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multitude of poor, abject, rack-rented, tythepaying tenants, and half-paid and half-ftarved ragged labourers; and views here the happy mediocrity that fo generally prevails throughout thefe ftates, where the cultivator works for himfelf, and fupports his family in decent plenty; will, methinks, fee abundant reafon to blefs Divine Providence for the evident and great difference in our favour, and be convinced that no nation known to us enjoys a greater fhare of hu man felicity.

It is true, that in fome of the flates there are parties and difcords; but let us look back, and afk if we were ever without them? Such will exift wherever there is liberty; and perhaps they help to preferve it. By the collifion of different fentiments, fparks of truth are ftruck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions, which at prefent divide us, aim all at the public good; the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it. Things, actions, meafures, and objects of all kinds, prefent themselves to the minds of men in fuch a variety of lights, that it is not poffible we fhould all think alike at the fame time on every fubject, when hardly the fame man retains at all times the fame ideas of it. Parties are therefore the common lot of humanity; and ours are by no means more mischievousor lefs beneficial than thofe of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoying in the fame degree the great bleffing of political liberty.

Some indeed among us are not fo much grieved for the present ftate of our affairs, as apprehenfive for the future. The growth of luxury alarms them, and they think we are from that alone in the high road to ruin. They obferve, that no revenue is fufficient without economy, and that the most plentiful income of a whole people from

the

which it is hoped may be equally advantageous; and the demand is conflantly increafing for their fpermaceti candles, which therefore bear a much higher price than formerly.

There remain the merchants and shopkeepers. Of thefe, though they make but a small part of the whole nation, the number is confiderable, too great indeed for the business they are employed in; for the confumption of goods in every country has its limits; the faculties of the people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, is equal only to a certain quantity of merchandize. If merchants calculate amifs on this proportion, and import too much, they will of course find the fale dull for the overplus, and fome of them will fay that trade languishes. They fhould, and doubtlefs will, grow wifer by experience, and import lefs. If too many artificers in town, and farmers from the country, flattering themselves with the idea of leading eafier lives, turn fhopkeepers, the whole natural quantity of that business divided among them all may afford too fmall a fhare for each, and occafion complaints that trading is dead; thefe may also fuppofe that it is owing to scarcity of money, while, in fact, it is not fo much from the fewness of buyers, as from the exceffive number of fellers, that the mischief arises; and, if every shopkeeping farmer and mechanic would return to the ufe of his plough and working tools, there would remain of widows, and other women, fhopkeepers fufficient for the bufinefs, which might then afford them a comfortable maintenance.

Whoever has travelled through the various parts of Europe, and obferved how fmall is the proportion of the people in affluence or eafy circumftances there, compared with those in poverty and mifery; the few rich and haughty landlords, the T 2 multitude

multitude of poor, abject, rack-rented, tythepaying tenants, and half-paid and half-ftarved ragged labourers; and views here the happy mediocrity that fo generally prevails throughout thefe ftates, where the cultivator works for himfelf, and fupports his family in decent plenty; will, methinks, fee abundant reafon to blefs Divine Providence for the evident and great difference in our favour, and be convinced that no nation known to us enjoys a greater fhare of hu man felicity.

It is true, that in fome of the fates there are parties and difcords; but let us look back, and afk if we were ever without them? Such will exift wherever there is liberty; and perhaps they help to preserve it. By the collifion of different fentiments, fparks of truth are ftruck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions, which at prefent divide us, aim all at the public good; the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it. Things, actions, meafures, and objects of all kinds, present themselves to the minds of men in fuch a variety of lights, that it is not poffible we fhould all think alike at the fame time on every fubject, when hardly the fame man retains at all times the fame ideas of it. Parties are therefore the common lot of humanity; and ours are by no means more mischievous or lefs beneficial than thofe of other countries, nations, and ages, enjoying in the fame degree the great bleffing of political liberty.

Some indeed among us are not fo much grieved for the present ftate of our affairs, as apprehenfive for the future. The growth of luxury alarms them, and they think we are from that alone in the high road to ruin. They obferve, that no revenue is fufficient without economy, and that the most plentiful income of a whole people from

the

the natural productions of their country may be diffipated in vain and needlefs expences, and poverty be introduced in the place of affluence.This may be poffible. It however rarely happens: for there feems to be in every nation a greater proportion of industry and frugality, which tend to enrich, than of idlenefs and prodigality, which occafion poverty; fo that upon the whole there is a continual accumulation. Reflect what Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain were in the time of the Romans, inhabited by people little richer than our favages, and confider the wealth they at prefent poffefs, in numerous well-built cities, improved farms, rich moveables, magazines frocked with valuable manufactures, to say nothing of plate, jewels, and coined money; and all this, notwithstanding their bad, wafteful, plundering governments, and their mad, deftructive wars; and yet luxury and extravagant living has never fuffered much reftraint in thofe countries. Then confider the great proportion of induftrious frugal farmers inhabiting the interior parts of these American states, and of whom the body of our nation confifts, and judge whether it is poffible that the luxury of our fea-ports can be fufficient to ruin fuch a country.-If the importation of foreign luxuries could ruin a people, we should probably have been ruined long ago; for the British nation claimed a right, and practifed it, of importing among us not only the fuperfluities of their own production, but those of every nation under heaven; we bought and confumed them, and yet we flourished and grew rich. At present our independent governments may do what we could not then do, difcourage by heavy duties, or prevent by heavy prohibitions, fuch importations, and thereby grow richer;-if, indeed, which may admit of difpute, the defire of

adorning

adorning ourselves with fine clothes, poffeffing fine furniture, with elegant houses, &c. is not, by ftrongly inciting to labour and industry, the occafion of producing a greater value than is confumed in the gratification of that defire.

The agriculture and fifheries of the United States are the great fources of our increafing wealth. He that puts a feed into the earth is recompenced, perhaps, by receiving forty out of it; and he who draws a fish out of our water, draws up a piece of filver.

Let us (and there is no doubt but we fhall) be attentive to thefe, and then the power of rivals, with all their reftraining and prohibiting acts, cannot much hurt us. We are fons of the earth and feas, and, like Antæus in the fable, if in wreftling with a Hercules we now and then receive a fall, the touch of our parents will communicate to us fresh ftrength and vigour to renew the conteft.

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