ears, and art half ftung to death by them, thou wilt never be convinced it is fo.

I cannot fufpect it, in the man whom I esteem, that there is the leaft fpur, from fpleen, or malevolence of intent, in thefe fallies. I believe, and know them, to be truly honeft and fportive. But, confider, that fools cannot diftinguish this, and that knaves will not: and thou knowest not, what it is, either to provoke the one, or to make merry with the other. Whenever they affociate for mutual de fence, depend upon it, they will carry on the wat in fuch a manner against thee, as to make thee heartily fick of it, and of thy life too.

REVENGE, from fome baneful corner, fhall level a tale of dishonour at thee, which no innocence of heart, or integrity of conduct, fhall fet right. The fortunes of thy houfe, fhall totter-thy character, which led the way to them, fhall bleed on every fide of it.-thy faith questioned-thy works beliedthy wit forgotten-thy learning trampled on. Το wind up the laft fcene of thy tragedy, Cruelty and Cowardice, twin ruffians, hired and fet on by Malice in the dark, fhall ftrike together at all thy infirmities and mistakes. The best of us, my friend, lie open there. And, trust me, when, to gratify a private appetite, it is once refolved upon, that an innocent and an helpless creature fhall be facrificed, it is an easy matter, to pick up fticks enough, from any thicket where it has ftrayed, to make a fire to offer it up with.

XIX.

ADVANTAGES OF COMMERCE.

TH

HERE is no place in the town, which I fo much love to frequent, as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a fecret satisfaction, and, in some meafure, gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to fee fo rich an affembly of countrymen and foreigners, confulting together upon the private bufinefs of mankind, and making this metropolis, a kind of emporium for the whole earth. I must confess, I look upon high change to be a grand council, in which all confiderable nations have their representatives. Factors, in the trading world, are what ambaffadors are in the politic world. They negociate affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good correfpondence between those wealthy focieties of men, that are divided from one another by feas and oceans, or live on the different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleased, to hear difputes adjusted, between an inhabitant of Japan, and an Alderman of London; or to fee a subject of the great Mogul, entering into a league with one of the Czar of Mufcovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with thefe feveral minifters of commerce, as they are diftinguished by their different walks, and different languages. Sometimes, I am joftled among a body of Armenians; fometimes I am loft in a crowd of Jews; and, fometimes, make one in a group of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, a Swede, or Frenchman, at different times; or, rather fancy myself like the old philofopher, who, upon being asked what countryman he was, replied, That he was a citizen of the world.

THIS grand scene of business, gives me an infinite variety of folid and fubftantial entertainments. As I am a great lover of mankind, my heart naturally overflows with pleasure, at the fight of a profperous and happy multitude; infomuch, that, at many public folemnities, I cannot forbear expreffing my joy, with tears. For this reafon, I am wonderfully delighted to fee fuch a body of men, thriving in their own private fortunes, and, at the fame time, promoting the public stock; or, in other words, railing eftates for their own families, by bringing into their country whatever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is fuperfluous.

NATURE feems to have taken a particular care to diffeminate her bleffings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to this mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind; that the natives of the feveral parts of the globe, might have a kind of dependence upon one another, and be united together, by their common interefts. Almost every degree, produces fomething peculiar to it. The food often grows in one country, and the fauce in another. The fruits of Portugal, are corrected by the products of Barbadoes; the infufion of a china plant, sweetened with the pith of an Indian cane. The Philippine islands, give a flavour to our European bowls. The fingle drefs of a woman of quality, is often the product of an hundred climates. The muff and the fan, come together, from the different ends of the earth. The fcarf, is fent from the torrid zone; and the tippet, from beneath the pole. The brocade petticoat, rifes out of the mines of Peru; and the diamond necklace, out of the bowels of Indoftan.

If we confider our own country in its natural profpect, without any of the benefits and advantages of commerce; what a barren uncomfortable spot of earth falls to our fhare! Natural historians tell us, that no fruit grows originally among us, befides hips and haws, acorns and pig-nuts, with other delicacies of the like nature: that our climate, of itself, and without the affistance of art, can make no farther advances towards a plum, than a floe; and carries an apple to no greater perfection, than a crab: that our melons, our peaches, our figs, our apricots, and our cherries, are ftrangers among us, imported in different ages, and naturalized in our English gardens; and that they would all degenerate and fall away into the trafh of our own country, if they were wholly neglected by the planter, and left to the mercy of our fun and foil.

NOR has traffic more enriched our vegetable world, than it has improved the whole face of nature among us. Our fhips are laden with the harvest of every climate: our tables are ftored with fpices, and oils, and wines our rooms are filled with pyramids of china, and adorned with the workmanship of Japan: our morning's draught comes to us from the remoteft corners of the earth: we repair our bodies by the drugs of America; and repofe ourselves under Indian canopies. My friend, Sir Andrew, calls the vineyards of France, our gardens; the fpice iflands, our hot-beds; the Perfians, our filk weavers; and the Chinese, our potters. Nature, indeed, furnishes us with the bare neceffaries of life; but traffic gives us a great variety of what is ufeful; and, at fame time, fupplies us with every thing, that is convenient, and ornamental. Nor is it the leaft part of this our happiness, that, while we enjoy the remotest products of the north and fouth, we are free from

those

those extremities of weather, which give them birth : that our eyes are refreshed with the green fields of Britain; at the fame time, that our palates are feafted with fruits, that rife between the tropics.

FOR these reasons, there are not more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together, in a mutual intercourfe of good offices; diftribute the gifts of nature; find work for the poor; add wealth to the rich; and magnificence to the great. Our English merchant converts the tin of his own country into gold, and exchanges his wool for rubies. The Mahometans are clothed in our British manufacture; and the inhabitants of the frozen zone, warmed with the fleeces of our sheep.

WHEN I have been upon the change, I have often fancied one of our old kings ftanding in perfon, where he is reprefented in effigy; and looking down upon the wealthy concourfe of people, with which that place is every day filled. In this cafe, how would he be furprifed, to hear all the languages of Europe, fpoken in this little fpot of his former dominions; and to fee fo many private men, who, in his time, would have been the vaffals of fome powerful baron, negociating, like princes, for greater fums of money, than were formerly to be met with, in the royal treasury! Trade, without enlarging the British territories, has given us a kind of additional. empire: it has multiplied the number of the rich; made our landed eftates infinitely more valuable than they were formerly; and added to them, an acceffion of other eftates, as valuable as the lands themselves..