ber. With regard to the utility of tobacco, little can be faid; and, with regard to fugar, how much more meritorious would it be to facrifice the momentary pleafure which we receive from drinking it once or twice a-day in our tea, than to encourage the numberlefs cruelties that are continually exercifed in order to procure it us?

A celebrated French moralist faid, that, when he confidered the war which we foment in Africa to get negroes, the great number who of courfe perifh in thefe wars; the multitude of thofe wretches who die in their paffage, by disease, bad air, and bad provifions; and laftly, how many perifh by the cruel treatment they meet with in a ftate of flavery; when he faw a bit of fugar, he could not help imagining it to be covered with fpots of human blood. But, had he added to thefe confiderations the wars which we carry on against one another, to take and retake the iflands that produce this commodity, he would not have feen the fugar fimply spotted with blood, he would have beheld it entirely tinged with it.

Thefe wars make the maritime powers of Europe, and the inhabitants of Paris and London, pay much dearer for their fugar than thofe of Vienna, though they are almoft three hundred leagues diftant from the fea. A pound of fugar, indeed, cofts the former not only the price which they give for it, but also what they pay in taxes, neceffary to fupport thofe fleets and ar mies which ferve to defend and protect the coun tries that produce it.

ON

ON LUXURY, IDLENESS, AND INDUSTRY:

From a Letter to Benjamin Vaughan, Efq. * written in 1784.

IT is wonderful how prepofterously the affairs of this world are managed. Naturally one would imagine, that the intereft of a few individuals fhould give way to general intereft; but individuals manage their affairs with fo much more application, industry, and addrefs, than the public do theirs, that general intereft moft commonly gives way to particular. We affemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wifdom; but we neceffarily have, at the fame time, the inconvenience of their collected paffions, prejudices, and private interests. By the help of thefe, artful men overpower their wisdom, and dupe its poffeffors: and if we may judge by the acts, arrets, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce, an affembly of great men is the greateft fool upon

earth.

I have not yet, indeed, thought of a remedy for luxury. I am not fure that in a great state it is capable of a remedy; nor that the evil is in itself always fo great as it is represented. Suppofe we include in the definition of luxury all unneceffary expence, and then let us confider whether laws to prevent fuch expence are poffible to be executed in a great country, and whether,

*Prefent member of parliament for the borough of Calne, in Wiltshire, between whom and our author there fubfifted a very close friendship.

if

if they could be executed, our people generally would be happier, or even richer. Is not the hope of being one day able to purchase and enjoy luxuries, a great fpur to labour and induftry? May not luxury therefore produce more than it confumes, if, without fuch a fpur, people would be, as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent? To this purpose I remember a circumftance. The fkipper of a fhallop, employed between Cape-May and Philadelphia, had done us fome fmall fervice, for which he refufed to be paid. My wife understanding that he had a daughter, fent her a prefent of a new-fafhioned cap. Three years after, this skipper being at my houfe with an old farmer of Cape-May, his paffenger, he mentioned the cap, and how much his daughter had been pleased with it. "But "(faid he) it proved a dear cap to our congregation."-How fo?" When my daughter appeared with it at meeting, it was fo much "admired, that all the girls refolved to get fuch

caps from Philadelphia; and my wife and I

computed that the whole could not have coft "less than a hundred pounds."-" True (faid "the farmer), but you do not tell all the ftory. "I think the cap was nevertheless an advantage "to us; for it was the first thing that put our girls upon knitting worsted mittens for fale at "Philadelphia, that they might have where

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withal to buy caps and ribbons there; and “ you know that that induftry has continued, "and is likely to continue and increafe to a "much greater value, and answer better pur"pofes."-Upon the whole, I was more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, fince not only the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but the Philadelphians by the fupply of warm mittens.

In

In our commercial towns upon the fea-coaft, fortunes will occafionally be made. Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preserve what they have gained for their pofterity: others, fond of fhewing their wealth, will be extravagant, and ruin themselves. Laws cannot prevent this: and perhaps it is not always an evil to the public. A fhilling pent idly by a fool, may be picked up by a wiser perfon, who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not loft. A vain, filly fellow builds a fine house, furnishes it richly, lives in it expen fively, and in a few years ruins himself: but the mafons, carpenters, fmiths, and other honeft tradesmen, have been by his employ affifted in maintaining and raifing their families; the farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, and the estate is now in better hands.-In fome cafes, indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the fame manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, for inftance, that exports its beef and linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter, while a great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear no fhirts; wherein does it differ from the fót who lets his family ftarve, and fells his clothes to buy drink? Our American commerce is, I confefs, a little in this way. We fell our victuals to the iflands for rum and fugar; the fubftantial neceffaries of life for fuperfluities. But we have plenty, and live well nevertheless; though, by being foberer, we might be richer.

The vast quantity of forest land we have yet to clear, and put in order for cultivation, will for a long time keep the body of our nation laborious and frugal. Forming an opinion of our people and their manners, by what is feen among the inhabitants of the fea-ports, is judging from

an

an improper fample. The people of the trading towns may be rich and luxurious, while the country poffeffes all the virtues that tend to promote happiness and public prafperity. Thofe

towns are not much regarded by the country; they are hardly confidered as an effential part of the States; and the experience of the laft war has fhewn, that their being in the poffeflion of the enemy did not neceffarily draw on the fubjection of the country; which bravely continued to maintain its freedom and independence notwithstanding.

it has been computed by fome political arithmetician, that if every man and woman would work for four hours each day on fomething useful, that labour would produce fufficient to procure all the neceffaries and comforts of life; want and mifery would be banished out of the world, and the reft of the twenty-four hours might be leifure and pleasure.

What occafions then fo much want and misery? It is the employment of men and women in works that produce neither the neceffaries nor conveniences of life, who, with those who do nothing, confume' neceffaries raised by the laborious. To explain this:

The first elements of wealth are obtained by labour, from the earth and waters. I have land, and raise corn. With this, if I feed a family that does nothing, my corn will be confumed, and at the end of the year I fhall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But if, while I feed them, I employ them, fome in fpinning, others in making bricks, &c. for building, the value of my corn will be arrested and remain with me, and at the end of the year we may all be better clothed and better lodged. And if, inftead of employing a man I feed in inaking

4

bricks,