Charaéter of a Tradefman defended againft Mr. Godwin. 
charaéter, YT do not quarrel with him, 
becaufe ‘¢ has the audacity to call bimfelf a. 
man.” He has aright to’that honour ; 
and often a much better right than many 
of thofe who refufe it to him. ‘The att 
of fupplying others with what is uleful, 
and at the fame time providing for his 
own comfort, deferves neither cenfure nor 
difgrace. It may be done, I know it fre- 
guently is done, with uprightnefs and ho- 
nour. Mr. GoDwiIn’s habits may have 
prevented him from having much ac- 
quaintance with the mercantile world ; 
but I may affure him, that it frequently 
abounds with inftances of difinterefted 
virtue. If I had to felect the beft half of 
mankind in a civilized ftate, I fthould not 
hefttate a moment to prefer the trading 
part. In general, I can fafely affirm, 
that the greater number of avaricious and 
contracted perfons, is certainly to be found 
amongft thofe who live. independent of 
trade. This may appear a paradox: to 
me it is not fo. The habits of commerce 
have a tendency to open the mind; they 
occafion reflection; they prevent inac- 
tivity and ftagnation; they frequently 
compel their votary to be generous; and 
convince him that it is his intereft to be 
fo. But here is the love of gain. I grant 
it; but even the love of gain is often fo 
regulated by the God of nature, as to pro- 
duce effects the moft beneficial. It may,, 
perhaps, be affirmed, that this has more 
fhare than any other motive in advancing 
the work ef i improvement, in carrying 6 
the higheft pitch every art and {cience, in 
extending the intellect of man, and pro- 
moting the ha ippinefs of his {pecies. 
To be fond of gain is natural to man. 
The chief diftinétion here is, that the 
tradefman chearfully {pends what he has 
eafily obtained. Exceptions certainly are 
numerous ; they always muft be fo ona 
general afflumption ; but its ftrongeft bear- 
ing I conceive to be favourable ‘ my ar- 
gument. 
But a tradefman is an enemy to im- 
provement. How isthis fhewn? Let me 
afk Mr. Gopwin who have contributed 
moift to the improvement of our nature? 
Do not their very employments inftigate 
them’ to improvements every day ? Con- 
fider what the whole worth of England 
was twenty years ago, and what it is 
now. A little wood, a little fire, and a 
little water, have ake converted by men, 
whom Mr. Gopwin condemns as ene- 
mies of i inaprovements, into the means of | 
oviding comfort for thoufands of his 
llow-creatures. 
The fearch of gain corrupts the mind. 
‘ 
427 
But without the fearch of gain in the 
prefent {tate of things, how fhould we 
exift? It is the duty : of many frequently 
to think of it; it is the duty of all to 
keep it in fubjection, never to fuffer it 
to influence the delicacy of their feelings, 
never to bias the impartiality of their 
judgments, never to deftroy the kindnefs 
of their nature. 
‘Tradefmen are charged with employing 
infidious artifices of pretended politene{s 
to invite cuftom to their fhops. No ex- 
cufe can be offered for fo contemptible 
a practice. Only let it be remembered, 
that if fuch a practice be found, the ee 
feét belongs more to thofe who ou than 
to thofe who fell. The fawning driveller 
would foon alter his habits, if he found 
they operated to his difadvantage. Tradef- 
men, therefore, have no more fared in this 
charge than the reft of mankind. 
To finifh the black catalogue comes a 
more formidable accufation: that they 
indulge towards each other the moft in- 
veterate hatred; and that nothing can 
exceed the amines ity they bear to a rival, 
This, if confined to particular cales, 
ig certainly true. When it is applied as 
a general maxim, it is flatly contradiéted 
by general. experience. The readinefs 
with which they accommodate one an- 
other, and the civility that exifts amongit 
them, are well known to thofe in mer- 
cantile fituations. Mr. Gopwin’s al- 
fertion, as it now ftands, is very much 
like thofe indiétments in law, where ab- 
furdity vies with falfehood ; where fobz 
Doe is charged with br cakine the head of 
Richard Roe, &c. &c. - 
He has confidered all thofe as equally 
dangerous, and all equally difbonef?. Here 
we agree no better than before. I with 
the flave-tratile, and one or two more, not 
to be confidered as belonging to my ar- 
gument—they are not trades, they are fyf- 
tematic robberies. Yet thefe cannot be {aid 
to have zmjured the morals of thofe wha 
conduét them, becaufe they muf, fix/? of , 
all, take the previous ftep of divefting 
‘themfelves intirely of morality or Shee 
Mr. Gopwin, if not profefionally, i iSs 
at, leaft, practically, AN AUTHOR. I con- 
fider fuch a vocation every way as objec- 
tionable as thofe he has condemned. Since 
he has ftigmatized every other exifting 
line of bufinefs, i it is but fair to éall upon. 
him to thew the peculiar advantages of 
that which he has chofen. 
Toexcite diftruft, to banifh confidence, 
and to deftroy the advantages derived 
from the good opinion of one another, is 
evidently the tendency of that {entiment 
which 
