SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
venience, utility, and magnificence, that embrace the fhores of 
the Thames, the Merfey, the Severn, and mod of the navigable 
rivers of the empire which, vvhilft: they facilitate the purpofes 
of commerce, add fplendor and ornament to the country, and 
ferve as notable monuments of a powerful and opulent nation. 
But, although the feat of ernnire. the central ^olnt po^rgj. 
and wealth, is fixed in the Britifh iflands, yet, if we cafl our 
eyes on the map of the world, and fkim along the weftern fhores 
of the Atlantic, thence defcend to the Southern Pacific, and re- 
turn eafterly to the Indian Seas, we fhall there find that the 
poiTefTions of Britain comprife " a vaft empire on which the 
" fun never fets, and whofe bounds nature has not yet afcer° 
tained.*' 
Whatever philofophers may advance on the fubje£l of the 
wealth of nations depending on the encouragement given to 
agriculture, none will deny that the wealth and the influence of 
the Britifh empire derive their fource and their main-fpring from 
commerce. It is to commerce we owe our colonies, and to our 
colonies the perfection of navigation. For, after all the objec- 
tions that have been urged againfl the colonizing fyflem, it is 
pretty evident that, without foreign poffeffions, we fliould have 
few feamen. The mere carrying-trade is precarious, and liable 
to be affected by every little incident that may involve the na- 
tion carrying it on, in its relations with contending powers. So 
long as the Portugueze maintained their territories and their do- 
minion in the Eafl:, the Portugueze navigators flood the firfl in 
reputation ; but no fooner had the Dutch deprived them of the 
bcfl part of their pofTefTions, than the whole of the carrying- 
trade 
