ed in manufactures, than they were in 1759? Are there fewer buildings now in use for the carrying on of great and extensive works? Are there fewer warehouses and magazines, and fewer machines and engines of every kind? How easily may you be convinced, that, in every one of these articles, far from a decrease, there is a very considerable increase, since the year 1759 ? 4. "As to land and fresh water carriage of goods, let any of you inquire, Are there fewer public waggons on the roads than there were formerly! And are there fewer roads fit for waggons to travel on? If so, our trade decreases. Are there fewer trows or barges employed on rivers and canals than there were heretofore? If there are, we allow the decrease of these is a sure sign of the decrease of trade. And, on the contrary, the vast increase of these proves a proportionable increase of it. Are the rivers and canals fewer in these degenerate times than in the year 1759?" See, my friends, by this plain, demonstrative proof, how sadly our trade is decreased! ་ And I cannot but observe, that arguments of this general kind are abundantly more conclusive than any which are or can be drawn from the case of particular persons. We always find a considerable number of these, both in London and elsewhere, who loudly complain of the decay of trade, and the hardness of the times. What does this mean? That they themselves want business." Perhaps they want industry But these particular cases are of no weight, opposed to those general considerations. too. 66 5. You may inquire next, with regard to "salt-water carriage of goods. Is the quantity of British shipping decreased since the year 1759? Are there fewer ships now employed in the coasting trade? fewer in the Irish trade? or fewer for distant voyages? Nay, have we fewer ship carpenters, or fewer sail makers at work? And do we build fewer or smaller ships for merchants' service than formerly?" The more particularly you inquire, the more clearly you will see how immensely the nation has improved in this article. But it is objected, "We have lost eight hundred of our ships since the beginning of the war." Perhaps so; although you have no proof of this; for Lloyd's Catalogue is no sufficient evidence. But how many have we taken? This it is absolutely needful you should know, or you cannot know whether we have lost or gained upon the whole. We have taken above nine hundred. And the evidence of our gain is at least as good as that of our loss. 66 Nay, but we have also lost our negro trade." I would to God it may never be found more! that we may never more steal and sell our brethren like beasts; never murder them by thousands and tens of thousands! O may this worse than Mohammedan, worse than Pagan, abomination, be removed from us for ever! Never was any thing such a reproach to England since it was a nation, as the having any hand in this execrable traffic. 6. "The state of our fisheries at home and abroad forms another important article of comparison. For as our ships of war are our bulwarks, and our sailors are the proper guards for defending such works, so it is of the utmost importance to have always ready, for manning our fleets, a number of able seamen. Now, these are most readily supplied by our fisheries. And when were these in their most flourishing state? in 1759, or 1777 Were more British ships employed in the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, or in the gulf of St. Lawrence, or on the coasts of Labrador, then, than there are now? Were there half as many? Again: Were there more employed in the fisheries for whaies, and fish to make oil? Were there even half as many? As to the fisheries on our own coasts, and on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, can any nran deny that they have hugely increased during these eighteen years? Indeed all our fisheries are now in a more flourishing con dition than ever they were before." Allowing then, that we have sustained some loss in Newfoundland, what is this to the total gain? On this account, therefore, we have no reason to talk of the "ruinous state of the nation." 7. "As to the tendency of our taxes, having previously observed, that the hands of the diligent and frugal are the only hands which make a nation rich; I have then to ask, Do our taxes in general, especially those which took place the last year, tend to make the people diligent and frugal, or idle and extravagant? Do they tend to promote industry, or obstruct it? to turn bees into drones, or drones into bees? Of late years we have made several excellent alterations in our taxes: we have repealed that very injudicious tax which in a manner prohibited the .mporting of butter, tallow, lard, and other articles from Ireland. Hence the mutual intercourse between the two kingdoms has prodigiously increased. Our shipping and navigation likewise have increased in the same proportion. And so has the quantity of English_goods and manufactures exported thither. Loes this show a decay of trade; or give a just ground for our daily complaints and lamentations? 8. "The clear amount of the annual revenue is a matter of fact, and capable of ocular demonstration. Now, let an appeal be made to the proper accounts, which state the amount of all the taxes of the year 1759; let these accounts be compared with those of the year 1777, and you cannot but see with your own eyes where the advantage lies; yea, notwithstanding the loss of our tobacco trade from Maryland and Virginia, and notwithstanding the great failure of the crops of sugar, as well as of cider and perry. 9. "The last article is the national debt. And great it undoubtedly is. Yet, comparatively speaking, it is not so great now, as it was in 1759. For if the nation is now (as has been clearly shown) very considerably richer, then it is better able to bear an equal or a greater load of national debt, than it was at that juncture. "To illustrate this by a familiar instance: A private trader, who has but a hundred pounds in the world, is greatly in debt if he owes but twenty pounds; and is in danger of stopping payment for want of cash, or of being crushed by some wealthy rival. But if he has a thousand pounds in stock, and owes two hundred, he is in far less danger. And if he has ten thousand pounds stock, and owes two thousand, he is in no danger; nay, he is a rich man. "Not that I would encourage the running any farther in debt. I only intend to show that our distresses, which raise such tragical exclamations, are more imaginary than real.” And what can be more fair and Thus far the dean of Gloucester. candid than these reasonings? What can be more satisfactory to you who are of no party, but an honest inquirer after truth? Perhaps you lately heard a strange, broken, maimed account all on one side of the question, of debts without any credits to balance! And what could you learn from this? Now you hear both sides, and thence may easily see what is the real state of the nation. And how much better is it, in all the preceding respects, than it was eighteen years ago! What becomes then of all those passionate outcries concerning the "dreadful condition we are in," when it undeniably appears, to every candid inquirer, that we have not been in so good a condition these fifty years! On how totally insufficient grounds is the contrary supposition built! "We have lost—near as many ships as we have taken! We have been disturbed on the banks of Newfoundland; and we can no longer sell our brethren like sheep, and pour out their blood like water; therefore the nation is in a desperate state; therefore we are on the brink of ruin!" And are these the best arguments that can be found to support the lamentable conclusion! Now, my friends, give me leave to sum up briefly what has been offered on the other side. And, I pray, observe the difference; mark the firm and solid foundation whercon the conclusion is built. The prosperous or adverse state of the nation is to be judged of from the state of its population, its agriculture, its manufactures, its land and fresh water carriage of goods, its salt water carriage of goods, its fisheries, the tendency of its taxes, its annual revenue, and the national debt. But you have seen, that, in each of these particulars, considered one by one, England is not in a worse but in a far better state than it was eighteen years ago; so far from being on the brink of ruin, that it is in a state of eminent prosperity. Let none then deceive you with vain words! Let none by subtle reasonings, or by artful, elaborate harangues, persuade you out of your senses. Let no sweet-tongued orator, by his smooth periods, steal away your understanding; no thundering talker fill you with vain fears of evils that have no being. Be aware of all who (perhaps sincerely) strive to terrify you with creatures of their own imagination. You are encompassed with liberty, peace, and plenty: you see them on the right hand and on the left. Let no man then cast a mist before your eyes, and face you down that they are poverty and slavery. Know the public as well as private blessings which you enjoy, and be thankful to God and man. There is only one reason why we should fear: There is a God that judgeth the earth. And as none can harm us if we have him for our friend, so none can help us if we have him for our enemy. Is it not wise then seriously to consider this, Is God our friend or our enemy? But who thinks or cares about it? Too many of us do not: God is not in all our thoughts. I am afraid ignorance, yea, contempt, of God, is the present characteristic of the English nation. A late writer supposes it to be sloth and luxury; but I cannot think so; because neither of these is peculiar to us; our neighbours vie with us in both; many of them are full as slothful as us, and many of them are as luxurious. But none can vie with us in this: There is no nation upon earth that is equally profane. Is there any people under heaven, that pays no more regard than we do to the Creator and Governor of heaven and earth? What nation (I do not say in the Christian, but in the Mohammedan or Pagan, world) uses his great and venerable name with so little ceremony? In what country is there to be heard in so great abundance The horrid oath, the direful curse, (That latest weapon of the wretch's war!) Comrade of despair! So it uses to be in other countries; but in ours it is the comrade of mirth and jollity! We daily curse and swear, and blaspheine the Most High, merely by way of diversion, almost from the highest to the lowest. Nobility, gentry, tradesmen, peasants, blaspheme the worthy name whereby we are called, without provocation, without remorse!!! Sloth and luxury we allow are general among us; but profaneness is well nigh universal. Whoever spends but a few days in any of our large towns, will find abundant proof, that senseless, shameless, stupid profaneness is the true characteristic of the English nation. Meantime we say, (in effect, if not in terms,) "Is there knowledge in the Most High? Tush, thou God carest not for it.” But are we sure of this? I doubt, he does: I doubt, if this is still added to all the other instances of impiety, he will soon say, "Shall 1 not visit for these things? Shall I not be avenged on such a nation as this?" Let us be wise in time! Let us be as wise, at least, as the inhabitants of Nineveh; let us make our peace with God, and then we may defy all the men upon earth! A nation God delights to bless, Or hurt whom they surround? Nor hear the trumpet's sound. O might we, Lord, the grace improve, The soul-composing power! A COMPASSIONATE ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF IRELAND, LIMERICK, May 10, 1778. MY DEAR BRETHREN,-1. Before I left London (two or three months ago) a general panic prevailed there. Some vehemently affirmed, and others potently believed, that the nation was in a most desperate state; that it was upon the very brink of ruin, past all hopes of recovery. Soon after, I found that the same panic had spread throughout the city of Bristol. I traced it likewise wherever I went, in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire. When I crossed the Channel, I was surprised to find it had got before me to Ireland; and that it was not only spread through Dublin first, and thence to every part of Leinster, but had found its way into Munster too, into Cork, Bandon, and Limerick: in all which places people were terrifying themselves and their neighbours, just as they did in London. 2. How is it possible," say they, "that we should contend with so many enemies together? If General Washington has (as Mr. Franklin of Limerick computes) sixty-five thousand men; if the powerful fleet and numerous armies of France are added to these; if Spain, in consequence of the family compact, declares war at the same time; and if Portugal join in confederacy with them, what will become of us? Add to these the enemies of our own household, ready to start up on every side; and when France invades us from without, and these from within, what can follow but ruin and destruction ?" 3. I would fain speak a word of comfort to my poor neighbours, that they may not be frightened to death. Perhaps, my friends, things are not in altogether so desperate a situation as you imagine. When I was at Cork last week, I conversed largely with some persons who were just landed from Philadelphia. I could thoroughly depend upon the account they gave, as they had had full means of information, and had no possible interest to serve by misrepresenting any thing. The substance of their account was this: "In December, General Washington had seventeen or eighteen thousand men in his army. From that time thirty, forty, sometimes fifty of them died in a day by a pestilential fever; and in two months' time, upwards of fifteen hundred deserted to General Howe. So that many were inclined to believe he had not when we came away much more than five thousand effective men left." Never fright your selves, therefore, about General Washington's huge army, that melted away like snow in harvest. The English forces meantime are in perfect health, (about sixteen thousand,) and have plenty of all things. 4. "But there are twenty or thirty thousand recruits to join him in a month or two, and what will General Howe do then?" Just as he does now; he will regard any number of them as much as he would so many sparrows. For what could fifty thousand raw men do, that had never seen the face of an enemy? especially when, by the tenure of their service, they were only to stay in the army nine months? (The circumstance concerning which General Washington so earnestly expostulated with the congress.) Will these dead-doing men, do you think, be in haste to cut off all the old, weather-beaten Englishmen ? Otherwise they will not have made an end of them, before the time comes for their returning home! 5. "But I do not believe the American army is in this condition." If you do not, I cannot help it. And you have no more right to be angry at me for believing it, than I at you for not believing it. Let each of us then, without resentment or bitterness, permit the other to think for himself. แ 6. O, but the French will swallow us up." They will as soon swallow up the sea. Pray, which way is it they are to come at us, unless they can fly through the air? It is certain our fleet, notwithstanding the shameless lies told to the contrary, is now every way in a better condition than it ever was since England was a nation. And while we are indisputably masters at sea, what can the French do but gnash their teeth at us? 66 Nay, but Spain will join them." That is by no means clear. They have not forgot the Havannah yet. But, if they do, we are well able to deal with them both; full as able as we were the last war. 7. " Yea, but Portugal too will declare against us." I do not believe one word of it. The Portuguese (to say nothing about their gratitude) are not such arrant fools; they understand their own interest better; they need no one to inform them, that if the English were only to stand neuter, the Spaniards would eat them up at a mouthful. They well know the present war will not last always; and, in the end, either England will prevail, or not. If it does not, if Spain prevail over England, England cannot defend Portugal. If England prevail over Spain, she will not. She will doubtless leave his most faithful majesty to receive the reward he has so justly deserved from the fleet and army of his neighbour. S." But do not you know the French squadron is sailed to assist them, with four thousand soldiers on board?" I really do not, nor you neither; nor any man in Ireland. That they are sailed, I know; but not whether to Africa, or Asia, or America. But have they four thousand soldiers on board? And is that all? I heard they were twelve thousand. But in how many transports did they embark? We could |