What occasions then so much want and misery? It is the employment of men and women in works, that produce neither the necessaries nor conveniences of life, who, with those who do nothing, consume necessaries raised by the laborious. To explain this.

The first elements of wealth are obtained by labour, from the earth and waters. I have land, and raise corn. With this, if I feed a family that does nothing, my corn will be consumed, and at the end of the year I shall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But if, while I feed them, I employ them, some in spinning, others in making bricks, &c. for building, the value of my corn will be arrested and remain with me, and at the end of the year we may all be better clothed and better lodged. And if, instead of employing a man I feed in making bricks, I employ him in fiddling for me, the corn he eats is gone, and no part of his manufacture remains to augment the wealth and convenience of the family: I shall therefore be the poorer for this fiddling man, unless the rest of my family work more, or eat less, to make up the deficiency he occasions..

Look round the world, and see the millions employed in doing nothing, or in something that amounts to nothing, when the necessaries and conveniences of life are in question. What is the bulk of commerce, for which we fight and destroy each other, but the toil of millions for superfluities, to the great hazard and loss of many lives, by the constant dangers of the sea? How much labor is spent in building and fitting great ships, to go to China and Arabia for tea and coffee, to the West Indies for sugar, to America for tobacco? These things cannot be called the necessaries of life, for our ancestors lived very comfortably without them.

A question may be asked; could all these people now em ployed in raising, making, or carrying superfluities, be subsisted by raising necessaries? I think they might. The world is large, and a great part of it still uncultivated.Many hundred millions of acres in Asia, Africa, and America, are still in a forest, and a great deal even in Europe.

On a hundred acres of this forest a man might become a substantial farmer, and a hundred thousand men, employed in clearing each his hundred acres, would hardly brighten a spot big enough to be visible from the moon, unless with Herschel's telescope; so vast are the regions still in wood,

It is, however, some comfort to reflect, that, upon the whole, the quantity of industry and prudence among mankind exceeds the quantity of idleness and folly. Hence the increase of good buildings, farms cultivated, and popu lous cities filled with wealth, all over Europe, which a few ages since were only to be found on the coasts of the Mediterranean; and this notwithstanding the mad wars continually raging, by which are often destroyed in one year the works of many years peace. So that we may hope the luxury of a few merchants on the coast will not be the ruin of America.

One reflection more, and I will end this long rambling letter. Almost all the parts of our bodies require some expence. The feet demand shoes; the legs stockings; the rest of the body clothing; and the belly a good deal of victuals. Our eyes, though exceedingly useful, ask, when reasonable, only the cheap assistance of spectacles, which could not much impair our finances. But the eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine furniture.

The Rev. Dr. W. Smith, in his eulogium on Dr. Franklin, delivered before the American philosophical society, gives this account of the tollowing production: "In 1744, a Spanish privateer, having entered the Bay of Delaware, ascended as high as Newcastle, to the great terror of the citizens of Philadelphia. On this occasion, Franklin wrote his first political pamphlet called Plain Truth, to exhort his fellow-citizens to the bearing of arms; which laid the foundation of those military associations, which followed, at different times, for the defence of the country."

PLAIN TRUTH;

Or serious Considerations on the present State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania:

BY A TRADESMAN OF PHILADELPHIA.

Gapta urbe, nihil fit reliqui victis. Sed, per deos immortales, vos ego apello, qui semper domos, villas, signa, tabulas vestras, tantæ æstimationis fecistis; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, quæ amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium præbere vultis; expergismini aliquando, et capessite rempublicam. Non agitur nunc de sociorum injuriis; libertas et anima nostra in dubio est. Dux hostium cum exercitu supra caput est. Vos cunctamini etiam nunc, et dubitatis quid faciatis? Scilicet, res ipsa aspera est, sed vos non timetis Imo vero maxime; sed inertiâ et mollitiâ animi, alius alium expectantes, cunctamini; videlicit, diis immortalibus confişi, qui hanc rempublicam in maximis periculis servavere non votis, neque suppliciis mulieribus, auxilia deorum parantur: vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo, prospere omnia cedunt. Ubi socordiæ tete atque ignaviæ tradideris, nequicquam deos implores; irati, infestique sunt.

eam.

M. POR. CAT. IN SALUST.

IT is said, the wise Italians make this proverbial remark on our nation, viz. The English feel, but they do not see. That is, they are sensible of inconveniences when they are present, but do not take sufficient care to prevent them: their natural courage makes them too little apprehensive of danger, so that they are often surprised by it, unprovided of the proper means of security. When it is too late, they are sensible of their imprudence; after great fires, they provide buckets and engines: after a pestilence, they think of keeping clean their streets and common sewers: and when a town has been sacked by their enemies, they provide for its defence, &c. This kind of after-wisdom is indeed so common with us, as to occasion the vulgar, though very insignificant saying, When the steed is stolen, you shut the stable door.

But the more insensible we generally are of public danger and indifferent when warned of it, so much the more freely, openly, and earnestly, ought such as apprehend it to speak their sentiments; that, if possible, those who seem to sleep may be awakened, to think of some means of avoiding or preventing the mischief, before it be too late.

Believing therefore, that it is my duty, I shall honestly speak my mind in the following paper,

War, at this time, rages over a great part of the known world; our newspapers are weekly filled with fresh accounts. of the destruction it every where occasions. Pennsylvania, indeed, situate in the centre of the colonies, has hitherto enjoyed profound repose; and though our nation is engaged in a bloody war, with two great and powerful kingdoms, yet, defended, in a great degree, from the French, on the one hand, by the northern provinces, and from the Spaniards, on the other, by the southern, at no small expence to each, our people have, till lately, slept securely in their habitations.

There is no British colony, excepting this, but has made some kind of provision for its defence; many of them have therefore never been attempted by an enemy; and others, that were attacked, have generally defended themselves with success. The length and difficulty of our bay and river have been thought so effectual a security to us, that hitherto no means have been entered into, that might discourage an attempt upon us, or prevent its succeeding.

But whatever security this might have been while both country and city were poor, and the advantage to be expected scarce worth the hazard of an attempt, it is now doubted, whether we can any longer safely depend upon it. Our wealth, of late years much encreased, is one strong temptation, our defenceless state another, to induce an enemy to attack us; while the acquaintance they have lately gained with our bay and river, by means of the prisoners and flags of truce they have had among us; by spies which they almost every where maintain, and perhaps from traitors among ourselves; with the facility of getting pilots to conduct them; and the known absence of ships of war, during the greatest part of the year, from both Virginia. and New York, ever since the war began, render the appearance of success to the enemy far more promising, and therefore highly encrease our danger.

That our enemies may have spies abroad, and some even in these colonies, will not be made much doubt of, when it is considered, that such has been the practice of all nations

in all ages, whenever they were engaged, or intended to engage, in war. Of this we have an early example in the book of Judges (too pertinent to our case, and therefore I must beg leave a little to enlarge upon it) where we are told, Chap. xviii, v. 2. That the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts to spie out the land, and search it, saying, Go, search the land. These Danites it seems were at this time not very orthodox in their religion, and their spies met with a certain idolatrous priest of their own persuasion, v. 3, and they said, to him, Who brought thee hither? What makest thou in this place? And what hast thou here? [Would to God no such priests were to be found among us.] And they said unto him, v. 5.— Ask counsel of God, that we may know, whether our way which we go shall be prosperous: and the priest said unto them, Go in peace; before the Lord is your way wherein you go. [Are there no priests among us, think you, that might, in the like case, give an enemy as good encouragement? It is well known, that we have numbers of the same religion with those, who of late encouraged the French to invade our mother country.] And they came, verse 7, to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt CARELESS, after the manner af the Zidonians, QUIET and SECURE. They thought themselves secure, no doubt; and as they never had been disturbed, vainly imagined they never should. It is not unlikely, that some might see the danger they were exposed to by living in that careless manner; but that, if these publicly expressed their apprehensions, the rest reproached them as timorous persons, wanting courage or confidence in their gods, who (they might say) had hitherto protected them. But the spies, verse 8, returned, and said to their countrymen, verse 9, Arise, that we may go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good! And are ye still? Be not slothful to go. Verse 10, when ye go, ye shall come to a people SECURE: [that is, a people that apprehend no danger, and therefore have made no provision against it; great encouragement this!] and to a large land, and a place where there is no want of any thing.