4. The effect of the high price of timber has been to produce a rapid improvement in our NorthAmerican colonies, which have been called upon to supply, from their vast forests, the whole demand, not only of our West-Indian colonies, but of the mother country herself. And it may here be remarked, as an additional proof of the prosperity of this country, that, notwithstanding the high price of the materials of building, there never was a time when either so many private buildings were erecting, or so many great public works carrying on, and even commenced, as during the period in question.

5. For a supply of hemp, we have also been led to look to our own resources; and it must be allowed that no event ought to be deprecated which puts us on contriving the means of becoming independent of foreign supply for those articles which are essential to our naval greatness. Hemp, though of an inferior kind, it is found, may be procured in sufficient quantities from India at the rate of about 601. a ton; and other substitutes have been proposed, which are likely to answer. The landholders of Ireland have also begun to drain their bogs for the growth of this article, for which they are peculiarly adapted; and government have encouraged the measure, by agreeing to take, for a time, all the hemp that Ireland shall offer, at 60l. per ton, or at the market price, if it should be more.

But are there no disadvantages attending this state of things? It is to be feared there are. It is to be feared that much of the good which has been effected, has been dearly bought by the moral sacrifices which have, in too many instances, been necessary to its production. Sir Francis D'Ivernois touches this part of his subject very lightly: but to me I confess it appears so big with

alarm, as to exclude all sense of satisfaction from my mind in coll templating that part, at least, of our commercial prosperity which has

been either retained or increased by means avowedly fraudulent. I cannot, Sir, regard with any pleasure that wealth which arises from smuggling; still less can I view as solid and beneficial that part of it which is the reward of false oaths and forged certificates. Though Providence may permit such expedients to succeed, his blessing cannot accompany them. And even if the opulence they are the means of raising should be permanent, this will but poorly compensate for the corruption and profligacy they will have been instrumental in diffusing throughout the different ranks of the mercantile world. I admit, at the same time, that it is but a part of our commerce which depends on these illicit practices for its support; and that there is much of it which may be regarded with unmixed satisfaction. But I do most anxiously wish, that, if the respectable part of the commercial world will not generally concur in reprobating and discouraging such disgraceful and ruinous transactions as those to which I have alluded, the government of the country would seriously consider, whether measures ought not to be adopted to check the progress of this evil; an evil,which, by loosening, throughout a large and important class of the community, the ties of moral obligation, may ultimately produce consequences fatal to our internal peace and security *.

I am, &c.

MERCATOR

To the Editor of the Christian Observer, I AM surprised, Mr. Editor, that ne notice has been taken in any of your pages, of those peculiar temptations to fraud in our mercantile concerns, which unhappily characterise the present times. I allude to the diffi

On this important subject we have re ceived another communication, which wil ford a very proper supplement to the pre sent paper.

culties in the way of our commerce, produced by the edicts of Bonaparte, and by the measures of retaliation taken by our government. I understand that a great part of the foreign trade of Great Britain, is now of a smuggling nature; and that not a few of our more respectable merchants have quitted the field, in order to give way to a lower and meaner species of adventurers. The Sir Andrew Freeports are more rare; but a various and motley race of men, possessing, many of them, a strange ubiquity of character, and a Protean form, have succeeded; —Jews and Gentiles; - traders who are at once Englishmen and Americans; transforming themselves into every imaginable shape, as the occasion may require. In what degree our new speculators, among whom I doubt not there are some honest individuals, participate either in the profits or in the vice of smuggling; what is the precise length to which they severally go in the art of deceiving; and what the means which the better part of them have devised of avoiding all share of the moral evil incident to European commerce, I do not presume to know: but I cannot help thinking, that a few serious cautions upon this important subject may properly be addressed to the readers of the Christian Observer.

First, then, allow me to remark, that to export goods, even into an enemy's country, through the medium of false custom-house entries or declarations, made either by our selves, or by those employed by us, is clearly contrary to good conscience, and to the purity of our Christian profession. A falsehood, either written or spoken, is not justified by the circumstance of the civil-officers, on whom it is practised, being the functionaries of an enemy. Consider the obvious effect of such a habit of deception on the character of him who yields to it. If we are used to deceive the custom-house officer of the enemy,

why shall we not also be inclined to deceive every man, among ourselves, whom we deem to be either our enemy or our rival? Shall we not be in danger of thinking, that truth need not be spoken to the artful; that honesty need not be practised towards the over-reaching; and, to borrow the language of the church of Rome, that faith is not to be kept with heretics? Where, in short, shall we place the limit to this system of deception? Interest will ever plead in favour of it. The habit, once learnt, will extend itself. We shall acquire the very love of artifice, and lay aside at length all that ingenuousness, which is so principal an ornament of every truly upright character.

Again, to incur even the risk of being obliged to substantiate, by oath, any false declaration which we have made, or to place any person in our service in this state of dangerous temptation, is clearly cri minal. I understand that many of the captains employed by our modern merchants, are in this most unhappy predicament. If suspicion arises; if certain events, by no means improbable, take place; a false oath is perhaps the only mode of avoiding the loss of a cargo. "Lead us not into temptation," is the daily prayer of the Christian; but how can that man offer this sup. plication from the heart, who deliberately exposes himself to the peril of coming under this trial? And how can he who places others in it, be said to love his neighbour as himself; or to fulfil that excellent precept, which has said, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others?"

I have spoken of false entries and declarations at a foreign custom, house. The practice of using false papers at sea, is another subject for animadversion. I have heard that a manufactory of such documents is carried on to a prodigious extent, by certain individuals, who are well skilled in the art of forging them.

Probably few of the many who buy these articles would condesc.nd to embark in the occupation of fabricating and selling them; and, yet, where is the great difference, in the eye of true religion and morality, between the one party and the other?

There are a thousand other frands, subterfuges, and contrivances, by which commercial objects are pursued in these unhappy days of the mutual prohibition of trathic among nations. Property, it is pleaded, must be covered. He that pushes

But I will leave this subject to your other correspondents, who, perhaps, through a more familiar knowledge of it, may be better qualified for the discussion.

British manufactures into the Continent, is called a benefactor to his country. But there is a whole mystery of iniquity, which involves many of these transactions; and few, as I fear, among our foreign merchants, are now able to say, that they have "the testimony of their consciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, they have their conversation in the world."-Great profits, I admit, are made by some of these new adventurers; and the nation participates in the wealth thus brought into it. I doubt, however, whether the riches of these speculators will wear well. Already, as in the South-Sea year, some of their splendid houses are seen rising like exhalations: but these men are not the best supporters of that severe and self-denying virtue, which, under Providence, must save us. For my part, Mr. Editor, I am little disposed to covet much acquaintance with the man who, in this season of peculiar trial of the principles of our merchants, mounts up suddenly into commercial eminence. I suspect a general contagion of our moral principles in this quarter; and I am also not without expectation, that many of our "nouveaux riches may, before Jong, experience some reverse of fortune; for it may be said most emphatically of their riches, that they are not for ever, and "that they make to themselves wings and fly away."