499 
cay through the removal of their moft 
opulent merchants, who will as naturally 
flock to fhare the increafing opulence of 
Wathington, as flies toahoney-pot. This 
will be like feeding the body at the expence 
the members ; the former becomes dropfi- 
cal, whilft the latter falls into a decline. 
If it be afked, why has not the immenfe 
difproportion of London to the other 
parts of England thofe injurious effects ? 
The anfwer is ready and plain. All 
parts of England have as numerous a 
. populauon as can fubfift by agriculture ; 
the fuperfluity are therefore driven into 
Jarge communities to gain a livelihood by 
commerce and manutactures. The cafe 
is exactly the reverfe with refpeét to the 
United States,where there isa very trifling 
population, compared with the immenfity 
of their territory. Its vaft extent confi- 
deted, a fprinkling of fail towns muft 
be infinitely more advantageous than a 
few large ones; and pertiaps, any thing 
like a town fhould be avoided. Of this 
opinion are the Abbé Mably, Dr: Price, 
the Count de Mirabeau, Briflot, and ether 
writers, who have endeavoured to prove 
that great cities, commerce, and manu- 
fafares will be baneful to the Americans, 
whote only purfuits fhould be agricultural. 
If their arguments are right, the Ame- 
ricans are wrong in attempting commerce 
and manufactures, without which, how- 
ever, they cannot have great cities. Ma- 
nufactures efpecially can never be very 
extenfive in the United States, whilf the 
high price of manual-labour obliges them 
to feil their clumfy imitations at a higher 
price than the elegant imported originals 
would coft. This dearnefs of labour 
is occafioned by the dilproportion of 
population in America to its extent; and 
the confequent cheapnefs of land, 
which engages all the induftry of 
‘the country in cultivation. Labeur will 
continue dear, fo long as land fhall be 
cheap, which, in the United States, mult 
be for ages to come, feeing that there are 
nearly two hundred millions of acres of 
uncultivated land. If, therefore, the 
Americans would give birth to manutac- 
tories amongit themfelves, they mult lay 
fuch heavy duties upon foreign importa- 
tions as will be tantamount toa total pro- 
hibition of them. . The Evropean powers 
will retaliate ; and, as the Americans are 
univerfally their own carriers, fuch a mea- 
fure will anuibilate their commerce, and 
Jeave their fhipping to rot in their har- 
bours. Buc the commerce of the United 
States is too extenfive and profitable to 
permit their inhabitants to balance be- 
Defeription of the City of Wafhington. 
[ June 1 3 
tween its certain gains, and the uncertain- 
ty, if not impraéticability, of the ettablifh- 
rent of manufastories; and therefore it 
will be policy in them to import foreign 
goods, in exchange for their own preduce. 
Thus will manufacturers, one great fource 
of population in large cities, be wanting 
in Wafhington. ' 
The agricultural fyftem in the United 
States is fill more oppofed to the manu- 
facturing, than the commercial fyftem is. 
New York and Philadelphia, which have 
been fettled for more than a century, and 
have alfo been fucceffively the feat of go- 
vernment, and the receptacle of immenfe 
{warms of emigrants, have never arrived 
to the magnitude of many third-rate 
towns in England. Why? The uncul- 
tivated lands of Kentucky, Teneflze, Pro- 
vince of Maine, Vermont, &c. have con- 
tinually drained them, and will ever do fo 
whilft lands’ are cheap. Mani naturally 
prefers tilling his own fpot of ground to 
labouring in the workthop of another 5 
and from thence it is not to be wondered 
at that Kentucky, which in 1771 had 
not one hundred inhabitan‘s, contains now 
upwards of one hundred thoufand, whilft, 
notwith{tanding the {warms of emigrants, 
who have yearly poured into Philadelphia 
and New York, neither of them have in- 
creafed very fenfibly. If the navigation 
of the River Miffitfippi fhould be opened 
tothe United States, the weltern territory 
will hold ouc fiill greater allurements to 
emigrants from the eaitern fhores, which 
miuft be felt by Wafhingron, as well as 
_ Philadelphia and New York. 
If, therefore, America cannot eftablith 
manufactories ; or, if, by perfifting in ma- 
nufacturing for berfelf (for fhe never can 
hope te export to Europe, which manu- 
faftures for all the world) fhe deftroys her 
commerce, one of the two chief fources of 
population in great cities ts cut off; and 
the agricultural lyftem, ever acting as a 
drain through the latter, not only Wafh- 
iwgton, but no other city in the United 
States, can ever arrive to any great mag- 
nitude, i 
The rapid increafe of Wethington, from 
its commencement, is attributed, by fen- 
fible Americans, to its true caule—/pecu- 
lation, a ficlé for which being once opened 
to the land-jobbders, who fwarm in the 
United States, they made large purchafs, 
and bent al] their refources towards run- 
ning up buildings, aad giving the city an 
extrinfic appearance of profpérity. So in- 
duftrioufly have thefe ‘purpoles been pur- 
fued, that, at this prefent time, in London, 
sool. ferling is ciked for about the fixth 
part 
‘ 
