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strengthen the arm of government, and promote the welfare and happiness of the people?

The tillage of land, before waste and unfruitful, is in every point of view an acquisition of territory highly beneficial. Unlike distant colonies, which furnish a perpetual pretext for hostility, lands newly cultivated excite no jealousy in the neighbouring states, and can furnish no grounds for those frequent wars, which are the severest scourges of mankind, and disgrace the professors of a religion founded for the express purpose of disseminating benevolence, and establishing peace.

The advice of projectors, when they direct their ingenuity to a subject so important as that we are discussing, calls for the most serious attention. Few plans recommended by them seem better calculated to carry the rural arts to perfection, than the establishment of experimental farms. These ought to be formed in different counties, and the expences defrayed by government. Here the nature of particular soils, as adapted to various modes and processes of cultivation, the peculiar qualities and comparative value of grasses and plants, might be ascertained. Here the best and most economical mode of rearing and fattening all kinds of useful animals might be tried, as well as the methods of abridging labour by improvements in machinery. Our country can boast of academies of painting, and societies for the encouragement of arts; but yet it wants a practical institution of this kind, conducted upon an extensive and liberal scale. By collecting and comparing the experiments made in these various places, great advantages might be gained: and for this purpose, a periodical publication of transactions would be highly useful, as a repository and

vehicle of detached observations. By the admission of honorary members, this society might likewise carry on an extensive correspondence, include the patrons of the agricultural interest in all parts of the world, and compare their different processes, discoveries, and plans of operation for the purpose of general utility.

Abundance of food is the only wealth of the industrious poor, as other possessions, consising in ample revenues, splendid houses and equipages, exclusively belong to the rich. Upon the quantity and cheapness of the common necessaries of life, the industry, health, and strength of the people, and of course the general comfort of society, and the prosperity of the nation, must ever depend. It is therefore the duty, as well as the interest, of government, to take every possible method to prevent their dearness, by guarding against their scarcity. Manufactures and commerce are the great sources of wealth; and in order to prevent them from being dried up and exhausted, it is necessary that agriculture should be an object of the first attention, and that its produce should be attainable at a cheap rate. It is an excellent observation, "that neither agriculture nor trade can flourish, where the general ease does not begin with the class of labourers." Priestley's Lectures on History, p. 367.

Nature will not suffer her laws to be violated; the call of the appetites is more importunate than the solicitations of fashion; and the means of subsistence must be secured to mankind before they go in search of superfluities. The arts of necessity are antecedent to those of elegance.

From the preceding observations may be deduced some of the most useful principles of political econo

my. The real power and opulence of a nation consist in the number of its inhabitants well supplied with the necessaries of life;-subsistence is the proper measure of population, and the earth is the source of subsistence. All other means of wealth and dominion, such as commerce, abundance of the precious metals, and extent of colonies, promote the true prosperity of a state, only in proportion as they encourage AGRICULTure, which is the most valuable of the arts, as well as the most solid and most durable basis of Plenty and Power.

CHAPTER III.

COMMERCE.

IS well described to be "an operation, by which the wealth or work either of individuals or of societies may be exchanged by merchants for an equivalent, proper for supplying every want without interruption to industry, or check to consumption."* This subject will be considered with an immediate reference to the particular state and circumstances of our own country.

The natural advantages enjoyed by an ISLAND are superior to those which belong to any country, which forms a part of a continent. The soil of the former is

* See Encyclop. Britann, vol. ii, p. 195. Priestley's Lectures on History, p. 386. For the rise and progress of commerce and navigation, and an excellent account of Columbus and his discoveries, see history of Modern Europe, vol. ii, p. 224, &c.

commonly more rich, fertile, and various, than that of the latter. The sea affords the inhabitants security against the invasion of enemies, and furnishes them with inexhaustible supplies of provision. The fisheries on their coasts dispose islanders to navigation, and hence they are led to establish an extensive intercourse with the most distant places. From their general propensity to maritime affairs, they acquire a spirit of enterprize, and distinguish themselves by their courage in the maintenance of their own customs and forms of government; and frequently gain a permanent ascendency over neighbouring and even remote states.

To these general advantages, which were possessed in ancient times by Crete, and at a less distant period by Rhodes, Great Britain adds some, which are peculiar to herself. Her line of sea-coast is very extensive in proportion to the size of the whole island, and abounds with deep bays and capacious, harbours. Her ports are convenient, and good for anchorage. Those on the western side of the island are nearly as well situated for the southern trade, as the French; and they are far superior in number, safety, and depth of water. With respect to the northern and the Baltic trades, the situation of France before the late war, when it had not the command of the coasts of Holland, admitted of no comparison. Rivers and numerous canals afford the convenience of water carriage to all the inland counties of England, and not only connect them with each other by the internal circulation of trade, but afford an easy and cheap conveyance to the ocean.

These various advantages have for successive ages been carefully improved, as the great works of public utility, completed in our sea-port towns, sufficiently attest. Harbours have been deepened, piers and moles

have been erected to break the force of the waves, and form a safe asylum for ships. Wet and dry docks have been constructed for the building and reparation of ships, and commodious quays to unload their freights. In every place where necessity requires such aid, light-houses have been raised upon the lofty cliffs, to guide the mariner in the darkest nights along the dangerous coasts. These expensive and laborious works are carried on with ardour, to promote navigation in every direction, as London, Whitby, Liverpool, Yarmouth, Bristol, Ramsgate, and Falmouth, fully prove; so that British vessels can sail by every wind that blows: and the ships of foreign nations are invited, by such conveniences, to bring their numerous articles of commerce to every part of our shores. Such various monuments of utility prove the incessant energy of industry; and that in every instance, where the influence of government is propitious to the spirit of enterprize, those difficulties of nature and situation may be conquered, which past ages regarded as insurmountable.

The ardent and indefatigable diligence, which raises Great Britain above the rest of Europe, is visible in every place, distinguished by manufactories, mines, fisheries, and agriculture. In Manchester, Glasgow, and Norwich, the fabrication of cotton, wool, and flax, into cloth, linens, and stuffs, supplies multitudes of all ages with the means of subsistence. In Birmingham and Sheffield iron and other metals are worked for every purpose of use and ornament. The hardy inhabitants of the North and West labour in the productive mines of coals and metals; while the mariners either explore their own, or venture to the icy seas of Greenland, and the distant recesses of the Southern Ocean, for

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