liberty to reject a money bill brought in by the Commons, but they are not allow'd to alter any thing in it, and must either pass or throw it out without - restriction. When the bill has pass'd the Lords, and is figned by the King, then the whole nation pays, every one in proportion to his revenue or eftate, not according to his title, which would be abfurd. There is no fuch thing as an arbitrary fubfidy or poll-tax, but a real tax on the lands, of all which an eftimate was made in the reign of the famons King William the third.

THE Land-tax continues ftill upon the fame foot, tho' the revenue of the lands is increas'd. Thus no one is tyranniz'd over, and every one is eafy. The feet of the peasants are not bruifed with wooden fhoes; they eat white bread, are well clothed, and are not afraid of increasing their stock of cattle, nor of tiling their houses, from any apprehenfions that their taxes will be raised the year following. The annual income of the eftates of a great many Commoners in England, amounts to two hundred thousand livres ; and yet thefe do not think it beneath them to plough the lands which enrich them, and on which they enjoy their liberty.

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LETTER X.

ΟΝ

TRAD E.

S Trade enrich'd the citizens in Eng

A land, fo it contributed to their free

dom, and this freedom on the other fide extended their commerce, whence arofe the grandeur of the state. Trade rais'd by infenfible degrees the naval power which gives the English a fuperiority over the feas, and they now are Mafters of very near two hundred fhips of war. Pofterity will very poffibly be furprized to hear that an Ifland, whofe only produce is a little lead, tin, fuller's earth, and coarfe wool, fhould become fo powerful by its Commerce, as to be able to fend in 1723, three Fleets at the fame time to three different and far distanced parts of the Globe. One before Gibraltar, conquer'd and still poffeffed by the English;

a

a fecond to Porto Bello, to difpoffefs the King of Spain of the treasures of the WeftIndies; and a third into the Baltick, to prevent the northern powers from coming to an engagement.

AT the time when Lewis the fourteenth made all Italy tremble, and that his armies, which had already poffeffed themselves of Savoy and Piedmont, were upon the point of taking Turin; Prince Eugene was obliged to march from the middle of Germany in order to fuccour Savoy. Having no money, without which cities cannot be either taken or defended, he addreffed himself to fome English w Merchants. These, at an hour and half'sirn warning, lent him five millions, whereby he was enabled to deliver Turin, and to beat the French; after which he wrote the following fhort letter to the perfons who had difburfed him the abovementioned Sums : "Gentlemen, I have re"ceived your money, and flatter my "felf that I have laid it out to your fa"tisfaction." Such a circumftance as this raises a juft pride in an English Merchant, and makes him prefume (not without fome reafon) to compare himfelf to a Roman Citizen; and indeed a Peer's brother does not think traffic beneath him. When the Lord Townshend was minifter of ftate, a brother of his

was content to be a city merchant; and at the time that the Earl of Oxford governed Great Britain, his younger brother was no more than a factor in Aleppo, where he chofe to live, and where he died. This cuftom, which begins however to be laid afide, appears monftrous to Germans, vainly puffed up with their Extraction. These think it morally impoffible that the fon of an English Peer fhould be no more than a rich and powerful citizen, for all are princes in Germany. There have been thirty highneffes of the fame name, all whofe patrimony confifted only in their efcutcheons and their pride.

IN France the title of marquis is given gratis to any one who will accept of it; and whofoever arrives at Paris from the midst of the most remote provinces with money in his purfe, and a name terminating in ac or ille, may ftrut about, and cry, Such a man as Ï! A man of my rank and figure! And may look down upon a trader with fovereign contempt; whilft the trader on the other fide, by thus often hearing his profeffion treated fo difdainfully, is fool enough to blush at it. However, I cannot fay which is most useful to a nation, a ford powder'd in the tip of the mode, who knows exactly at what a clock the

king

king rifes and goes to bed; and who gives himself airs of grandeur and state, at the fame time that he is acting the slave in the anti-chamber of a prime minister; or a merchant, who enriches his country, dispatches orders from his compting-houfe to Surat and Grand Cairo, and contributes to the felicity of the World.