ÏÏ4 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Again, a vaft channel of fubfiflcnce to the people 

 might be opened, by Tuppreffing the exclufive pri- 

 vileges of commercial and manufafturing compa- 

 nies. Thefe companies, we are told, provide a 

 livelihood for a whole country. Their eftabliih- 

 ments, I admit, on the firft glance, prefent an, 

 impoiing appearance, efpecially in rural lituations. 

 They difplay great avenues of trees, vaft édifices, 

 courts within courts, palaces ; but while the un- 

 dertakers are riding in their coaches, the reft of 

 the village are walking in wooden (hoes. I never 

 beheld a peafantry more wretched than in villages 

 where privileged manufaftures are eftabliQied. 

 Such exclufive privileges contribute more than is 

 generally imagined, to check the induftry of a 

 country. I fhall quote, on this occafion, the re- 

 mark of an anonymous Englifh Author, highly re- 

 fpectable for the foundnefs of his judgment, and 

 for the ftriûnefs of his impartiality. *' I paffed," 

 fays he, " through Montreuil, Abbeville, Pe- 



" quigni The fécond of thefe cities has, like- 



" wife, it's caftle : it's indigent inhabitants greatly 

 *' cry up their broad-cloth manufacture : but it is 

 " lefs confiderable than thofe of many villages of 

 ** the county of York *." 



* Voyage to France, Italy, and the Iflands of the Archipelago, 

 in 1750. Four fmaU volumes ia izmo. 



I could. 



