apital, and receiv'd _Two Hundred Thousand Pounds_
per Ann. will have _Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand Pounds_ per Annum,
and have a _Demand_ of _Twelve Millions_ on you; which will entirely
finish what the late _South-Sea_ Directors so gloriously began.

Is this a Time to endeavour at new _Projects_, when the Nation is at so
low an Ebb; and when the World is ready, on the least Opportunity given,
to put to the _Finishing Stroke_?

It is a certain Topick, That every _Relief_ in the Case of the
_South-Sea_ Company, will be thought an _Injustice_ to some, who cannot
be reliev'd but at the _Expence_ of others. That Way therefore must be
taken, that is most Safe and Equal.

* * * * *

By what has been said, you will easily judge, how little the _poor
Sufferers_ are like to expect from this _New Project_; and that if the
_Success_ attend it that some People hope, it must be the Ruin of the
_Nation_.

You likewise see the _Danger_ there is in _Advancing_ of Stocks above
their Original Capital; and how necessary it is to restrain Corporations
from _Dividing_ more than what their _Original Stock_ will fairly
produce; and that such _Practices_ are destructive to the Commonwealth
of this _Nation_.

Ought not then the _Legislature_ to enter upon speedy _Measures_, and
such as may prevent any _Evil Consequence_ that may happen?

* * * * *

Our Main Business, therefore, is, how to find out _Methods_ to extend
our _Trade_; for _Projects_, and _United Companies_, are only contriv'd
to _enrich_ a few.

We have within our selves, and in _America_, an inexhaustible Fund to
_supply_ our selves, and perhaps _Europe_, with what we are now beholden
to _Foreigners_ for, and that at the Expence of our _Silver_ and _Gold_;
and yet either our _Negligence_, or _private Views_, make us sit still.
But otherwise,

What _prodigious Advantage_ would it be to the _Nation_, to have a
_Supply_ from our own _Colonies_ with those _Naval Stores_, which we
have now from _Denmark_, _Sueden_ and _Muscovy_; and to save the Expence
of so much _Money_ as those Trades cost us, and no longer to be at the
Mercy of any _Foreign Prince_? And could we gain a Balance of _Trade_,
we may hope to retrieve our selves from all the _Difficulties_ we seem
to labour under. But at present, we have not the Balance with any one
Nation, except _Portugal_.

Now if this be the Case, it cannot be thought that