contemptible, or talents the moft fublime to render poverty other wife.

Even the poor lord, poor hero, poor faint, amongst us (if we had any of the two latter claffes among us) could, no more preferve themfelves from contempt, than the poor poet, hiftorian, philofopher, or di vine.

And this we ought in charity to fuppofe is the caufe, that neither God or the King is ever ferved in employments the most honourable and venerable, even by perfons of the first families, and most unblemished fanctity, for nought.

Politically fpeaking, however, I am of opinion, that wealth fhould be intitled to fome degree of refpect; and, on the contrary, that want fhould be fubject to fome degree of difgrace. The reafon this: wealth is the object of commerce; commerce is one great fource of our national efficiency; and when political and philofophical maxims clath, prudence requires the latter fhould give way to the former.

But then wealth may be valued too high, as it is faid, gold may be bought too dear. Or, if there is no fuch worth, indeed, as money's worth, we should be confiftent in our decifions at leaft; in which cafe it would follow, that, inftead of cenfuring an author for taking mo. ney for his works, we ought to efteem thofe most who get moft money by them. And then Pope, and Voltaire after his example, would deferve to be confidered more for what they made of their works, than for the works themselves.

i

The writer has three provinces. To write for bookfellers. To write for the ftage. To write for a faction in the name of the community.

To write for a faction in the name of the community is the most flattering of all thefe provinces, becaufe the writer who fills it, is expected to do that without doors, which his confederates in a fuperior station find impracticable to do within; because he finds himself confulted and careffed by them on this account; and because of the affarances given him, that, in the divifion of the promised land, a lot fhall be referved for him.

While, therefore, thefe occafional connexions hold, while he is useful in collecting the materials of oppofition, and in working up the whole mass to a head, hope fweetens all his labours, all his difficulties, all his difcouragements, and he at least enjoys the dream of growing ferviceable to himself and his country together.

At laft, the time of projection comes. The country is brought to groan for a change. The strongest faction in the ct takes advantage of the cry, to difplace the weaker, and to grow themselves ftronger by flipping in a fure man or two of their own. All-fufficient patriots become infignificant minitters. Oppofition is at an end. The pen is no longer of any ufe; and he that held it is left, in the language of Shakespeare, like an unregarded bulrush on the ftream to rot itself with motion.

Poor * Amhurft! after having

been

"

been the drudge of his party for the best part of twenty years together, was as much forgot in the famous compromife of 1742, as if he had never been born! And when he died, of what is called a broken heart, which happened within a few months afterwards, became in debted to the charity of his very bookfeller for a grave. A grave not to be traced now, because then no otherwife to be diftinguished than by the freshness of the turf, borrowed from the next common to cover it!

I do not, however, defire to carry this accufation one ftep higher than it ought to go: nor am I at all pleafed with the opportunity thrown in my way of making any fuch accufation at all.

- There have been times, when the talents of a good writer were efteemed a fufficient qualification for almost any employment whatfoever, and when room was left or made for their admiflion.

I do not rank Burnet in the first clafs of authors, and yet it was not bis divinity which made him bishop of Salisbury.

Somers, it is true, was a lawyer, orator, and statefman; and yet he was more obliged to his pen than his pleadings (with an exception to that on the abdication) for thofe diftinctions, which gradually led him to the higheft in the power of the crown to bestow on him.

Mr. Locke had tried his hand in the fervice of the Excluders for the fake of mankind, if not for his own: and though it must be al. lowed he was more a philofopher

than a politician, it was not in the former of thofe capacities that he was honoured with a feat at the board of trade.

Davenant was not eminent in his own walk of civil law, at leaft as a pleader; nor was he ever promoted in it: and yet, in acknowledgment of his powers as a political writer, we find the place of inspector ge neral of the customs created purpofely for his gratification; because the eftablishment, it feems, was, even in those days, fo full, that no room could be made for him elfewhere.

Prior not only found friends to applaud his abilities, but also to reward them: Sunderland was the Erle Robert he addreffed his Mice to; fo that we are not to wonder,. that he had a feat in parliament, (there was then no qualificationact),-that he was fecretary to the embaffy at Ryfwick, and to that of lord Jerfey in France: that, even when Lord Manchester was ambaffador-refident there, in the room of lord Jersey, he was fent thither with a special commiflion, independent on him; and that he was a lord of trade, long before he was a minifter-plenipotentiary from Great Bri→ tain to Lewis XIV.

Swift had a natural claim to all that Sir William Temple could do for him; had been perfonally known to King William; and was introduced to lord Godolphin by the elder Craggs, as a man worth any price or preferment, without deriv ing any material advantage from his furpafling genius; but having commenced advocate for lord Oxford, was rewarded with the deanery of St. Patrick's; and the times taking a new turn foon after, be preferred the free exercife of his

himself into all the wretchedness which Amhurst, his antagonist, funk under.

What is ftranger ftill, he had not only the minister but the M-ch too for his patron; who condefcended, more than once, to exprefs a gracious fenfe of his merits and fervices, and fome impatience to have him fuitably and permanently rewarded. So that we are bound to believe, that neither M-ch nor minifter, tho' feemingly all-fufficient, had any longer power, feparately or conjunctively, to do what they wished to do for him.The heat of oppofition had, by this time, not only increased the price of fervice, but fo enlarged the number of claimants, that all was too little to fatisfy the cravings and demands.- -Hinc illa lachryma

"Authors at large (fays lord Shaftsbury) are in a manner profeffed masters of understanding to the age." And in Churchill's Collection of Voyages, an Italian traveller, one Gemelli, gives all Europe to understand, that he could find nothing amongst us but our writings to diftinguish us from the worst of barbarians. Inftead of reproaching authors, therefore, for living by their labours, we ought to reproach ourselves for allowing them no other means to live.

By the ftatute of modern uniformity, luxury is the idol that all worship-there is a luxury of the mind as well as the fenfes.

Of those who administer to the latter, authors ftand the foremost.-And ought we to reproach them for the

exercise of those talents which we are fo much obliged to, for enlarging the bounds of our happiness.

The times, as we have feen, were favourable to Prior, Addison, &c. (though all found occafion to complain before they were ferved), because the link of patronage which held the great and the learned together was then in full force; and yet they did not commence writers in virtue of any fuch forefight, but because it was the impulfe of their genius; and all the good that befel them upon it, was as much the gift of fortune as the refult of merit.

The next race of writers had their recent example for authority; and, fo far, could better justify themselves for taking to the pen and the press, on a principle of difcretion, than, in this country, any other fet of writers ever could.

We of the present day, indeed, having nothing but phantoms before our eyes, are only the dupes of our own delufions *.-But then, alas! we are writers; confequently incapable of taking up any other trade; and confequently, instead of examples, can only bequeath our advices and warnings to others.

And if advice had any power to convince, or warnings to deter, the glut of writing which has cloyed the prefent age fhould be followed, like Pharaoh's years of abundance, with a dearth as durable.

Were only the Journals, Chronicles, Magazines, and other periodical, as well as occafional productions (which, at prefent, contribute fo much to the amufement and

chit-chat of the day) to be difcontinued all at once, how doubly loaded with all the horrors of vacancy would every hour limp off; and how little would the common run of fociety be worth!

Knowledge is the light of the world; authors have been the difpenfers of it; and have been fuffered to confume themselves in the operation.!

Let thofe that now write, therefore, be the laft! and those that delight in darkness have it!

A letter concerning the marquis Belloni's differtation upon commerce. From the Journal Economique. SIR,

IN

N your journal for March 1751, you have inferted a differtation upon trade, by the marquis Belloni, which I have read feveral times, as an excellent piece; the fubftance of all the best remarks which have been made by our modern politicians on that fubject, containing advice to fovereigns touching the direction of commerce, manufactures, and the circulation of money. But ought not he first to have confidered whether it: is more neceffary to direct all thofe things with fo much care and concern as he proposes, or to let them take their own way under proper protection only? How many general and particular manufactures have been established and brought to perfection by liberty alone, each having been carried on in its own right! Every individual will be led by honour and advantage, and thence refults a great whole, which will never be the confequence of a general direction. If, on the contrary, the

government fhould be too watchful and folicitous, and laws too much extended," or too minute, fhould happen to disturb particular manufacturers, in terrifying by penalties often injudiciously inflicted, or recompenfing by prizes ill adjudg ed, you fubftitute intrigue inftead of emulation. How many things are now carried on with tolerable fuccefs, merely from having hitherto efcaped a pretended legislative Police, which, inftead of advancing, retards the progrefs of industry and improvement! Obferve how trade flou rifhed in the republics, until its profperity was interrupted either by time, or other political caufes foreign to commerce, fuch as wars, national debts, and oppreffion: the reafon was, thofe republics have a fpirit ever healthy, ever active, which is liberty: and this, far from diminifhing, actually conftitutes the public ftrength; it repreffes evil and maintains diftributive juftice, and the evil being repreffed, the good appears and predominates: yes, the removal of obftacles is all that

is neceffary to the fuccefs of trade. It afks nothing of the public, but good judges, the difcouragement of monopoly, an equal protection to all the fubjects, an invariable value of coin, roads, and canals: befides these articles all other cares are vicious: and this vice is the more pernicious to a ftate, as it flows from an ill-conducted zeal: this zeal has partizans, officers in employment and authority, and it requires whole ages to undeceive them of their errors.

Trade is the fcience of indivi duals; but the general direction of trade cannot be a fcience; for it is impoffible. Oftentimes, when we N 2

di.e