. 
| £792 on manufactures and agriculture. 245 
an inordinate succefs in manufactures and in trade, 
that has no parallel in the history of past times ; 
but which Britain at present is in the train of imi- 
tating. May her fate be different! For the prospe-~ 
petity of Antwerp was like the flutterings of a 
butterfly, gaudy at neon, and brilliant beyond com~ 
pare in the bright sunihine of a fhort day ; but when 
the chilling damps of the evening approached, and 
the tempests of adversity arose, it sunk at once to 
death, and was buried in perpetual oblivion. 
It is by no means the with of the writer of this 
efsay to discourage manufactures ; nor is there the 
most distant reason to think he could do it if he 
would; but he looks forward with a philosophical 
coolnefs, to the probable ifsue of undertakings, in 
which men engage at present with the same kind 
of ardour and hilarity that those who have once ex- 
perienced the joys of wine feel when they bring the 
glafs to their lips. To try to persuade these men 
that they did wrong, would be the height of folly, 
and which he will not attempt. 
Yet, while those jovial unthinking men are al- 
lowed to indulge in convivial joys, others may seek a 
recreation of another kind. They may soberly in- 
quire if there be a pofsibility of augmenting the po- 
pulation of their country to an equal or greater de- 
gree, by prosecuting rural occupations? They may 
examine if both employment and sustenance could be 
provided at home for this increased population, without 
being obliged to depend upon the aid of others for their 
Support? and whether, by doing so, they would not 
provide for the welfare of the people, and thestrength 
