braced the offer, and sacrificed the soft delights of love,
which at that time he enjoyed without control, to an eager, laborious,
and dangerous curiosity. In that and the following campaign, during
which he was present at the siege of Philipsburgh, and several other
actions, he enlarged his acquaintance among the French officers,
especially those of the graver sort, who had a taste for books and
literature; and the friendship and interest of those gentlemen were
afterwards of singular service to him, though in an affair altogether
foreign from their profession. He had all along made diligent inquiry
into the trade and manufactures of the countries through which he had
occasion to travel, more particularly those of Holland, England, and
France; and, as he was well acquainted with the revenue and farms of
this last kingdom, he saw with concern the great disadvantages under
which our tobacco trade, the most considerable branch of our commerce
with that people, was carried on; what inconsiderable returns were made
to the planters, out of the low price given by the French company; and
how much it was in the power of that company to reduce it still lower.
M-- had formed a scheme to remedy this evil, so far as it related to the
national loss or gain, by not permitting the duty of one penny in
the pound, old subsidy, to be drawn back, on tobacco, re-exported. He
demonstrated to the ministry of that time, that so inconsiderable a duty
could not in the least diminish the demand from abroad, which was the
only circumstance to be apprehended, and that the yearly produce of that
revenue would amount to one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, without
one shilling additional expense to the public; but the ministry having
the excise scheme then in contemplation, could think of no other till
that should be tried; and that project having miscarried, he renewed his
application, when they approved of his scheme in every particular, but
discovered a surprising backwardness to carry it into execution.

"His expectations in this quarter being disappointed, he, by the
interposition of his friends, presented a plan to the French company, in
which he set forth the advantages that would accrue to themselves from
fixing the price, and securing that sort of tobacco which best suited
the taste of the public and their manufacture; and finally proposed to
furnish them with any quantity, at the price which they paid in the port
of London.

"After som