ENGLAND MUST CHANGE HER POLICY. 35 



short of that performed by an equal number of 

 hands in the rural districts ; which will readily be 

 perceived by any farmer, a deterioration, the 

 evil consequences of which must eventually be 

 experienced by every class of the community. 



It has been pompously affirmed, it is true, 

 that the commercial and manufacturing industry 

 of this country can never be equalled, much 

 less outrivalled by others ; but England would 

 do well to consider the advantageous grounds 

 which she has hitherto occupied before coming 

 to hasty conclusions of this kind. Many of 

 those advantages are now no more, and others 

 are fast disappearing ; and although she still 

 possesses many commercial and manufacturing 

 advantages, which the majority of the States of 

 Europe do not, yet she labours, at the same 

 time, under many disadvantages from which 

 they are exempt, and these are daily increasing. 

 The obvious inference therefore is, that the 

 success of her future policy depends upon a 

 very different line of procedure from that 

 which she has hitherto followed. It cannot be 

 fairly expected that the rest of Europe will 

 remain much longer in that semi-barbarous 

 state under which it has lain for such a period 

 D 2 



