INTRODUCTION. 



XVll 



any thing more than a riotous indifciplined mob, and muft ne- 

 ceffarily dwindle and wafte away from want of order and regu- 

 larity within themfelves. The more thefe qualifications of virtue 

 and induftry preponderate and flourifti in any nation, the hap- 

 pier is that people in itfelf, and the dreadfuller to its enemies. How 

 fir Spain may be deficient in, or deviate from them, (hall be the 

 fubjedt of pur prefent enquiry. If the Spaniards, as foon as they 

 had acquired fuch extenfive dominion in the new world, had dili- 

 gently applied to the cultivation of trade and manufadture, it 

 would neceflarily have given them the fupreme diredlion of 

 the affairs of Europe j for the fubjeds of all their various terri- 

 tories trading without reftralnt among themfelves, for almofl: every 

 commodity, that wants either natural or acquired demand, would 

 have created a maritime force too potent for any other power to 

 have oppofed : nay, evei\ under the prefent reftridlions, were 

 thefe fame fubjeds to carry on a combined barter among each 

 other, thofe prodigious fums now diffufed all over Europe would 

 have concentered and fixed in Spain, 2ls their principal receptacle, 

 which would of confequence have enabled their kings to give law 

 to their poorer neighbours ; but inftead of encouraging this found 

 policy, and thus fapping the ftrength of foreigners, by with- 

 drawing gradually from them the props which their own indolence 

 have furnifiied, the moaarchs of Spain fquandered and lavifh- 

 ed. away the vaft treafures they received from their new domini- 

 ons, in a vain purfuit after univerfal monarchy, at a time when, 



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