Wesley Corpus

As to the fisheries on our own coasts, and on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, can any man deny that they have hugely increased during these eighteen years? Indeed all our fisheries are now in a more flourishing condition than ever they were before.” Allowing then, that we have sustained some loss in Newfoundland, what is this to the total gain? On this account, therefore, we have no reason to talk of the “ruinous state of the nation.” 7. “As to the tendency of our taxes, having previously observed, that the hands of the diligent and frugal are the only hands which make a nation rich; I have then to ask, Do our taxes in general, especially those which took place the last year, tend to make the people diligent and frugal, or idle and extravagant? Do they tend to promote industry, or obstruct it? to turn bees into drones, or drones into bees? Of late years we have made several excellent alterations in our taxes: We have repealed that very injudicious tax which in a manner prohibited the importing of butter, tallow, lard, and other articles from Ireland. Hence the mutual intercourse between the two kingdoms has prodigiously increased. Our shipping and mavigation likewise have increased in the same proportion. And so has the quantity of English goods and manufactures exported thither. Does this show a decay of trade; or give a just ground for our daily complaints and lamentations? 8. “The clear amount of the annual revenue is a matter of fact, and capable of ocular demonstration. Now, let an appeal be made to the proper accounts, which state the amount of all the taxes of the year 1759; let these accounts be compared with those of the year 1777, and you cannot but see with your own eyes where the advantage lies; yea, notwithstanding the loss of our tobacco-trade from Maryland and Virginia, and notwithstanding the great failure of the crops of sugar, as well as of cyder and perry. 9. “The last article is the national debt. And great it undoubtedly is. Yet, comparatively speaking, it is not so great now, as it was in 1759. For if the nation is now (as has been clearly shown) very considerably richer, then it is better able to bear an equal or a greater load of national debt, than it was at that juncture.