S40 TRAVELS IN 
Exertions to amass wealth will, generally, be proportional 
to the stability that is given to property. Hence, the enter- 
prizing spirit of Britons has collected the riches of the world 
within their fortunate islands. Hence, the great and stupen- 
dous works of convenience, utility, and magnificence, that 
enibrace the shores of the Thames, the Mersey, the Severn, 
and most of the navigable rivers of the empire which, whilst 
they facilitate the purposes of commerce, add splendor and 
ornament to the country, and serve as notable monuments of 
a powerful and opulent nation. But, although the seat of 
empire, the central point of power and wealth, is fixed in the 
British islands, yet, if we cast our eyes on the map of the 
■world, and skim along the western shores of the Atlantic, 
thence descend to the Southern Pacific, and return easterly 
to the Indian Seas, we shall there find that the possessions 
of Britain comprise " a vast empire on which the sun 
" never sets, and whose bounds nature has not yet ascer- 
" tained." 
Whatever philosophers may advance on the subject of the 
wealth of nations depending on the encouragement given to 
agriculture, it cannot be denied that the wealth and the in- 
Huence of the British empire derive their source and their 
main-spring from commerce. It is to commerce we owe our 
colonies, and to our colonies the perfection of navigation. 
For, after all the objections that have been urged against the 
colonizing system, it is pretty evident that, without foreign 
possessions, we should have few seamen. The mere carrying- 
trade is so precarious, and so liable to be affected by every 
