about it which prevents this. Perhaps it
is rather disposed to rebound, in proportion to the degree and time of its
restraint. It is certain, however, that the exhaustion produced by the
American war speedily gave place to wonderful activity in our manufactures
and commerce; and that, at the commencement of the first French
revolutionary war, they had both taken wonderful and rapid strides. The
circumstances, indeed, of such a country as Britain, and such a people as
the British, must be essentially changed,--changed to a degree, and in a
manner, which we can hardly suppose to be brought about by any natural
causes,--before its real wealth can be annihilated, or even greatly or
permanently diminished. The climate and the soil, and all the improvements
and ameliorations which agriculture has produced on the soil, must remain:
the knowledge and skill, and real capital of the inhabitants, are beyond
the reach of any destroying cause: interest must always operate and apply
this knowledge and skill, unless we can suppose, what seems as unlikely to
happen as the change of our climate and soil, the annihilation of our
knowledge and skill, or that interest should cease to be the stimulating
cause of industry; unless we can suppose that political and civil freedom
should be rooted out, and individual property no longer secure.

Circumstances, however, though they cannot destroy, must influence,
beneficially or otherwise, the wealth and commerce of a country; and it may
happen that circumstances apparently unfavourable may become beneficial.
This was the case with Britain: during the American war, her manufactures
and commerce languished; during the French wars they increased and throve
most wonderfully. The cause of this difference must be sought for
principally in the very artificial and extraordinary circumstances in which
she was placed during the French war: and of these circumstances, the most
powerfully operative were her foreign loans; her paper circulation; the
conquests and subsequent measures of Bonaparte on the continent; and her
superiority at sea. Foreign loans necessarily rendered the exchange
unfavourable to Britain; an unfavourable exchange, or, in other words, a
premium on bills, in any particular country, enabled the merchant to sell
his goods there at a cheaper rate than formerly, and consequently to extend
his commerce there. The paper circulation of Britain,--though a bold and
hazardous step, and which in a le