THE FLEECE.

BOOK IV.

ARGUMENT.

OUR manufactures exported. Voyage through the Channel, and by the coast of Spain. View of the Mediterranean. Decay of our Turkey-trade. Address to the factors there. Voyage through the Baltic. The mart of Petersburg. The ancient channels of commerce to the Indies. The modern course thi. ther. Shores of Afric. Reflections on the slave trade. The Cape of Good Hope, and the eastern coast of Afric. Trade to Persia and Indostan precarious, through tyranny and frequent insurrections. Disputes between the French and English, on the coast of Coromandel, censured. A prospect of the SpiceIslands, and of China. Traffic at Canton. Our woollen manu. factures known at Pekin by the caravans from Russia, Description of that journey. Transition to the western hemisphere. Voyage of Raleigh. The state and advantages of our North American colonies. Severe winters in those climates: hence the passage through Hudson's Bay impracticable. Inqui ries for an easier passage into the Pacific Ocean. View of the coasts of South America, and of those tempostuous seas. Lord Anson's expedition, and success against the Spaniards. The na⚫ val power of Britain consistent with the welfare of all nations. View of our probable improvements in traffic, and the distribution of our woollen manufactures over the whole globe.

Now, with our woolly treasures amply stor❜d,
Glide the tall fleets into the widening main,
A floating forest: every sail unfurl'd
Swells to the wind, and gilds the azure sky.

Meantime, in pleasing care, the pilot steers
Steady; with eye intent upon the steel,
Steady before the breeze the pilot steers,
While gaily o'er the waves the mounting prows
Dance, like a shoal of dolphins, and begin
To streak with various paths the hoary deep.
Batavia's shallow sounds by some are sought,
Or sandy Elb or Weser, who receive

The swain's and peasant's toil with grateful hand,
Which copious gives return; while some explore
Deep Finnic gulfs, and a new shore and mart,
The bold creation of that Kesar's power,
Illustrious Peter! whose magnific toils
Repair the distant Caspian, and restore

To trade its ancient ports. Some Thanet's strand,
And Dover's chalky cliff, behind them turn.
Soon sinks away the green and level beach
Of Romney Marish and Rye's silent port,
By angry Neptune clos'd, and Vecta's isle,
Like the pale moon in vapour, faintly bright.
An hundred opening marts are seen, are lost;
Devonia's hills retire, and Edgecombe Mount,
Waving its gloomy groves, delicious scene!
Yet steady o'er the waves they steer; and now
The fluctuating world of waters wide,
In boundless magnitude, around them swells,
O'er whose imaginary brim nor towns,

Nor woods, nor mountain tops, nor aught appears,
But Phœbus' orb, refulgent lamp of light,
Millions of leagues aloft; Heaven's azure vault
Bends over-head, majestic, to its base,

Uninterrupted clear circumference;

Till, rising o'er the flickering waves, the Cape
Of Finisterre, a cloudy spot, appears.

Again, and oft, the' adventrous sails disperse;
These to Iberia, others to the coast

Of Lusitania, the' ancient Pharsis deem'd
Of Solomon; fair regions! with the webs
Of Norwich pleas'd, or those of Manchester;
Light airy clothing for their vacant swains
And visionary monks. We, in return,
Receive Cantabrian steel, and fleeces soft,
Segovian or Castilian, far renown'd;

And gold's attractive metal, pledge of wealth,
Spur of activity, to good or ill

Powerful incentive; or Hesperian fruits,

Fruits of spontaneous growth, the citron bright,
The fig, and orange, and heart-cheering wine.
Those ships, from ocean broad, which voyage
through

The gates of Hercules,* find many seas,
And bays unnumber'd, opening to their keels;
But shores inhospitable oft to fraud

And rapine turn'd, or dreary tracks become
Of desolation. The proud Roman coasts,
Fall'n, like the Punic, to the dashing waves
Resign their ruins. Tiber's boasted flood,
Whose pompous moles o'erlook'd the subject deep,
Now creeps along through brakes and yellow dust,
While Neptune scarce perceives its murmuring rill.
Such are the' effects when Virtue slacks her hand;
Wild Nature back returns. Along these shores
Neglected Trade with difficulty toils,

Collecting slender stores, the sun-dried grape,
Or capers from the rock, that prompt the taste
Of luxury. Ev'n Egypt's fertile strand,

*The Straits of Gibraltar.

Bereft of human discipline, has lost
Its ancient lustre : Alexandria's port,
Once the metropolis of trade, as Tyre
And elder Sidon, as the Attic town,
Beautiful Athens, as rich Corinth, Rhodes,
Unhonour'd droops. Of all the numerous marts
That in those glittering seas with splendour rose,
Only Byzantium, of peculiar site,

Remains in prosperous state, and Tripolis,
And Smyrna, sacred ever to the Muse.

To these resort the delegates of Trade,

Social in life, a virtuous brotherhood,

And bales of softest wool from Bradford looms,
Or Stroud, dispense; yet see with vain regret
Their stores, once highly priz'd, no longer now
Or sought or valued: copious webs arrive,
Smooth woven, of other than Britannia's fleece,
On the throng'd strand alluring: the great skill
Of Gaul, and greater industry, prevails,
That proud imperious foe. Yet, ah—'tis not—
Wrong not the Gaul; it is the foe within
Impairs our ancient marts: it is the bribe;
'Tis he who pours into the shops of trade
That impious poison: it is he who gains
The sacred seat of parliament by means
That vitiate and emasculate the mind;
By sloth, by lewd intemperance, and a scene
Of riot worse than that which ruin'd Rome.
This, this, the Tartar and remote Chinese,
And all the brotherhood of life, bewail.

Meantime, (while those who dare be just oppose
The various powers of many-headed Vice)
Ye delegates of Trade! by patience rise
O'er difficulties: in this sultry clime

THE FLEECE.

Note what is found of use; the flix of goat,
Red wool, and balm, and coffee's berry brown,
Or drooping gum, or opium's lenient drug;
Unnumber'd arts await them; trifles oft,
By skilful labour, rise to high esteem.
Nor what the peasant, near some lucid wave,
Pactolus, Simois, or Mæander slow,

373

Renown'd in story, with his plough up-turns,
Neglect; the hoary medal, and the vase,
Statue, and bust, of old magnificence
Beautiful relics: oh! could modern time
Restore the mimic art, and the clear mein
Of patriot sages, Walsinghams and Yorkes,
And Cecils, in long-lasting stone preserve!
But mimic art and nature are impair'd—
Impair'd they seem-or in a varied dress
Delude our eyes: the world in change delights:
Change then your searches, with the varied modes
And wants of realms. Sabæan frankincense
Rare is collected now: few altars smoke
Now in the idol fane: Panchaia views

Trade's busy fleets regardless pass her coast:
Nor frequent are the freights of snow-white woofs
Since Rome, no more the mistress of the world,
Varies her garb, and treads her darken'd streets
With gloomy cowl, majestical no more.

See the dark spirit of tyrannic power!
The Thracian channel, long the road of trade
To the deep Euxine and its naval streams,
And the Mootis, now is barr'd with chains,
And forts of hostile battlement. In aught
That joys mankind the arbitrary Turk
Delights not insolent of rule, he spreads
Thraldom and desolation o'er his realms.-
VOL. XIX.
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