PREFACE. xvii 



mofr, perfect fyflem of freedom the 

 world has ever feen, to the trade of the 

 country. Deluded mortals! Give your 

 fubje&s the liberty which Engiifhmen 

 enjoy, and trade will fpring up one 

 among the many luxuriant branches of 

 that wide extended tree. Liberty, 

 not trade, has been the caufe of Eng- 

 land's sreatnefs. Commerce and all 

 its confequences have been the efjeEt^ 

 not the caufe of our happinefs. France 

 has, with the fame fort of folly, over- 

 looked the fimple and obvious advan- 

 tage of improving her noble territory 

 for the more precarious profits of trade : 

 and what are the confequences ? She 

 too has hazarded thofe wars for com- 

 merce, which have exhausted her re- 

 fources, mortgaged her revenues, and 

 debilitated every principle of her na- 

 tional ftrength. 



When the orefent monopoly (the 

 true characterise of the commercial 

 fyitem) has halt beggared Europe with 

 the thirft of weal eh ; and that nations 

 have grown wifer by experience, they 



b will. 



