THE BRITISH EMPIRE. rr 



aggregate amount will not fall greatly fhort of 

 . 1,000,000,000, within the fpace of ninety- fix 

 years, or . 10,416,670 per annum. Such were 

 the aftoniihing refources drawn from the natural 1 

 produce of the ifland, the ingenuity, induftry, and 

 commerce of the people ; and fuch, alfo, have been 

 the impolitic obftructions and burdens laid upon 

 that commerce, and thofe people. 



Still more painful in the recital, is, the dreadful 

 eftimate of lives loft in battle, by fhipwreck, and 

 other accidents of war. Unhappily for the human 

 fpecies, the conflicts in which we engage are not 

 confined to France and England only. Whenever 

 thefe rival kingdoms commence hoftilities, they 

 draw, into the deftructive quarrel, a confiderable 

 portion of mankind, not only in Europe, but over 

 a great part of the habitable world. 



The favages of America, armed with their horrid 

 inftruments of death, march out with frantic rage, 

 and frightful fhrieks, eager, as their war fongs ex~ 

 prefs it, to drink the blood of Englishmen, or 

 Frenchmen, againft whom they happen to be refr 

 pectively led on, by either of the contending 

 parties. 



In the Weil Indies, the fugar iflands are kept in 

 continual alarm, fubduing and being fubdued al- 

 ternately. Property is continually fluctuating; and 

 the man who reckoned upon thoufands to day, fees 

 himfelf a beggar on the morrow. 



In Afia, the calamities occationed by our national 

 quarrels are ftill more complicated and diftrefiing. 

 Throughout the whole fouthern divifion of that 

 immenfe country, every fhore, every fea, and navi-r 

 gable river, becomes hoftile. The princes of thofe 

 regions, though they have no natural concern in 

 European difputes, are not permitted to remain 

 neuter. They are induced by threais, bribery, or 

 intrigue, to act as auxiliaries in the armies of fo- 

 reign 



