 navy of Great Britain, or that the English had any reason to say his
countrymen had met with extraordinary encouragement in the service. - »When a
South and North-Briton (said he) are competitors for a place or commission,
which is in the disposal of an English minister or an English general, it would
be absurd to suppose that the preference will not be given to the native of
England, who has so many advantages over his rival. - First and foremost, he has
in his favour that laudable partiality, which, Mr. Addison says, never fails to
cleave to the heart of an Englishman; secondly, he has more powerful connexions,
and a greater share of parliamentary interest, by which those contests are
generally decided; and lastly, he has a greater command of money to smooth the
way to his success. For my own part, (said he) I know no Scotch officer, who has
risen in the army above the rank of a subaltern, without purchasing every degree
of preferment either with money or recruits; but I know many gentlemen of that
country, who, for want of money and interest, have grown grey in the rank of
lieutenants; whereas very few instances of this ill-fortune are to be found
among the natives of South-Britain. - Not that I would insinuate that my
countrymen have the least reason to complain. - Preferment in the service, like
success in any other branch of traffic, will naturally favour those who have the
greatest stock of cash and credit, merit and capacity being supposed equal on
all sides.«
    But the most hardy of all this original's positions were these: - That
commerce would, sooner or later, prove the ruin of every nation, where it
flourishes to any extent - that the parliament was the rotten part of the
British constitution - that the liberty of the press was a national evil - and
that the boasted institution of juries, as managed in England, was productive of
shameful perjury and flagrant injustice. He observed, that traffick was an enemy
to all the liberal passions of the soul, founded on the thirst of lucre, a
sordid disposition to take advantage of the necessities of our fellow-creatures.
- He affirmed, the nature of commerce was such, that it could not be fixed or
perpetuated, but, having flowed to a certain height, would immediately begin to
ebb, and so continue till the channels should be left almost dry; but there was
no instance of the tide's rising a second time to any considerable influx in the
same nation. Mean while the
