GROWING GOLD. 15 



easy to show, that this is the best way of 

 making a deposit for the future. If it is not a 

 national duty for every individual to grow a 

 certain portion of oak timber on his estates, it 

 certainly is the duty of the nation to provide 

 an extensive supply of materials in ship build- 

 ing, for the use of future ages. The best proof 

 that can be given to posterity of our greatness, 

 is to furnish them with an ample store of what 

 is indispensible to promote their happiness 

 and prosperity. 



What will be said of the present age a 

 century or two hence, if a scarcity of oak 

 timber is severely felt, but that the people 

 were so much engaged in decorating the 

 metropolis with showy and expensive build- 

 ings, which cost the revenue of a kingdom to 

 maintain, that they forgot to provide the ma- 

 terials for repairing and renewing those wooden 

 walls, to which England owes all her greatness, 

 and in the decay of which her own existence is 

 indisputably involved ! Would they not call 

 this a foolish and vain generation" with some 



