( 303 ) 

 ed taile of fhe private or the publick ; in 

 no refped tending to enrich Its votaries at 

 the expence of the nation at large. In the 

 ideas of all wiie and polite people, in both 

 antient and modern times, the culture of 

 the earth has been confidered as the moft 

 honourable of all profeiHons. In all thofe 

 nations wherein trade and maniifa£lures are 

 treated with contempt, and reckoned in- 

 confiftent with the fpirit of honour, and 

 derogatory from nobility, agriculture reigns 

 in this refped: in full luftre. In Germany, 

 France, Spain, Italy, &c. &c. &c. trade 

 and family are incompatible. Not fo with 

 agriculture, which is pradifcd by numbers 

 of the firft nobility ; and in Germany, 

 many of the mofc confiderable princes are 

 mere farmers of their domaine^ while their 

 ten thoufandth couiin would be defiled by 

 commerce. 



Nor are thefe ideas peculiar to foreign 

 countries ; we find them very ftrong in our 

 own ; numbers of our nobility, that would 

 not deign to trade ^ farm to no trifling 

 extent ; and gentlemen who cultivate ever 

 fo much of their own eftates, or thofe of 

 ethers, are not confidered in the light of 



traders. 



