Wesley Corpus

You may inquire next, with regard to “salt-water carriage of goods. Is the quantity of British shipping decreased since the year 1759? Are there fewer ships now employed in the ThE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 145 coasting-trade? fewer in the Irish trade? or fewer for distant voyages? Nay, have we fewer ship-carpenters, or fewer sail makers at work? And do we build fewer or smaller ships for merchants’ service than formerly?” The more particu larly you inquire, the more clearly you will see how immensely the nation has improved in this article. But it is objected, “We have lost eight hundred of our ships since the beginning of the war.” Perhaps so; although you have no proof of this; for Lloyd's Catalogue is no sufficient evidence. But how many have we taken? This it is absolutely needful you should know, or you cannot know whether we have lost or gained upon the whole. We have taken above nine hundred. And the evidence of our gain is at least as good as that of our loss. “Nay, but we have also lost our Negro trade.” I would to God it may never be found more ! that we may never more steal and sell our brethren like beasts; never murder them by thousands and tens of thousands ! O may this worse than Mahometan, worse than Pagan, abomination, be removed from us for ever ! Never was anything such a reproach to England since it was a nation, as the having any hand in this execrable traffic. 6. “The state of our fisheries at home and abroad forms another important article of comparison. For as our ships of war are our bulwarks, and our sailors are the proper guards for defending such works, so it is of the utmost importance to have always ready, for manning our fleets, a number of able seamen. Now, these are most readily supplied by our fisheries. And when were these in their most flourishing state? in 1759, or 1777? Were more British ships employed in the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, or in the gulf of St. Lawrence, or on the coasts of Labrador, then, than there are now 7 Were there half as many? Again: Were there more employed in the fisheries for whales, and fish to make oil? Were there even half as many?