But the most effectual instrument of English trade and civilization, used for the destruction of the unlettered natives in all parts of the globe, is spirituous liquors. This engine of demoralization and degradation of the human character, not only below that of savages, but even of brutes, is employed with a vigour and a zeal and ingenuity which nothing but avarice could suggest, and a distress and disorganization of society, and destruction of body and mind, which nothing but the demon spirit of commerce could pander to, or bear to look upon. The subtlety and perseverance of the traders to introduce ardent spirits among the North American Indians, is compared to that of eagles and wolves; and their ravaging effects in like manner. "For whatever object a body of Indians is assembled, whether for peace, or war, or to listen to the doctrines of our revered religion, the traders, like wolves, come skulking around them, and, like eagles in the neighbourhood of a field of battle, they hover out of the reach of gun-shot, confident of the enjoyment of their prey." "The horrid system has not, we regret to say, shared the fate of those it has destroyed; on the contrary, every year it has become better organized, and from the subtlety of the traders it is now become more impossible than ever to be prevented."* In sum, "by the bayonet, by the diseases we bring among them, by the introduction of spirituous liquors, by our vices, and last though not least, by our proffered friendship, the work of destruction is still progressing" among the North American Indians.+

Quarterly Review, No. 130, p. 406.

+ Ibid. p. 385.

The use of ardent spirits, in like manner, in the Sandwich Islands, where so much has been boasted of in the introduction of Christianity, had gone to an extent which well nigh threatened the extinction of the natives. The queen of those islands has set an example to Europeans, by absolutely forbidding the introduction of any spirituous liquors whatsoever into her dominions.*

It is true that the English merchants may not be the immediate instruments in carrying on this work of evil in all places. But it is the example and influence of English commerce to which it is to be attributed. The principle is the same as that by which our merchants are forcing on their artificial system of trade, for evil or for good, for profit or for ruin, in all quarters of the globe; a principle which has never before been carried to the same extent of selfishness and shamefacedness, till England took the lead as the great commercial nation. And this is the accusation: that England is infusing an evil system and principle into the world by her example and influence; and what if some of her scholars exceed her in the enormity of her practices, and outwit her by her own inventions.

We shall see whether such a system must not precipitate its own ruin inevitably.

The trade of England is corrupted and ruined by its own success and vastness. It is so great beyond the occasion and the call for it in all markets, that excessive competition brings its profits and advantages to nothing, and ruins itself. This lowness of profits, so

The Europeans were expelled from Cochin China because they introduced every kind of profligacy.

created, suggests to each merchant and manufacturer a still further production,—the only remedy for small returns being, to increase the number of them,—and so the evil, by seeking a cure for itself, only multiplies the causes of it; and our commerce perishes by a species of self-embarrassment, and mutual destruction, the very reward of over-success, and accumulation, and avarice. The convulsive struggle of competition thus growing more deep and desperate, and ever increasing by the violence and effects of its own exertions, justifies in their eyes the creating a market and profit, at whatever cost of conscience or character or principle, as of necessity, and for the very life's sake.*

The working of this process necessitates the endeavour to extend our dominion wider and wider, over all the markets of the inhabited world, and to create them for ourselves over the parts not yet inhabited. The ambition and tyranny of commerce is as great and grasping as that of any other invader and conqueror ; and the endeavour after Universal Empire is as eager and insatiable in the golden Mammon as in the brazen Mars. This empire must be universal. No man may buy or sell save he that hath the mark or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name. British trade

The occasional bursts of prosperity, and the enormous fortunes made by some few manufacturers and merchants, may seem to con. tradict this belief of the general depression of commerce by overtrading. But these occasions are but the fever-fits in the progress of a consumption; which ever advances its ravages by successive fits of weakness and strength, of depression and encouragement, which still become more marked, till suddenly brought to an end by the crisis and catastrophe.

has already once had the monopoly of the world; and it must continually be striving to have it again. But the other nations will all oppose it; and at length successfully.

Riches have been well compared to a heap of sand: hardly and slowly raised; but easily dispersed and levelled by every motion and agitation. The commerce of Britain is such a heap; raised to a much greater height and eminence than ever before, by the labour and success of ages. On the top of the height of this great work she stands, and says within herself, " Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ?" But, "the kingdom is departed from thee." She says in her heart, "I sit a queen;" but, "in one hour thy judgment is come."

This empire of commerce is now the wonder and imitation of all the nations of Christendom. The kings of the earth give their power and strength and kingdom unto the Beast. If the picture of trade and commerce which has been given be faithful, the authority and power of this dominion must be corrupting and debasing. It is tyrannical and enslaving, as has also been described. Can the nations bear this monopoly of commerce, this insatiate encroachment of British manufactures in all their markets, and houses, and ovens and kneading-troughs and chambers? Their jealousy and pride will resent and resist the humiliating yoke; their stomachs will loathe the poison of the Circean cup, which they have drunk so eagerly and deeply to their own enslavement. Already the powers

of the continent are leaguing together to exclude the manufactures and merchandize of England: the instruments of her power: the collectors of her tribute. "They are all turning against her :"-as they before combined against Venice, in the league of Cambray and afterwards, to bring down her commercial pre-eminence; till they effectually ruined her. "The ten horns which

thou sawest shall hate the Whore, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." "For strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."

"Oh thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness."

"And the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."