VIEW OF THE TRADING TOWNS. . 55 
trade at the same time. The truth of this po¬ 
sition must appear obvious, on taking a survey 
of the principal towns in the United States. 
To begin with Boston, the largest town north 
of New York, and one of the oldest in the 
United States. Though it has a most excel¬ 
lent harbour, and lias always been inhabited 
by an enterprizing industrious set of people, yet 
it is now inferior both in size and commerce, to 
Baltimore, w hich was little more than the resi¬ 
dence of a few fishermen thirty years ago; and 
this, because there is no river in the neighbour¬ 
hood navigable for more than seven miles, and 
the western parts of the state of Massachusets, 
of which it is the capital, can be supplied with 
commodities, carried up the North River, on 
much better terms than if the same commo¬ 
dities w r ere sent by land carriage from Boston. 
Neither does Boston increase by any means ip 
the same proportion as the other towns, which 
have an extensive trade with the people of the 
back settlements. For the same cause we do 
not find that any of the sea-port or other towns 
in Rhode Island and Connecticut are increas¬ 
ing very fast; on the contrary, Newport, the 
capital of the state of Rhode Island, and which 
has a harbour that is boasted of as being one 
of the best throughout the United States, is 
now falling to decay. Newport contains about 
one thousand houses; none of the other towns 
