Were a military cast formed, and endowed with a portion of the territory, as in ancient Egypt; we need only remember how fatal it proved to the Egyptians, to be convinced that it would afford little security.

"In none of the known periods of their history

"were the Egyptians ever formidable; never did an enemy enter their country, but they were subdued. "The Scythians were the first who invaded Egypt. "After the Scythians came Nabuchodonosor, who con"quered Egypt without meeting with any resistance. Cyrus achieved its conquest by merely sending one "of his lieutenants. When the Egyptians revolted "under Cambyses, a single campaign sufficed to sub"due them. Darius Ochus reduced Egypt to a "province of his kingdom. Alexander, Cæsar, Augustus, and the Caliph Omar, conquered Egypt "with the same facility. The Mamelukes possessed "themselves of that country in the time of the Cru"sades. Lastly, Selim the First conquered Egypt "in a single campaign.'*

The Chinese have experienced the same fate; they never resisted any hostile attack. Several times subdued by the Tartars, they have submitted to the yoke which it pleased the conquerors to impose upon them.

And that the calamities with which these nations have been afflicted are no unusual attendants on the vices of their system of political economy, is proved to a certain degree by the circumstance that Africa, Sicily, and Poland, which were essentially agricultural countries, have experienced the same fate, and been

* Voltaire, Essai sur les Mœurs, vol. i. p. 117. Edit. of 1785

unable to preserve their liberty and independence, and to maintain themselves in the rank of nations.

What more striking proofs can there be required of the vices of the agricultural system with regard to political independence, national power, and public wealth? These vices equally shew themselves in the small extent of general labour, in the insulated condition of individuals, in the weakness of government, and in national impotency and general indifference. They ought to alarm all who might be blind enough to share in Dr. Quesnay's predilection for the agricultural system, and to suffer themselves to be fascinated by the charms with which it has been invested by his numerous proselytes, and against which even Adam Smith has been unable to guard. Agriculture can no longer be considered either as exclusively productive of wealth, or as the most productive of all labours; much less can it be regarded as possessing the eminent prerogative of forming the "natural constitution of a government the best adapted to the human race.' Do manufactures and commerce afford the advantages which we have denied to agriculture?

"It is true, that men begin by tilling their lands "before they build ships to go in search of new lands <s beyond the seas: but those who are forced to de"vote themselves to maritime commerce, soon acquire that industry, the offspring of want, which "does not stimulate other nations. "*

This industry must particularly acquire a great superiority, when labour is subdivided, when the

* Voltaire, Essai sur les Mœurs, vol. i. p. 73. Edit. of 1785,

manufacturing and trading classes, breaking the fetters which kept them enchained to the agricultural classes, labour without waiting for the demand, submit their productions to commercial exchanges, and derive from the equivalents obtained in return, their subsistence, their comforts, and their wealth.

Their economical notions then take a new course, their relations become complicated; the results of their commerce are lost in an obscurity so profound, that they are not always clear to the most acute and best exercised understandings, and their advantages and inconveniences are frequently mistaken. The happy effects of this revolution are not even yet completely demonstrated, and its benefits have long been in existence, though the channels through which they are poured are not yet sufficiently known and described. Let us attempt to throw some light upon these abysses of political economy.

As soon as the labouring classes, whether agricultural, or manufactural and commercial, carry to market the surplus of their produce above their consumption, and exchange one for the other, general industry receives a fresh impulse, follows another direction, and attains a higher destiny. The producer does not wait for the produce being consumed, before he re-produces it; neither does he limit his productions to the local consumption, or to his present and actual wants. Commerce meets production; it stimulates the consumer by the presence of the produce, and the producer by the certitude of obtaining equivalents in return. In this system, every producer is a consumer; all productions are thrown into the scales of a.

general exchange; and commerce foments general production by general consumption.

The labour of the husbandman is no longer confined to obtain the produce necessary for his subsistence, and the wages of those who assist him with their services. He also labours to procure commodities with which he is yet unacquainted, to have a surplus, and to be enabled to purchase objects, the sight of which in the market may inspire him with the desire of possessing them.

The industrious classes do not wait for orders to labour. They create, invent, perfect the means of rendering life convenient, comfortable, and agreeable; of multiplying enjoyments and satisfying every desire; they do not embarrass themselves about the sale of their productions or the return of equivalents; they depend upon the market, which rarely disappoints their expectations.

Lastly, the trading classes are no longer reduced to a mercenary and not very lucrative hawking; they collect and keep in their warehouses the surplus of productions which have not met with any demand, and endeavour to provide consumers for it on every point of the globe where nature and the labour of man yield any productions capable of exciting desire, flattering taste, and multiplying enjoyments. In this twofold respect, the trading classes produce, preserve, and multiply wealth.

Riches now no longer consist in the proportion of produce to wants, of income to expenditure, of production to consumption; but in the accumulation of a surplus stored up for unforeseen wants, accidents,

and enjoyments. This surplus is a resource for the existing population against the uncertainty of the seasons; it is a stock, a sort of patrimony, a premium for their increase; by means of this surplus, man soars above the animal creation; he avoids the calamities to which he was doomed by nature; and insures to himself a destiny which he had been originally denied. Individuals are multiplied in proportion to the surplus that is accumulated, nations prosper in the compound ratio of the mass of their surplus and the increase of their population, and public wealth results from the exchange of the surplus produce of general labour.

Any new object which is conveyed by commerce to the general market, which excites fresh desires, and which the multitude may acquire by labour, augments the emulation of the labourers, gives a new impulse to general labour, and accelerates the progress of opulence in an indefinite proportion.

When after the discovery of the New World, that effort of genius or audacity, productions till then unknown were brought into the market of Europe, every one redoubled his exertions, activity, and industry, to procure them, and public wealth was increased by both the productions imported from the New World, and those produced in Europé to serve as equivalents.

Gold and silver, which were only circulating among the rich and prosperous classes, being, all at once, profusely scattered among the industrious and labouring classes, excited a general emulation, multiplied individual, domestic, and social relations, and pro