upon the table at fea in broad flat dishes, thrown out on every fide by the rolling of the veffel, I have wifhed that our tin-men would make our foup-bafons with divifions or compartments; forming fmall plates, proper for containing foup for one perfon only. By this difpofition, the foup, in an extraordinary roll, would not be thrown out of the plate, and would not fall into the breasts of those who are at table, and fcald them. Having entertained you with thefe things of little importance, permit me now to conclude with fome general reflections upon navigation. When navigation is employed only for tranfporting neceffary provifions from one country, where they abound, to another where they are wanting; when by this it prevents famines, which were fo frequent and fo fatal before it was invented and became fo common; we cannot help confidering it as one of those arts arts which contribute moft to the happiness of mankind.-But when it is employed to transport things of no utility, or articles merely of luxury, it is then uncertain whether the advantages refulting from it are fufficient to counterbalance the misfortunes it occafions, by expofing the lives of fo many individuals upon the vast ocean. And when it is used to plunder veffels and transport flaves, it is evidently only the dreadful means of increafing thofe calamities which afflict human nature. One is aftonished to think on the number of veffels and men who are daily expofed in going to bring tea from China, coffee from Arabia, and fugar and tobacco from America; all commodities which our ancestors lived very well without. The fugar-trade employs nearly a thoufand veffels; and that of tobacco almoft the fame number. With regard to the utility of tobacco, little VOL. I, K can can be faid; and, with regard to fugar, how much more meritorious would it be to facrifice the momentary pleasure which we receive from drinking it once or twice a day in our tea, than to encourage the numberlefs cruelties that are continually exercised in order to procure it us? A celebrated French moralift faid, that, when he confidered the wars which we foment in Africa to get negroes, the great number who of course perish in thefe wars; the multitude of thofe wretches who die in their paffage, by disease, bad air, and bad provifions; and lastly, how many perifh by the cruel treatment they meet with in a state of flavery; when he saw a bit of fugar, he could not help imagining it to be covered with fpots of human blood. But, had he added to these confiderations the wars which we carry on against one another, to take and retake the islands that produce 8 produce this commodity, he would not have feen the fugar fimply Spotted with blood, he would have beheld it entirely tinged with it. Thefe wars make the maritime powers of Europe, and the inhabitants of Paris. and London, pay much dearer for their fugar than thofe of Vienna, though they are almoft three hundred leagues diftant from the fea. A pound of fugar, indeed, cofts the former not only the price which they give for it, but alfo what they pay in taxes, neceflary to fupport thofe fleets and armies which ferve to defend and protect the countries that produce it. ON LUXURY, IDLENESS, AND INDUSTRY: From a Letter to Benjamin Vaughan, Esq.* written in 1784. IT is wonderful how prepofterously the affairs of this world are managed. Naturally one would imagine, that the interest of a few individuals fhould give way to general intereft; but individuals manage their affairs with fo much more application, induftry, and addrefs, than the public do theirs, that general interest moft commonly gives way to particular. We affemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wifdom; but we neceffarily have, at the fame time, the inconvenience of their col *Prefent member of parliament for the borough of Calne, in Wiltshire, between whom and our author there fubfifted a very close friendship. lected |