outlet, how would it injure us? The conseque, ce would be, that cloth would be cheaper in England; the consequence of that would be, that wool would be cheaper; the consequence of that would be, that sheep would be less valuable; the consequence of that would be, that less of them would be raised. But, the feed which now goes to the keeping of part of our sheep, would go to the keeping of something else, and the labour now bestowed upon part of our woollen cloths, would be bestowed upon something else; in all probability upon the land, which always calls for labour, and which never fails to yield a grateful return.

There is, Gentlemen, as it were by preconcert, by regular system, a loud ery, upon all occasions, set up about our loss of commerce. Wars have been made, over and over again, for the sake of commerce; and, when the rights and honour of the nation are to be sacrificed by a peace, the regaining or preserving of commerce is invariably the plea. To hear these merchants and their ignorant partizans talk, one would almost suppose, that, if sincere in their expressions of alarm, they must look upon commerce as the sole source of our food and raiment, and even of the elements which are necessary to man's existence. Commerce, they tells us, is "essential to the vital interests" of the country. Who would not suppose, that commerce brought us our bread and our water. Gentlemen, to support commerce, the wars in Egypt were undertaken; the wars in India are carried on without ceasing, the war in South America, and in Africa are now undertaken. Oh! What English blood and English labour and English happiness and English honour has not this commerce cost! But, "without commerce "how are we to defray the expences "of government, and the interest of the "national debt?" This is a question that every frightened female puts to one; and, really, notwithstanding it is well known that England has been upon the decline of power ever since she became decidedly commercial, and that France has grown in power in the same proportion as her commerce has declined, 'till, at last, having lost all her commerce, she is become absolute mistress of the whole of the continent of Europe; notwithstanding this, the commercial tribe, with Pitt at their head, have so long and so impudently assumed, that it is commerce that " supports the na"tion," that it is not to be wondered at, that a man who is foolish enough to have his ail in the funds, should be alarmed, lest he should lose his dividends with the loss of

commerce. The merchants would fain persuade us (perhaps they may really think so) that their goods and their ships pay the greater part of the taxes. "Look, here!" say they, pointing to their imports and exports. That is very fine, for a few hundreds of them; but what is it to the whole of the nation? "But," say they. “look

at the Custom House duties." Yes, and who pay those duties? It is we, Gentlemen, who pay those duties. The payment comes out of our labour, and from no other source whatever. The people of America have been cajoled by this sort of doctrine. "We pay no taxes," says one of their boasting citizens, "except such as are imposed upon foreign coinmodities." That is to say, except such as are imposed upon Rum, which is to them what beer is to us; Sugur and Coffee, of which, in part, the breakfast of every human creature in the country is composed; Woollens and Linens and Cottons, without which the people must go naked by day and be frost-bitten by night. But, what is the difference, Gentlemen, whether they pay a tax upon their coats, or whether they pay it upon their candles?

But, Gentlemen, bearing in mind, however, that we pay the custom-house duties, let us see what proportion those duties bear to the whole of the taxes raised upon us. The whole of the taxes. collected last year, amount to about 50 millions; the customhouse duties, exclusive of coals, and goods carried from one part of the kingdom to another, to about 5 millions! Supposing, therefore, that, if we did not pay these 5 millions in this way, we should not possess them, to pay in any other way, if called upon; supposing this, is there here any falling off to be alarmed at? Why, Gentlemen, the Barley alone of England, pays, in malt and in beer, more clear money into the Exchequer than all the shipping and all the foreign commerce put together; and, as to the revenue arising from the trade with America, it is less than what arises from the porter which you drink in the City of Westminster alone. The fact is, Gentlemen, that the means of supporting fleets and armies, the means of meeting all the squauderings that we witness, the means of paying the dividends at the bank, come out of the land of the country and the labour of its people. These are the sources, from which all those means proceed; and all that the merchants, and ministers like merchants, tell us about the resources of commerce, means merely this, that while we are sweating at every pore to pay the taxes, we

ought to believe, that the taxes are paid by others. I will tell you, Gentlemen, who would be injured by the shutting of the American ports against our goods. A few great merchants and manufacturers; and, observe it well, some hundreds of men, and some of those very great men, who have their money in the American funds. These, and these alone, be you well assured, would suffer any serious inconveniences from the shutting of the American ports; and these men are amongst the very worst enemies that the people of England have to over

come.

Nothing is more convenient for the purpose of a squandering, jobbing, corrupting, bribing minister, than a persuasion amongst the people, that it is from the commerce, and not from their labour, that the taxes come; and, it has long been a fashionable way of thinking, that, it is no matter how great the expenses are, so that the commerce does but keep pace with them in increase. Nothing can better suit such a minister and his minions than the propagation of opinions like these. But, Gentlemen, you have seen the commerce trippled since the fatal day, when Pitt became minister; and have you found, that your taxes have not been increased? The commerce has been trippled, and so have the parish paupers. Away, then, I beseech you, with this destructive delusion! See the thing in its true light. Look upon all the taxes as arising out of the land and the labour, and distrust either the head or the heart of the man who would cajole you with a notion of their arising from any other source.

Such

But, Gentlemen, the much-talked-of and often-threatened non-importation act of America is a bug-bear fit only to frighten children and men of childish minds. an act was passed nearly two years ago ; but, observe, it contained a tail clause, empowering the President to suspend its execution. The Congress has met twice since; the act has been renewed, but, still the suspending clause, that magic rag in the tooth of the serpent, has prevented its execution. Nay, in one case, by mistake, the term of suspension, appears to have expired; but, though the act was for a few days in force, it was not executed; and had no more effect upon the importation of English goods, than if it had been one of the old ballads, of which you see such an abundance hung upon the walls at Hyde Park corner. Nor let it be imagined, that this arises from a reluctance to quarrel with us. I have before assigned the true cause. I have, in Volume X, page 971, &c. shewn why it is morally

impossible, that, for any length of time, such an act should be executed in America, our goods, besides being indispensably necessary to the people of that country, being the source of much more than one half of the whole of its revenues. I then said, and I have since said, that, whether at war or at peace with us, they will have our goods and we shall have theirs; that, talk about the non-importation act as long as they please for the purpose of forming a combina tion amongst our merchants and manufacturers favourable to them, they can never put such an act in execution for any length of time; and that, therefore, our ministers would be amongst the most criminal of men, if, in yielding to such combinations, they gave up a single particle of our maritime rights.

The Chamber of Commerce," this mercantile club, this new Corresponding Society, forces me back, for a moment, to the subject of maritime rights. These gentry, too, without any other learning than what they have picked up, in mere scraps, from the newspapers, talk about the " EQUAL

rights of both countries," thereby assum ing, as a principle admitted, that America is equal with England as to all manner of rights upon the sea. It is truly said, Gentlemen, that, where the treasure is, there will the heart be also; but, as, comparatively speaking, very few Englishmen have treasure in America, so, Itrust, that there will be very few of them who will be found to adopt the sentiments of the "Chamber "of Commerce," which, indeed, calls itself American, and which is, probably, composed of men, whose fortunes are principally lodged in that country. Men with English hearts, of whatever opinions respecting domestic matters, have never, until lately, suffered, in silence, any one to deny to their country a right of sea dominion. The dominion of the seas, even to the opposite shores, has, until of late, been distinctly claimed by all the kings and queens and rulers of England ever since our country has borne that name; and, our history shews, that those who have been most distinguished for their attachment to our do mestic liberties, have been the most zealous in maintaining this sea-dominion. were not frightened with the threats of France and of Holland (then great in mari time force) combined. They heard the solemn German quack authors and the flippant Frenchmen talk about the law of na tions, and, as far as these related to the forms of treaties and the like, they paid at tention to them. But, they scouted the idea,

They

that conquest constituted right of dominion upon land, where Englishmen could scarcely gain any conquests, and that there could be no such thing as dominion at sea, where alone, in all human probability, England could make conquests. They were told, I dare say, that their claim of sea-dominion was making might constitute right; but, they would readily answer, that experience and reason joined had taught them, that, as to the affairs of nations, it was might alone, in fact, that did constitute right; and, this they would avow without any fear of being thought the advocates of despotism. Upon various occasions, when I, for my part, have had to speak of the conquests of Buonaparte, I have always said, that he had, in all cases where not prohibited by a previous positive compact, to which he was a party, a right to make what conquests Fe pleased; and, that it was perfect childishness in us to rail against him for his conquering He has now conquered the land of Europe. We have, long ago, conquered the seas. He may maintain his dominion, and we shall, I hope, always be able to maintain ours,

My friend of the Independent Whig, "if he will allow me to call him so" (as) the people at St. Stephen's say), just as if he anticipated a sinecure office in over-setting every thing that I should be able to say upon the subject of our paramount rights upon the seas, has voluntarily undertaken a defence of the people of America against what he calls my "unmerited abuse of the "whole of them." I abused none of them; and it never entered into my heart to speak even slightingly of them as a whole. Upon all occasions, when I have spoken ill of the Americans, I have excepted, first and more particularly, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, who, after all my experience, and I have now had not a little, I believe to be the, take the whole of their character and manners together, the best people in the world. Of the people in general, descending from the old settlers, to the Northward, I have always spoken with respect; and, if, generally speaking, I have had, and have, a very bad opinion of those to the Southward, I have always observed, that there were many exceptions there also. But, I have said, and this I say again, that, owing to the emigration of rogues and fraudrlent debtors and sharping adventurers, from all parts of the world; and owing to the introduction of a system of impunity for moral offences, working in conjunction with about 300 news-papers, supported by advertisements and by the passions of those

who feed upon falshood, America is, upon the whole, in my opinion, become the most unprincipled country in the world. I have said, that, as to affairs between men and their families, there is no shame or reproach attendant upon a breach of fidelity, on the part of man or of wife; and I have proved the frequency of elopements to be. such, that the printers of even provincial papers, keep, cut in type-metal, the figures of a wife escaping from her husband's house, just as the printers of commercial papers keep the figures of ships, to place at the head of their ship advertisements. As to their juries, he who knows the jurors and the parties, must be very little gifted, if be be at a loss to know what will be the result. I have said, that, while I was in America, a judge was caught thieving in a shop; and, I have asked, what the people of England would say, if a similar act, on the part of a judge, was to pass with impunity here. I have said, that, in such a state of morals, there can be no real public liberty; and, that the fact is, that though the name is in great vogue, I would, if compelled to choose, rather be a subject of Napoleon than a citizen of America. My adversary (for, I am afraid, he wishes not to have me for a friend) says, that the Americans showed invincible courage, in a war for their liberties. I deny that the war was undertaken for their liberties; but, that, though the designs here might be unjust and tyrannical, the war there principally arose from the easy means which it offered to American debtors to cheat their English creditors. I never denied them courage. They are, I believe, as brave as any people in the world; but, as to their justice in that war, their battles were fought by those, who were paid in a paper called certificates? These certificates, for want of a law to give them value, were little, scarcely nothing, worth; but, when the speculators, who were also the leaders, had bought up the certificates at, perhaps, sixpence in the pound, these leaders made a law to tax the people, and to make the certificates worth 20 shillings in the pound! A whole tract of country I have known to be sold, by an act of assembly; the money received, and the law rescinded without any compensation to the purchasers. I have known a lottery made in virtue of an act of assembly, the act being published by authority in order to induce people to purchase the tickets, the tickets sold, the lottery drawn, and the holders of the money keep it and laugh at the holders of the prize tickets. Lest this should not be enough, I will give my friend