156 State of Commerce in France,[Sept. up ſpeculations made as unaware as they turn out; but by far thé weightier point is the manufadtories: whilſt we have prohibited the trade with France, the French were under the neceſſity to manufa@ure themſelves the articles they were in need of, or be contented with the manufactured goods of Germany; the latter are much inferior in quality, yet neceſlity conſoled the French people for the loſs of the finer Engliſh goods; and, now accuſtomed to the coarſer ware, they almoſt bid defiance to all that comes from England; the ina@ivity in Mancheſter at this time is to many people unaccountable. I long expedted it, and the remedy lays in the encouragement of a free tráde with France, Spain, and Italy: beſides, even in a political view, I think the meaſure juſt mentioned is adviſeable, becauſe, how can this country keep the ſuperiority over France, more decidedly than by contriving to get all the caſh in its own poſſefion, which would naturally foilow,if the French were allowed the proper conveyances for trade? indeed it is a pity that war ſhould annoy trade. It is the more ſurpriſing that two nations, enlightened as they are, ſhould thus provoke commercial indufiry, for the purpoſe of enriching the Americans, who, by giving‘ull liberty to their merchants, will ſucceed won- derfully, provided no alteration of the commercial ſyſtem of this. country takes piace.

‘The manufactories of Germany riſe gradually upon the dull- neſs of ours, and, whilſt Mancheſter and other places are now obliged to ſend their goods for their own account to the Continent, and expoſe themſelves to il] treatment, or at leaſt cannot expe to reap thoſe advantages, which a regular demand would occaſion, the manufaurers on the Continent pour their goods into France, and ſo on to Spain, which, by a free trade with this country, would not even have been thought of. The dullneſs in Mancheſter goods alſo depreſles the cotton market materially here and in London, whilſt the exportation thereof reaches the foreign manu- factories at low prices, and conſequently enables them to make thereby a competent profit for the want of our machinery.

I beg you not to underſtand the above as a ſatire on the preſent

. ſlate of affairs; God forbid that I ſhould be otherwiſe than with

the warmeſt feelings intereſted for this country; yet, to make our cotton manufaQtories as well as the Weſt India trade‘more Mouriſhing, it will be abſolutely neceſſary that the free trade with the Continent is either aſſiſted by treaties, or left to the under- ſtanding of the commercial world only, and thereby to enable England to bring the balance of trade ſo much in her favour, that the bulk of ſilver oc caſh refts in the hands of the Engliſh merchants. Treaties with America, however they might appear to import the bulk of their‘goods into this countr}, would probably bring the commerce of Great Britain to an unexpeCed extent,

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