(L.) —— —— ——
While Luxury Employ’d a Million of the Poor,&c. : Page 10.
Line 12.
IF every
thing is to be Luxury (as in strictness it ought) that
is not immediately necessary to make Man subsist as he
is a living Creature, there is nothing else to be
found in the World, no not even among the naked
Savages; of which it is not probable that there are
any but what by this time have made some Improvements
upon their former manner of Living; and either in the
Preparation of their Eatables, the ordering of their
Huts, or otherwise, added something to what once
sufficed them. This Definition every body will say is
too rigorous; I am of the same Opinion; but if we are
to abate one Inch of this Severity, I am afraid we
shan’t know where to stop. When People tell us they
only desire to keep themselves sweet and clean, there
is no understanding what they would be at; if they
made use of these Words in their genuine proper
literal Sense, they might soon be satisfy’d without
much cost or trouble, if they did not want Water: But
these two little Adjectives are so comprehensive,
especially in the Dialect of some Ladies, that no body
can guess how far they may be stretcht. The Comforts
of Life are likewise so various and extensive, that no
body can tell what People mean by them, except he
knows what sort of Life they lead. The same obscurity
I observe in the words Decency and Conveniency, and I
never understand them unless I am acquainted with the
Quality of the Persons that make use of them. People
may go to Church together, and be all of one Mind as
much as they please, I am apt to believe that when
they pray for their daily Bread, the Bishop includes
several things in that Petition which the Sexton does
not think on.
By what I have said hitherto I would only shew, that
if once we depart from calling every thing Luxury that
is not absolutely necessary to keep a Man alive, that
then there is no Luxury at all; for if the wants of
Men are innumerable, then what ought to supply them
has no bounds; what is call’d superfluous to some
degree of People, will be thought requisite to those
of higher Quality; and neither the World nor the Skill
of Man can produce any thing so curious or
extravagant, but some most Gracious Sovereign or
other, if it either eases or diverts him, will reckon
it among the Necessaries of Life; not meaning every
Body’s Life, but that of his Sacred Person.
It is a receiv’d Notion, that Luxury is as
destructive to the Wealth of the whole Body Politic,
as it is to that of every individual Person who is
guilty of it, and that a National Frugality enriches a
Country in the same manner as that which is less
general increases the Estates of private Families. I confess,
that tho’ I have found Men of much better
Understanding than my self of this Opinion, I cannot
help dissenting from them in this Point. They argue
thus: We send, say they, for Example to Turkey
of Woollen Manufactury, and other things of our own
Growth, a Million’s worth every
Year; for this we bring back Silk, Mohair, Drugs, &c.
to the value of Twelve Hundred Thousand Pounds, that
are all spent in our own Country. By this, say they,
we get nothing; but if most of us would be content
with our own Growth, and so consume but half the
quantity of those Foreign Commodities, then those in Turkey,
who would still want the same quantity of our
Manufactures, would be forc’d to pay ready Money for
the rest, and so by the Balance of that Trade only,
the Nation should get Six Hundred Thousand Pounds per
Annum.
To examine the force of this Argument, we’ll suppose
(what they would have) that but half the Silk, &c.
shall be consumed in England of what there is
now; we’ll suppose likewise, that those in Turkey,
tho’ we refuse to buy above half as much of their
Commodities as we used to do, either can or will not
be without the same quantity of our Manufactures they
had before, and that they’ll pay the Balance in Money;
that is to say, that they shall give us as much Gold
or Silver, as the value of what they buy from us
exceeds the value of what we buy from them. Tho’ what
we suppose might perhaps be done for one Year, it is
impossible it should last: Buying is Bartering, and no
Nation can buy Goods of others that has none of her
own to purchase them with. Spain and
Portugal, that are yearly supply’d with new Gold
and Silver from their Mines, may for ever buy for
ready Money as long as their yearly increase of Gold
or Silver continues, but then Money is their Growth
and the Commodity of the Country. We know that we
could not continue long to purchase the Goods of other
Nations, if they would not take our Manufactures in
Payment for them; and why should we judge otherwise of
other Nations? If those in Turkey then had no
more Money fall from the Skies than we, let us see
what would be the consequence of what we supposed. The
Six Hundred Thousand Pounds in Silk, Mohair, &c.
that are left upon their Hands the first Year, must
make those Commodities fall considerably: Of this the
Dutch and French will reap the Benefit as much as
our selves; and if we continue to refuse taking their
Commodities in Payment for our Manufactures, they can
Trade no longer with us, but must content themselves
with buying what they want of such Nations as are
willing to take what we refuse, tho’ their Goods are
much worse than ours, and thus our Commerce with Turkey
must in few Years be infallibly lost.
But they’ll say, perhaps, that to prevent the ill
consequence I have shew’d, we shall take the Turkish
Merchandizes as formerly, and only be so frugal as
to consume but half the quantity of them our selves,
and send the rest Abroad to be sold to others. Let us
see what this will do, and whether it will enrich the
Nation by the balance of that Trade with Six Hundred
Thousand Pounds. In the first Place, I’ll grant them
that our People at Home making use of so much more of
our own Manufactures, those who were employ’d in Silk,
Mohair, &c. will get a living by the
various Preparations of Woollen Goods. But in the
second, I cannot allow that the Goods can be sold as
formerly; for suppose the Half that is wore at Home to
be sold at the same Rate as before, certainly the
other Half that is sent Abroad will want very much of
it: For we must send those Goods to Markets already
supply’d; and besides that there must be Freight,
Insurance, Provision, and all other Charges deducted,
and the Merchants in general must lose much more by
this Half that is re-shipp’d, than they got by the
Half that is consumed here. For tho’ the Woollen
Manufactures are our own Product, yet they stand the
Merchant that ships them off to Foreign Countries, in
as much as they do the Shopkeeper here that retails
them: so that if the Returns for what he sends Abroad
repay him not what his Goods cost him here, with all
other Charges, till he has the Money and a good
Interest for it in Cash, the Merchant must run out,
and the Upshot would be, that the Merchants in general
finding they lost by the Turkish Commodities
they sent Abroad, would
ship no more of our Manufactures than what would pay
for as much Silk, Mohair, &c. as would be
consumed here. Other Nations would soon find Ways to
supply them with as much as we should send short, and
some where or other to dispose of the Goods we should
refuse: So that all we should get by this Frugality
would be, that those in Turkey would take but
half the Quantity of our Manufactures of what they do
now, while we encourage and wear their Merchandizes,
without which they are not able to purchase ours.
As I have had the Mortification for several Years to
meet with Abundance of sensible People against this
Opinion, and who always thought me wrong in this
Calculation, so I had the Pleasure at last to see the
Wisdom of the Nation fall into the same Sentiments, as
is so manifest from an Act of Parliament made in the
Year 1721, where the
Legislature disobliges a powerful and valuable
Company, and overlooks
very weighty Inconveniences at Home, to promote the
Interest of the Turkey Trade, and not only
encourages the Consumption of Silk and Mohair, but
forces the Subjects on Penalties to make use of them
whether they will or not.
What is laid to the Charge of Luxury besides, is,
that it increases Avarice and Rapine: And where they
are reigning Vices, Offices of the greatest Trust are
bought and sold; the Ministers that should serve the
Publick, both great and small, corrupted, and the
Countries every Moment
in danger of being betray’d to the highest Bidders: And lastly,
that it effeminates and enervates the People, by which
the Nations become an easy Prey to the first Invaders.
These are indeed terrible Things; but what is put to
the Account of Luxury belongs to Male-Administration,
and is the Fault of bad Politicks. Every Government
ought to be thoroughly acquainted with, and stedfastly
to pursue the Interest of the Country. Good
Politicians by dextrous Management, laying heavy
Impositions on some Goods, or totally prohibiting
them, and lowering the Duties on others, may always
turn and divert the Course of Trade which way they
please; and as they’ll ever prefer, if it be equally
considerable, the Commerce with such Countries as can
pay with Money as well as Goods, to those that can
make no Returns for what they buy, but in the
Commodities of their own Growth and Manufactures, so they will
always carefully prevent the Traffick with such
Nations as refuse the Goods of others, and will take
nothing but Money for their own. But above all,
they’ll keep a watchful Eye over the Balance of Trade
in general, and never suffer that all the Foreign
Commodities together, that are imported in one Year,
shall exceed in Value what of their own Growth or
Manufacture is in the same exported to others. Note,
that I speak now of the Interest of those Nations that
have no Gold or Silver of their own Growth, otherwise
this Maxim need not to be so much insisted on.
If what I urg’d last be but diligently look’d after,
and the Imports are never allow’d to be superior to
the Exports, no Nation can ever be impoverish’d by
Foreign Luxury; and they may improve it as much as
they please, if they can but in proportion raise the
Fund of their own that is to purchase it.
Trade is the Principal, but not the only Requisite to
aggrandize a Nation: there are other Things to be
taken care of besides. The Meum and Tuum must be
secur’d, Crimes punish’d, and all other Laws
concerning the Administration of Justice, wisely
contriv’d, and strictly executed. Foreign Affairs must
be likewise prudently manag’d, and the Ministry of
every Nation ought to have a good Intelligence Abroad,
and be well acquainted with the Publick Transactions
of all those Countries, that either by their
Neighbourhood, Strength or Interest, may be hurtful or
beneficial to them, to take the necessary Measures
accordingly, of crossing some and assisting others, as
Policy and the Balance of Power direct. The Multitude
must be aw’d, no Man’s Conscience forc’d, and the
Clergy allow’d no greater Share in State Affairs than
our Saviour has bequeathed them in his Testament.
These are the Arts that lead to worldly Greatness:
what Sovereign Power soever makes a good Use of them,
that has any considerable Nation to govern, whether it
be a Monarchy, a Commonwealth, or a Mixture of both,
can never fail of making it flourish in spight of all
the other Powers upon Earth, and no Luxury or other
Vice is ever able to shake their Constitution.—But
here I expect a full-mouth’d Cry against me; What! has
God never punish’d and destroy’d great Nations for
their Sins? Yes, but not without Means, by infatuating
their Governors, and suffering them to depart from
either all or some of those general Maxims I have
mentioned; and of all the famous States and Empires
the World has had to boast of hitherto, none ever came
to Ruin whose Destruction was not principally owing to
the bad Politicks, Neglects, or Mismanagements of the
Rulers.
There is no doubt but more Health and Vigour is to be
expected among a People, and their Offspring, from
Temperance and Sobriety, than there is from Gluttony
and Drunkenness; yet I confess, that as to Luxury’s
effeminating and enervating a Nation, I have not such
frightful Notions now as I have had formerly. When we
hear or read of Things which we are altogether
Strangers to, they commonly bring to our Imagination
such Ideas of what we have seen, as (according to our
Apprehension) must come the nearest to them: And I
remember, that when I have read of the Luxury of
Persia, Egypt, and other Countries where
it has been a reigning Vice, and that were effeminated
and enervated by it, it has sometimes put me in mind
of the cramming and swilling of ordinary Tradesmen at
a City Feast, and the Beastliness their
over-gorging themselves is often attended with; at
other Times it has made me think on the Distraction of
dissolute Sailors, as I had seen them in Company of
half a dozen lewd Women roaring along with Fiddles
before them; and was I to have been carried into any
of their great Cities, I would have expected to have
found one Third of the People sick a-bed with
Surfeits; another laid up with the Gout, or crippled
by a more ignominious Distemper; and the rest, that
could go without leading, walk along the Streets in
Petticoats.
It is happy for us to have Fear for a Keeper, as
long as our Reason is not strong enough to govern our
Appetites: And I believe that the great Dread I had
more particularly against the Word, to enervate,
and some consequent Thoughts on the Etymology of it,
did me Abundance of Good when I was a Schoolboy: But
since I have seen something of the World, the
Consequences of Luxury to a Nation seem not so
dreadful to me as they did. As long as Men have the
same Appetites, the same Vices will remain. In all
large Societies, some will love Whoring and others
Drinking. The Lustful that can get no handsome clean
Women, will content themselves with dirty Drabs; and
those that cannot purchase true Hermitage or Pontack,
will be glad of more ordinary French Claret.
Those that can’t reach Wine, take up with worse Liquors, and
a Foot Soldier or a Beggar may make himself as drunk
with Stale-Beer or Malt-Spirits, as a Lord with Burgundy,
Champaign or Tockay. The cheapest
and most slovenly way of indulging our Pas-sions ,
does as much Mischief to a Man’s Constitution, as the
most elegant and expensive.
The greatest Excesses of Luxury are shewn in Buildings,
Furniture, Equipages and Clothes: Clean Linen weakens
a Man no more than Flannel; Tapistry, fine Painting or
good Wainscot are no more unwholesom than bare Walls;
and a rich Couch, or a gilt Chariot are no more
enervating than the cold Floor or a Country Cart. The
refin’d Pleasures of Men of Sense are seldom injurious
to their Constitution, and there are many great
Epicures that will refuse to eat or drink more than
their Heads or Stomachs can bear. Sensual People may
take as great Care of themselves as any: and the
Errors of the most viciously luxurious, don’t so much
consist in the frequent Repetitions of their Lewdness,
and their Eating and Drinking too much, (which are the
Things which would most enervate them) as they do in
the operose Contrivances, the Profuseness and Nicety
they are serv’d with, and the vast Expence they are at
in their Tables and Amours.
But let us once suppose that the Ease and Pleasures
the Grandees and the rich People of every great Nation
live in, render them unfit to endure Hardships, and
undergo the Toils of War. I’ll allow that most of the
Common Council of the City would make but very
in-different Foot-Soldiers; and I believe heartily,
that if your Horse was to be compos’d of Aldermen, and
such as most of them are, a small Artillery of Squibs
would be sufficient to rout them. But what have the
Aldermen, the Common-Council, or indeed all People of
any Substance to do with the War, but to pay Taxes?
The Hardships and Fatigues of War that are personally
suffer’d, fall upon them that bear the Brunt of every
Thing, the meanest Indigent Part of the Nation, the
working slaving People: For how excessive soever the
Plenty and Luxury of a Nation may be, some Body must
do the Work, Houses and Ships must be built,
Merchandizes must be remov’d, and the Ground till’d.
Such a Variety of Labours in every great Nation
require a vast
Multitude, in which there are always loose, idle,
extravagant Fellows enough to spare for an Army; and
those that are robust enough to Hedge and Ditch, Plow
and Thrash, or else not too much enervated to be
Smiths, Carpenters, Sawyers, Cloth-workers, Porters or
Carmen, will always be strong and hardy enough in a
Campaign or two to make good Soldiers, who, where good
Orders are kept, have seldom so much Plenty and
Superfluity come to their Share as to do them any
hurt.
The Mischief then to be fear’d from Luxury among the
People of War, cannot extend it self beyond the
Officers. The greatest of them are either Men of a
very high Birth and Princely Education, or else
extraordinary Parts, and no less Experience; and
whoever is made choice of by a wise Government to
command an Army en chef, should have a
consummate Knowledge in Martial Affairs, Intrepidity to keep him
calm in the midst of Danger, and many other
Qualifications that must be the Work of Time and
Application, on Men of a quick Penetration, a
distinguish’d Genius and a World of Honour. Strong
Sinews and supple Joints are trifling Advantages not
regarded in Persons of their Reach and Grandeur, that
can destroy Cities a-bed, and ruin
whole Countries while they are at Dinner. As they are
most commonly Men of great Age, it would be ridiculous
to expect a hale Constitution and Agility of Limbs
from them: So their Heads be but Active and well
furnished, ’tis no great Matter what the rest of their
Bodies are. If they cannot bear the Fatigue of being
on Horseback, they may ride in Coaches, or be carried
in Litters. Mens Conduct and Sagacity are never the
less for their being Cripples, and the best General
the King of France has now, can hardly crawl
along. Those that
are immediately under the chief Commanders must be
very nigh of the same Abilities, and are generally Men
that have rais’d themselves to those Posts by their
Merit. The other Officers are all of them in their
several Stations obliged to lay out so large a Share
of their Pay in fine Clothes, Accoutrements, and other
things by the Luxury of the Times call’d necessary,
that they can spare but little Money for Debauches;
for as they are advanced and their Salaries rais’d, so
they are likewise forced to increase their Expences
and their Equipages, which as well as every thing
else, must still be proportionable to their Quality:
By which means the greatest Part of them are in a
manner hindred from those Excesses that might be
destructive to Health; while their Luxury thus turn’d
another way serves moreover to heighten their Pride
and Vanity, the greatest Motives to make them behave
themselves like what they would be thought to be. (See
Remark (R.)
There is nothing refines Mankind more than Love and
Honour. Those two Passions are equivalent to many
Virtues, and therefore the greatest Schools of
Breeding and good Manners are Courts and Armies; the
first to
accomplish the Women, the other to polish the Men.
What the generality of Officers among civiliz’d
Nations affect is a perfect Knowledge of the World and
the Rules of Honour; an Air of Frankness, and Humanity
peculiar to Military Men of Experience, and such a
mixture of Modesty and Undauntedness, as may bespeak
them both Courteous and Valiant. Where good Sense is
fashionable, and a genteel Behaviour is in esteem,
Gluttony and Drunkenness can be no reigning Vices.
What Officers of Distinction chiefly aim at is not a
Beastly, but a Splendid way of Living, and the Wishes
of the most Luxurious in their several degrees of
Quality, are to appear handsomely, and excel each
other in Finery of Equipage, Politeness of
Entertainments, and the Reputation of a judicious
Fancy in every thing about them.
But if there should be more dissolute Reprobates
among Officers than there are among Men of other
Professions, which is not true, yet the most debauch’d
of them may be very serviceable, if they have but a
great Share of Honour. It is this that covers and
makes up for a multitude of Defects in them, and it is
this that none (how abandon’d soever they are to
Pleasure) dare pretend to be without. But as there is
no Argument so convincing as Matter of Fact, let us
look back on what so lately happen’d in our two last
Wars with France. How many puny
young Striplings have we had in our Armies, tenderly
Educated, nice in their Dress, and curious in their
Diet, that underwent all manner of Duties with
Gallantry and Chearfulness?
Those that have such dismal Apprehensions of Luxury’s
enervating and effeminating People, might in Flanders
and Spain have seen embroider’d Beaux with
fine lac’d Shirts and powder’d Wigs stand as much
Fire, and lead up to the Mouth of a Cannon, with as
little Concern as it was possible for the most
stinking Slovens to have done in their own Hair, tho’
it had not been comb’d in a Month; and met with
abundance of wild Rakes, who had actually impair’d
their Healths, and broke their Constitutions with
Excesses of Wine and Women, that yet behav’d
themselves with Conduct and Bravery against their
Enemies. Robustness is the least Thing requir’d in an
Officer, and if sometimes Strength is of use, a firm
Resolution of Mind, which the Hopes of Preferment,
Emulation, and the Love of Glory inspire them with,
will at a Push supply the Place of bodily Force.
Those that understand their Business, and have a
sufficient Sense of Honour, as soon as they are used
to Danger will always be capable Officers: And their
Luxury, as long as they spend no Body’s Money but
their own, will never be prejudicial to a Nation.
By all which I think I have proved what I design’d in
this Remark on Luxury. First, That in one Sense every
Thing may be call’d so, and in another there is no
such Thing. Secondly, That with a wise Administration
all People may swim in as much Foreign Luxury as their
Product can purchase, without being impoverish’d by
it. And Lastly, That where Military Affairs are taken
care of as they ought, and the Soldiers well paid and
kept in good Discipline, a wealthy Nation may live in
all the Ease and Plenty imaginable; and in many Parts
of it, shew as much Pomp and Delicacy, as Human Wit
can invent, and at the same Time be formidable to
their Neighbours, and come up to the Character of the
Bees in the Fable, of which I said, That
Flatter’d in Peace,
and fear’d in Wars,
They were th’ Esteem of
Foreigners,
And lavish of their Wealth and Lives,
The Balance of all other Hives.
(See what is farther said
concerning Luxury in the Remarks (M.)
and (Q).