e
shall see in its place what sort of thing he proposes. But before he
commences his operations, in order to scare the public imagination, he
raises by art magic a thick mist before our eyes, through which glare
the most ghastly and horrible phantoms:

Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est.
Non radii solis, neque lucida tela diei
Discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.

Let us therefore calmly, if we can for the fright into which he has put
us, appreciate those dreadful and deformed gorgons and hydras, which
inhabit the joyless regions of an imagination fruitful in nothing but
the production of monsters.

His whole representation, is founded on the supposed operation of our
debt, upon our manufactures, and our trade. To this cause he attributes
a certain supposed dearness of the necessaries of life, which must
compel our manufacturers to emigrate to cheaper countries, particularly
to France, and with them the manufacture. Thence consumption declining,
and with it revenue. He will not permit the real balance of our trade to
be estimated so high as 2,500,000_l._; and the interest of the debt to
foreigners carries off 1,500,000_l._ of that balance. France is not in
the same condition. Then follow his wailings and lamentings, which he
renews over and over, according to his custom--a declining trade, and
decreasing specie--on the point of becoming tributary to France--of
losing Ireland--of having the colonies torn away from us.

The first thing upon which I shall observe is,[60] what he takes for
granted as the clearest of all propositions, the emigration of our
manufacturers to France. I undertake to say that this assertion is
totally groundless, and I challenge the author to bring any sort of
proof of it. If living is cheaper in France, that is, to be had for less
specie, wages are proportionably lower. No manufacturer, let the living
be what it will, was ever known to fly for refuge to low wages. Money is
the first thing which attracts him. Accordingly our wages attract
artificers from all parts of the world. From two shillings to one
shilling, is a fall in all men's imaginations, which no calculation upon
a difference in the price of the necessaries of life can compensate. But
it will be hard to prove that a French artificer is better fed, clothed,
lodged, and warmed, than one in England; for that is the sense, and the
only sense, of living cheaper. If, in truth and fact, our artificer
far