duty seem to arise from us to them? Does not Providence, by these distinguishing favours, seem to call on us to do something ourselves for the common interest of humanity?

"Those who think it their duty to ask bread and other blessings daily from Heaven, would they not think it equally a duty to communicate of those blessings when they have received them, and show their gratitude to their great Benefactor by the only means in their power-promoting the happiness of his other children?

"Ceres is said to have made a journey through many countries to teach the use of corn, and the art of raising it. For this single benefit the grateful nations deified her. How much more may Englishmen deserve such honour, by communicating the knowledge and use, not of corn only, but of all the other enjoyments earth can produce, and which they are now in possession of! Communiter bona profundere, Deum est.

"Many voyages have been undertaken with views of profit or of plunder, or to gratify resentment; to procure some advantage to ourselves, or do some mischief to others: but a voyage is now proposed, to visit a distant people on the other side the globe; not to cheat them, not to rob them, not to seize their lands, or enslave their persons-but merely to do them good, and make them, as far as in our power lies, to live as comfortably as ourselves.

"It seems a laudable wish, that all the nations of the earth were connected by a knowledge of each other, and a mutual exchange of benefits; but a commercial nation particularly should wish for a general civilization of mankind, since trade is

·

always carried on to much greater extent with people who have the arts and conveniences of life, than it can be with naked savages. We may therefore hope, in this undertaking, to be of some service to our country, as well as to those poor people, who, however distant from us, are in truth related to us, and whose interests do, in some degree, concern every one who can say Homo sum, &c."

Scheme of a voyage, by subscription, to convey the conveniences of life, as fowls, hogs, goats, cattle, corn, iron, &c. to those remote regions which are destitute of them, and to bring from thence such productions as can be cultivated in this kingdom to the advantage of society, in a ship under the command of Alexander Dalrymple.

Catt or bark, from the coal trade, of 350

£

2000

3000

2640

13640

Cargo included, supposed

15000

The expenses of this expedition are calculated for three years: but the greatest part of the amount of wages will not be wanted till the ship returns, and a great part of the expense of provisions will be saved by what is obtained in the course of the voyage, by barter, or otherwise, though it is proper to make provision against contingencies.

CONCERNING THE PROVISION MADE IN CHINA AGAINST FAMINE.

I HAVE Somewhere read, that in China an account is yearly taken of the number of people, and the quantities of provision produced. This account is transmitted to the emperor, whose ministers can thence foresee a scarcity likely to happen in any province, and from what province it can best be supplied in good time. To facilitate the collecting of this account, and prevent the necessity of entering houses, and spending time in asking and answering questions, each house is furnished with a little board, to be hung without the door during a certain time each year; on which board are marked certain words, against which the inhabitant is to mark number and quantity, somewhat in this manner :

Men,

Women,
Children,

Rice, or Wheat,
Flesh, &c.

All under sixteen are accounted children, and all above, men and women. Any other particulars, which the government desires information of, are occasionally marked on the same boards. Thus the officers, appointed to collect the accounts in each district, have only to pass before the doors, and enter into their book what they find marked on the board, without giving the least trouble to the family. There is a penalty on marking falsely; and as neighbours must know nearly the truth of each other's account, they dare not expose themselves, by a false one, to each other's accusation. Perhaps such a regulation is scarcely practicable with us.

POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED CONCERNING NATIONAL WEALTH.

1. ALL food or subsistence for mankind arise from the earth or waters.

2. Necessaries of life, that are not foods, and all other conveniences, have their values estimated by the proportion of food consumed while we are em ployed in procuring them.

3. A small people, with a large territory, may subsist on the productions of nature, with no other labour than that of gathering the vegetables and catching the animals.

4. A large people, with a small territory, finds these insufficient, and, to subsist, must labour the earth, to make it produce greater quantities of vegetable food, suitable for the nourishment of men, and of the animals they intend to eat.

5. From this labour arises a great increase of vegetable and animal food, and of materials for clothing, as flax, wool, silk, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we pay for the

labour employed in building our houses, cities, &c. which are therefore only subsistence thus metamorphosed.

6. Manufactures are only another shape into which so much provisions and subsistence are turned, as were equal in value to the manufactures produced. This appears from hence, that the manufacturer does not, in fact, obtain from the employer, for his labour, more than a mere subsistence, including raiment, fuel, and shelter; all which derive their value from the provisions consumed in procuring them.

7. The produce of the earth thus converted into manufactures, may be more easily carried to distant markets than before such conversion.

8. Fair commerce is, where equal values are exchanged for equal, the expense of transport included. Thus, if it costs A in England as much labour and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat-A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities, to make the exchange. The advantage of this fair commerce is, that each party increases the number of his enjoyments, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and wine.

9. Where the labour and expense of producing both commodities are known to both parties, bargains will generally be fair and equal where they are known to one party only, bargains will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of ignorance.

10. Thus he that carries one thousand bushels of wheat abroad to sell, may not probably obtain so