After what we have just seen, you will probably be
surprised to learn that the quantity of silk imported during the war has
been much greater than it was previously in peace; and yet we must all
remember, to our mortification, that several of our silk ships fell a
prey to Citizen Admiral Richery. You will hardly expect me to go through
the tape and thread, and all the other small wares of haberdashery and
millinery to be gleaned up among our imports. But I shall make one
observation, and with great satisfaction, respecting them. They
gradually diminish, as our own manufactures of the same description
spread into their places; while the account of ornamental articles which
our country does not produce, and we cannot wish it to produce,
continues, upon the whole, to rise, in spite of all the caprices of
fancy and fashion. Of this kind are the different furs[47] used for
muffs, trimmings, and linings, which, as the chief of the kind, I shall
particularize. You will find them below.
The diversions of the higher classes form another and the only
remaining head of inquiry into their expenses: I mean those diversions
which distinguish the country and the town life,--which are visible and
tangible to the statesman,--which have some public measure and standard.
And here, when, I look to the report of your committee, I, for the first
time, perceive a failure. It is clearly so. Whichever way I reckon the
four years of peace, the old tax on the sports of the field has
certainly proved deficient since the war.
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