Chap. m. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 7- 



convids ; and we are obliged to fend out colonies, fuch as no nation 

 ever fent out before, to a very diftant country, till of late quite un- 

 known; to which they are tranfported at a great expence, and main- 

 tained, when there, at a ftill greater*. — Now, thefe crimes are almod 

 <all the efFeds of wealth. For the people of England I hold to be 

 of as good natural difpofitions as any people in the world. They 

 are by nature kind and benevolent j nor is there any people now 

 exifting fo benevolent, or that beftov.s fo much in public or private 

 charity. But wealth, which, as I have fiiown, naturally produces 

 indigence, makes them fleal, rcb, and fometimes. though very rare- 

 ly, murder; alio forge ; and, in carrymg on (iommerce, cheat and prac- 

 tlle every kind of fraud ; to exprefs one of which we have been 

 obliged to invent a word, and to call \x. fiviJidUng, In other nations 

 men commit crimes in the heat of paffioa, or from motixes of jea- 

 loufy and reven[^c ; but. in England, it is indigence that produces, 

 almoft all the crimes. -~ As to vices, tiiey arc the natUial elle(fis of 

 wealth in ail counines; and, as there is more wealth in England, 

 than in Gther councries, 1 believe there i:; likevvife more vice. Dif- 

 eafes aUo are the natural effe^ls oi v cakh hi every country; and 

 there; t.re, there are like wife, in England, more dileafes, and parti« 



cularly 



* There is a mnn, whom I know, of the name of Walker, a purfcr in one of our 

 frigates, and whom I have formerly mentioned, (vol. 4. p. 367.) vho was v-vx years 

 in Botnay Bay, longer, I behve, than any mr.n at prekur in Europe hr:s oeen. He 

 lived for fbme time in my neighbourliood in the count' y, and I had much converfa- 

 tion with him upon the fubjeft of our colony of c()ijv;cls. He told mc, that when he 

 came away from Botany Bay, which was abou: two or three years ago, there were 

 there 5000 convids, and 1000 more in an ifl.ind in the neighbourhood, called Norfolk 

 Iiland. And, coming home, he met, upon the fea, feveral l]i;ps going to Botany Bay, 

 full of more of them. I was in London when the lirft: colony was fent off; and I was 

 told, what I could not have believed, if I had not had it from the beft authority, that 

 intereft was made by feveral men, who were not convi<f!:cd, nor faipcifted of any crime 

 to be fent with the convitls to Botany Bay; and, I have heard, that others have com^ 

 mitted petty larcencies, on purpofe that they might be convifted and tranfported thi- 

 ther. Such it appears is the extreme poverty among the lower people of Enj>land. 



