An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale.
- George Chalmers
- Date:
- 1782
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![ESTIMATE, &c. Theorists are not agreed with regard to thofe circum-' ftances which form the ftrength of nations, actual or com- parative. One confiders the power of a people “ to confift in their numbers and their indujiry” Another iniifts, “ that the force of every community moft elfentially depends on the capacity, valour, and union, of the leading charaBers of the State.” And a third, adopt- ing the fentiments of both, contends, ** that though numbers and riches are highly important, and though the refources of war, where other advantages are equal, may decide a conteft; yet the refources of war, in hands that cannot employ them, are of little avail; fince manners are as effential as either numbers or wealth.” It is not the purpofe of the prefent inquiry to amufe the fancy with uninftrudive definitions, or to bewilder the judgment with verbal difputations, as unmeaning as they are unprofitable. The glories of the lafi: war have call: a continued ridicule on the far-famed miimator of the Manners and Principles of his Pimes [1756.] And we may find reafon in our progrefs to conclude, that the qualities of the mind, either vigorous or effeminate, belonging to the inhabi- tants of this illand, have undergone little change from the epoch of the Revolution to the rife of thefe eventful times. Documents have been drawn from no common fources, to enable the reader to determine with refpedl to objects, by all confidered as of the greatefi: confequence to the political greatnefs of the nation the progreflive numbers of the people, the extent of their indufiry, and the fuc- ceffive amount of their traffic and their wealth. But let us, from general remark, defcend to minute invefiiga- tion. The infult offered to the fovereignty of England, by giv- ing an afylum to an abdicated monarch, and by difputing the right of a high-minded nation to regulate its own affairs, forced King William into an eight-years war with France. Prefied thus by neceffity, he could not weigh in very fcrupulous fcales the wealth of his fubjedts againft the fuperior opulence of his' too potent rival. Yet, animated by his charadteriftic magnanimity, fo worthy of imitation, and fupported by the zeal of a people whofe refources were not then equ^l to their ardour and braverv, he engaged in an arduous difpute for the moft honourable end; the vindication of the independence of a great kingdom. We B may](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28757671_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
