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stance. The skipper of a shallop, employed ve tween Cape May and Philadelphia, had done us some snall service, for which he refused to be paid. My wife understanding that he had a daughter, sent her a present of a new fashioned cap. Three years after, this skipper being at my house with an old farmer of Cape May, his passenger, he mentioned the cap, and how much his daughter had been pleased with it. "But (said he) it proved a dear cap to cu congregation.""How so?". "When my daughte appeared with it at meeting, it was so much admired that all the girls resolved to get such caps from Philadelphia; and my wife and I computed that the whole could not have cost less than a hundred pounds."" True (said the farmer) but you do not tell all the story. think the cap was neverthelessan advantage to us; for it was the first thing that put our girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale at Philadelphia, that they might have wherewithal to buy caps and ribbons there; and you know that that industry has continued, and is likely to continue and increase to a much greater value, and answer better purposes."-Upon the whole, I was more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since not only the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but the Philadelphians by the supply of warm mittens.

In our commercial towns upon the sea coast, for tunes will occasionally be made. Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preserved what they have gained for their posterity; others, fond of showing their wealth, will be extravagant, and ruin themselves. Laws cannot prevent this; and perhaps it is not always an evil to the pub IC. A shilling spent idly by a fool, may be picke up by a wiser person, who knows better what to d with t It is therefore not lost. A vain, silly fallow Duilds a fire house, furnishes it richly, lives in it ex pensively, and in a few years ruins himself; but the masons, carpenters, siniths, and other honest tradesmen, have been by his employ assisted in maintaining and raising their families; the farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, and the estate is now in better hands. In some cases, indeed, certain

modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the same manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, for instance, that exports its beef and linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter, while a great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear no shirts; wherein does it differ from the sot, who lets his family starve, and sells his clothes to buy drink? Our American commerce is, I confess, a little in this way. We sell our victuals to the islands for rum and Bugar; the substantial necessaries of life for super fluities. But we have plenty, and live well never theless; though by being soberer, we might be richer

The vast quantity of forest land we have yet to clear, and put in order for cultivation, will for a long time keep the body of our nation laborious and frugal. Forming an opinion of our people, and their manners, by what is seen among the inhabitants of the sea-ports, is judging from an improper sample. The people of the trading towns may be rich and luxurious, while the country possesses all the virtues that tend to promote happiness and public prosperity. Those towns are not much regarded by the country; they are hardly considered as an essential part of the States; and the experience of the last war has shown; that their being in the possession of the enemy did not necessarily draw on the subjection of the country; which bravely continued to maintain its freedom and independence notwithstanding.

It has been computed by some political arithmeticians, that if every man and woman would work four hours each day on something useful, that labour would produce sufficient to procure all the necessa ries and comforts of life; want and misery would be anished out of the world, and the rest of the twenty our honrs might be leisure and pleasure.

What occasions then so much want and misery? It is the employment of men and women in works that produce neither the necessaries nor conveniences of life; who, with those who do nothing, consume necessaries raised by the laborious. To explain this:

The first elements of wealth are obtained by labour from the earth and waters. I have land, and raise

corn. With this if I feed a family that does nothing, my corn will be consumer, and at the end of the year] shall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But, if, while I feed them, I employ them, some in spinning, others in making bricks, &c. for building, the value of my corn will be arrested a..d remain with me, and at the end of the year we may be all better clothed and better lodged. And if, instead of em ploying a man I feed in making bricks, I employ him in fiddling for me, the corn he eats is gone, and n part of his manufacture remains to augment the wealth and convenience of the family; I shall, therefore, be the poorer for this fiddling man, unless the rest of my family work more, or eat less, to make up the deficiency he occasions.

Look round the world, and see the millions employed in doing nothing, or in something that amounts to nothing, when the necessaries and conveniences of life are in question. What is the bulk of commerce, for which we fight and destroy each other, but the toil of millions for superfluities, to the great hazard and loss of many lives, by the constant dangers of the sea? How much labour is spent in buildings, and fit. ting great ships, to go to China and Arabia for tea and coffee, to the West Indies for sugar, to America for tobacco? These things cannot be called the necessaries of life, for our ancestors lived very comfortably without them.

A question may be asked-Could all these people, now employed in raising, making, or carrying superfluities, be subsisted by raising necessaries? I think they might. The world is large, and a great part of It is still uncultivated. Many hundred millions of cres in Asia, Africa, and America, are still in a orest; and a great deal even in Europe. On a hundred acres of this forest, a man might become a substantial farmer; and a hundred thousand men employed in clearing each his hundred acres, would hardly brighten a spot large enough to be visible from the moon, unless with Herschel's telescope; so vast are the regions still in wood.

It is, however, some comfort to reflect that upon the whole, the quantity of industry and prudenc

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among mankind exceeds the quantity of idleness and folly. Hence the increase of good buldings, farms cultivated, and populous cities filled with wealth, all over Europe, which a few ages since were only to to be found on the coast of the Mediterranean; and this notwithstanding the mad wars continually raging, by which are often destroyed in one year, the works of many years peace. So that we may hope he luxury of a few merchants on the coast will no de the ruin of America."

One reflection more, and I will end this long ram bling letter. Almost all the parts of our bodies re quire some expense. The feet demands shoes; the legs, stockings; the rest of the body clothing; and the belly a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though exceedingly useful, ask when reasonable, only the cheap assistance of spectacles, which could not much impair our finances. But the eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine furniture.

ON THE SLAVE TRADE.

READING in the newspapers the speech of Mr. Jackson in congress, against meddling with the affair of slavery, or attempting to mend the condition of slaves, it put me in mind of a similar speech, made about one hundred years since, by Sidi Mahome brahim, a member of the divan of Algiers, which nay be seen in Martin's account of his consulship, 1687. It was against granting the petition of the sect called Erika, or Purists, who prayed for the abolition of piracy and slavery, as being unjust-Mr. Jackson does not quote it: perhaps he has not seen it. If, therefore, some of its reasonings are to be found in his eloquent speech, it may not only show that men's interests operate, and are operated on,

with surprising similarity, in all countries and ca mates, whenever they are under similar circumstan ces. The African speech, as translated, is as fol lows:

"Alia Bismillah, &c. God is great and Mahomet is his prophet"

"Have these Erika considered the consequences of granting their petition? If we cease our cruize against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the commodities their countries produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make slaves of their people, who, in this hot climate, are to cultivate our lands? Who are to perform the common labours of our city, and of our families? Must we not then be our own slaves? And is there not more compassion and more favour due to uз Mussulmen than to those Christian dogs?We have now above fifty thousand slaves in and near Algiers. This number, if not kept up by fresh supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If, then, we cease taking and plundering the infidels' ships, and making slaves of the seamen and passengers, our lands will become of no value, for want of cultivation; the rents of houses in the city will sink one half; and the revenues of government arising from the share of prizes, must be totally destroyed.And for what? To gratify the whim of a whimsical sect, who would have us not only forbear making more slaves, but even manumit those we have But who is to indemnify their masters for the loss? Will the state do it? Is our treasury sufficient? Will the Erika do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think justice to the slaves, do a greater inustice to the owners! And if we set our slaves free what is to be done with them? Few of them will re turn to their native countries; they know too well the greater hardships they must there be subject to. They will not embrace our holy religion: they will not adopt our inanners: our people will not pollute themselves by inter-marrying with them. Must we maintain them as beggars in our streets; or suffer our properties to be the prey of their pillage? for nien accustomed to slavery will not work for a livelihood

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