o the dangers of war, without the security which
insurances afford them; and having persuaded themselves that such
security is to be obtained from no other nation, they imagine that we
might, by prohibiting it, confine all the foreign vessels in their
ports, and destroy, by one resolution, the trade of both our rivals and
our enemies.

That our East India company may desire the ratification of this bill, I
cannot deny, because they might, perhaps, receive from it some temporary
advantage by the short inconveniencies which those whom they consider as
the enemies of their commerce would feel from it. They may desire it,
because the experiment, if it fails, as it must, cannot injure them; and
if it succeeds, may produce great advantages to them: they may wish it,
because they will feel the immediate benefit, and the detriment will
fall upon others.

I shall not inquire whether our merchants are inclined to look with
malevolence on all those who cultivate the same branches of commerce
with themselves, though they have neither the violation of natural
rights, nor the infringement of national treaties, to complain of. I
should be unwilling to suspect a British merchant, whose acquaintance
with the constitution of his own country ought to show him the value of
liberty, who ought to be above narrow schemes, by the knowledge which
his profession enables him to gain, of a desire to encroach upon the
rights of others, or to engross the general benefits of nature; and
shall only observe, that several other nations can plead a claim to the
East India trade, a claim of equal validity with our own; that the Danes
have their settlement there, and that the Portuguese discovered the way
to those regions of wealth, from which some, perhaps, are inclined to
exclude them.

But nothing is more vain than to attempt to exclude them by refusing to
ensure their ships, because the opinion that they can be insured by no
other nation is entirely without foundation. There are at this time
offices of insurance along the whole coasts of the midland sea, among
the Dutch, and even among the French. Nothing can debar any nation from
the trade of insurance but the want of money; and that money is not
wanted by foreigners for this purpose, appears from the great sums which
they have deposited in our funds.

That this trade is now carried on chiefly by this nation, though not
solely, is incontestable; but what can be inferred from that, but that
we oug