It would not be difficult to prove that there is an effect produced on the minds of individuals in Protestant countries, that is favourable to industry; but a discussion of this nature might seem displaced in a book of this sort. It is sufficient that we see, from experience and
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{204} In France, before the revolution, the revenues of the clergy, in lands, tythes, &c. were reckoned to amount to 25,000,000 L. sterling per annum. The number of feasts and fasts was also a great drawback on industry.
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reason, that, of all religions, the Christian is the most favourable to the prosperity of a people, and that of its different branches, the Protestant, or what is termed the Reformed Religion, is again the best. It is the religion established in Britain.
Another source of hope arises from a circumstance of very great importance, and very peculiarly favourable to Great Britain.
It has been observed, that the colonies in the West, and conquests in the East, cost a great deal and produce little; that, in short, their possession is of very doubtful advantage.
The possession of the North American provinces, now the United States, were a great burthen to England, from their first settlement till about the year 1755, when their trade began to be of advantage to this nation; but, in twenty years after, the revolt took place, and cost England a prodigious sum.
To enter into a long detail on this subject it is not necessary; but no sooner were the hostilities at an end, than the American states bought more of our manufactures than ever. Their laws and manners are similar to our own, the same language, and a government evidently approaching as near to ours as a republican well can to a monarchical form. There is not, at this time, any branch of trade, either so great in its amount, or beneficial in its nature, as that with the United States; with this farther advantage, that it is every day augmenting, {205} and as no country ever increased so fast in population and wealth, so none ever promised to afford so extensive a market for our mannfactures =sic= as the United States. This market is the more secure, that it will not be the interest of the people who have got possession of that immense tract of country to neglect agriculture and become manufacturers, for a long period of time.