llow it, unless
he undertakes to show; first, that the possession of Canada, Martinico,
Guadaloupe, Grenada, the Havannah, the Philippines, the whole African
trade, the whole East India trade, and the whole Newfoundland fishery,
had no certain inevitable tendency to increase the British shipping;
unless, in the second place, he can prove that those trades were, or
might be, by law or indulgence, carried on in foreign vessels; and
unless, thirdly, he can demonstrate that the premium of insurance on
British ships was rising as the war continued. He can prove not one of
these points. I will show him a fact more that is mortal to his
assertions. It is the state of our shipping in 1762. The author had his
reasons for stopping short at the preceding year. It would have
appeared, had he proceeded farther, that our tonnage was in a course of
uniform augmentation, owing to the freight derived from our foreign
conquests, and to the perfect security of our navigation from our clear
and decided superiority at sea. This, I say, would have appeared from
the state of the two years:--

1761. British 527,557 tons.
1762. Ditto 559,537 tons.
1761. Foreign 180,102 tons.
1762. Ditto 129,502 tons.

The two last years of the peace were in no degree equal to these. Much
of the navigation of 1763 was also owing to the war; this is manifest
from the large part of it employed in the carriage from the ceded
islands, with which the communication still continued open. No such
circumstances of glory and advantage ever attended upon a war. Too happy
will be our lot, if we should again be forced into a war, to behold
anything that shall resemble them; and if we were not then the better
for them, it is net in the ordinary course of God's providence to mend
our condition.

In vain does the author declaim on the high premiums given for the loans
during the war. His long note swelled with calculations on that subject
(even supposing the most inaccurate of all calculations to be just)
would be entirety thrown away, did it not serve to raise a wonderful
opinion of his financial skill in those who are not less surprised than
edified, when, with a solemn face and mysterious air, they are told that
two and two make four. For what else do we learn from this note? That
the more expense is incurred by a nation, the more money will be
required to defray it; that in proportion to the continuance of that
expense, will be the c