fyftem of national rivalities. The workmen who will not build veffels, will make cloth, with which veffels may be paid for. The expence of manufacturing these cloths will be paid at home, as that for the conftruction of veffels would have been; by which means, thefe will be had at a cheaper rate. This labour and expence will therefore produce greater advantages, and place the nation in a more defirable relation with its rivals. Finally, Lord Sheffield, whose narrow policy is here refuted, proposes that ship-building should be encouraged in Canada, New Scotland, &c. But do phyfical circumftances favour these countries as much at the United States? Can England reap real advantages from this encouragement? It is a quef tion with which feveral writers have combated Lord Sheffield, and on which I cannot decide. But if England had this refource, France would be without it. Veffels built in America, will always coft her less than her own, or those constructed elsewhere: the ought therefore to favour the introduction of the firft. A celebrated minifter, whom France has reason to regret, thought as follows: his defign was to get a part of the veffels of the French navy conftructed in Sweden; he thereby expected to make great favings: they will be greater and more real, in getting the veffels conftructed in the United States. The The English themselves, will not be able to refift the force of things; they will fooner or later return to the ufe of American veffels; for these coft but a third* of what English veffels are built for; and cheapness is the first law of commerce. The bad quality attributed to American vessels is a fable, arifing from the following circumstances: in the contention for independence, the Americans built veffels in hafte, to arm them as cruizers: they were forced to make use of wood which was green, and unprepared; other things were either wanting to these veffels, or precipitately prepared. Confequently the veffels were imperfect; but this imperfection was but accidental. A cruize is a lottery, wherein no notice is taken of the goodness and durability of the veffel. It is fufficient that it be a good failor, this is the effential quality. Peace has re-established the conftruction of veffels in the manner it ought to be; and there are American veffels built before the war, and fome thirty years ago, which for goodness and duration, are not inferior to any English veffel. More progress has been made in America than any where else in the art of ship-building; this is eafily explained :-it must not be forgotten, when the independent Americans are spoken of, that they *In New England the conftructors of veffels make their bargains at the rate of three pounds fterling per ton, carpenter's work included. On the Thames, the price is nine pounds fterling, for the work alone of the carpenter. 5 are are not recovering from a ftate of barbarity. They are men escaped from European civilisation, employed, so to speak, in creating their country and refources: no fhackles restrain their efforts, every thing in Europe is looked upon as perfect, and made ufe of, without thinking of improving it. Thefe two effential differences, caufe a very confiderable one in the intensity of industry. Boston has produced a man astonishing in the art of fhip-building. Long and clofely employed in the search of means to unite fwiftness of failing in veffels to their folidity, Mr. Peck has had the greatest fuccefs. It was his hand which produced the Belifarius, the Hazard, and the Rattlesnake, which were fo particularly diftinguished during the late war, by their fwiftnefs of failing. Veffels conftructed by this able builder, have qualities which others have not; they carry a fourth more, and fail fafter. Thefe facts are authenticated by a number of experiments. The English themfelves, acknowledge the fuperiority of American fhip-building: "The finest veffels," fays Colonel Champion,* " are built at Philadelphia; the art of fhip-building has at"tained in that city the highest degree of perfec"tion. Great vessels are built in New York, also " in the Chesapeak, and in South Carolina: these *See Confiderations on the present State of Great Britain, &c. page 74. "laft "laft made of green oak, are of an unequalled folidity and durability." The American proverb fays: That to have a perfelt veffel, it must have a Boflon bottom and Philadel phia fides. The French, if connoiffeurs be believed, are very inferior to the Americans in the minutia of fhip-building. This fuperiority of America ought not to furprize us: it will ftill encrease. The independent Americans who inhabit the coafts, live by the sea, and pride themselves in navigation. As they have competitors, their genius will never sleep, nor will its efforts be shackled in any manner whatever. In France, the people are, and ought to be cultivators; the marine is but a fubordinate part, and by the nature of things, it must enjoy but a very precarious confideration. Honour, which affects the head of every Frenchman, is diftribut ed but at Paris and at Court; and there, men are and must still be, far from perceiving the importance of attaching merit to the improvement of fhip-building: it must therefore languish, or yield to that of the Americans. Hence it refults, that` the French, in preserving every thing which can maintain amongst them an able clafs of fhipbuilders, must buy yeffels of the Americans; becaufe every convenience is united to that of facilitating their reciprocal importations and exportations, of which the bulks are fo different in one nation from thofe of the other. This This circumftance is attended with the advantage of procuring to the French merchant, an American veffel at a lefs price, than if he had ordered it to be built, or if he bought it in America; because, it will always be more to the intereft of the American to fell his veffel, than to take it back in ballaft. Such is the fitnefs of American veffels for the French marine, and especially for merchant service; fuch is that fittnefs for all the European powers which have fea coafts, that I think a fure and commodious road in Europe would foon be afforted with American veffels for fale, if every thing which can encourage a like depofitory were granted to the port wherein this road might be. This market for veffels is yet to be established ;—the English reject it,-will France give it no attention? SECTION X. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE PRECEDING CATALOGUE OF IMPORTATIONS FROM THE UNITED STATES, INTO FRANCE. THE lift which I have gone through of the articles with which the independent Americans may furnish Europe, in exchange for her merchandize, is not very long; but these articles are con fiderable |