C 133 ] 
to the investigation of this important subjecl 
more than in any former period . And happy 
would it be for Britain) if the baneful predo- 
minant spirit for foreign commerce and co- 
lonization were somewhat restrained, and a 
portion of the capital and industry employed 
in it were diverted to the cultivation of the 
soil, and to the amelioration of the condition 
of its inhabitants, before it is too late to avert 
the impending evil. 
Trade, like its element the sea, has a cer- 
tain pitch above which it never rises in the 
highest tides ; and it begins to ebb whenever 
it ceases to flow ; and always recedes in one 
place in proportion as it gains in another. 
It would be wise, thereloie, in this country 
to examine with a discriminating e} e whether 
or not its commercial tide has arrived at its 
utmost height. 
To be convinced of theTui61uation and in- 
stability of commercial greatness, w'e have 
only to take a retrospective glance of the his- 
tory of Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Syracuse, 
Agrigentum, Rhodes, .Venice, Florence, Lis- 
