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Greater Hand, and I must remem"ber I am to confine my self to that "Part of their Character which re❝lates to the present Work.

My Lord Halifax was the Support and very Spirit of the Paper "called the British Merchant: He encouraged the Gentlemen concerned to meet, heard and affifted their De"bates; and being zealous above all things that the Trade of Great Bri"tain Thould flourish, he not only " continued his Influence and Advice << to the laft, but out of his ufual and "unbounded Liberality contributed very largely to this Work; a confi. "derable Sum being rais'd to carry it

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on.

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My Lord Stanhope, equally fenfi"ble of the Benefit Great Britain re"'ceived from foreign Commerce, "neglected no Opportunity of improving or defending it; and when ἐσ our Trade was just expiring in the "late Reign, General Stanhope came "into the House of Commons, as a "Vote was ready to pafs for taking Vol. I.

a

"off

"off the Duties on French Wines for two Months, by which our Treaty "with Portugal would have been inસ્પંદ ftantly broken, by which we should "have loft above a Million Sterling

per Ann. and have reduced feveral "hundred thoufand Families to the "Parish for Subfiftence. But he op

pofed the Vote, began the De"bate, and brought them to con"fent that our Merchants fhould "first be heard before it paffed. "Alas! He is gone! gone at a "time when his dear Country wanted "him more than ever, more than

even in her foreign Wars, or her "civil Difcords, when the called "aloud to him for help to fave her, to fave her from her felf, from "her own injurious Children. "have but one Word more: May it

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eternally be remembred to the Im"mortal Honour of Earl Stanhope, "that he died poorer in the King's "Service than he came into it. Walfingham, the Great Walfingham died poor, but the Great Stanhope lived

"in the time of South-Sea Temptati

ons.

"If this little Votive Table which "I have endeavoured to erect in Me<< mory of these Great Names, fhould "only ftand a Monument of my own " Infufficiency, I hope the benevo"lent Reader will forgive me, when "he fhall confider, that this Image, 66 mean as it is, may awaken his De❝votion; and as my Errors can be "only those of Weakness and Super"ftition, they are in this place at least "the Children of Gratitude and Piety.

The Trade of this Nation can never want innumerable Patrons, did our Countreymen but confider, like these two great Men, that fhe can be only truly Great and Powerful by Trade and Industry. All antient Kingdoms and States knew that Commerce was the very Axis of their Power; and we now see the Difference between those Countries that have Commerce and those that have none. I muft there

a 2

therefore ftep back to the earliest Accounts of Trade, and fhew how it has been courted, and the Confequences of it, in all times down to the present Age, and that Great Britain is more capable of it, from its Situation, its great Variety of Products, its Harbours, and its Merchants, than any Country in the World.

The Phenicians were the firft People we hear of, who applied themfelves earnestly to Trade; they frequented all the Ports of the Mediterranean; and having gained great experience in Navigation, they ventur'd into the Ocean, and fent their Ships as far as Cornwall to fetch Tin: in procefs of time they grew very populous and opulent, and Tyre their capital City was the grand Magazine of

those times.

The Carthaginians, a Colony of the Phenicians, did not forget the Arts of Trade they had learned amongst their Progenitors; but soon after they had built their City,and fecur'd themselves against the Invafions of their Neigh

bours,

bours, they try'd their Fortune at Sea, and fucceeded fo well therein, that having got immense Riches by their Traffick, they were able to fit out large Fleets, and maintain numerous Armies; and if the factious Humour of their Senators, and the Envy they bore to their Generals, had not prevail'd amongst them, and ftopt their Progress, they had bid fair for the Empire of the World. The Carthaginians knew fo well the Advantage of Trade, and were fuch Lovers of it, that rather than remove Landward, and from the Sea, they chose to see their City deftroy'd, and to perish in its Ruins.

The Athenians and the Rhodians were also very famous Traders in those antient 1mes: The firft had once accumulated so much Wealth and Shipping, that they became the Terror of Greece, and rais'd Tribute in all the Islands of the Egean Sea, and on all the Coafts of the leffer Afia.

The Rhodians, tho perhaps they got more Money by their Traffick than a 3

the