can be obtained; and are apt to ascribe their disappointment to treachery. Thus the peace of Utrecht, and that of Aix la Chapelle, were said in England to have been influenced by French gold, and in France, by English guineas. Even the last peace, the most advantageous and glorious for England that ever she made, was, you may remember, violently decried, and the makers as violently abused. So that the blessing promised to peace-makers, I fancy, relates to the next world, for in this they seem to have a greater chance of being cursed. And as another text observes that "in the multitude of counsellors there is safety," which I think may mean safety to the counsellors, as well as to the counselled, because if they commit a fault in counselling, the blame does not fall on one or a few, but is divided among many, and the share of each is so much the lighter, or perhaps because when a number of honest men are concerned, the suspicion of their being biassed is weaker, as being more improbable; or because defendit numerus; for all these reasons, but especially for the support your established character of integrity would afford me against the attacks of my enemies, if this treaty takes place, and I am to act in it, I wish for your presence, and for the presence of as many of the commissioners as possible, and I hope you will reconsider and change your resolution.

A PARABLE AGAINST PERSECUTION.

1. And it came to pass after these things that Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun :

2. And behold a man, bowed with age, came from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff.

3. And Abraham rose and met him, and said unto

him, Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early on the morrow, and go on thy way.

4. But the man said, Nay, for I will abide under this tree.

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly: so he turned, and they went into the tent, and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat.

6. And when Abraham saw, that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of heaven and earth?

7. And the man answered and said, I do not worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made to myself a god, which abideth alway in mine house, and provideth me with all things.

8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man, and he arose and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness.

9. And at midnight God called unto Abraham, saying, Abraham, where is the stranger?

10. And Abraham answered and said, Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name, therefore I have driven him out from before my face into the wilderness.

11. And God said, Have I borne with him these hundred ninety and eight years, and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me; and couldst not thou, that art thyself a sinner, bear with him one night?

12. And Abraham said, Let not the anger of the Lord wax hot against his servant; lo, I have sinned; forgive me, I pray thee.

13. And Abraham arose, and went forth into the wilderness, and sought diligently for the man, and found him, and returned with him to the tent; and when he had entreated him kindly, he sent him away on the morrow with gifts.

14. And God spake again unto Abraham, saying, For this thy sin shall thy seed be afflicted four hundred years in a strange land.

15. But for thy repentance will I deliver them; and they shall come forth with power, and with gladness of heart, and with much substance.

THE POOR AND THE RICH.

Much malignant censure have some writers bestowed upon the rich for their luxury and expensive living, while the poor are starving, &c.; not considering that what the rich expend, the labouring poor receive in payment for their labor. It may seem a paradox if I should assert, that our laboring poor do in every year receive the whole revenue of the nation; I mean not only the public revenue, but also the revenue or clear income of all private estates, or a sum equivalent to the whole.-In support of this position I reason thus: the rich do not work for one another. Their habitations, furniture, clothing, carriages, food, ornaments, and every thing, in short, that they or their families use or consume, is the work or produce of the laboring poor, who are and must be continually paid for their labor in producing the same. In these payments the revenues of private estates are expended, for most people live up to their incomes. In clothing or provision for troops, in arms, ammunition, ships, tents, carriages, &c. &c. (every particular the produce

of labor), much of the public revenue is expended. The pay of officers, civil and military, and of the private soldiers and sailors, requires the rest; and they spend that also in paying for what is produced by the laboring poor. I allow that some estates may increase by the owners spending less than their income; but then I conceive that other estates do at the same time diminish, by the owners spending more than their income, so that when the enriched want to buy more land, they easily find lands in the hands of the impoverished, whose necessities oblige them to sell; and thus this difference is equalled. I allow also, that part of the expense of the rich is in foreign produce or manufactures, for producing which the laboring poor of other nations must be paid; but then I say, we must first pay our own labouring poor for an equal quantity of our manufactures or produce to exchange for those foreign productions, or we must pay for them in money, which money not being the natural produce of our country, must first be purchased from abroad, by sending out its value in the produce or manufactures of this country, for which manufactures our laboring poor are to be paid. And indeed if we did not export more than we import, we could have no money at all. I allow farther, that there are middle men, who make a profit, and even get estates, by purchasing the labor of the poor, and selling it at advanced prices to the rich; but then they cannot enjoy the profit, or the incomes of estates, but by spending them in employing and paying our laboring poor, in some shape or other, for the products of industry. Even beggars, pensioners, hospitals, and all that are supported by charity, spend their incomes in the same manner. So that finally, as I said at first,

our laboring poor receive annually the whole of the clear revenues of the nation, and from us they can have no more.

If it be said that their wages are too low, and that they ought to be better paid for their labor, I heartily wish that any means could be fallen upon to do it consistent with their interest and happiness; but as the cheapness of other things is owing to the plenty of those things, so the cheapness of labor is in most cases owing to the multitude of labourers, and to their under-working one another in order to obtain employment. How is this to be remedied? A law might be made to raise their wages; but if our manufactures are too dear, they will not vend abroad, and all that part of employment will fail, unless by fighting and conquering, we compel other nations to buy our goods whether they will or no, which some have been mad enough at times to propose. Among ourselves, unless we give our working people less employment, how can we for what they do pay them higher than we do? Out of what fund is the additional price of labor to be paid, when all our present incomes are, as it were, mortgaged to them? Should they get higher wages, would that make them less poor if in consequence they worked fewer days of the week proportionably? I have said a law might be made to raise their wages; but I doubt much whether it could be executed to any purpose unless another law, now indeed almost obsolete, could at the same time be revived and enforced; a law, I mean, that many have often heard and repeated, but few have ever duly considered. Six days shalt thou labor. This is as positive a part of the commandment, as that which says, the Seventh day thou shalt rest; but we remember