‘“e 
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CHAPTER XV. 
COMMERCE, 
Art. I. A Commercial Dictionary, containing the present State of Mercantile Law, 
Practice, and Custom intended for the Use of the Cabinet, the Counting-house, and the 
| Library. By Josnua Monteriore. 
. MILITARY manners are favourable 
to the graces; and to the pleasures of 
the earlier, though not of the later stages 
of life. They are easily superinduced on 
young men; they agreeably exert the 
body and adorn the person, they require 
few or no accomplishments of mind, they 
favour a luxurious idleness and an amu- 
Sive dissipation ; and they excite expec- 
tations of danger and renown, which ex- 
cuse the omission of the prospective vir- 
tues, while they indulge the admission of 
the prospective hopes. But military 
_ Manners spoil men for commerce. It is 
_ along, a difficult task, the result only of 
_ very careful education, to’generate ha- 
bits of industry and frugality ; and to 
infuse that information respecting some 
given division of commercial labor, which 
fits a man to excel in it. The overawing 
inspection, which teaches these habits, 
commonly superinduces also a certain 
meekness and shyness, which soon evapo- 
_ Yate at drill and at the mess: but with 
_ them the industry and the frugality. 
_ The pleasures of exhilarating exercise 
and robust exertion cannot be tasted 
_ without infringing on the disposition to 
_ submit to confinement. A determina- 
_ tion to pursue advancement in life by 
plodding perseverance is the very re- 
_ Verse of a determination to pursue it by 
spirited hazard : the first is the commer- 
cial, the second the military ambition. 
“It is greatly to be feared therefore that 
_the present danger of the country, which 
perhaps could not have been adequately 
met without an interruption of the usual 
division of labor, will be eventually and 
permanently mischievous to its commer- 
cial character. 
_ « The blessing of Judah and Issachar 
- will never meet (says Lord Bacon with 
his quaint energy) that the same tribe or 
nation should be both the lion’s whelp, 
Ato. 
and the ass between burdens. Neither 
will it be that a people overlaid with 
taxes should ever become valiant and 
martial.” The apparent incompatibility 
of heavy taxation and military fashions, 
which has hitherto been observable, pro- 
bably arises from the idleness which mi- 
litary life inspires. Soldiers fear danger 
less than labor, and must not be checked 
in this, if we would preserve their vigor. 
But idleness earns little and accumulates 
nothing, and is to the tax-gatherer more’ 
niggardly than avarice. ‘Taxes have 
seldom been opposed by a soldiery. 
If Great Britain was a continental 
state this exchange of national habits 
might be not unwise. It would there be 
essential to national defence: it would 
there be conducive to the extension of 
empire. ‘ Perish commerce, live our 
independence,’ would have been a ra- 
tional motto for the states of Holland. 
But we cannot help suspecting that Lon- 
don might havé trusted a little more to 
its navy, and to its regular army, with- 
out incurring so much expence, cr ha- 
zarding so much prosperity. Keep your . 
shop, and your shop will keep you, says 
Dr. Franklin, but where master or man 
are often on parade, ’tis a great chance! 
but the till is poor, for want of watching, 
or, for want of catching. There are or= 
ders, which better deserve attention than 
‘those of the commandingofficer. The ga- 
zettes begin to announce commissions of 
both sorts for captains and lieutenants. 
It is no merit to stand at ease before an 
assignee. One day of industry avails 
more than a whole week on the porter’s 
wages of a marching volunteer. 
t should be understood that courage 
is the most common gift of nature to 
animals ; that all the military virtues are 
qualities of easy attamment, which flou- 
rish most among barbarians and boys 
Yy2 
