bricks, I employ him in fiddling for me, the corn he eats is gone, and no part of his manufacture remains to augment the wealth and convenience of the family: I fhall therefore be the poorer for this fiddling man, unless the reft of my family work more, or eat lefs, to make up the deficiency he occafions.

Look round the world, and fee the millions employed in doing nothing, or in fomething that amounts to nothing, when the neceffaries and conveniences of life are in queftion. What is the bulk of commerce, for which we fight and deftroy each other, but the toil of millions for fuperfluities, to the great hazard and loss of many lives, by the conftant dangers of the sea? How much labour is fpent in building and fitting great fhips, to go to China and Arabia for tea and coffee, to the Weft Indies for fugar, to America for tobacco? These things cannot be called the neceffaries of life, for our ancestors lived very comfortably without them.

A queftion may be afked: Could all these people now employed in raising, making, or carrying fuperfluities, be fubfifted by raifing neceffaries? I think they might. The world is large, and a great part of it ftill uncultivated. Many hundred millions of acres in Afia, Africa and America, are fill in a forest; and a great deal even in Europe. On a hundred acres of this foreft a man might become a fubftantial farmer; and a hundred thousand men employed in clearing each his hundred acres, would hardly brighten a spot big enough to be vifible from the moon, unlefs with Herfchel's telefcope; fo vaft are the regions ftill in wood.

It is however fome comfort to reflect, that, upon the whole, the quantity of induftry and prudence among mankind exceeds the quantity

of

of idleness and folly. Hence the increase of good buildings, farms cultivated, and populous cities filled with wealth, all over Europe, which a few ages fince were only to be found on the coafts of the Mediterranean; and this notwithstanding the mad wars continually raging, by which are often deftroyed in one year the works of many years peace. So that we may hope, the luxury of a few merchants on the coaft will not be the ruin of America.

One reflection more, and I will end this long rambling letter. Almoft all the parts of our bodies require fome expence. The feet demand fhoes; the legs ftockings; the reft of the body clothing; and the belly a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though exceedingly useful, afk when reasonable, only the cheap affiftance of spectacles, which could not much impair our finances. But the eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, fine houfes, nor fine furniture.

ON

ON THE SLAVE TRADE.

READING in the newspapers the speech of Mr. Jackson in congrefs, againft meddling with the affair of flavery, or attempting to mend the condition of flaves, it put me in mind of a fimilar fpeech, made about one hundred years fince, by Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Algiers, which may be feen in Martin's account of his confulfhip, 1687. It was againft granting the petition of the fect called Erika, or Purifis, who prayed for the abolition of piracy and flavery as being unjuft.-Mr. Jackfon does not quote it; perhaps he has not feen it. If, therefore, fome of its reafonings are to be found in his eloquent fpeech, it may only fhew that inen's interefts operate, and are operated on, with furprifing fimilarity, in all countries and climates, whenever they are under fimilar circumftances. The African fpeech, as tranflated, is as follows:

"Alla Bismillah, &c. God is great, and Mahomet is his prophet.

"Have thefe Erika confidered the confequences of granting their petition? If we cease our cruises against the Chriftians, how fhall we be furnished with the commodities their countries. produce, and which are fo neceflary for us? If we forbear to make flaves of their people, who, in this hot climate, are to cultivate our lands? Who are to perform the common labours of our city, and of our families? Muft we not then be our own flaves? And is there not more compaflion and more favour due to us Muffulmen, than to thofe Chriftian dogs?-We have now above fifty thousand flaves in and near Algiers. This

number,

1

number, if not kept up by fresh fupplies, will foon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If, then, we cease taking and plundering the infidel. fhips, and making flaves of the feamen and paffengers, our lands will become of no value, for want of cultivation; the rents of houfes in the city will fink one half; and the revenues of government, arifing from the fhare of prizes, muft be totally deftroyed. And for what? To gratify the whim of a whimsical fect, who would have us not only forbear making more flaves, but even manumit those we have. But who is to indemnify their mafters for the lofs? Will the state do it ; Is our treasury fufficient? Will the Erika do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think juftice to the flaves, do a greater injuftice to the owners? And if we fet our flaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of them will return to their native countries; they know too well the greater hardships they must there be fubject to. They will not embrace our holy religion: they will not adopt our manners: our people will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Muft we maintain them as beggars in our streets? or fuffer our properties to be the prey of their pillage? for men accustomed to flavery will not work for a livelihood, when not compelled. And what is there fo pitiable in their prefent condition? Were they not flaves in their own countries? Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian ftates, governed by defpots, who hold all their fubjects in flavery, without excep tion? Even England treats her failors as flaves, for they are, whenever the government pleafes, feized and confined in fhips of war, condemned not only to work, but to fight for fmall wages, ór a mere fubfiftence, not better than our flaves are allowed by us. Is their condition then made worse

worse by their falling into our hands? No; they have only exchanged one flavery for another; and I may fay a better: for here they are brought into a land where the fun of Iflamifm gives forth its light, and fhines in full fplendour, and they have an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true doctrine, and thereby faving their immortal fouls. Those who remain at home, have not that happiness. Sending the flaves home, then, would be fending them out of light into darkness.

"I repeat the queftion, what is to be done with them? I have heard it fuggefted, that they may be planted in the wilderness, where there is plenty of land for them to fubfift on, and where they may flourish as a free ftate.-But they are, I doubt, too little difpofed to labour without compulfion, as well as too ignorant to eftablifh good government: and the wild Arabs would foon moleft and deftroy, or again enflave them. While ferving us, we take care to provide them with every thing; and they are treated with humanity. The labourers in their own countries are, as I am informed, worse fed, lodged, and clothed. The condition of moft of them is therefore already mended, and requires no farther improvement. Here their lives are in fafety. They are not liable to be impreffed for foldiers, and forced to cut one another's Chriftian throats, as in the wars of their own countries. If fome of the religious mad bigots, who now tease us with their filly petitions, have, in a fit of blind zeal, freed their flaves, it was not generofity, it was not humanity that moved them to the action; it was from the confcious burthen of a load of fins, and hope, from the supposed merits of fo good a work, to be excufed from damnation-How grofsly are they

mistaken, in imagining