subject, and serving to illustrate and confirm the general conclusion to which they all uniformly tend. If from this examination of the different branches of the revenue, we proceed to a more direct inquiry into the sources of our prosperity, we shall trace them in a corresponding increase of manufacture and commerce. The accounts formed from the documents of the custom house are not indeed to be relied upon as showing accurately the value of our imports and exports in any one year, but they furnish some standard of comparison between different periods, and in that view I will state them to the committee. In the year 1782, the last year of the war, the imports, according to the valuation at the custom house, amounted to 9,714,000l.; they have gradually increased in each successive year, and amounted, in the year 1790, to 19,130,0001. The export of British manufactures forms a still more important and decisive criterion of commercial prosperity. The amount in 1782 was stated at 9,919,000l.; in the following year, it was 10,409,0001.; in the year 1790, it had risen to 14,921,000.; and in the last year (for which the account is just completed as far as relates to the British manufactures,) it was 16,420,0001. If we include in the account the foreign articles re-exported, the total of the export in 1782 was 12,259,000l. After the peace it rose, in 1783, to 14,741,000l.; and in the year 1790, it was 20,120,0001. These documents, as far as they go, (and they are necessarily imperfect) serve only to give a view of the foreign trade of the country. It is more than probable, that our internal trade, which contributes still more to our wealth, has been increasing in at least an equal proportion. I have not the means of stating with accuracy a comparative view of our manufactures during the same period; but their rapid progress has been the subject of general observation, and the local knowledge of gentlemen from different parts of the country, before whom I am speaking, must, render any detail on this point unnecessary, Having gone thus far, having stated the increase of revenue, and shown that it has been accompanied by a proportionate increase of the national wealth, commerce, and manufactures, I feel that it is natural to ask, What have been the peculiar circumstances to which these effects are to be ascribed? The first and most obvious answer, which every man's mind will suggest to this question, is, that it arises from the natural industry and energy of the country but what is it which has enabled that industry and energy to act with such peculiar vigour, and so far beyond the example of former periods? The improvement which has been made in the mode of carrying on almost every branch of manufacture, and the degree to which labour has been abridged, by the invention and application of machinery, have undoubtedly had a considerable share in producing such important effects. We have besides seen, during these periods, more than at any former time, the effect of one circumstance which has principally tended to raise this country to its mercantile preeminence. I mean that peculiar degree of credit which, by a twofold operation, at once gives additional facility and extent to the transactions of our merchants at home, and enables them to obtain a proportional superiority in markets abroad. This advantage has been most conspicuous during the latter part of the period to which I have referred; and it is constantly increasing, in proportion to the prosperity which it contributes to create. In addition to all this, the exploring and enterprising spirit of our merchants has been seen in the extension of our navigation and our fisheries, and the acquisition of new markets in different parts of the world; and undoubtedly those efforts have been not a little assisted by the additional intercourse with France, in consequence of the commercial treaty; an intercourse which, though probably checked and abated by the distractions now prevailing in that king dom, has furnished a great additional incitement to industry and exertion. But there is still another cause, even more satisfactory than these, because it is of a still more extensive and permanent nature; that constant accumulation of capital, that continual tendency to increase, the operation of which is universally seen in a greater or less proportion, whenever it is not obstructed by some publick calamity, or by some mistaken and mischievous policy, but which must be conspicuous and rapid indeed in any country which has once arrived at an advanced state of commercial prosperity. Simple and obvious as this principle is, and felt and observed as it must have been in a greater or less degree, even from the earliest periods, I doubt whether it has ever been fully developed and sufficiently explained, but. in the writings of an author of our own times, now unfortunately no more, (I mean the author of a celebrated treatise on the Wealth of Nations) whose extensive knowledge of detail, and depth of philosophical research, will, I believe, furnish the best solution to every question connected with the history of commerce, or with the systems of political economy. This accumulation of capital arises from the continual application, of a part at least, of the profit obtained in each year, to increase the total amount of capital to be employed in a similar manner, and with continued profit in the year following. The great mass of the property of the nation is thus constantly increasing at compound interest; the progress of which, in any considerable period, is what at first view would appear incredible. Great as have been the effects of this cause already, they must be greater in future; for its powers are augmented in proportion as they are exerted. It acts with a velocity continually accelerated, with a force continually increased. Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo. It may indeed, as we have ourselves experienced, be checked or retarded by particular circumstances. It may for a time be interrupted, or even overpowered; but, where there is a fund of productive labour and active industry, it can never be totally extinguished. In the season of the severest calamity and distress, its operations will still counteract and diminish their effects. In the first returning interval of prosperity, it will be active to repair them. If we look to a period like the present, of continued tranquillity, the difficulty will be to imagine limits to its operation. None can be found, while there exists at home any one object of skill or industry short of its utmost possible perfection; one spot of ground in the country capable of higher cultivation and improvement; or while there remains abroad any new market that can be explored, or any existing market that can be extended. From the intercourse of commerce, it will in some measure participate in the growth of other nations, in all the possible varieties of their situations. The rude wants of countries emerging from barbarism, and the artificial and increasing demands of luxury and refinement, will equally open new sources of treasure, and new fields of exertion, in every state of society, and in the remotest quarters of the globe. It is this principle which, I believe, according to the uniform result of history and experience, maintains on the whole, in spite of the vicissitudes of fortune, and the disasters of empires, a continued course of successive improvement in the general order of the world. Such are the circumstances which appear to me to have contributed most immediately to our present prosperity. But these again are connected with others yet more important. They are obviously and necessarily connected with the duration of peace, the continuance of which, on a secure and permanent footing, must ever be the first object of the foreign policy of this country. They are connected still more with its internal tranquillity and with the natural effects of a free but well regulated government. What is it which has produced, in the last hundred years, so rapid an advance, beyond what can be traced in any other period of our history? What but that, during that time, under the mild and just government of the illustrious princes of the family now on the throne, a general calm has prevailed through the country, beyond what was ever before experienced; and we have also enjoyed, in greater purity and perfection, the benefit of those original principles of our constitution, which were ascertained and established by the memorable events that closed the century preceding? This is the great and governing cause, the operation of which has given scope to all the other circumstances which I have enumerated. It is this union of liberty with law, which, by raising a barrier equally firm against the encroachments of power, and the violence of popular commotion, affords to property its just security, produces the exertion of genius and labour, the extent and solidity of credit, the circulation and increase of capital; which forms and upholds the national character, and sets in motion all the springs which actuate the great mass of the community through all its various descriptions. The laborious industry of those useful and extensive classes (who will, I trust, be in a peculiar degree this day the object of the consideration of the house) the peasantry and yeomanry of the country; the skill and ingenuity of the artificer; the experi ments and improvements of the wealthy proprietor of land; the bold speculations and successful adventures of the opulent merchant and enterprising manufac turer; these are all to be traced to the same source, and all derive from hence both their encouragement and their reward. On this point, therefore, let us principally fix our attention, let us preserve this first and most essential object, and every other is in our power! Let us remember, that the love of the constitution, though it acts as a sort of natural instinct in the hearts of Englishmen, is strengthened by reason and reflection, and every day confirmed by experience; that it is a constitution which we do not merely admire, from traditional reverence, which we do not flatter Ff VOL. III. |