the day. Therefore it will not be fuitable to the Americans, fo long as that clafs of men, which furnishes these workmen, fhall be able to employ themselves more ufefully for the States, and more in the clearing of lands, and in cultiva nobly A manufacture of woollen ftuffs, proper for the cloathing of the country proprietor, his family and fervants, may, without doubt, be affociated into the labours of the field; but thefe kind of manufactures, although very important in themselves, can only be applied to coarfe and unfinished stuffs. The interrupted leifure of the peasant permits him to do nothing which is complicated. Card, fpin, weave and bleach, is all that he can do.* If it be It would without doubt, be more proper to fay republicanly; but this word (republicainement) does not exist in our language. What of that? It must be created. Thefe words, noble, nobility, nobly, can only give falfe ideas when applied to facts which concern a Republic, because they are always prefented with the bad envelope which the prejudices of monarchies give them, and recall the idea of men or orders fuperior to others, which would make it believed that fuch a distinction existed in a Republic that is founded only upon equality. This reflection confirms what has been faid in another place, upon the neceffity of making a new political and moral vocabulary for the American Republics. * As long as there are lands to be cleared, the leifure which agriculture affords will be very fhort, because every feafon is proper for this employ, except when too great a quantity of snow stops the work. The intervals of leifure become regularly established, when the fyftem of cultivation is fixed, and the foil entirely difpofed thereto. Then undertakings are calculated upon their duration; but in general, fimple work which requires no work fhop, no confi derable apparatus, is that only which agrees with agriculture. ne neceffary for him to go beyond these, he will find a greater advantage in felling his raw materials, or even with their firft preparations, if they be fimple, and to draw from the manufactures, properly fo called, the articles of which he is in need. Therefore the United States have not only need of ftrangers for the cloths which they use, but the more their first steps fhall be wife, reasonable, and calculated according to the state of things, the more the want of foreign cloths will be continued. Now why should not France hope to furnish cloths to the Americans? Our first efforts, badly combined, and the fpecies of difcredit in which our cloths are, ought not to difcourage her. We owe little gratitude to thofe of our fpeculators, who first, and at the beginning of the revolution, difperfed our cloths in the United States. If one fpark of public spirit had animated them, they would have perceived the precious and honourable fervice which they were able to render to their country in these first adventures, by giving to the Americans a great idea of the state of our manufactures. These people were well difpofed by the fuccour France gave them, to cherish its inhabitants, to efteem their character and receive their productions. They were well difpofed to abjure the cone mt and averfion with which the English had infpired them for their rivals and their productions, and to give them the preference in every thing. Why has avarice, by a miferable calcula tion, rendered thefe good difpofitions of no effect? Men were willing to gain, to gain greatly; to make what is called a good stroke, in taking advantage of the diftrefs of the Americans, and forcing them to take thofe commodities, which were unfit for every other market.* This dishonesty has counterbalanced the fervice rendered them; for the imprudent and wretched young man, whose throat is cut by an ufurer, owes him no acknowledgement. A greater evil to France has been the confequence-her cloths have loft their reputation in the United States. But let the Americans undeceive themselves; let them not attribute to the nation, the fault of a few individuals; let them not have a bad opinion of our cloths, because fome bad ones have been fent to them. The fame accident would have happened to English cloths, if in a like cafe, there had been English merchants avaricious enough and fo far ftrangers to the public good, as to fend their refuse to the United States. § The *I do not accuse any body; but I can certify, upon the authority of the moft refpectable eye witneffes, that fome of these outcast cloths fell at the end of fix months wear into shreds. The Americans were fo ftruck by this, that Mr. Laurens, after having received two millions, which France lent to the United States, employed a part of that fum to buy English cloths. Complaints were made, he answered that it was his duty to buy better and cheaper cloths. Without doubt he thereby fulfilled the generous intentions of France. See the obfervations of Lord Sheffield. § English merchants love as well as others to get money, and there are among them those who, for the love of gain would tram ple The Americans who come among us, ftudy the nature of the intercourfe which we shall one day have with the United States; they know that our manufacturers poffefs all the means which give to English cloths their reputation; that they make them in the fame manner, and that the superfines are superior to thofe of England; that in general dying is better understood with us and carried to a greater perfection: in fhort, that it depends but on fome circumftances eafy to be got over, to make the cheapness of our workmanship affure us the preference to the English with refpect to cloths. Why do our manufactures of cloths contend with fo great a disadvantage against thofe of England? It is here neceffary to develope the caufe; it is the fureft means of encouraging government to take every measure, which will, without extraordi ple under foot every patriotic confideration. But the public fpirit of the generality of them puts, in England more than elsewhere, a check upon the fhameful enterprizes of avarice; confequently the greater part of the merchants never abandon the national interefts in their speculations, neither the honor of English commerce, nor the reputation of their manufactures. It is thus they are become the principle agents for furnishing every fpecies of manufacture to the whole world. When it happens that any of them facrifice national reputation to views of private intereft, honeft patriots generally prefer accufations against them before a public tribunal, and then the culprit is not fuffered to anfwer by clandeftine memoirs to public and fubftantiated accufations; this obfcure and cowardly refource is held in too great contempt to be made use of. There remains nothing to the culprit but filence or falfhood; in both cafes he is dishonoured in the opinion of the public, which affects and marks every individual, without refpe&t to rank, power or riches. nary nary or forced expedients that are of fhort dura tion, restore us to all the advantages we have received from nature. Confidence will be reftored to the Americans when they fee the few obftacles we have to furmount. Lord Sheffield, in avowing the fuperiority of our fine cloths, and of their cheapness, obferves, that the greatest confumption of the Americans is of common cloths, with refpect to which France cannot enter into a competition with England. And he draws from it the judicious confequence, that the inconvenience of dividing the demands to compofe affortments, and the confideration of the finall quantity of fine cloth necessary to form them, will cause these to be ordered in England, notwithftanding the advantage there would be in getting them from France. But why fhould we not furnish common cloths to the United States; we, whofe workmanship is at a lower price than that of the English? It is because in common cloths, cheapnefs of the raw material is more effential than that of workmanship, and that the English have wools not only better but cheaper than we have.* And for why? Because they gather their own wool, and that except the wools of Spain indifpenfable to fuperfine cloths, far from standing in need of foreign wools, they *English wool is worth from 14 to 16 fols a pound, and the finest is worth 17 or 18. Note. The author certainly means from 28 to 30 fols. TRANSLATOR. can |