ACCOUNT OF THE COMMERCE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The commerce of Great Britain continued to increase during the whole course of this reign; but this increase was not the effect of extraordinary encouragement. On the contrary, the necessities of government, the growing expenses of the nation, and the continual augmentation of the public debt, obliged the legislature to hamper trade with manifold and grievous impositions; its increase, therefore, must have been owing to the | natural progress of industry and adventure extending themselves to that farthest line or limit beyond which they will not be able to advance: when the tide of traffic has flowed to its highest mark, it will then begin to recede in a gradual ebb, until it is shrunk within the narrow limits of its original channel. War, which naturally impedes the traffic of other nations, had opened new sources to the merchants of Great Britain. The superiority of her naval power had crushed the navigation of France, her great rival in commerce; so that she now supplied, on her own terms, all those foreign markets, at which, in time of peace, she was undersold by that dangerous competitor. Thus her trade was augmented to a surprising pitch; and this great augmentation alone enabled her to maintain the war at such an enormous expense. As this advantage will cease when the French are at liberty to re-establish their commerce, and prosecute it without molestation, it would be for the interest of Great Britain to be at continual variance with that restless neighbour, provided the contest could be limited to the operations of a sea-war, in which England would be always invincible and victorious.