and commerce, from 1748 to 1792*. There only

The foregoing pofitions are all facts, inftructive facts. From them we learn, that England, amidst frequent wars, redoubled taxes, and public debts, has grown up as faft, 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.

"Oh hateful error, melancholy's child !

Why do'st thou fhew to the apt thoughts of men

"The things that are not ?"

In this bateful error you nevertheless perfevere. It may be justly doubted, say 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 hateful error you take in two years of war, when treating of a period of peace. The documents, on this fubject, are not

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

+ As appears from the register of fhipping.

Page 23 and 24, in the note,

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 feen, that the fair average of our exports was £. 21,767,250 instead of £.17,000,000, as you conjecture; the yearly balance of greatnefs, 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 moft flourishing ftate. The great value of the export of British manufactures, in

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 compafs.

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 fuffi cient evidence of this comfortable truth. Take the following details, as confirmations ftrong of our unexampled prosperity:

Whilft all the ftars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,

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,
"Without which there's no science, nor no truth."

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 $8.

↑ Page 23.

B 2

fic,

fic, and our revenue, difappear! What fupported us, you afk, during the American war? The exports of our manufactures to countries that could purchafe 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, giant like, 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, "For any certain act they can enforce."

This challenge, nevertheless, I accept. I am 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 stage, 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 fhrivelled muscles and dried bones of a starving peasantry: and that this general poverty operating, peculiarly on Britain, this nation muft confume and expire, without the stroke 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, during 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 domeftic induftry will be little affected by diftant hoftilities, while confumption will run on, in its ufual channel, without the obftructions of warfare*; and that, upon the restoration of tranquillity, the enterprizing people of this happy land will carry the energy, which they have ever derived from war, into the ufual 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 reftlefs enemy. I

* See the following Estimate, page 169, &c.