At another time, the wind was right a-head, à brisk breeze. When we began to beat up against it, a trading sloop was very near us, steering the same course with us. This sloop went through the water a good deal faster than we could: but in the course of two hours beating to windward, we found that the sloop was left behind two feet in three; though it is certain, that if our false keels had not been let down, we could scarcely, in that situation, have advanced one foot for her three.

It is unnecessary to point out to seafaring men the benefits that may be derived from this contrivance in certain circumstances, as these will be very obvious to them.

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

Notwithstanding the many fruitless attempts that have been made to discover a north-west passage into the South Seas, it would seem that this important geographical question is not yet fully decided; for at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, held on the 13th of November last, M. Bauche, first geographer to the king, read a curious memoir concerning the north-west passage. M. de Mendoza, an intelligent captain of a vessel in the service of Spain, charged with the care of former establishments favourable to the marine, has made a careful examination of the archives of several departments: there he has found the relation of a-voyage made in the year 1598, by Lorenzo Herrera de Maldonado. There it appears, that at the entry into David's Straits, north lat. 60 degrees, and 28 of longitude, counting from the first meridian, he turned to the west, leaving Hudson's Bay on the south, and Baffin's Bay on the north. Arrived at lat. 65 and 297, he went towards the north by the Straits of Labrador, till he reached 76 and 278; and finding himself in the Icy Sea, he turned south-west to lat. 60 and 235, where he found a strait which separates Asia from America, by which he entered into the South Sea, which he called the Straits of Anian. This passage ought to be, ac

cording to M. Bauche, between William's Sound and Mount St. Elias. The Russians and Captain Cook have not observed it, because it is very narrow. But it is to be wished, that this important discovery should be verified, which has been overlooked for two centuries, in spite of the attempts which have been made on these coasts. M. Bauche calls this passage the Straits of Ferrer.

POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED.

1. ALL food, or subsistence from mankind, arises from the earth or waters.

2. Necessaries of life that are not foods, and all other conveniences, have their value estimated by the proportion of food consumed while we are employed in procuring them.

3. A small people with a large territory, may subsist on the productions of nature, with no other labour than that of gathering the vegetables and catching the animals.

4. A large people with a small territory, find these insufficient; and, to subsist, must labour the earth, to make it produce greater quantities of vegetable food, suitable to the nourishment of men, and of the animals they intend to eat.

5. From this labour arises a great increase of vegetable and animal food, and of materials for clothing, as flax, wool, silks, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we pay for the labour employed in building our houses, cities, &c. which are therefore only subsistence thus metamorphosed.

6. Manufacturers are only another shape into which so much provisions and subsistence are turned, as were in value equal to the manufacture produced. This appears from hence, that the manufacturer does not, in fact, obtain from the employer, for his labour, more than a mere subsistence, includ

ing raiment, fuel, and shelter; all which derive their value from the provisions consumed in procuring

them.

7. The produce of the earth, thus converted into manufactures, may be more easily carried into distant markets, than before such conversion.

3. Fair commerce is where equal values are exchanged for equal, the expense of transport included. Thus, if it costs A in England, as much labour and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat, A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities to make the exchange. The advantage of this fair commerce is, that each party increases the number of his enjoyments, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and wine.

9. Where the labour and expense of producing both commodities are known to both parties, bargains will generally be fair and equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of ignorance.

10. Thus he that carries a thousand bushels of wheat abroad to sell, may not probably obtain so great a profit thereon, as if he had first turned the wheat into manufactures, by subsisting therewith the workmen while producing those manufactures, since there are many expediting and facilitating methods of working, not generally known, and strangers to the manufactures, though they know pretty well the expense of raising wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of working; and thence, being apt to suppose more labour employed in the manufacture than there really is, are more easily imposed on in their value, and induced to allow more for them than they are honestly worth.

11. Thus the advantage of having manufactures in a country does not consist, as is commonly supposed, in their highly advancing the value of rough materials, of which they are formed; since, though sixpennyworth of flax may be worth twenty shillings

when worked into lace, yet the very cause of its being worth twenty shillings is that, besides the flax, it has cost nineteen shillings and sixpence in subsistence to the manufacturer. But the advantage of manufactures, is, that, under their shape, provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign market; and by their means our traders may more easily cheat strangers. Few, where it is not made, are judges of the value of lace. The importer may demand forty, and perhaps get thirty shillings for that which cost him but twenty.

12. Finally, there seems to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbours; this is robbery.-The second by commerce, which is generally cheating.-The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein a man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground in a kind of continued miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

B. FRANKLIN,

1

PRELIMINARY ADDRESS TO THE PENNSYLVANIA ALA

MANAC, ENTITLED, POOR RICHARD'S AL

MANAC, FOR THE YEAR 1758."

WRITTEN BY DR. FRANKLIN.

I HAVE heard, that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. This pleasure I have seldom enjoyed; for though I have been, if I may say it without vanity, an eminent author (of Almanacs) annually now a full quarter of a century, my brother authors in the same way (for what reason I know not) have ever been very sparing in their applauses; and no other author has taken the least notice of me: so that, did not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me.

I concluded, at length, that the people were the best judges of my merit, for they buy my works; and besides, in my rambles, where I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one or other of my adages repeated, with " as poor Richard says," at the end on't. This gave me some satisfaction, as it showed not only that my instructions were regarded, but discovered likewise some respect for my authority; and I own, that to encourage the practice of remembering and repeating those wise sentences, I have sometimes quoted myself with great gravity.

Judge then how much I have been gratified by an incident which I am going to relate to you. I stopped my horse lately where a great number of people were collected at an auction of merchants' goods. The hour of sale not being come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the company called to a plain, clean, old man, with white Jocks, "Pray, father Abraham, what think ye of the times? Won't these heavy taxes quite ruin the