4?2 Mr. Wimpey on the Impropriety of allowing 
themfelves. It is the well-directed induftry of 
the labouring poor, which conftitutes the riches 
of a country. They are, when beneficially em¬ 
ployed, the true finews of its profperity ; to pro¬ 
mote and effeft which, is the heighth of political 
wifdom. Numbers, unlefs ufefully employed, 
are the bane and curfe of every community. 
Nature, in the moft fertile foil, and climate, 
can only provide the rough materials ; it is the 
induftrious and laborious man, who cultivates 
the earth, reaps the grain, fhears the flock, 
fabricates the cloth, fells the timber, penetrates 
into the bowels of the earth, and navigates the 
feas. Upon the unremitting toil of thefe labo¬ 
rious people, do the riches, the profperity, and 
the happinefs of every populous country depend. 
A populous country, deflitute of employment 
for its people, would foon exhibit a dreadful fcene 
of wretchednefs and mifery. A people, ener¬ 
vated and difpiritcd for want of employment, 
and the means of a comfortable fubfiftence, to 
be procured by it alone, would foon become the 
fcourge and curfe of a country. 
But let us make the experiment; like fight¬ 
ing a battle, it will be much more fafe to 
do it on paper, than in the field. I am very 
far from pretending to have a perfect, or even 
a comprehenfive view of the fubjeci ; but, I 
hope, without vanity it may be faid, I have a 
practical knowledge of commerce, fufficient to 
enable 
