I read a Resolution of that Honourable House lately, which gave me no little satisfaction, and which I had long expected from their Wisdom: viz. that all Methods of raising Money by Voluntary Subscriptions are prejudicial to Trade. This is a Truth which every Man in Trade has already felt; and yet, tis amazing to observe how little Effect it has had upon the Publick. Whereas by this Resolution it should have been expected, that such prejudicial Subscriptions were worth nothing, the Price of these Bubbles immediately rose, and their Reputation and Number of Subscribers encreased in a greater Proportion, than before they were under any Censure from the State: It is hard to account for this Paradox: either the Authority of Parliament has become a Jest, or we are under the strongest Infatuation that these Kingdoms ever felt.
I am unwilling to publish the Reasons, which an intelligent Person gave me, for such Consequences: Because it would not do Honour to certain Persons, by whose Interest it is expected, that Charters are to be obtain'd. As to the Great Bubble, which as open'd a Subscription, where every Man is to pay five Times the Value of what he purchases, a Gentleman, who is very conversant in Trade, informs me, that the Foreigners, who have Original Stocks to a very great Value, have already sent Commissions to have it all sold, when it comes to this extravagant Price. By this Means, they will have Opportunities of draining the Nation of its current Coin. I suppose, it will be answer'd, that the Exportation of Coin is provided against by Statutes; it is granted; and so is the Exportation of Wooll: Yet we are all sensible, the Law is transgress'd every Day in this Point: And it must be allowed, that Money may be as easily smuggled as any Commodity whatsoever. The Consequence of this will be, that a Circulation of Paper must be set on Foot to supply the Want of ready Money: And then, as I have read in a very witty Author, a Crown-Piece will be shewn about as an Elephant, and Guineas will be stiled of Blessed Memory.
Without being deeply learned in Trade, this appears to me a natural Consequence: Yet, notwithstanding all that can be said, I find the giddy Multitude resolute to forsake the profitable Paths of Industry, to grasp only at Bubbles and Shadows. This calls to my Mind the Fable of Jupiter and the Old Woman. The indulgent God gave the Woman a Hen, which laid a Golden Egg every Day: She, not content with this slow Way of growing rich, and being curs'd with a foolish Avarice, thought a Mine of Golden Eggs must be lodged in the Hen's Belly: But, killing the Bird, she found only common Entrails, and lost at once the expected Treasure, and the Advantage which she reaped before, by its laying every Day.
But it is Time to have done with these Discourses; the World is obstinate in the Pursuit of Follies, and not to be reclaimed either by the Authority of Parliaments, or good Sense: It is not so much the Consideration of this, as the Season being so far advanced, which now induces me to lay down my Pen. My Thoughts and Desires, I must own, are turn'd to Solitude and rural Pleasures. The Man, who desires to have his Body in Health, should rise from Table with some Remains of Appetite, and not be covetous of gorging to Satiety: So a Writer, who would not wish to surfeit the Town, should submit to give over Writing, before they begin to think he has harass'd them too long.
The gay Part of the World are every Day retreating from the Field of Business; and going with their Families into Summer Quarters. I look upon my self in the State of a Roman General, who has made a vigorous and successful Campaign, and is now returning Home to take his Triumph. I am retiring to the Village, in which my Family for some Ages have made no inconsiderable Figure, and know I shall be received not with the single Respect due to my Name and Quality, but as the Person who ingaged the late memorable Sir John Edgar. If Health and Fortune permit, next Season, I shall again propagate my Character in the Town; in the mean Time, to make my self the more conspicuous, I have ordered my Lucubrations to be printed in a small Volumn, and to have one of the Books sent down after me, which shall be chained in my Library, and go along with the Mansion-House from Generation to Generation, as a lasting Monument in Honour of the Name and Erudition of Sir John Falstaffe.
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Printed for W. BOREHAM, at the Angel in Pater-Noster-Row, where
Advertisements and Letters from Correspondents are taken in.
THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
ANNOUNCES ITS
Publications for the Third Year (1948-1949)