 his equipage.
    M-- having still some remains of a military disposition, and conceiving this
to be a more favourable opportunity than any he should ever meet with again,
readily embraced the offer, and sacrificed the soft delights of love, which at
that time he enjoyed without controul, to an eager, laborious and dangerous
curiosity. In that and the following campaign, during which he was present at
the siege of Philipsburg, and several other actions, he enlarged his
acquaintance among the French officers, especially those of the graver sort, who
had a taste for books and literature; and the friendship and interest of those
gentlemen were afterwards of singular service to him, tho' in an affair
altogether foreign from their profession.
    He had all along made diligent inquiry into the trade and manufactures of
the countries through which he had occasion to travel, more particularly those
of Holland, England and France; and as he was well acquainted with the revenue
and farms of this last kingdom, he saw with concern the great disadvantages
under which our tobacco-trade (the most considerable branch of our commerce with
that people) was carried on; what inconsiderable returns were made to the
planters, out of the low price given by the French company; and how much it was
in the power of that company to reduce it still lower. M- had formed a scheme to
remedy this evil, so far as it related to national loss or gain, by not
permitting the duty of one penny in the pound, old subsidy, to be drawn back, on
tobacco re-exported. He demonstrated to the ministry of that time, that so
inconsiderable a duty could not in the least diminish the demand from abroad,
which was the only circumstance to be apprehended, and that the yearly produce
of that revenue would amount to one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, without
one shilling additional expence to the public: but the ministry having the
excise-scheme then in contemplation, could think of no other, till that should
be tried; and that project having miscarried, he renewed his application, when
they approved of his scheme in every particular, but discovered a surprising
backwardness to carry it into execution.
    His expectations in this quarter being disappointed, he, by the
interposition of his friends, presented a plan to the French company, in which
he set forth the advantages that would accrue to themselves, from fixing the
price, securing that sort of tobacco which best suited the taste of the public
and their manufacture; and finally, proposed to furnish them with any quantity,
at the price which they paid in the port of
