CELEBRATED STATE OF ENGLAND, WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE. BY GEORGE CHALMERS, F. R. S. S. A. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCADILLY. 1804. THE DUR PREFACE. URING the ftruggles of a great nation, for her fafety, or renown,. conjunctures often arife, when the perfon, whofe ftation does not admit of his giving advice, ought to offer his informations. The prefent [1782-1794-1804] feemed to be fuch a time. And the Compiler of the following sheets, having collected, for a greater work, various documents, with regard to the national resources, thought it his duty to make an humble tender to the public of that authentic intelligence, which, amidst the wailings of defpondency, had brought conviction, and comfort, to his own mind. Little have they ftudied the theory of man, or obferved his familiar life, who have not remarked, that the individual finds the highest gratification, in deploring the felicities of the past, even amidst the pleasures of the prefent. Prompted thus by temper, he has, in every age, complained of its decline, and depopulation, while the world was the most populous, and its affairs the most prof perous, The reader, who honours the following fheets with an attentive perufal, may probably find, that though we have advanced, by wide steps, during the laft century, in the fcience of politics, we have still much to learn; but that the, fummit can only be gained, by fubftituting accurate research, for delufive fpeculation, and by rejecting zeal of paradox, for moderation of opinion. Mankind are now too enlightened to admit of confident affertion, in the place of fatisfactory proof, or plaufible novelty, for conclufive evidence. He, confequently, who propofes new modes of argument, muft expect contradiction, and he, whọ draws novel conclufions from uncommon premises, ought to enable the reader to examine his reafonings; becaufe it is juft inquiry, which can alone eftablish the certainty of truth on the degradation of error: And little, therefore, is afferted, in the following fheets, without the citation of fufficient authorities, or the mention of authentic documents, which it is now proper to explain. As early as the reign of James I. ingenuity exerted its powers to difcover, through the thick. cloud, which then enveloped an interefting fubject, the value of our exports and of our imports; and thence, by an eafy deduction, to find, whether we were gainers, or lofers, by our traffic: Diligent inquirers looked into the entries at the cuftom-house, because they knew, that fince a duty of five in the hundred was collected on the value of commodities, which were fent out and brought in, it would require the amount of both. was established as a require no difficult calculation, to afcertain nearly And, during that reign, it rule, not only among merchants, but statefinen, to multiply the general value of the customs, inwards and outwards, by twenty, in order to find the true amount of the various articles, which formed the aggregate of our foreign trade. Exceptionable as this mode was, it furnished, through feveral years of darkness, the only light, that our ancestors had to direct their inexperienced steps, notwithstanding the impatience of politicians, and even the efforts of minifters. It is difficult to induce the old to alter the modes of their youth. When the committee of the privy council for trade, urged the commiffioners of the cuftoms, about the end of Charles II.'s reign-" to enter the feveral commodities, which formed the exports and imports, to affix to each its ufual price, and to form a general total by calculating the value of the whole," the custom-house officers infifted,— "that, to comply with fuch directions, would require one half of the clerks of London.”—And the theorists of thofe times continued to fatisfy their curiofity, and to alarm the nation, on the fide of her commercial jealoufy; fince there exifted no written evidence, by which their statements could be proved, or their declamations confuted. It was to the liberality, no less than to the perfeverance, of the House of Peers, that the public were at last indebted, in 1696, for the establish |