the European in civil society, provided the fair opportunities and advantages are afforded him of manifesting the native faculties of his mind. They add, that.

They have recently had a fresh proof exhibited to them, and to the world, of the unreasonableness of those prejudices, which, from viewing the Africans only in a situation of bondage and degradation, have led to a contrary conclusion. The fact to which they allude is, the arrival in this country of Captain Paul Cuffee, an American black, in his own ship, The Traveller, navigated by himself, and manned, with a single exception, by persons of his own colour. Captain Cuffee having been informed of the efforts which had been made in favour of his brethren in Africa, first by the Sierra Leone Company, and afterwards by this Institution, was anxious to ascertain, by a personal view of Sierra Leone and its inhabitants, and by personal intercourse with the friends of Africa in this country, whether he himself could in any way become instrumental in promoting their objects. A licence was accordingly procured for him, which permitted him to take a cargo from America to Sierra Leone, and a return-cargo thence to

England

England. He arrived at Liverpool in the month of July last. Soon after his arrival he visited London; and such of the Directors as had an opportunity of conferring with him were much gratified by his general intelligence, the accuracy of his observations and statements, and the apparent elevation of his principles. He was afterwards invited to attend a meeting of the Committee of the Board, specially called for the purpose of conferring with him; which the illustrious Patron of this Society honoured with his presence; and the interview left a very favourable impression of his mental and moral qualities on the mind of his Royal Highness, (the Duke of Gloucester,) and of all the Directors who attended. He gave a clear: and encouraging account of what he had seen in Africa, and suggested many considerations which may eventually lead to important results. On these, however, the Directors need not now enter. He left England in the month of September last, on his return to Sierra Leone; from which place he intended to proceed to Massachusets, in America, where his family resides.

In relation to Captain Cuffee, it may be proper briefly to inform the meeting, that by unwearied industry and well directed en terprise, under Providence, he has gradually risen from a state of poverty and obscurity, to the possession of considerable property, and to the enjoyment of a large share of consideration in society; and that all this has been effected in the face of difficulties which would have been above the exertions of most men, and in spite of the prejudices which tend to retain in a state of unjust degradation all who derive their origin from Africa.'

Encouraged by this striking instance, the Society have obtained from Sierra Leone two African youths, whom they have placed under the care of Mr. Lancaster; and it is said that their progress during the nine months of their residence in England has been more rapid than it could have been expected to be.

Every part of this Report is substantiated by ample documents, which truly enrich the Appendix, and merit particular attention. We cannot advert to all the contents of these valuable papers: but we shall copy two short passages from the report of the Commissioners. of African Inquiry, on the subjeet of the Slave-Trade, and on the settlement of Sierra Leone. Concerning the first, they observe; We have not sufficient means to prevent the Slave-Trade in general from being carried on ; but if, instead of opposing it generally, we confine ourselves for the present to some one branch of it, there is a great probability of our success there, and of a constant gradual extension of that success at a more remote period.-Adverting to the Sierra Leone settlement, they tell us that its situation is extremely well chosen; that it certainly has had the effect of diminishing, in a very great degree, the Slave-Trade in its neighbourhood;' and that, if as a settlement it has fallen short of the sanguine expectations which had been formed of its success, there is every fair probability that Africa will ultimately derive much good from this settlement; not rapidly in deed, nor perhaps extensively, for this century, but still advancing as fast as can be reasonably expected from power and resources so slender and disproportioned to such a gigantic undertaking, as the civilization