g employed in watching and
counteracting them, and their being employed in watching and
counteracting us, with the peevish and churlish jealousy of rivals and
enemies on both sides.

I am sure, Sir, that the commercial experience of the merchants of
Bristol will soon disabuse them of the prejudice, that they can trade no
longer, if countries more lightly taxed are permitted to deal in the
same commodities at the same markets. You know, that, in fact, you trade
very largely where you are met by the goods of all nations. You even pay
high duties on the import of your goods, and afterwards undersell
nations less taxed, at their own markets, and where goods of the same
kind are not charged at all. If it were otherwise, you could trade very
little. You know that the price of all sorts of manufacture is not a
great deal enhanced (except to the domestic consumer) by any taxes paid
in this country. This I might very easily prove.

The same consideration will relieve you from the apprehension you
express with relation to sugars, and the difference of the duties paid
here and in Ireland. Those duties affect the interior consumer only,
and for obvious reasons, relative to the interest of revenue itself,
they must be proportioned to his ability of payment; but in all cases in
which sugar can be an _object of commerce_, and therefore (in this view)
of rivalship, you are sensible that you are at least on a par with
Ireland. As to your apprehensions concerning the more advantageous
situation of Ireland for some branches of commerce, (for it is so but
for some,) I trust you will not find them more serious. Milford Haven,
which is at your door, may serve to show you that the mere advantage of
ports, is not the thing which shifts the seat of commerce from one part
of the world to the other. If I thought you inclined to take up this
matter on local considerations, I should state to you, that I do not
know any part of the kingdom so well situated for an advantageous
commerce with Ireland as Bristol, and that none would be so likely to
profit of its prosperity as our city. But your profit and theirs must
concur. Beggary and bankruptcy are not the circumstances which invite to
an intercourse with that or with any country; and I believe it will be
found invariably true, that the superfluities of a rich nation furnish a
better object of trade than the necessities of a poor one. It is the
interest of the commercial world that wealth should be