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It is certain that the author had fome ground for this description; many of the English wear tails to their wigs to this very day, as a mark, I suppose, of the antiquity of their families, and perhaps as a symbol of thofe tails with which they were formerly distinguished by Nature.

You fee, my friend, there is nothing fo ridiculous that has not at fome time been faid by fome philofopher. The writers of books in Europe feem to think themselves authorifed to fay what they pleafe; and an ingenious philofopher among them has openly afferted, that he would undertake to perfuade the whole republic of readers to believe that the fun was neither the cause of light nor heat; if he could only get fix philofophers on his fide. Farewell.

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WERE an Afiatic politician to read the treaties of peace and friendship that have been annually making for more than an hundred years among the inhabitants of Europe, he would probably be furprized how it fhould ever happen that chriftian princes could quarrel among each other. Their compacts for peace are drawn up with the utmost precifion, and ratified with the greateft folemnity; to these each party promifes a fincere and inviolable obedience, and all wears the appearance of open friendship and unreferved reconciliation.

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Yet, notwithstanding thofe treaties, the people of Europe are almoft continually at war. There is nothing more eafy than to break a treaty ratified in all the ufual forms, and yet neither party be the aggreffor. One fide, for inftance, breaks a trifling article by miftake; the oppofite party, upon this, makes a fmall but premeditated reprifal; this brings on a return of greater from the other; both fides complain of injuries and infractions; war is declared; they beat; are beaten; fome two or three hundred thousand men are killed; they grow tired; leave off just where they began; and fo fit cooly down to make new treaties.

The English and French feem to place themselves foremost among the champion ftates of Europe. Though parted by a narrow fea, yet are they entirely of oppofite characters; and from their vicinity are taught to fear and admire each other. They are at prefent engaged in a very deftructive war, have already fpilled much blood, are exceffively irritated and all upon account of one fide's defiring to wear greater quantities of furs than the other.

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The pretext of the war is about fome lands a thoufand leagues off; a country cold, defolate, and hideous; a country belonging to a people who were in poffeffion for time immemorial. The favages of Canada claim a property in the country in difpute; they have all the pretenfions which long poffeffion can confer. Here they had reigned for ages without rivals in dominion; and knew no enemies but the prowling bear or infidious tyger; their native forefts produced all the neceffaries of life, and they found ample luxury in the enjoyment. In this manner they might have continued to live to eternity, had not the English been informed that thofe countries produced furs in great abundance. From that moment the country became an object of defire; it was found

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that furs were things very much wanted in England; the ladies edged fome of their cloaths with furs, and muffs were worn both by gentlemen and ladies. In fhort, furs were found indifpenfably neceffary for the happiness of the ftate; and the king was confequently petitioned to grant not only the country of Canada, but all the savages belonging to it, to the fubjects of England, in order to have the people fupplied with proper quantities of this neceffary commodity.

So very reafonable a requeft was immediately complied with, and large colonies were fent abroad to procure furs, and take poffeffion. The French, who were equally in want of furs (for they were as fond of muffs and tippets as the English), made the very fame requeft to their monarch, and met with the fame gracious reception from their king, who generously granted what was not his to give. Wherever the French landed, they called the country their own; and the English took poffeffion wherever they came upon the fame equitable pretenfions. The harmless favages made no oppofition; and, could the intruders have agreed together, they might peaceably have fhared this defolate country between them. But they quarrelled about the boundaries of their fettlements, about grounds and rivers to which neither fide could fhew any other right than that of power, and which neither could occupy but by ufurpation. Such is the conteft, that no honeft man can heartily with fuccefs to either party.

The war has continued for fome time with various fuccefs. At firft the French feemed victorious; but the English have of late difpoffeffed them of the whole country in difpute. Think not, however, that fuccefs on one fide is the harbinger of peace: on the contrary, both parties muft be heartily tired to effect even a temporary reconciliation. It should

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feem the business of the victorious party to offer terms of peace; but there are many in England, who encouraged by fuccefs, are for ftill protracting the war.

The best English politicians, however, are fenfible that to keep their prefent conquefts, would be rather a burthen than an advantage to them; rather a diminution of their ftrength than an encrease of power. It is in the politic as in the human constitution; if the limbs grow too large for the body, their fize, instead of improving, will diminish the vigour of the whole. The colonies fhould always bear an exact proportion to the mother country; when they grow populous, they grow powerful, and by becoming powerful, they become independent alfo; thus fubordination is deftroyed, and a country fwallowed up in the extent of its own dominions. The Turkish empire would be more formidable, were it lefs extenfive; were it not for thofe countries, which it can neither command, nor give entirely away; which it is obliged to protect, but from which it has no power to exact obedience.

Yet, obvious as thefe truths are, there are many Englishmen who are for tranfplanting new colonies into this late acquifition, for peopling the defarts of America with the refufe of their countrymen, and (as they exprefs it) with the wafte of an exuberant nation. But who are thofe unhappy creatures who are to be thus drained away? not the fickly, for they are unwelcome guests abroad as well as at home; nor the idle, for they would ftarve as well behind the Applachian mountains as in the streets of London. This refuse is compofed of the laborious and enterprifing, of fuch men as can be ferviceable to their country at home; of men who ought to be regarded as the finews of the people, and cherished with every degree of political indulgence. And what are the commodities which this colony, when established,

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are to produce in return? why raw filk, hemp, and tobacco. England, therefore, muft make an exchange of her beft and braveft fubjects for raw filk, hemp, and tobacco; her hardy veterans and honeft tradefmen must be trucked for a box of fnuff or a filk petticoat. Strange abfurdity! Sure the politics of the Daures are not more ftrange, who fell their religion, their wives, and their liberty, for a glafs bead, or a paltry penknife. Farewell.

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THE English love their wives with much paffion, the Hollanders with much prudence; the English, when they give their hands, frequently give their hearts; the Dutch give the hand, but keep the heart wifely in their own poffeffion. The English love with violence, and expect violent love in return; the Dutch are fatisfied with the flightest acknowledgements, for they give little away. The English expend many of the matrimonial comforts in the first year; the Dutch frugally hufband out their pleafures, and are always conftant because they are always indifferent.

There feems very little difference between a Dutch bridegroom and a Dutch husband. Both are equally poffeffed of the fame cool unexpecting ferenity; they can fee neither Elyfium nor Paradife behind the curtain; and riffrow is not more a goddess on the wedding-night than after twenty years matrimonial acquaintance. On the other hand, many of the English marry in order to have one happy month in their

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