due motion. To prevent the state from losing from such sums being withdrawn from the public treasury, taxes might be laid upon articles of luxury, extravagance, and foreign produce. If our manufactures cannot be sold at a moderate price, they will not long continue to be purchased by foreigners; and if that channel of traffic be dried up, we shall be exposed to depopulation, poverty, and all the unhappy consequences of expiring trade. Our merchants, if oppressed by accumulated taxes, will not be able to stand in competition with those of France, which, not burthened with a national debt in any degree equal to ours, will not only undersell us in the foreign markets, but will draw English capitals from this country,, and encourage emigration by the cheapness of the neces sary articles of life. Any alleviation with respect to duties will be so far from a detriment, that it will ultimately prove an advantage to the public revenues. Weights and measures ought to be brought to the same precise standard all over the kingdom, in order that many of the frauds which now prevail may be removed. The number of ale-houses ought to be diminished, as they are not only the haunts of intemperance, but the retreats of idleness; they produce a fondness for dissipation, which is highly injurious to domestic habits of life; and they corrupt the minds and relax the industrious habits of the common people.

There exist, without doubt, many causes, which obstruct the execution of such projects; and the great expense, the discord of clashing interests, and the varieties of opinion upon these subjects, may long retard their execution. There is, however, sufficient ground to expect, that they may in process of time be

partially, if not completely, adopted; since it is a truth, confirmed by daily observation, that our countrymen are sufficiently disposed to embark their property in a joint stock; and when the utility of an enterprize will justify their attempts, they come forward with alacrity to engage in all public works. Their capitals are much larger than formerly, and of course they are better enabled to run the risk of expensive undertakings.

The first steps in the useful arts, which are the most difficult, have long ago been taken; their fruits are reaped by society at large, and furnish the greatest incitements to perseverance. Of this kind is the encouragement given to navigable canals, which afford the cheapest and most éasy circulation of inland commerce. We may reasonably indulge the hope that many such schemes will be realized, because the greatest works, of which we now reap the benefit, once existed only in plans and projects. However at first condemned by the ignorant and ridiculed by the idle they were at last reduced to practice.

It is the happy characteristic of the English to improve upon the arts of other nations; it only remains therefore, that, in order to complete our reputation for this excellence, we adopt every useful scheme, and, by adding our dexterity to the invention of others, make nearer approaches to perfection.

The CAPACITY FOR IMPROVEMENT visible in our soil and its productions constitutes the intrinsic and transcendant excellence of our island; and the industry and public spirit of its inhabitants form some of the most valuable parts of our national character.

These united advantages undeniably prove, upon comparison with the circumstances of the other

nations of Europe, that Great Britain is eminently qualified by art and nature to carry on a widely extended commerce, as she derives every requisite for that purpose from her insular situation, the produce of her lands and plantations, the excellence and variety of her manufactures, the skill and perseverance of her sailors, and the opulence and enterprising disposition of her merchants.

CHAPTER IV.

FOREIGN TRAVEL.

AS travelling is considered a part of education indispensably necessary for all young men of rank and fortune, it becomes a very interesting subject of observation. The most important topics which this subject includes are its general advantages, the consideration of the time of life when the traveller ought to begin his excursions, the previous information necessary to be acquired, the countries most proper to be visited, the objects most deserving his attention; and what are the best effects, which a tour through foreign countries is calculated to produce upon the character and manners.

Travelling, as far as it introduces a man into genteel and well informed society in various parts of the world, and leads to an extensive knowledge of persons and places, expands the mind, removes local prejudices, produces a comparison between our own and foreign

countries, satisfies that curiosity and that fondness for change, which are so natural to mankind, supplies new sources of pleasing and useful information, and conduces to the increase of philanthropy and generosity of sentiment. He who is confined to his own country reads only one page of the book of human nature, and perpetually studies the same lesson; nor does he understand that completely, from his ignorance of its relative merit, and connexion with all other parts.

If the great and the opulent reside constantly in their own country, they are acquainted only with a luxurious, easy, and enervating mode of living. Foreign travel enures them to the severity of wholesome hardships; the dangers of the sea, disturbed nights, scanty fare, uncomfortable inns, and bad roads diversify their lives, and place them in new situations. Thus they experience such changes and wants, as render the luxuries which they can command at home, and which otherwise would be insipid, the sources of real enjoyment; and their occasional privations of ease and plenty may increase their sympathy for the lower and more indigent classes of the community.

He who forms his notions of mankind from his constant residence in one and the same place, resembles the child who imagines the heavens are confined to his own limited prospect. The Russians, before the reign of Peter the Great, thought themselves possessed of every national blessing, and held all other people in contempt; so contracted were they in their notions as to believe that their northern mountains encompassed the globe. The untravelled Spaniard may suppose that every Englishman is dressed in boots and a hunting-cap, and that horses. and

dogs are the constant subjects of his thoughts and conversation. The untravelled Englishman may imagine that the Spaniard is always wrapt in a cloak, that he is a prey to perpetual jealousy, and is haughty, superstitious, and inactive. These misconceptions may probably result, in a considerable degree, from the popular novels of each country; and the Knight of La Manca and Squire Western may have equally caused them to mistake a particular for a general character, and filled them with false and exaggerated notions of each other. Thus is one nation disposed to draw such a caricature of another, as gives an extravagant as well as an unpleasing idea of the original : it is only amid the civilities of mutual intercourse, and the exchange of friendly offices, that the true and faithful likeness can be taken.

"Not long ago the map of the world in China was a square plate, the greater part of which was occu pied by the provinces of that vast empire, leaving on its skirts a few obscure corners, into which the wretched remainder of mankind were supposed to be driven. If you have not the use of our letters, nor the knowledge of our books, said a mandarin to a European_ missionary, what literature, or what science can you have." Ferguson on Civil Society, p. 313.

Travelling not only divests the mind of such prejudice as this, but gives the highest polish to the manners. This polish however does not result from that excessive attention of the traveller to his deportment and external appearance, which takes off the mind from more important pursuits, and gives a studied air to his general behaviour; but arising originally from true benevolence, and a desire to please, is perfected by intercourse with well-bred and polite company,