and all other goods, wares and merchandifes not enumerated, be prohibited, and fuch articles feized and forfeited, together with every of the ́above enumerated articles, if the fame fhall not have been imported by the route or communication aforefaid.'

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As a further embatraffment of our trade, Great-Britain, in direct violation of the treaty of 1783, in which it was agreed, That his Britanic Majefty fhall, with all convenient fpeed, withdraw all his armies, garrifons and fleets, from the United States, and from every poft, place and harbour within the fame,' ftill re ains our northern pofts, and thereby effectually deprives us of the large profits a ifing from the fur trade.

This view of the prefent embariaffed ftate of our internal and foreign trade, points out the abfolute need we have of a government, invefted with powers adequate to the formation and execution of such a system of commercial regulations as will enable us to meet the oppofers of our trade upon their own ground; a fyftem which will render us refpectable at home and a broad; which will place our commerce upon a uniform and intelligible footing, and promote the general interefts of the union, with the finalleft injury to the interefts of individual states. Such a fyftem may be hoped for, and rationally expected as one happy confequence of the newly established Fœderal Government.

Our good and faithful allies and friends, the French, have been more liberal in their policy. In the arret, paffed in council December 29, 1787, for encouraging the commerce of France with the United States of America, it is ordained, That whale oil and fpermaceti, the produce of the fisheries of the United States, brought directly into France in French or American bottoms, fhall be fubject to a duty only of feven livres ten fols (equal to fix fhillings and three-pence fterling,) the barrel of five hundred and twenty weight; and whale fins fhall be fubject to a duty of only fix livres thirteen fols and four deniers (equal to five fhillings and fix-pence half-penny, the quintal, with ten fols per livre on each of the faid duties which ten fols per livre fhall ceafe on the last day of December, 1790.

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The other fish oils and dry falted fish produced and imported as aforefaid, are not liable to pay any other or greater duties, than the most favoured nations are or shall be subject to in the fame cafe.

Corn, wheat, rye, rice, peas beans, lentils, flax-feed and other feeds, flour, trees and flirubs, pot and pearl-afhes, fkins, and fur of beaver, raw hides furs and peltry, and timber carried from the United States to France in French or American bottoms are fubject to a duty of one eight per cent on their value. Veffels, proved to have been built in the United States, and fold in France, or purchafed by Frenchmen, are exempted from duties. Turpentine, tar and pitch, are liable to a duty of two and a half per cent. on their value. Arms may be imported into the United States, in French or American veffels, on paying a duty of one eight per cent on their value; and gunpowder duty free, by giving a cautionary bond. Books and papers of all forts imported as aforefaid, are to be exempted from all duties, and entitled to a reftitution of the fabrication duties on paper and paste-board. Permiffion is given to tore all productions and merchandife of the United States, for fix months, in all the ports of France open to the commerce of her colonies, fubject to a duty only of

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one-eighth per cent. His majefty referves to himself the power of granting encouragement to favor the exportation of arms, hard-ware, jewellery, bonnetry, wool, cotton, coarfe woollens, finall draperies and ftuffs of cotton of all forts, and other merchandize of French fabric, which may be fent to the United States.

As to the other merchandizes not enumerated in this act, imported and exported in French of American veffels, and with refpect to all commercial conventions whatever, his majefty, ordains, That the citizens of the United States enjoy in France, the fame rights, privileges and exemptions, with the fubjects of his majefty; faving what is provided in the ninth article hereof

His majefty grants to the citizens and inhabitants of the United States all the advantages which are enjoyed, or which may be hereafter enjoyed by the most favoured nations in his colonies of America: and moreover his majefty enfures to the faid citizens and inhabitants of the United States all the privileges and advantages which his own fubjects of France enjoy or fhall enjoy in Afia, and in the fcales leading thereto, provided always, that their veffels fhall have been fitted out and dispatched in some port of the United States.'

Such is the state of our commerce with France; on which I would only obferve, that the advantages which might naturally be expected to flow to the United States from their liberal privileges granted in the abovementioned act, are greatly leffened, in confequence of the fame privileges having been granted to all foreigners.

In reviewing our agricultural and commercial advantages, thofe of manufactures must not be overlooked. Though it is confeffed, that the United States have full employment for all their citizens in the extensive field of agriculture, yet fince we have a valuable body of manufacturers already here, and many more will probably emigrate from Europe to enjoy the bleffings of life, in this land of civil and religious liberty; and fince we have fome poor citizens who are unable to make fettlements on our wafte lands, good policy, no doubt, will encourage these men to improve the great natural powers which this country poffeffes, for carrying on the manufacturing bufinefs.

These are the people to be employed in managing those factories which can be carried on by water-mills, wind-mills, fire, horfes, and ingeniously contrived machines; which, as they require but few hands, do not divert

*The article referred to ordains, that The admiralty duties on the veels of the United States entering into, or going out of the ports of France, fhall not be levied but conformably with the edict of the month of June lafl, in the cafes therein provided for, and with the letters patent of the tenth of January, 1770, for the objects for which no provifion fhall have been made by the faid edit: his majesty referving to himself moreover, to make known his intentions as to the manner in which faid duties fhall be levied, whether in proportion to the tonnage of the vessels, or otherwife, as alfo to fimplify the faid duties of the admiralty, and to regulate them as far as fhall be poffible on the principles of reciprocity, as foon as the orders fhall be completed, which were given by his majefty, according to the twenty-fixth article of the faid act of the month of June lat.'

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people from agriculture, and are not burdened with any heavy expence of boarding, loding, cloathing, and paying workmen. By wind and water machines we can make pig and bar iron, hallow ware and cannon shot, nail rods, tire, fheet-iron, fheet-copper, fheet-brafs and sheet-lead, anchors, meal of all kinds, gun-powder, writing, printing, and hanging paper, fnuff, linfeed oil, boards, plank, and fcantling; and they affift us in fishing fcythes, fickles, and woollen cloths. In the European factories, they alfo card, fpin, and weave by water. By means of water likewise, our bleaching and tanning bufinefs are carried on.

Breweries, which we cannot eftimate too highly, diftilleries, falt and pot-afh works, fugar-houses, potteries, cafting and steel furnaces, works for animal and vegetable oils, and refining drugs, fteam engines, and feveral other works, are, or may be carried on by means of that powerful and useful element fire, and be attended with the fame favings, that were particularlized in fpeaking of water machines.

Horfes grind the tanners bark, and potters clay; they work the brewers and distillers pumps; and, by an inventive mind, might be applied as the moving principle of many kinds of mills.

Machines ingeniously constructed will give us immenfe affiftance. The cotton and filk manufacturers in Europe are poffeffed of fome, that are invaluable to them. One inftance has been precisely ascertained, which employs a few hundreds of women and children, and performs the work of TWELVE THOUSAND of carders, fpinners, and winders. They have been fo curiously improved of late years, as to weave the most complicated manufactures. We may certainly borrow fome of their inventions, and may strike out others of the fame nature ourselves; for on the subject of mechanics, America may juftly pride herself.

A very useful machine has lately been invented and made in Connecticut*, for the purpose of cutting and bending wire for card teeth; which will make thirty-fix thousand in an hour. By a small improvement it may be made to cut double that number with equal ease. With this machine,

in its present form, a man, though blind, with a boy to tend the wire, might eafily cut an hundred pounds of wire in a day. Confequently, with the propofed improvemens, they might cut two hundred pounds. The inventor of this, has feveral other useful manufacting machines partly completed.

In fhort, every combination of machinery may be expected from a country, a NATIVE SON † of which, reaching this ineftimable object in its highest point, has epitomised the motions of the fpheres that roll throughout the univerfe.

The advantages which nature has given us for thefe manufactured improvements have not been neglected; but in fome ftates, particularly in Pennsylvania, New-Jerfey, Connecticut, and Maffachusetts, have been lately much improved. Still our manufactures will admit of being further pushed without interfering with the general interefts of commerce

*By Mr. Ebenezer Chittendon, of New Haven, an obfcure mechanic, whofe ingenuity and originality of genius entitle him to public notice and encouragement.

+ David Rittenhouse, Efq; of Pennsylvania.

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or agriculture; provided they are judiciously apportioned to, and encouraged in those states, which from nature, population, and their internal refources, are beft fitted to pursue them to advantage. In Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, where the people, confidering the extenfive territory which they inhabit, are comparatively few, tillage profitable, and provifions dear, muft manufacture to an evident lofs; while the advancement of this business in most of the northern ftates, which are full of inhabitants, and where provifions are cheap, and land dear, will afford the means of fubfiftence to many good citizens, whofe occupations have been rendered unprofitable by the confequences of the revolution. In the former, full fcope may be given to agriculture, leaving the benefits of manufacturing (fo far as they are within our reach) to the latter. The produce of the fouthern ftates might be exchanged for fuch manufactures as can be made by the northern, to mutual advantage.

Some of our manufactories too, are made highly fubfervient to the intereft of agriculture. The workers in leather of every kind, in flax and hemp, in iron, wood, ftone and clay, in furs, horn, and many other articles, employ either the fpontaneous productions of the earth or the fruits of cultivation. Malt liquors too, if generally used, and it is a happy circumstance that they are becoming fashionable, linfeed oil, ftarch, and corn spirits, were they not a poison to our morals and conftitutions, would require more grain to make them than has been exported in any year fince the revolution. And as the grapes are the spontaneous production of all the United States, and by culture might be raifed in any quantities, and in great perfection, particularly in the fouthern ftates, we may not omit to anticipate the time as not far diftant, when we fhall have it in our power to make wines of fuch quality, and in fuch quantities, as to preclude all foreign importations. I cannot omit to obferve here the impolicy, and I may add, immorality of importing and confuming fuch amazing quantities of fpirituous liquors. They impair the eftates, debilitate the bodies, and occafion the ruin of the morals of thousands of the citizens of America. They kill more people than any one disease, perhaps than all diseases befides. It cannot be then but that they are ruinous to our country.

It appears from the best calculations that can be obtained, that in the courfe of the years 1785, 1786, and 1787, TWELVE MILLIONS of dollars were expended by the United States, in purchafing Weft India fpiritous liquors; and perhaps nearly half that fum for fpirits diftilled at home.

The expenditure of this immenfe fum, a fum which would well nigh cancel our whole national debt, so far from benefiting us, has entailed diseases, idleness, poverty, wretchedness and debt on thousands, who might otherwise have been healthy, independant in their circumftances, and happy.

Experience has proved that spiritous liquors, except for certain medicinal ufes, are altogether unneceffary. In the moderate ufe of wine, which is a generous and chearing liquor, and may be plentifully produced in our own country; of beer, which ftrengthens the arm of the labourer without debauching him; of cider, which is wholesome and palatable; and of molasses and water, which has become a fashionable drink, in the

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ufe of these liquors, labourers, and other people who have made the experiment, have been found to enjoy more health and better fpirits than thofe who have made only a moderate ufe of fpiritous liquors. The reafon of this is made obvious by a careful calculation lately made, from which it appears that malt liquors, and feveral of the imported wines, are much more nourishing and cheaper than fpirits. In a pint of beer, or half a pint of Malaga or Teneriffe wine, there is more ftrength than in a quart of rum. The beer and the wine abound with nourishment, whereas the rum has no more nourishment in it than a pound of air. These confiderations point out the utility, may I not add, the neceffity of confining ourfelves to the ufe of our own home made liquors, that in this way we might encourage our own manufactures, promote industry, preferve the morals and lives of our citizens, and fave our country from the enormous annual expence of four millions of dollars.

Another encouragement to promote regular factories of many kinds in fuitable parts of the union, arifes from the heavy charges of bringing European goods into our markets. The merchants commiffions for fhipping, and the fame for felling, coft of packages, cuflom-house papers in Europe, and the fame with a duty of five per cent. here, porterages, freight, infurance, damage, intereft of money, wafte and lofs on exchange; thefe may be rated at twenty-five per cent. on the finest and leaft bulky of our manufactures. This twenty-five per cent. which would be much greater on articles of a more bulky and weighty kind, is a folid premium, operating like a bounty to our manufacturers to encourage their business. This fubftantial advantage over European manufacturers they always must have, fo long as the broad Atlantic divides us.

Thefe are fome of our numerous internal refources and advantages for the encouragement of factories in thofe parts of the union where they can be attended to in perfect confiftency with the higheft interefts of commerce and agriculture.

After having indulged in the enumeration of fome of our manufactural advantages and profpects, which I am fenfible is deviating from the common track of Geographers, whose business it is to relate things as they are, and not to anticipate what they might be, we will now proceed to take a general view of the prefent ftate of our manufactures.

Of the long lift of articles which we now make ourselves, we will mention, meal of all kinds, hips and boats, malt and diftilled liquors, potafh, gunpowder, cordage, loaf-fugar, pafteboard, cards and paper of every kind, books in various languages, fnaff, tobacco, ftarch, cannon, mufquets, anchors, nails, and very many other articles of iron, bricks, tiles, potters ware, mill-ftones, and other ftone work, cabinet work, trunks and Windfor chairs, carriages and harnefs of all kinds, corn-fans, ploughs and many other implements of hafbandry, fadlery and whips, fhoes and boots, leather of various kinds, hofiery, hats and gloves, wearing apparel, coarfe linens, and woollens, and fome cotton goods, linfeed and fish oil, wares of gold, filver, tin, pewter, lead, brafs and copper, bells, clorks and watches, wool and cotton cards, printing types, glafs and ftone ware, candles, foap and feveral other valuable articles. These are tending to greater perfection, and will foon be fold fo cheap as to throw foreign goods of the fame kind entirely out of the market.

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