xvi PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 



Internal peace andfecurity being eftablifhed, it was 

 itill in their power, by means of thefe advantages, to 

 reftore their country to its former vigour * and im- 

 portance. Their predeceflbrs had, in great wifdom, 

 marked out the line of action, which feems to be 

 beft fuited to the ftate of the country and the ge- 

 nius of the people. The lands admitted of great 

 improvement; the furrounding ocean afforded an 

 inexhauftible fource of wealth, of which the xm-, 

 grateful Dutch ftill reaped the benefit ;* they had 

 a parliament and revenue, to extend and to regu- 

 late commercial intercourfe with foreign ftates; 

 patronize manufactures, icience, and ufeful arts ; 

 to form public roads, and to bring the numerous 

 detached members of the kingdom nearer to each 

 other, and to- the centre, by opening canals where 

 nature feemed to invite their particular attention. 

 Excife officers, tide-waiters, fupernumeraries, comp- 

 trollers, collectors, fupervilbrs, commiflioners of the 

 cuftoms, commiflioners of excife, and other impe- 

 diments to the wealth of nations, were barely tole- 

 rated, and little known to the bulk of the people. 



As the kingdom lived in ftrict friendfhip with all 

 its neighbours, neither encroaching, nor being en- 

 croached upon ; as it had no fubfidies to pay, nor 

 colonies to protect, there was little occafion for 

 fleets, armies, or extraordinary fupplies, previous 

 to the revolution and the expenfive wars carried 

 on by king William and queen Anne, wherein the 

 Scots, though they had no concern in thefe diftant 

 campaigns, contributed a part of the burden. Till 

 that sera, the Scottifh revenue confided chiefly of 

 a trifling cefs or land-tax, and an inconfiderable 

 impoft on a few luxuries, which, being farmed, coil 

 government nothing in collecting. 



* While the Scots were throwing away near half a pillion 

 fterling, on a fettlement in a burning climate, at the diftance of 

 4000 miles, their native fliores gave fuccefsful employment to 

 700 Dutch bufles, befides thole of other nations. 



The 



