The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-19 00:00:00

CAN A NATION BE TOO RICH.

I cannot answer that question without dis-
tinguishing between a people and a. State. A
State cannot have more wealtlrat..its-cornmand
than may be employed for the general good, a
liberal expenditure in national works being one
of the surest means of promoting national pro-
sperity, and the benefit being still more evident
of an expenditure directed to the purposes of na-
tional improvement. But a people may be too
rich; because it is the tendency of the commer-
cial, and more especially the manufacturing sys-
tem, to collect wealth rathpr than to (Mime it.
Where wealth is successfully employed in any
of the speculations of trade, its increase is in
proportion to its amount ; great capitalists be
come like pikes in a fish-pond, who devour
the weaker fish ; and it is but. too certain, that
the poverty of one part of the people seams to in-
crease in the same ratio as the riches of another.
There are examples of this in history. In Por-
tugal, when the high tide of wealth flowed in
from the conquests in Africa and the East, the
effect of that great influx was not more visible
in the augmented splendour of the court, and
the luxury of the higher ranks, than in the dis-
tress of the people, But different causes are in
operation at this time, and they are likely to be
inore permanent and more pernicious. Com-
merce and manufactures, nearly as they are con-
nected, differ widely in their effects upon so-
ciety, The former, it cannot be denied, has
produced enormous evils when it has been asso-
ciated with schemes of conquest and usurpa-
tion ; but this is no natural .association.—

Its kiatural operations are wholly beneficial,
binding nations to nations and man to man.
How opposite the manufacturing system is in its
tieutioncy must be manifest to all who see things
as theyare, and not through the delusive medium
of their own theories and prepossessions. We
are not accustomed to class the mercantile pro-
fession among the liberal one; and yet it ought
to be classed among the most liberal, as being
that which, when properly and wisely exercised,
requires the most general knowledge, and :AAA.;
the fairest opportunities for acquiring and en-
larging it. There is nothing in its practice
which tends to contract the mind, to sophisticate
the understanding, 07 to corrupt the feeKngs.
The evil in that profession is, that men are
temltedbythehopeofgreatprizesto vadue risks;
the spirit of enterprise is allowee, to pass the
bounds of prudence and of pr'aiciple., and then
the merchant becomes, in fact-, a gamester. Ex-
amples of this become r.iore frequent as the
habits of life become mote emulously expensive.
But the ordinaly and natural consequences of
• -
commerce are every tray beneficial; they are hu-
manizing, civilizing, liberalizing; if it be for the
purposes of gain that it compasses sea and. land,
it carries with it industry, activity, and improve-
ment. Whereas the immediate and home effect
of the manufacturing tiystem, carried qn o,s it now
is upon the great sale, produce physical
and moral evil in proportion to tine wealth which
creates,—Southeys Progret .and Prospects
of Societ.y, •