oth, should have none? This
great man attributes this surprising accident to the natural aversion
man has for labour; who will not be persuaded to toil and fatigue
himself for the superfluities of life throughout the week, when he may
provide himself with all necessary subsistence by the labour of a day or
two. But, with due submission to Sir William's profound judgment, the
want of trade with us is rather owing to the cruel restraints we lie
under, than to any disqualification whatsoever in our inhabitants.

I have not, sir, for these thirty years past, since I was concerned in
trade, (the greatest part of which time distresses have been flowing in
upon us,) ever observed them to swell so suddenly to such a height as
they have done within these few months. Our present calamities are not
to be represented; you can have no notion of them without beholding
them. Numbers of miserable objects crowd our doors, begging us to take
their wares at any price, to prevent their families from immediate
starving. We cannot part with our money to them, both because we know
not when we shall have vent for their goods; and, as there are no debts
paid, we are afraid of reducing ourselves to their lamentable
circumstances. The dismal time of trade we had during Marr's Troubles in
Scotland, are looked upon as happy days when compared with the
present.[105]

I need not tell you, sir, that this griping want, this dismal poverty,
this additional woe, must be put to the accursed stocks, which have
desolated our country more effectually than England. Stockjobbing was a
kind of traffic we were utterly unacquainted with. We went late to the
South Sea market, and bore a great share in the losses of it, without
having tasted any of its profits.

If many in England have been ruined by stocks, some have been advanced.
The English have a free and open trade to repair their losses; but,
above all, a wise, vigilant, and uncorrupted Parliament and ministry,
strenuously endeavouring to restore public trade to its former happy
state. Whilst we, having lost the greatest part of our cash, without any
probability of its returning, must despair of retrieving our losses by
trade, and have before our eyes the dismal prospect of universal poverty
and desolation.

I believe, sir, you are by this time heartily tired with this indigested
letter, and are firmly persuaded of the truth of what I said in the
beginning of it, that you had much better have imposed thi