lity in his enterprizes: but, if you give him fuf frage, you increase his importance: no; nothing will give confequence to the industrious claffes, who become bankrupt, by attending more to the public interest, than their own. Opulence, which is acquired by conftant industry, and steady attention, is the true road, in this happy ifland, to genuine importance.

We now begin to perceive, what ought to be the true objects of an induftrious people. Nature has inftructed every one to feel his own intereft to be his chief good. By this energy, he is carried on to regard his family, his parish, his county, and his nation, as the fucceffive objects of his particular affection, while, in this fucceffion, they prefent themselves to his care. And when every one bufies himfelf, in promoting his own intereft, and caring for his own affairs, he thereby promotes the public interefts, which confift of the general aggregate of each particular intereft. Millions have become rich and happy, by confidering the care of themfelves, as the great object of life. Thousands have ruined themselves, and degraded their families, by troubling themfelves about public affairs, more than their own.

"See the laborious bee,

For little drops of honey flee,

" And there with humble fweets content her industry !”^^

He, then, who runs about to benefit his country, rather than his family, and himself, acts an unnatu

ral part. He indulges a paffion, which carries him into the world, from home. And he neglects his own interest, without promoting the public interests, which arise from the labours of millions, and the content of all. Herein, we fee how the aggregate interest of a nation may be retarded by the inatten tion, and overthrown by the imprudence, of individuals. When thousands inattentively act a fimilar part, this aggregate is leffened to nothing. When that paffion is carried into folly, by indulgence, and from folly is animated by incitement, into enthufiafm, the intereft of the public is ruined, while the fafety of the state is endangered. Hence, it came to be confidered by the wife, as a point agreed, that nations may be infected with infanity, as well as individuals; fince the madness of millions is the madness of a nation. Of fuch paroxyfms of folly, and infanity, history furnishes many examples, if philofophy would ftoop to collect the precepts of experience. England was mad, during the reign of Charles I.; Scotland was mad, during the happier times of Charles II.; and France, who has had her fits of infanity before, is raving mad, at prefent. In the annals of each of these countries, during thofe periods of phrenzy, many leffons of wifdom may be collected, when the facts are accurately ftated, and the inferences are precisely drawn. Neither your friend HUME, nor Lord Kaims, have however extracted from the hiftory of their country, during that period, much civil knowledge, because they were ignorant of facts. Yet, is it fuffi

ciently

ciently known, that the infanity of Scotland was extremely fatal to her true interests, even after the fit had abated. The following detail of the population of Glasgow, may be admitted as fufficient evidence of the deftructive effects of difcontent, on the trade, and numbers of a people, even when it no longer raves :

From 1656 to 1659 Glasgow was inhabited by - 14,565 fouls. From 1660 to 1662 by - 12,901

From 1690 to 1700

by - 12,714

How could Glasgow flourish, when her people deferted their homes; and men, women, and children, ran about the fields, in expectation of the fifth monarchy! In other parts of Scotland, which are now the most industrious, the inhabitants were equally fanatical; difavowing the authority of the legiflature, and contemning the power of the magiftrate. And, whether fanaticifm be religious, political, or philofophical, it is equally ruinous to the nation, in proportion to the numbers, who are infected with its horrors. We have a few at prefent, fome of whom are infected with each fpecies of fanaticifm, Favel, when he was driven, by the public indignation, from his home, in Southwark, declared, that he was ready to facrifice his wife and family, his house, and his affairs, for the caufe. Greater men than Favel have avowed their wish to be hanged for a phantom. Allow me now to give you a pregnant example of a different tendency. It is a

fact

fact, that the feveral towns, in Forfarfhire, which are the busy scenes of the linen manufacture, have doubled their inhabitants, in the last three-and-thirty years. The Sage; who faid that he knew how to make a small city great, has been, at all times greatly celebrated, for his wifdom. The fecret of the Sage, which is now-a-days plainly known, and often practifed, confifted merely, in making mankind bufy themselves about their individual affairs. Whether I am to congratulate the world, on your discovery of the art of making a great town fmall, by fpreading difcontent, must be left to the difclofure of time.

I fufpect; however, that your fecret has been long known, and often practifed. Our annals, during the last three-and-thirty years, furnish melancholy proofs of its publicity, and its practice. It was difcontent, which brought on the war of 1739; it was difcontent, which excited the American war; and it was difcontent, which unhappily involved us, in the prefent war. There is, however, another fecret, which it is of much greater importance to be told:

"Let us know

"What will tie up your discontented sword.”

Meantime, let us inquire whofe difcontented fword It was, that did all that mifchief, at those epochs? It was not the men of wisdom, or wealth, on either fide of the Atlantic, who brought on the American war. No: it was the needy and the wretched; the profligate

ទ

profligate and the bufy; and the whole tribe of intriguing zealots, who are ever active, in levelling the high, without raifing the low; who involved us, in the follies and expences of the American war; and who made a great empire fmaller in extent. After diligently collecting numerous documents, with regard to the transactions of those times, I would undertake to prove my pofition, by incontrovertible evidence, at the bar of The Old Bailey. It was the fame tribe of intriguing zealots, who, with their allies, the well-meaning men, engaged us in the prefent war. When various clubs, in distant parts of the kingdom, who met ftatedly for the honeft purpofe of merriment, fent addreffes to the conftituent affembly of France, what but mifchief could be expected, though they meant well? The conftituent affembly, indeed, did not want fuch addreffes to induce their philosophy, to involve their country, and the world in mifery, whofe beginning we have feen, but whofe end we know not. There were, in this ifland, other clubs, and other men, who often met, not in the gaiety of merriment, but in the gravity of difcontent. These men, and these clubs, entered into a fympathetic alliance, with fimilar men, and fimilar clubs, in France. The great bond of their alliance was an agreement to purfue the fame ends, by the fame means. In pursuance of this treaty, they established, in various places, difquiet preffes, from which they diftributed, with liberal hands, the feeds of fedition, that they might reap, through the land, the harvest of difcontent.

Τα