1792. on manufactures and agriculture. 25% 
would have been prevented? and, at this moment, 
how many myriads of people would have been 
enjoying the blefsings of life on this ‘globe, compa- 
red to the few insignificant creatures that are thinly 
geattered on its surface ; and who seem to have no 
other object than that of tormenting and of maf- 
sacring each other? Were a superior being to look 
down upon this globe, would ux bestow the epithet of 
unwise upon that nation, which, attentive to the pre- 
servation of its own people, was continually occupied 
‘in preserving their internal tranquillity ; and which 
had cautiously -fhut its doors against the introducti- 
on of those evils which had made a desert of all the 
‘rest of the world? If his eye glanced upon the late 
fertile and peaceable province of Bengal, would he 
hot say, that opening her gates, so as to admit these 
ravenous strangers, would be like as if the mariners 
who were forced to winter on Greenland, had open~ 
ed their doors to admit the bears when they prowled 
around for prey? Yet it is these people we brand 
with the epithet unwise. Never, do I think, was a 
word so improperly applied. 
I with not to make an indiscriminating eulogi-+ 
um on that nation, like those, which, for the pur- 
pose of satirizing others, have so often been bestow- 
ed upon it by fanciful writers; but when facts thus 
come to corroborate reasoning, 1t would be absurd 
mot to take notice of them. The incomparable 
permanency of China; its progrefsive improve- 
ment during so many ages; the immense degree 
of fertility it has thus attained; and the innume- 
rable swarms of people it supports; are clear and 
