Were you to say, Is it worth while to commit an injustice in order to grow rich, when we can consume but so little, and when the means are so numerous of pilfering so lawfully all that is wanted for consumption? I could then understand you;—but since you are in possession of 500 properties without having been guilty of injustice, it is something to reflect that they are really to you, the source of numberless enjoyments which you have it in your power to render worthy of a rational being: and, as the continuance of those enjoyments depends entirely on the health and bodily strength of so many others who are to contribute thereto, it is something to be conscious that we find our own pleasures in the interest of others; it is something to reflect, that these pleasures are a very gentle mean, devised most probably by an universal Watchfulness, to induce you to provide men destitute of every thing, with that modicum of goods which was not granted to them, and which, nevertheless, being necessary for their sustenance, is sufficient to their moderation, and prevents their feeling the privation of all the rest: it is something to reflect, that you feed in fact 50, 100, 500 perhaps of your brethren, amongst whom there are 10, 15, 30, as well fed as yourself, since they live on what comes from your table. As to the others, whose faces you will never see, since some of them are at Pekin, in Arabia, at Constantinople, and others in France, Russia, &c. be assured that, with much less meat than you, but more bread, potatoes, or rice, and a few glasses of an acid liquor, the idea of which, whilst I venture to speak of it, is enough to crisp all your nerves, they are as contented, as happy as you, because they consume, without any reflection, without any solicitude for the morrow, all they want, in order to view that morrow with the same tranquillity.—Would it not be unjust in that Being, who weigheth the mountains in a balance, if there were, amongst men, one condition more unfortunate than another? Would he not be unjust, if amongst men, there were one condition more blessed than another? I suppose, indeed, that there exists a Being, who weigheth the mountains in a balance, as others have supposed that there is a future life, where happiness is more visibly equal; and I have hitherto ventured upon so many suppositions!—yet I would beg leave to offer one more, relating though indirectly perhaps to the object now under consideration; but this shall be the last: I will ask (upon the supposition that there really exists a Being, not only Estimator, Moderator, but Creator also of all that thinks, wishes, and can be happy) ... yes, I presume to ask, whether the created being, capable of conceiving the idea of giving immortality to the creature capable of wishing for it, of fostering the hopes, and feeling the value of it, would not be greater than the Creator himself, if the Creator had not conceived such an idea?—I freely confess, that I should think myself better than the Creator, had the Creator conceived such an idea without putting it in execution.
I now return to the point which requires no kind of supposition, I mean the real consumption.—Let us pass from that very insignificant possessor of 500 properties, to the greatest Monarch upon earth.—What difference is there between his consumption and that of the meanest of his subjects?—He has the choice of every thing, such is the ne plus ultra of his power: three, four, or five pounds weight of nourishing food, are really as sufficient for the one as they are necessary to the other;—and on all points, what is the object that procures to the Monarch either advantage or pleasure, the price of which as paid by him, were it even of fourfold the value, is not exactly composed, both of the amount of the sustenance that was necessary to the production of that object, and of a sum which will infallibly pay for other productions, which must be purchased to forward new ones—from which the people will constantly have deducted their necessaries, before they are permitted to satisfy the superfluities, the luxury of any whosoever?—Such is that never-ending screw, that adorable chain, which nothing can stop or break, unless it be the insanity of a monster, who should receive that fourfold price, and bury it under ground, lest it should prove useful to society.—That wretch was very consistent with his feelings, who wished the Roman people to have but one head, that he might exterminate the whole nation at a single blow; but the phœnix will ever rise from its ashes; and Humanity, with all her resources, all her rights, would be reproduced from the very stones, were it possible that not a single head should escape the sword of that consistent being who might wish to cut them all off.
Thoughts on the Colonies.
The question concerning luxury leads to the investigation of some ideas on the Colonies; I do not mean that of taxing them, either in a direct or indirect manner, for the reason truly specious, that the wars undertaken for their protection, having loaded the nation with taxes to an enormous amount, it is but just that they should come in for a share of the burden.
It has been observed, that a national debt contracted, no matter for what, occasioning in every thing an indispensable increase of price, the Colonies pay their quota of such a debt (notwithstanding the drawbacks) when they purchase goods at the rate to which the said debt has advanced them: it must also have been noticed, even how necessary it was that the price of commodities from the Colonies should increase in proportion to the price of those of the Mother-country, in order that the former might be able to answer that advance of prices, without hurting the two essential points, consumption and re-production; whence it follows, that if new taxes are introduced, either directly or indirectly, to defray their pretended proportion in the interest of the national debt, neither harm nor good will result, if the price of their commodities be increased in the same proportion; but that if they be taxed, without that increase in the price of their commodities, they will consume by so much less of national goods or of foreign ones paid for in national merchandise, that is, to the amount of the sum which the tax shall have taken from them: this point is evident. Thus it is, that after the war in 1755, all Europe was obliged, as has been shewn, to increase her prices, so as to put them on a level with those in England; and had not Great Britain submitted to that reciprocal advance, and all the rest of Europe condescended to receive only, for the 13 effective millions of their own goods, the 13 nominal millions of that quantity of English commodities which was worth 14, on account of the taxes only, the nominal million which would have remained in the hands of England, would have been without value, and no longer reproduced for want of consumption, for want of means to pay for it, and to encourage such a reproduction.
I think also that it is useless to examine whether the colonies can add any thing to the real power of a nation, since, in order to be convinced of the very reverse, it is enough to observe, that if 2 or 300 ships mounting from 10 to 120 guns be required, in order to protect effectually an extent of between 1500 and 2000 leagues of colonial coasts, distant 1000, 1500, nay 4000 leagues from the mother-country, the 100,000 men employed in time of war, on those floating citadels, are always furnished by the Metropolis, and do not in any manner exempt her either from erecting those permanent citadels which must be scattered along the coasts of the mother-country, or from providing the number of men necessary to defend them in case of an invasion. In this point of view, the colonies would therefore rather diminish than increase the national power.
On the other hand, experience has just taught us, that as soon as those very colonies, for which it is pretended so much blood has been spilt, and so much money wasted, are in a situation to stand up in their own defence, there is no depending upon them, but inasmuch as they are on the footing of allies; and interest alone fixes the duration of every alliance.
The above three objects deserve not, methinks, any further dissertation: the question that merits a more particular scrutiny, is that which concerns the utility of those very colonies, when their weakness is a pledge of their fidelity.
That utility consists in securing to the mother-country, 1st, an exclusive mart for such goods as she thinks proper to export there; and 2dly, the exclusive sale of the returns, in which, it is said, she finds a compensation for the expence she is at to carry her goods to that market.
I shall investigate, under various points of view, all relative to those two objects, the utility of those colonies whose commerce is fully ascertained, before I speak of any other; and I shall only draw the necessary inferences from the most incontrovertible facts.