And the fourth and last is
still different: they describe the avenues to the legal quays (which,
little more than a century since, the great fire of London opened and
dilated beyond the measure of our then circumstances) to be now
"incommodious, and much too narrow for the great concourse of carts and
other carriages usually passing and repassing therein." Thus our trade
has grown too big for the ancient limits of Art and Nature. Our streets,
our lanes, our shores, the river itself, which has so long been our
pride, are impeded and obstructed and choked up by our riches. They are,
like our shops, "bursting with opulence." To these misfortunes, to these
distresses and grievances alone, we are told, it is to be imputed that
still more of our capital has not been pushed into the channel of our
commerce, to roll back in its reflux still more abundant capital, and
fructify the national treasury in its course. Indeed, my dear Sir, when
I have before my eyes this consentient testimony of the corporation of
the city of London, the West India merchants, and all the other
merchants who promoted the other plans, struggling and contending which
of them shall be permitted to lay out their money in consonance with
their testimony, I cannot turn aside to examine what one or two violent
petitions, tumultuously voted by real or pretended liverymen of London,
may have said of the utter destruction and annihilation of trade.
Pages:
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529