fufficient, it seems, for accurate statement*. You, who hear fpeeches, and read pamphlets, did not look for fufficient documents, where fufficient documents had been found t. Had you looked here, you had seen, that the fair average of our exports was £. 21,767,250 instead of £.17,000,000, as you conjecture; the yearly balance of greatness, beyond the fame average of exports, before the American war, was £.4,767,250, instead of £. 3,000,000, as you affert: and, with the propenfity to blunder of a neighbouring kingdom, you quote my Estimate, which was published, in 1786, for the fubfequent ftate of the exports, from 1786 to 1792 ‡. The happy epoch of our greatest profperity, whether we confider our manufactures, our fhipping, our ufual exports, or our public revenue, will be found, in 1792. In this profperous year, our cotton, our linen, and our woollen, manufactures, were in their most flourishing state. The great value of the export of British manufactures, in * Page 24. + In a moft excellent tract, which was published in the fourth edition, for Stockdale, 1793, entitled, A brief Examination of the Revenue, Commerce, and Navigation of Great Britain. Half-informed men have attributed this work to my pen: But, though I could have written a bigger book, I could not have produced fo much accurate information, on thofe important fubjects, in fo fmall a compass. Page 24, in the note: But, the Chronological Table, in the following Eftimate, which contains the feries of exports to 1793, will give fufficient fatisfaction to the fair inquirer. 1792, as compared with any former period, is fufficient evidence of this comfortable truth. Take the following details, as confirmations ftrong of our unexampled profperity: Whilft all the ftars that round her burn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from poll to poll. The whole revenue was, in 1783, below the establishments £2,000,000 The whole revenue was, in 1792, alove the establishments 2,031,000 *, "All these were done, fir, by the mathematicks, Your undertaking, however, does not lead you to out-calculate the mathematicks. As a philofopher, you do not difpute the truth of the mathematicks; as a politician, you wish not to undervalue the refources of your country †: but, as a magician, you wave your wand, you raise the cri de guerre, when lo! our manufactures, our shipping, our traf * See The Brief Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, &c. page 58. + Page 23. b 2 fic, fic, and our revenue, disappear! What fupported us, you afk, during the American war? The exports of our manufactures to countries that could purchase them. But, who is there now to buy our manufactures, you inquire, with" abundant tears” ftarting from your eyes: "Such tears as patriots fhed for dying laws." Better far, you fay, amidft your perturbations, no doubt, had it been for Britain to have fought France fingly, if her power had been twice as great, while the reft looked on, as quiet buyers of our goods. And, as a politician, you boldly challenge the most rigid examination of this paradoxical affertion. In this manner, you march out, giantlike, to defy aftrology, and to fight the ftars:"The planets all being underneath the earth, "At my nativity, what can they do? "I'll make them drunk, and reel out of their spheres, This challenge, nevertheless, I accept. entrenched in documents; I am armed with facts; I am fhielded with truth: and,— "His impiety is a potent charm, "To edge my fword, and add ftrength to my arm." I only afk a clear ftage, fair play, and patient beholders. You undertake to prove †, that the European nations, being engaged in hoftilities, muft • This wonderful challenge is in page 25. + Page 25-28. fend fend their men into the field, and be impoverished with taxes; and fo, can no longer be our cuftomers: that famine must exhaust population, which cannot be restored from the shrivelled muscles and dried bones of a starving peasantry: and that this general poverty operating, peculiarly on Britain, this nation must confume and expire, without the ftroke of an enemy, from internal weakness, and general debility of the whole fyftem.-On the contrary; I engage to maintain, that what has happened, in our former wars, will again happen, dur ing the prefent war, in a greater, or a lefs, degree; that we shall certainly lofe fome of our external commerce, while we shall probably gain the amount of our loffes from fome other fource; that the fpring of our trade may be preffed down, by the prevalence of war, but will rebound, on the return of peace; that our domestic industry will be little affected by diftant hoftilities, while confumption will run on, in its ufual channel, without the obstructions of warfare; and that, upon the restora tion of tranquillity, the enterprizing people of this happy land will carry the energy, which they have ever derived from war, into the usual occupations of peace; fo as to have hereafter, as they have uniformly had, more trade, and more shipping, and ampler means of acquiring wealth, when hoftilities fhall cease, than they had, when they were goaded into unprovoked hoftilities, by a restless enemy. I * See the following Eftimate, page 169, &c. now proceed to produce my documents, which, as they contain indubitable facts, will convey the most fatisfactory inferences: The fair inquirer will perceive from them, what was the whole value of British manufactures, which we exported, both before, and fince, the American war; how much we fent, in each period, to the feveral countries in Europe; and how much we transmitted to our more diftant fettlements; The British manufactures, which were exported, to all countries, according to a fix years average, ending with 1774, amounted, in value, to £.10,342,019 Ditto, ending with 1792 The annual increase was 14,753,959 £4,411,940 The British manufactures, which were exported to the several countries in Europe, except the British dominions, according to a fix years average, ending with 1774, amounted, in value, to Ditto, ending with 1792 The annual increase was £4,185,053 5,466,253 £. 1,281,20p The British manufactures, which were exported to the British dominions, in Europe, according to a fix years average, ending with 1774, amounted, in value, to Ditto, ending with 1792 The annual increase was £1,063,327 1,443,361 £. 380,034 'The |