st against the whole power of the Ottoman
Empire. And, before the grandeur of Venice had declined, another
commonwealth, still less favoured, if possible, by nature, had
rapidly risen to a power and opulence which the whole civilised world
contemplated with envy and admiration. On a desolate marsh overhung by
fogs and exhaling diseases, a marsh where there was neither wood nor
stone, neither firm earth nor drinkable water, a marsh from which the
ocean on one side and the Rhine on the other were with difficulty kept
out by art, was to be found the most prosperous community in Europe.
The wealth which was collected within five miles of the Stadthouse of
Amsterdam would purchase the fee simple of Scotland. And why should
this be? Was there any reason to believe that nature had bestowed on the
Phoenician, on the Venetian, or on the Hollander, a larger measure of
activity, of ingenuity, of forethought, of self command, than on the
citizen of Edinburgh or Glasgow? The truth was that, in all those
qualities which conduce to success in life, and especially in commercial
life, the Scot had never been surpassed; perhaps he had never been
equalled. All that was necessary was that his energy should take a
proper direction, and a proper direction Paterson undertook to give.

His esoteric project was the original project of Christopher Columbus,
extended and modified. Columbus had hoped to establish a communication
between our quarter of the world and India across the great western
ocean. But he was stopped by an unexpected obstacle. The American
continent, stretching far north and far south into cold and inhospitable
regions, presented what seemed an insurmountable barrier to his
progress; and, in the same year in which he first set foot on that
continent, Gama reached Malabar by doubling the Cape of Good Hope. The
consequence was that during two hundred years the trade of Europe with
the remoter parts of Asia had been carried on by rounding the immense
peninsula of Africa. Paterson now revived the project of Columbus, and
persuaded himself and others that it was possible to carry that project
into effect in such a manner as to make his country the greatest
emporium that had ever existed on our globe.

For this purpose it was necessary to occupy in America some spot which
might be a resting place between Scotland and India. It was true that
almost every habitable part of America had already been seized by some
European power. Pater