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The present monarch of France, though untainted with the vain ambition of a hero and a conqueror, hath, by the reftlefs temper and haughty difpofition of his minifters, been involved, fince his acceffion, in two fuch expensive wars as hath entirely effused the small share of strength and vigour, which the nation had recruited by the long peace that preceded them; and by the violent efforts he made in both, fo fuperior to, and inconfiftent with, the debilitated strength of his ftate, that from a progrefs of the original vices of the government, the ruined condition of the landed intereft, the heavy load of national debt, and the entire lofs of public credit, the French nation is now reduced to a more confumptive and exhausted state than fhe ever was before involved in: and as all the great pillars of the ftate are now become corrupted and decayed, with an enormous weight of diftreffes preffing upon them, we shall, without the interpofition of Providence, or fome effential revolutions and changes in the present form and mode of her government, fee, even in our own days, the French nation fink into the fame state of nerveless indigence and poverty, which the Spanish monarchy hath long been buried in.

Infenfible of their approaching fate, with a levity and folly conftitutional to all ranks of that people, the prefent court of France have adopted the fame fplendid and ambitious notions of government, with which they had, during the happier and more vigorous times of the late reign, dazzled and imposed upon all their neighbours: but the deception, however, is now confined to themselves; and to fuch fuperficial statesmen and people of other countries, who take appearances for realities, and judge of the prefent power of France, from thofe fhort and tranfient periods of greatnefs, which fhone forth with so much luftre during the meridian of the laft reign.

The power by which they formerly, with fo much infolence and haughtiness, took the lead in all the affairs of Europe, is now no more: the ambition only remains. To fupport appearances, they are now forced to ftrain every nerve of government; they maintain unneceffary, formidable armies, a fplendid magnificent court, and in every department of the ftate, a moft enormous and extravagant peace establishment, for the empty confolation of impofing upon their own people, and fome of their rivals, with the appearance of a power, which (I hope to prove to your lordship) is no more natural, or the effects of health and vigour, than the rouge, which is daubed upon the face of a tawdry antiquated duchess at Verfailles is of youth and beauty; who may, in the jufteft fenfe

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of an allegory, be looked upon as an emblematic figure of the present state and political government of France; she, in her happier days, might have made conquefts, and been an object of admiration; but to attempt it in the decline of life, when nature is exhaufted, and health and beauty fled, by the arts only of the toilette, is fuch an impofition upon common fenfe, as raises no paffions but contempt and ridicule.'

He then proceeds with fhewing the timidity of the Pelhams, who fat trembling at the helm, apprehenfive of an invafion from France, when in reality fo far from being able to put fuch a scheme in execution, that nation was not in a condition to have repelled a like attempt upon its own shores. This naturally leads the author to a panegyric on the miniftry of Mr. Pitt, whofe meafures were directly oppofite to thofe of the Pelhams. Speaking of the late conqueft of Corfica he is led to confider it in the following manner.

An unjustifiable invafion like this, upon an inoffenfive ftate, and free people, in a time of profound peace, would, under different circumftances of the times, have roused the refentment of all Europe against them, whatever casuistry and fophiftry they might have pleaded in defence of it. The whole world may remember, that their encroachments on the banks of the Ohio produced the first sparks of fire which lighted up the flames of the late war, that fpread itself into the four quarters of the globe: fuch encroachment was furely of much lefs importance than the ifland of Corfica, from which, by its adjacent fituation, the French can now conftantly draw, at a very cheap rate, any quantity of the moft excellent fhip-timber they may want, for the fupply of the royal navy at Toulon; and which, before this acquifition, they had no other means of procuring, than what they could get, at an enormous expence, and a tedious delay of many months, from the groves of Norway.

An acquifition fo valuable as Corfica, and obtained at fo little expence, might flatter the vanity of a nation lefs fufceptible of it than the French: but unhappily for the repofe of Europe, the chief minister of France is fo intoxicated with ambition, and conceptions of the fuperior power of his own country, and fo ignorant of the real ftrength of his rivals, that he hath a knowledge yet to acquire, which of all others, is the most important and interefting for a wife minifter to know.'

The following account of our own nation, though containing nothing new, is yet drawn with fo much spirit, that we could not avoid tranfcribing it.

He fays, the brave inhabitants of Great Britain, are, my lord, the only people in the world, who have ever united the

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knowledge and activity of war, with the laborious employments of agriculture and trade; and from thefe advantages alone, though they were but a handful of people compared to the number of their confederate enemies, fupported in the laft with the most aftonishing vigour and fuccefs, the most active and extenfive war that ever yet happened amongst the powers of Europe. The fame of our arms, like that of our commerce, was carried into the four quarters of the world, and the English banners were triumphantly flying even in the Manilla Iflands, the moft diftant part of the globe. From the effects of our commerce and our wealth, we not only alone ftood fingle in the quarrel against the united force of France and Spain, but nobly fupported too the crowns of Pruffia and Portugal, which tottered on the heads of thofe princes, before they received our fupport and protection.

The national credit of England, my lord, which is so effential a cause of its power and greatness, is a discovery entirely new in the hiftory of human affairs, and to confider it with all its amazing advantages, is the nobleft monument of political wisdom, that ever yet was framed by mortal invention it is not the abundance of the precious metals alone which constitute the riches of a state, as we may fee by the prefent beggarly ruined fituation of Spain and Portugal: thofe metals are no more than a representing mark, given in exchange for the wants and neceffities of men: England, without a fatal poffeflion of the mines of gold and filver, hath discovered a mark which reprefents them as effectually; and was it not for fear of appearing too warm in my admiration of this amazing difcovery, I would fay, that the shirt of the meanest pealant, when worn to rags, may, by the art of manufacture, be fabricated into Bank bills and government fecurities, of more intrinfic value than the revenues of Potofi and Peru; for they, and the more precious ftones that are dug out of the bowels of the earth, receive their value only from the opinions and eftimation of men.'

he author now comes to his proofs of the shattered state and drained refources of the French nation. He fays that in the year 1759, the government was reduced to the neceffity of fhutting up her finking fund, appropriated for the payment. of the intereft of the national debt, and to apply its produce towards the expences of the war; that it was obliged to borrow at ten and twelve per cent. to ftop the gaps made by the deficiency and that her contracts for the army and navy were made to advantageous to the contractors, who would engage upon credit, as to give them an evident profit of feventy per

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He then proceeds to confider the ftate of agriculture in France, after drawing a fketch of the advantages refulting to that kingdom from the peculiar benefit of fituation, climate, and pre-eminence of fashion, which laft neceffarily leads to a great exportation of their manufactures. We are told that the annual produce of the lands of England is fuperior to that of France, though the extent of country and number of people in the latter, are three times as great as in the former; the lands of France, by the best calculations, producing fifty millions fterling only, while thofe of England are valued at feventy millions and upwards.

Sully is complimented by our author as having greatly contributed by his efforts, to the advancement of agriculture, Colbert, one of his fucceffors in the French miniftry, is charged with having thrown away the benefits which accrued from thofe wife purfuits, by turning his views to the improvement of the fine arts, and to the establishment of sumptuous and coftly manufactures, for the fake of encouraging which, in their infant ftate, he was reduced to the neceffity of loading, by heavy and arbitrary taxes, the landed intereft.

We cannot help differing from our author as to the general tenor of the adminiftration of Colbert, and of the advantages which arose to France from his miniftry. He certainly extended the marine commerce of that country to a degree almoft incredible, from whence it derives its prefent rank among the maritime powers. He promoted its manufactures by his liberality and diligence, and laid the foundation of that fu preme degree of excellence in which they are at prefent regarded by all Europe. How then can the charge of his having neglected the landed intereft be urged with truth against that great minifter?

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Our candid inquirer's obfervations on the methods pursued by the legislature of England are spirited; he fays, England, my lord, is the only ftate, either antient or modern, that hath made wife laws and regulations for the increase and improvement of the landed intereft; and experience hath fhewn, that scarcity and famine have much more frequently happened in those countries, where the greatest precautions have been taken to guard against them, than in our own, where we even allow a bounty to our merchants to encourage them to export that very article of life, which is fo neceffary for fupporting the existence of our own people; a measure the most bold and intrepid that ever yet entered into the mind of a legiflator, and which, at firft, fo ftaggered and furpaffed the limited conceptions of our rivals, that nothing but the amazing advan

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tages, which have refulted from it to this kingdom, could have convinced them of its wisdom and utility.

⚫ Since the paffing of that wife law for allowing a bounty upon the exportation of corn, and the farmers, from the happy effects of it, have been enabled to underfell other nations in foreign markets, when our own have been overstocked, our landed intereft, and our national strength have increased to a degree unknown to any other country but our own.

This exportation of corn hath been fo far from raifing the price of it at home, as fome people at firft erroneously ima gined, that it hath both augmented its quantity, and lowered its price, as may be feen by confulting the register of the price of corn for the last eighty years.

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Happily for England, the effects of this bounty upon the exportation of corn, hath produced an increase of it, even more than equal to the increase of our national riches; and had it not produced that effect, the confequences of thofe riches, by increafing the prices of the neceffaries of life, would have been more feverely felt, and more loudly complained of, even than they have been; for the price of the neceffaries of life, as well as of the luxuries of it, will always be in proportion, and relative to the quantity of money, whether paper or coin, that circulates in a nation. When the productions of nature are, in any country, great and abundant, and money in that country is little and scarce, much of the former may be bought for a fmall quantity of the latter; but when the money of a king. dom shall be plenty, either from a difcovery of mines, or a large quantity of paper-money, which anfwers the fame end as gold, fhall fuddenly be brought into circulation, as is the cafe in England, it is obvious to common fenfe, without the aid of political arithmetick, that a larger quantity of money must be employed to purchase the wants and neceffaries of life, than when there was but a little cash in the kingdom; and this increased state of the national riches in England, is, undoubtedly, the principal caufe of the complaints of the common people, that every thing is grown fo exceffively dear.'

We can readily agree that in any country the price of provifions will, in fome degree, bear a proportion to the quantity of circulating cafh, yet we conceive that alone not to be a fixed rule for determining it, as the plenty or scarcity of any neceffary of life will have a very confiderable influence in the determination of its value.

We think this author rather too fanguine in his attachment to a landed intereft. There can be no doubt that it ought VOL. XXIX. April, 1770.

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