i GENERAL VIEW OF 



Our own ifland, though capable of fupplying its 

 inhabitants in all the real necefTaries of life, befides 

 a furplus. wherewith to cajry ,on a beneficial traffic 

 with its neighbours, hath long been convulfed 

 through the phrenfy of conqueft, both within itfelf, 

 and beyond thofe limits which nature marked out as 

 its proper boundary. As Britain is an epitome of 

 the world, fo are its annals, in all refpects fimilar to 

 thofe of the great theatre by which it is environed. 



No fooner had the fuc cellars of the Norman, hero 

 dlablifhed themfelves firmly on the throne of En- 

 gland, than they began to contemplate new fchemes 

 of conqueft, whereby their dominions might be en- 

 larged, and their power raifed above that of their 

 contemporaries. 



The object of thofe defigns was nothing lefs than 

 the fovereignty of France, Scotland, Ireland, and 

 Wales : and it is fcar^ely in the power of language 

 to convey a full idea of the calamities which thofe 

 princes entailed upon mankind, through a fucceflion 

 of ages> in the profecution of their ambitious fchemes 

 of aggrandifement. The burthen of thofe wars fell 

 particularly on Scotland, and the northern counties 

 of England, owing to the obfiinate refinance of the 

 Scots 3 who, during a period of fixty years, not only 

 defended their freedom with fmgular bravery, but 

 alfo carried the war into England itfelf, where they 

 abundantly retaliated the violences which had defo*- 

 lated their country. The effects of thofe mutual in- 

 roads are ftill vifible on the borders of both king- 

 doms 3 and it will require fome ages^before cultiva- 

 tion, manufactures, and population, can be brought 

 to an equality with the interior parts. 



In re-turn for the continual drain of money, the 

 wafte of bloo'd, and all the inconveniencies which a 

 hoftile nation muft unavoidably fu (lain, both at home 

 and abroad, England at the prefent period pofTefies 

 nothing more than the fovereignty of the fmaH 



country 



