132 CONCEENING OUll MARINE, kc. 



— ^and the stamina and indomitable spirit of her peo- 

 ple. All these, causes and effects combined, brought 

 into action under a climate the most favourable for 

 developing the moral and physical energies of man, 

 where the extremes of temperature neither relax 

 nor chill, where the human muscle and hmnan mind 

 are more capable of continued strong exertion, and 

 machinery less influenced by hygrometric and calo- 

 rific change, than on any other spot of earth. Wlien 

 all these are condensed into a nucleus of power of so 

 small compass that one spirit, one interest, may per- 

 vade all, but drawing support by ramifications from 

 every nook of the habitable world, should an infatua- 

 ted party not render unavailable these unmatched 

 advantages, cowardice could not even dream of peril 

 to the supremacy of British naval power. 



Let us continue to extend om' foreign intercourse 

 and home ciiltivation — let the merchant legislate in 

 affairs of trade — the landholder in country matters ; 

 each in that in which his judgment has been formed 

 by experience, acting always on the principle that 

 the general prosperity of the country is the interest 



general abandonment to sensual enjoyment — the immense num- 

 ber of holidays — and the shoals of meddling priests, are a 

 great bar to improvement — an insurmountable one to manufac- 

 turing pre-eminence. We need not say that all this is subordi- 

 nate to climate. Effect, however, soon turns to cause. 



