become dead and inactive-and, if this unnatural state of things continue, the whole scheme of its trade and manufactures must be taken to pieces, and re-formed upon a new model, suited to the diminutive scale of its own limited wants. In the mean time, while society holds this retrograde course, great misery will prevail; merchants will be ruined by the loss of their trade, and the depreciation of their stock; and labourers will be reduced to misery by the want of employment.

That such would be the consequences of any general proscription of the trade of this country, we endeavoured to show in a former Number,* in opposition to Mr Spence and other writers who maintained, that Great Britain was independent of commerce, and could not be seriously injured by schemes directed against her trade. So far, however, from being independent of commerce, Great Britain was perhaps, of all countries, most dependent for prosperity and comfort on the free exchange of her produce for that of other nations. A long course of domestic peace, had brought all her manufactures to a state of unrivalled perfection-an immense capital had been accumulated, which was generally laid out in schemes of trade-in contriving new and improved machinery for abridging labour, or in establishing new branches of commerce. By the success of these experiments, the wealth and prosperity of the country was increased-art and industry flourished-the manufacturers vied with each other in the cheapness and perfection of their work, and the markets, in which the produce of this country was consumed, were gradually enlarged far beyond the measure of its own demand. Great Britain became a vast storehouse for the productions of industry, and her commerce consisted generally in the exchange of her finished work for the rude produce of other countries deficient in capital and manufacturing skill. Such, previous to its late interruption, was the commerce carried on with the countries in the North of Europe, with Russia, Poland, Sweden and Denmark. An immense supply of manufactures was also afforded by this country to the markets of Germany, and our exportations to America had been rapidly increasing ever since the close of the American war. The peculiar circumstances of this rising country eminently adapted it to be a great market for the productions of Britain. With an almost boundless extent of fertile and unimproved territory, and an active and industrious population, America devoted her whole capital and industry to the cultivation of the soil: Abounding, in consequence, with a continual supply of subsistence, her

* Vol. XIV.-Spence on Agriculture and Commerce.

inhabitants were always on the increase; while, with the exception of the main article of food, she was totally unable to provide for their most necessary wants. Britain, on the other hand, rich in capital, and still more in the art and industry of her numerous artisans, abounded in all that was necessary to supply the wants of the American community; and as America advanced in wealth, improvement and population, a continually increasing market was opened for the manufactures of Britain. In the year 1772, the value of the manufactures exported by Britain to her American colonies, amounted to 6,000,000l.; and in the year 1804, it had increased to upwards of 12,000,000l.

In this manner, the commerce of Britain had gradually expanded beyond the bounds of its own narrow territory, and had adapted itself to the supply of the world. All her manufacturing establishments were laid out upon this enlarged scale; the whole scheme of her industry was accommodated to it; and such an assortment of produce was provided, as was entirely useless for her own consumption, and could only be of value as an equivalent for the produce of other nations. Her trade had a continual reference to the foreign market;—this was the great principle upon which it was regulated-the source from which employment flowed to all classes of her industrious inhabitants; -and in these circumstances, this vast commerce, which was spread over the whole extent of the globe, covering both sea and land, was suddenly pent up, partly by a train of ill-concerted measures at home, and partly by the policy of the enemy abroad, within the narrow bounds of the British territory. The consequences of such an exclusion, may be easily calculated. All those manufactures, which depended for support on the foreign market, were suddenly checked. The demand was no longer adequate to support them; and though they were continued for some time in the hope of an improving market, the largest capitals were soon exhausted in the manufacture of unsaleable produce. An exhausted capital was followed by commercial embarrassments,-merchants were reduced to bankruptcy, and manufacturers, thrown out of employment, were consigned to beggary and want. Such still continues to be the condition of the country; and it has been brought about chiefly by the exclusion of our manufactures from all their aecustomed markets. The labouring classes were formerly employed in supplying the extensive demands of those markets; but when they were closed against British goods, the demand of course ceased, and there was no longer any employment for those by whose industry it was formerly supplied. Other causes may have concurred in producing the general distress of the

country. But it can scarcely be doubted, that the calamity ori ginated in the rigorous proscription of our trade both in Ame rica and Europe.

II. We shall now briefly consider the nature of those measures which gave rise to this proscription of our trade, and which deprived of employment the industrious classes of this country; and though this is now only matter of history, such an inqui ry is not without its use, as it may enable us to draw instruction for the future from the unerring experience of the past.

'sea.

In the course of the late war, it happened, through a singular coincidence, that at the time when France, by a train of unpa❤ ralleled successes, had obtained the undisputed ascendancy on the Continent of Europe, Great Britain had obtained a like All the other Powers were by this ascendancy on the ocean. time beaten out of the field, and France and Britain alone remained, to rule, with a divided sway, the empire of land and But as fleets and armies cannot be brought into contact, there was apparently no method left of deciding this protracted contest. Those two enlightened nations were like two ferocious animals, the inhabitants of different elements, eager to destroy each other, but who were unable, for want of some common arena on which they could meet, to try their strength in the mortal strife. This dilemma was, however, overcome by the ingenuity of the belligerent powers, who quickly contrived to rekindle into new activity the half-extinguished flames of war. In this country, it was resolved to let loose upon the enemy's defenceless commerce the irresistible navy of Britain, and at the same time to lay aside all such inconvenient restraints as had hitherto prevented the full display of its formidable powers.

*

In a former Number, we took the liberty of throwing out some doubts whether the practice of maritime plunder might not be abandoned, by the common consent of nations, without any detriment to the interests of civilized hostility. Waving, however, for the present, all consideration of this question, we may remark, that although this moderate policy has never been adopted-although the capture of trading vessels is clearly sanctioned by the law of nations, and by the practice of war, the harshness of this system has generally been softened by the intervention of the neutral powers. In no former war were the abstract rights of the neutral and the belligerent ever brought into collision. The precise limit of their respective privileges was allowed to remain in salutary obscurity; the belligerent, in the mean time, exercising his rights, such as they were, without any nice inquiry into their exact extent, while the

Vol. VIII.-War in Disguise.

commerce of the world flourished under the sanction of the neutral flag. And such an arrangement was beneficial to all parties. It enabled the more powerful belligerent to destroy the enemy's shipping, while it forced the weaker to consign his commerce to the protection of the neutral flag, and thus to preserve it by the deliberate sacrifice of his naval power ;-and, beyond this limit, it is evidently neither politic nor safe, more especially for a commercial state, to urge the damage of a maritime war.

External violence is happily unequal to the task of utterly destroying the commerce of a great nation; and, were such extensive mischief practicable, it would not be expedient. Among a variety of trading nations, labouring in concert, in the manner we have already endeavoured to describe, a free intercourse, either direct or indirect, is necessary for the due distribution of their joint produce. It is quite contrary to the general interests of this confederacy, that any country should be excluded from its benefits, because its produce is necessary to complete the circle of commercial exchange. Every individual member contributes a particular portion to the common stock; and the system, thus firmly held together by the tie of common interest, must receive a general shock from the injury or destruction of any of its parts. Commerce being a mutual benefit, it seems obvious that its loss must be a mutual evil. France, for example, affords an important market for the manufactures of Britain, which, in exchange, receives the surplus produce of France. Supposing a war to break off the direct intercourse between these two countries, where, in these circumstances, would be the policy of preventing also the indirect intercourse, and of annihilating this merket for the manufactures of the country? It is quite clear, that the demands of France for foreign manufactures, must be exactly in proportion to the progress of her interval commerce; and, setting aside, therefore, the question of right, it was not the interest of this country to check her advances in wealth and industry, and thus to interfere with an improving market for her own goods. We had chased her navy from the sea. We had forced her to carry on her trade by means of foreign shipping, and thus to abandon all pretensions to naval power; and here was the point at which to rest. We had reached the natural limit of maritime hostility, beyond which, if the evil be pushed, experience shows that it will recoil on its authors. But the rulers of the country, in the plenitude of their inveterate hostility, seem to have been resolved on mischief, without well considering where it was to terminate, or on whom it was ultimately to light. Their object seems to have been utterly to destroy the enemy's trade;-to blot out

France from the commercial map of Europe;-to drive her produce entirely out of the circle of European exchange. Improving upon the barbarous caprice recorded of the cruel Jew, they actually made the experiment of cutting the pound of flesh out of the body of European commerce, nearest the heart; and seem to have imagined that their mangled victim would retain health and life in every other part.

In considering, however, the policy of this new system of maritime war, we have hitherto kept out of view the obstacles to its execution, from the opposition of the neutral powers, and the resistance of the enemy. These, however, make an important part of the case. America, the great neutral power of modern times, far from acceding to the claims of Britain, firmly remonstrated upon the slightest infraction of her acknowledged rights; and her vessels having long carried on the trade between France and her colonies, she was resolved, on no conditions, to part with this valuable commerce. The most learned civilians might prove, in all the beauty of abstract theory, that the Americans had no right to this trade. But the misfortune is, that men will not be reasoned out of important interests. It is not by the logic of words that valuable privileges were ever won, either from nations or individuals. If the maritime rights of Britain could not be reconciled with American commerce, this with the Americans would be conclusive. If they could not have both our rights, and their own commerce, there could be little doubt which they would take. It was accordingly found, that throughout all the negociations with the Americans, respecting the colonial trade of the enemy, they readily acceded to any compromise, which, while it left untouched the main object in dispute, soothed the vanity of Britain with the notion of her imaginary rights. They consented, in order to break the continuity of the voyage, to touch at an American port-afterwards to land the produce, and to reship it in a different vesseland, lastly, they conformed so far to our notions, that they became purchasers of the property, and transported it, at their own expense, from the French colonies to the mother country. They consented, in short, to any restrictions under which it was practicable to carry on the trade. But the moment we meddled with the trade itself, they were steady and inflexible in their remonstrances for redress; and it became perfectly apparent, that this new system of warfare against the commerce of France, would embroil the country with all the neutral powers; and that it would necessarily lead to the loss of our whole American trade. This was the more to be deprecated, as the infant manufactures of America were just beginning to take root in the country. In