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merchants ia their feveral ventures and fpeculations muft be 

 regulated by the extent of their infornnation, and by their capa- 

 city to apply that information to their condudl. To equalize 

 their capacity is impoffible ; there will always remain a confi- 

 derable difference between the underflandings of men, fup- 

 pofing them to be in pofleffion of the fame fadts ; but, to thofe 

 who can reafon, the great difficulty is to arrive at fatils that may 

 form jiift data for their reafoning. Here I flatter myfelf Tele- 

 graphy can materially ferve them, nor will they be inclined to 

 treat with difdain any attempt of fcience to abridge the routine 

 of bufinefs. 



It is curious and foiuetimes amufing to obferve how any 

 new invention implicates different interefts, and how different 

 claffes of fociety are immediately or remotely affedled by cir- 

 cumflances in which they did not imagine themfelves to be in 

 any way concerned. A flock-jobber, in glancing his eye down 

 a column of a newfpaper, would fkip over a paragraph about a 

 Telegraph, as news from the regions of fcience, in which he 

 could have no manner of interefl. Science and flock jobbing 

 do not indeed appear to bear any near affinity to each other, 

 nor fliould we expedl that a mechanic invention would have any 

 powerful efFedl upon the rate of infurance ; yet the eflablifh- 

 ment of Telegraphs in proper places would produce a great 

 revolution at Lloyd's and on the Exchange. 



The 



