annals of traffic, could boast no such claim.
To remedy this defect therefore, about every tenth trader was a banker,
or, a retailer of cash. At the head of whom were marshalled the whole
train of drapers and grocers, till the year 1765, when a regular bank
was established by Messrs. Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen,
whose credit being equal to that of the bank of England, quickly
collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus.

GOVERNMENT.

Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes, every
one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has a dazzling
effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin, set with
diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles with amazing
beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the beholder? Or, have
you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens bespangled with refulgent
splendor, each stud shining with intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in
the aggregate, reflect honour upon the maker, and enliven the
hemisphere? Such is the British government. Such is that excellent
system of polity, which shines, the envy of the stranger, and the
protector of the native.

Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a separate
jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed _a stud in the
grand lustre_.

Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as the glory
of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which causes it, or the
stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher in the scale of
excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may, with propriety, allow
that body to shine with splendor, which hath been polishing for
seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to the patriotic merit
which advanced it to its present eminence.

Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre, yet she
is a sparkle of the first _water_, and of the first _magnitude_.

The more perfect any system of government, the happier the people. A
wise government will punish for the commission of crimes, but a wiser
will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active animal: If he is not
employed in some useful pursuit, he will employ himself in mischief.
Example is also prevalent: If one man falls into error, he often draws
another. Though heaven, for wise purposes, suffers a people to fulfil
the measure of their iniquities, a prudent sta