conded prepoffeffion, to think, and to proclaim, that the traders of Liverpool, owing to wars, taxes, and public debts, are very poor, and the corporation of Liverpool is on the verge of bankruptcy.

No, Sir, I did not think, that the traders of Li verpool are very poor; I did not proclaim, that the corporation of Liverpool is on the verge of bankruptcy. I fee, my good Doctor, that you flinch from thofe facts, and from this ridicule: and my kindness for you will not allow me to prefs. you more upon the point, or to follow you further into your privacies. But, you do proclaim throughout every page of your Letter, that, the traders of Great Britain, owing to wars, taxes, and public debts, are very poor; and the corporation of Great Britain is on the verge of bankruptcy. You make thefe pofitions the foundation of your fyftem: and, you claim the honours, which are due to the writer, who difclofes to the world what the world knew not before*. Yet, confider that,

Honour is not wonne

Until fome honourable deed be donne."

Now, I pray you, what is a commercial nation, but a collection of commercial towns? Such as, London and Bristol, Birmingham and Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds, Whitehaven and Newcaftle, Glasgow and Paifley, Greenock and Leith. As I have analysed Liverpool, I could in the fame manner show, what these profperous towns were,

*Page 2, at the bottom.

and

and are. But, we should be loft in the maze of minuteness. We may, however, look a little minutely at the origin, the progrefs, and confummation of the manufactures, the traffic, and the fhipping, of the two united kingdoms.

Scotland, alas! at the epoch of the Darien adventure, during king William's reign, was a child, which pretended to run, before it could ftand. Let us trace her growth, from infancy to youth. Of the progrefs of her linen manufacture, we may judge from the following detail:

Years.

Of linen cloth, there were made for sale in

Quantity.

Value:

Years.

Quantity.

Value.

Of the whole manufactures of Scotland, which were exported by fea, we may form an adequate judgment, from the fubjoined account of the va◄ lue of fuch manufactures:

Of the shipping of Scotland, we may have a sufficient view, from the following detail:

There was an account laid before the Convention of Royal Boroughs, in 1692, of the fhipping, which then belonged to the feveral ports of Scotland, and which amounted only to 8,618 tons, of the value of £.25,854.

The fhips registered, in Scotland,

In 1792 - 2,143 Ships. 162,274 Tons, Worth - L.1,298,192

From the foregoing documents, it appears, then, that Scotland has profpered as faft, and as much, as Liverpool, during the fame period, amidst wars, and taxes, and public debts. Aye, fay you, fhe too has had her chymifts, and potters, and millwrights, to help her.-The wife ftatefmen, who made the Union, provided a fmall fund, which has done wonders, in promoting her manufactures, her fifhery, and trade; and which, if it had happily been greater, had done greater wonders! The best helps, however, which any people can have, are

their

their own diligence, and their own œconomy. was from thefe fources, that Scotland, notwithstanding the intermediate wars, frequent taxes, and public debts, has acquired, in no long period, a great manufacture, an extenfive traffic, a numerous fhipping, and not a little wealth.,

When Scotland was a child, during king William's reign, England was a youth, with all thể briskness, and buftle, of youth. From the Revolution, and the war of the Revolution, the carried an extraordinary energy into the occupations of peace, after the treaty of Ryfwick. And from every subsequent war, fhe appears to have redoubled her energy, and to have made proportional acquifitions of all that creates, and conftitutes, opulence. England had more than threetimes as many shipping employed in her commerce, at "the damn'd peace of Utrecht," and more than dotible the exportation, that she had, at the celebrated treaty of Ryfwick. She had fifty per cent. more fhipping, and traffic, at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, than fhe had, at the peace of Utrecht. She had a fourth more shipping, and a third more exports, at the peace of 1763, than fhe had, at the peace of 1748. The years, which immediately fucceeded this epoch, were a period of unexampled profperity. Yet, when the prefent war began, England had, notwithstanding two long wars, more than doubled her shipping,

and

and commerce, from 1748 to 1792*. There only belonged to England,

In 1700 In 1792

2,281 Ships of 261,222 Tons.

10,423 Ships of 1,168,468 Tons. t

The foregoing pofitions are all facts, instructive facts. From them we learn, that England, amidsft frequent wars, redoubled taxes, and public debts, has grown up as fast, and as vigorously, as Liverpool, of which you cannot be perfuaded, that her traders are poor, or that her corporation is on the verge of bankruptcy. Yet, throughout your Letter, you reason that, the merchants of Great Britain are ruined, and that, the corporation of Great Britain is on the verge of bankruptcy.

it

“Oh hateful error, melancholy's child !

« Why do'st thou shew to the apt thoughts of
"The things that are not ?”

men

In this bateful error you nevertheless perfevere. may be justly doubted, fay you ‡, whether our exports have augmented, in the degree that is fuppofed. You conjecture the average of our exports for the last ten years to be feventeen millions: and, in order to make out your bateful error you take in two years of war, when treating of a period of peace. The documents, on this subject, are not

See the Chronological Table in the following Estimate for the truth of the facts, p. 234.

† As appears from the register of shipping.

Page 23 and 24, in the note.