njecture as to the probable author of this very
able tract; but it appears to me that it may on good grounds be ascribed to
Henry Martyn, who afterwards--not certainly in accordance with the
enlightened principles he lays down in this pamphlet--took an active part
in opposing the treaty of commerce with France, and was rewarded by the
appointment of Inspector-General of the exports and imports of the customs.
(See an account of him in Ward's _Lives of Gresham Professors_, p. 332.) He
was a contributor to _The Spectator_, and Nos. 180. 200. and 232. have been
attributed to him; and the matter of Sir Andrew Freeport's speculations
appears to have been furnished by him as Addison and Steele's oracle on
trade and commerce. It will be seen that in No. 232. he makes exactly the
same use of Sir William Petty's example of the watch as is done in the
tract (p.69.), and the coincidence seems to point out one common author of
both compositions. But, without placing too much stress on this similarity,
I find, that Collins's _Catalogue_, which was compiled with great care, and
where it mentions the authors of anonymous works may always be relied upon,
attributes this tract to Martyn (Collins's _Cat_. 1730-1, 8vo., Part I.,
No. 3130.). I have a copy of the edition of 1701, in the original binding
and lettering--lettered "Martyn on the East India Trade "--and copies of
the edition of 1720 in two separate collections of tracts; one of which
belonged to A. Chamier, and the other to George Chalmers; in both of which
the name of Martyn is written as its author on the title-page, and in the
latter in Chalmers's handwriting. I think therefore we may conclude that
this tract, which well deserves being more generally known than it is at
present, was written by Henry Martyn.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

"AKE" AND ACHE.

John Kemble, it is well known, maintained that the latter was the mode of
pronouncing this word in Shakspeare's days. He was right, and he was wrong;
for, as I shall show, both modes prevailed, at least in poetry, till the
end of the seventeenth century. So it was with some other words, _show_ and
_shew_, for instance. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to observe that the
sounds _k, ch, sh, kh_ (guttural) are commutable. Thus the letter _h_ is
named in Italian, _acca_; in French, _ache_, in English, _aitch_, perhaps
originally _atch_: our _church_ is the Scottish _kirk_, &c. Accordingly, we
mee