lo A. D. 1783. 



The American ftates, along with their independence, gained the free- 

 dom of trade with all nations, from which, as dependent colonies, they 

 had been in a great meafure debarred. It was, however, queftioned by 

 fome eminent political writers, immediately after the peace, whether 

 they would find the benefits arifing from their univerial trade fufficient 

 to counterbalance the lofs of thofe advantages and immunities, which 

 they abandoned, when by their independence they became foreigners 

 in the ports of Great Britain, and were entirely excluded from thofe 

 of the Britifh colonies. But the territories of the United ftates are of 

 fuch extent, and alfo fo compaft, and entirely free from the encum- 

 brance of difiant pofl'effions ; they are increafing fo rapidly in popula- 

 tion, produdions, and refources, and are moreover favoured by Nature 

 with fuch facilities for inland and foreign commercial navigation, that 

 they will probably foon furmount every difficulty. At this time Ame- 

 rica exhibited to the admiring world the important and interefling fpec- 

 tacle of the firfi; independent community of civilized people in the weft- 

 ern hemifphere ; of a confederacy of commonwealths rifing into power 

 and confequence, which in the nineteenth century may probably ecHpfe 

 many of the old eftablifhed kingdoms and empires of the antient 

 world. 



The confequences, refulting to Great Britain from the independence 

 of the American ftates, may with great truth be called advantages, how- 

 ever differently the exulting enemies, or the defponding friends, of this 

 country may have prognofticated. A great and obvious advantage was 

 the relief from the expenfe of governing and protecfling them, and from 

 the wars entered into on their account, the two laft of which, befides 

 the lofs of lives, loaded this nation with above a hundred millions of 

 additional debt, to fay nothing of the ftill greater debt fuperadded by 

 the late conteft. Among the lefler advantages may be reckoned the 

 relief from the payment of bounties, which had been very liberally 

 granted for the encouragement of many articles of American cultiva- 

 tion, that can now be imported without taxing the people of this coun- 

 try for the benefit of the American planters. And a very important 

 advantage was the recovery of the valuable trade of fhip-building *, 

 which had in a great meafure been, very impolitically, facrificed to the 

 zeal for promoting the profperity of the colonies, infomuch that, not- 

 withftanding the very great inferiority of the greateft part of the Ame- 



* Dming the war tiie fhip-yards in every port a valuable fet of young men were encouraged to 



of Britain were full of employment ; and confe- apply to a trade, on which Great Britain depends 



qiiently new fliip-ynrds were fet up in places, where for opulence and power. 



(hips had never been built before. In the remote The fame may be obfervcd of many places of 



creeks of Wales vefftls were built at from ^6 : 10 : o Scotland, where valuable forefts of oak and fir had 



to £•] : 10 : o per tun, which is from iq/" to 30/" for a long fucceffion of ages flourifhed and perifli- 



lower than the price of building in the Thames ; ed, ncgletled and unknown, which, by being coPi 



whereby the excellent timber of that country was verted into the hulls and fpars of vefftls, now be- 



brought into ufe, the people were employed, and came profitable to their proprietors and the publica 



