tion. Addison and his advancement hardly need be mentioned, the instance is so notorious; but every body may not so readily recollect, that his party-services contributed more to it than all his laudable efforts to refine our manners, and fect our taste. per Nor was Steele, his subordinate, absolutely forgot; as his share in the play-house patent serves to bear witness; and I believe were we to inspect the records of the treasury, we should find proofs of his being farther considered in a more silent way. wit to every lucrative considera- when fortune. first led him from Scotland to London, than many of his cotemporaries: and what degree of consideration he obtained from the public, till he had Trenchard and Collins for his supporters, is hardly worth ascertaining.-But from that happy period all went well with him; the parts and learning of the whole junto were placed to his account.-As reputed author of the Independent Whig, a fortune not inconsiderable was left him, by a country physician; being the only retribution of the kind, perhaps, that ever any British author met with!--From Cato's Letters, London Journals, Anti-SouthSea pamphlets, he derived the character of a writing politician, And what completed his importance, Trenchard dying, was not fashionably ashamed to own him in his will, but left him books, together with a handsome legacy; on which recommendation Sir Robert Walpole not only took him and his Tacitus at once into his protection, but also found means to put him on the establishment as a commissioner of the wine-licences; in the possession of which place he died. Even the great Walpole himself, like the great Montagu, lord Hallifax, whom he succeeded, did not disdain to make his approaches to power by writing as well as speaking and several of his pieces are still extant in the collections of persons curious in these matters. And I will not specify the many, many dignified names, in all capacities, of persons now living, who have either obtained those dignities, or added signal emoluments to them by the exercise of the pen; for fear of shocking that delicacy which renders them content with the fruits of their former labours, and desirous the labours themselves should be forgot. But Thomas Gordon is deadand with his, as the last of the lucky names on this roll worth remembering, I shall close my list. Gordon then, I have reason to think, was not much richer, better recommended, or better allied his Did all merit centre in or die with Gordon? It cannot be affirmed, or even supposed. Arnal, once his friend, though afterwards his enemy, was acknowledged to have quicker parts, and a more pliant pen. And yet, though prodigally rewarded for critical services, he could never obtain a stated provision. So that, had he lived a few years longer, he might have lived Mr. Wood, so much to his honour distinguished by Mr. secretary Pitt, is a writer by accident, not by profession: and was already secured against any reverse of fortune, by the gratitude and generosity of former friends. VOL. V. N himself himself into all the wretchedness which Amhurst, his antagonist, sunk under. What is stranger still, he had not only the minister but the M-ch too for his patron; who condescended, more than once, to express a gracious sense of his merits and services, and some impatience to have him suitably and permanently rewarded. So that we are bound to believe, that neither M-ch nor minister, though seemingly all-sufficient, had any longer power, separately or conjunctively, to do what they wished to do for him.The heat of opposition had, by this time, not only increased the price of service, but so enlarged the number of claimants, that all was too little to satisfy the cravings and demands. Hinc ille lachrymæ. "Authors at large (says lord Shaftsbury) are in a manner professed masters of understanding to the age." And in Churchill's Collection of Voyages, an Italian traveller, one Gemelli, gives all Europe to understand, that he could find nothing amongst us but our writings to distinguish us from the worst of barbarians. Instead of reproaching authors, therefore, for living by their labours, we ought to reproach ourselves for allowing them no other means to live. By the statute of modern uniformity, luxury, is the idol that all worship there is a luxury of the mind as well as the senses.-- -Of those who administer to the latter, authors stand the foremost.—And ought we to reproach them for the exercise of those talents which we are so much obliged to, for enlarg ing the bounds of our happiness. The times, as we have seen, were favourable to Prior, Addison, &c. (though all found occasion to complain before they were served,) because the link of patronage which held the great and the learned together was then in full force; and yet they did not commence writers in virtue of any such foresight, but because it was the impulse of their genius; and all the good that befel them upon it, was as much the gift of fortune as the result of merit. The next race of writers had their recent example for authority; and, so far, could better justify themselves for taking to the pen and the press, on a principle of discretion, than, in this country, any other set of writers ever could. We of the present day, indeed, having nothing but phantoms before our eyes, are only the dupes of our own delusions.—But then, alas! we are writers; consequently incapable of taking up any other trade; and consequently, instead of examples, can only bequeath our advices and warnings to others. And if advice had any power to convince, or warnings to deter, the glut of writing which has cloyed the present age should be followed, like Pharaoh's years of abundance, with a dearth as durable. Were only the Journals, Chronicles, Magazines, and other periodical as well as occasional productions (which, at present, contribute so much to the amusement and This was in some measure the case when Mr. Ralph wrote. More encouragement has been given to letters in the present reign. chit-chat of the day) to be discontinued all at once, how doubly loaded with all the horrors of vacancy would every hour limp off; and how little would the common run of society be worth! Knowledge is the light of the world; authors have been the dispensers of it; and have been suffered to consume themselves in the operation. Let those that now write, therefore, be the last! and those that delight in darkness have it! A letter concerning the marquis Belloni's dissertation upon commerce. From the Journal Economique. SIR, IN your journal for March 1751, you have inserted a dissertation upon trade, by the marquis Belloni, which I have read several times, as an excellent piece: the substance of all the best remarks which have been made by our modern politicians on that subject, containing advice to Sovereigns touching the direction of commerce, manufactures, and the circulation of money. But ought not he first to have considered whether it is more necessary to direct all those things with so much care and concern as he proposes, or to let them take their own way under proper protection only? How many general and particular manufactures have been established and brought to perfection by liberty alone, each having been carried on in its own right! Every individual will be led by honour and advantage, and thence results a great whole, which will never be the consequence of a general direction. If, on the contrary, the government should be too watchful and solicitous, and laws too much extended, or too minute, should happen to disturb particular manufacturers, in terrifying by penalties often injudiciously inflicted, or recompensing by prizes ill adjudged, you substitute intrigue instead of emulation. How many things are now carried on with tolerable success, merely from having hitherto escaped a pretended legislative Police, which, instead of advancing, retards the progress of industry and improvement! Observe how trade flourished in the republics, until its prosperity was interrupted either by time, or other political causes foreign to commerce, such as wars, national debts, and oppression: the reason was, those republics have a spirit ever healthy, ever active, which is liberty: and this, far from diminishing, actually constitutes the public strength; it represses evil and maintains distributive justice, and the evil being repressed, the good appears and predominates: yes, the removal of obstacles is all that is necessary to the success of trade. It asks nothing of the public, but good judges, the discouragement of monopoly, an equal protection to all the subjects, an invariable value of coin, roads, and canals: besides these articles all other cares are vicious: and this vice is the more pernicious to a state, as it flows from an ill-conducted zeal: this zeal has partizans, officers in employment and authority, and it requires whole ages to undeceive them of their errors. Trade is the science of individuals: but the general direction of trade cannot be a science; for it is impossible. Oftentimes, when we N 2 'dive dive into sciences beyond our reach, such as the general system of the universe, infinitude, the union of spirit and matter, &c. we are quit for so much loss of time: but in policy, such false presumptions carry us a great way in the fatal paths of ruin and destruction. We ought to be persuaded that, in order to attain to that knowledge which is requisite for the direction of commerce, it is not enough to know the different interests of different nations, provinces, and societies; but we must also understand the interests and connexions of individuals, together with the quality and value of each commodity. He, therefore, who is mistaken in the least article, will direct amiss, and enact preposterous laws. Who then shall pretend to this integral and universal capacity? Non datur scientia. Nevertheless the directors of trade arrogate this to themselves; and if this arrogance be faulty, and they consult their caprices more than their understanding, the result will be, laws that cramp commerce, and favours unjustly conferred. Sometimes the council of commerce of a nation or province sees the common interest only through the eyes of their deputies; these sometimes propose private or particular advantages to their own towns or persons, to the prejudice of other towns and the rest of their subjects; and sometimes, it is to be feared, they lay it down as a maxim to aggrandise what is great, annihilate what is little, and utterly banish equality. It is reported of Mr. Colbert, that when he convened several deputies of commerce at his house, and asked what he could do for the benefit of trade? the most Have sensible and plainest spoken man among them, replied in these three words, "Let us alone." we ever sufficiently reflected upon the good sense of that short answer? This is no other than a kind of commentary upon it. Apply it to every thing that is done for trade, and to what chiefly destroys it in monarchies; and examine its effects: you will soon find how little fruit and success is reaped from all those cares of restraint, inspection, and regulation; the republics have made greater advances in trade, almost without laws and constraint, than other countries when countenanced by the ablest ministers; the instinct of the bee does more in this particular than the genius of the greatest politician: the capital of a republican state increases every day, by economy, agriculture, industry, brokerage, manufacture, and every thing that is understood by the idea of trade. There are degrees by which we ascend successively from what is simple to what is improved, and from this last to the perfection of art; these the multitude will climb of themselves, by communication, example, and emulation: they never fail to follow the different steps, and never mistake when left to their own conduct: but when people pretend to shew them the road and direct them, woe be to him who mistakes! The needful is neglected, in order to proceed to what is superfluous before the time. Without mentioning particular nations, how many errors of this kind have been committed to the destruction of mankind! How many colonies have been peopled at the expense of the continent! While some places enjoyed abundance, how many many others have been quite deserted! How many arts have been admired at the expense of neglect ing the gifts of nature elsewhere; fine palaces built, and statues erected, but lands without culture, and villages without inhabitants! These are the effects of the grand science of trade. The marquis Belloni thinks it. might be of service to trade, to set up custom-houses, and load one kind of commodity with higher duties than another; to exclude foreign merchandize, and favour our own by encouraging the exportation of them. This practice is but too well known in Europe: but the nation who introduces it first, hath necessarily prescribed the example to others; each is willing to do the same injury to the right of nations which itself suffers; foreign manufactures were prohibited, that one country might not become tributary to its neighbours; so that the Europeans, as they increased in the knowledge of trade, took measures for breaking all communication among themselves, and in time of profound peace suffer all the effects of an universal war. No, it is not the good of trade that advises these measures, but some private interest, which too often gets the better of public advantage. If once the multitude is allowed to take their own way, it will soon undeceive the world in this particular, to the great advantage of society, and shew that the passage of merchandize from one state to another ought to be as free as that of the air and water. All Europe ought to be no other than a general and common fair: the person or nation which should make the best commo dity should find the greatest advantage. The distance and expense of carriage are sufficient reasons for any nation to prefer its own goods to those of others; and where these obstacles cease, the stranger is preferable to our own countrymen, otherwise you ruin instead of favouring subjects in their trade. The custom-house duties will always have a bad effect, for the finances of the nation ought to be raised from the consumption only; as all duties levied upon the transportation, be they what they will, never fail to distress trade. But presumption and self-love are so predominant among men, that they prefer a smail advantage acquired by sophistry, subtilty, or malice, to all that nature and humanity would afford with much more abundance and integrity; though their understanding was undoubtedly given them not to domineer, but to regulate liberty. Yes, regulated and enlightened liberty will always do more for the trade of any people, than the most intelligent dominion; a single man sees more clearly into the interests of his own trade, and conducts it better than ten associates, whose interests are always divided, and often opposed to each other. If he goes too far, if he usurps over or injures his neighbours, they can stop and restrain him with the assistance of justice; and this constitutes the equality, policy, and balance that are necessary to trade: whereas our legislators can only perceive so many different interests in a confused manner. Liberty will enrich the merchants, and these becoming more or less wealthy, according to their talents, will endeavour to bring their manufactoN 3 |