another treaty so good as the treaty it has broken, and most probably no treaty at all. That government must now abide by its fate, for it can raise no more coalitions. There does not remain powers on the continent of Europe to form another. The last that could be raised has been tried, and has perished.

New-York, Dec. 14, 1806.

THOMAS PAINE.

OF THE ENGLISH NAVY.

THE boasted navy of England has been the ruin of Eng land. This may appear strange to a set of stupid Feds, who have no more foresight than a mole under ground, or they would not abuse France as they do; but strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, and a little reflection on the case will show it.

The expense of that navy is greater than the nation can bear; and the deficiency is continually supplied by anticipa tion of revenue under the name of loans, till the national debt, which is the sum total of these anticipations, has amounted, according to the report of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the English Parliament, the 28th of last March, to the enor mous sum of 603,924,000l. sterling; and the interest of the debt at that time was 24,900,000l. sterling.

What are called loans, are no other than creating a new quantity of stock, and sending it to market to be sold, and then laying on new taxes to pay the interest of that new stock. The persons called loaners, or subscribers for the loan, contract with the minister for large wholesale quantities of this new stock at as low a price as they can get it, and all they can make by retailing it is their profit. This ruinous system, for it is certain ruin in the end, began in the time of William the Third, one hundred and eighteen years ago.

The expense of the English navy this year, as given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, last March, is 15,281,000l. sterling, above sixty-eight million dollars. The enormous expense of this navy, taken on an average of peace and war, has run the nation in debt upwards of five millions sterling every year, for the one hundred and eighteen years since the system of what are called loans began. And it is this annual accumulation of more than five millions sterling every year,

for one hundred and eighteen years, that has carried the English national debt to this enormous sum of 603,924,000l. sterling, which was the amount of the debt, in March last. If it be asked, what has this mighty navy done to balance this expense? it may be answered, that, comparatively speaking, it has done nothing. It has obtained some victories at sea, where nothing was to be gained but blows and broken bones, and it has plundered the unarmed vessels of neutral nations; and this makes the short history of its services.

That the English government does not depend upon the navy to prevent Buonaparte making a descent upon England, is demonstrated by the expensive preparations that government puts itself to by land to repel it. And that the navy contributes nothing to the protection of commerce is proved by the fact, that all the ports on the continent of Europe are shut by land against the commerce of England. Of what use, then, is the navy that has incurred such an enormous debt, and which costs more than sixty-eight millions of dollars annually to keep it up, which is three times more than all the gold and silver that the mines of Peru and Mexico annually produce. Such a navy will always keep a nation poor. No wonder, then, that every seventh person in England is a pauper, which is the fact. The number of paupers now is 1,200,000.

Another evil to England attending this navy, besides the debt it has incurred, is that it drains the nation of specie. More than half the materials that go into the construction of a navy in England are procured from Russia and Sweden; and as the exports of English manufactures to those places are but small, the balance must be paid in specie. If Buonaparte succeed in all his plans, I hope he will put an end to navies for the good of the world.

Jan. 7, 1807.

VOL. I.

59

COMMON SENSE.

REMARKS

ON GOVERNOR LEWIS'S SPEECH TO THE LEGISLATURE, AT ALBANY, NEW-YORK.

INVIDIOUS Comparisons show want of judgment. But when such comparisons are made on grounds that are not true, they become the more offensive.

You say in your speech to the Legislature, "In this general dispensation of benefits, our state has received an unrivalled portion. In the course of a few years she has outstripped her confederates in those important sources of national greatness, agriculture and commerce, and is not behind the foremost of them in the improvement of the useful and fine arts. The first of these assertions is supported by a comparison of the exports from New-York with those of the city of Philadelphia, during the short period of five or six years, which affords an unerring criterion, and establishes this important fact, that whilst each has experienced a rapid increase, the former, (New-York,) which at the commencement of the period was far behind, has previous to its termination overtaken and gone far ahead of the latter. To explain-in the year 1800, the exports from Philadelphia stood in the ratio to those of New-York of about seven to six. At the close of the year 1805, those of New-York were to those of Philadelphia as twelve to seven nearly. Whence, it is natural to inquire, proceeds those results? Which are the most remarkable, as Philadelphia has preserved her superiority in population, having considerably more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, while New-York has little more than seventy [thousand.] The question (continues the Governor) is one that merits the examination of an enlightened mind; and the solution of it, if I mistake not, [it is very well the Governor put this in] will be found in our spirited exertions in the improvement of roads and navigable streams.

These have facilitated an intercourse between our sea-ports and interior country. Have taught the forests [the forests then are more learned than the forests of Pennsylvania] to bow [that is, to make a handsome bow, such as the Quaker trees of Pennsylvania cannot make] beneath the labours of the husbandmen. Have converted the wilderness [this is an age of strange conversions] into fruitful fields, and made the desert places rejoice and blossom like the rose," and sing, I suppose, like the nightingale. Poetical fiction is ridiculous in legislative concerns.

I now come to remark more seriously on the errors and ou the invidious comparisons contained in the Governor's speech. I shall remark on another part of his speech after I have done with this.

I take the statements as Governor Lewis has stated them, that is, that the exports of Philadelphia were greater than the exports of New-York, in the year 1800; and that, at this time, the exports of New-York are greater than those of Philadelphia. But the cause which the Governor assigns for this shows a great want of knowledge and consequently of judgment.

He ascribes it, so far as respects New-York, to improvements in roads and navigable streams—to making the forests bow beneath the labours of the husbandmen-to converting the [unconverted] wilderness into fruitful fields, and making the desert places rejoice; and he speaks of those improvements as if Pennsylvania had stood still in the mean time, and made none; whereas the fact is not as the Governor states it. Pennsylvania has made more public roads and built more permanent bridges than any other state has done. And as to the improvement of farms, there are no farmers in the United States that excel the German farmers of Pennsylvania. We must then seek some other cause than that which the Governor has assigned.

If Governor Lewis had made himself acquainted, in some degree, with mercantile affairs, which he ought to have done, before he undertook to speak of exports or imports, he would have found that the greater part of the exports of New-York are not the produce of the state of New-York, and, therefore, have a distinct origin from any thing that can arise from internal improvements of any kind. For example, the city of New