obtained by any uncommon methods, or they have very little improved the
opportunities which early information put into their power; for they
have always been baffled and deceived. Either they have employed no
spies, or their spies have been directed to elude them by false
intelligence, or true intelligence has been of no use; and if any of
these assertions be true, the publick will not suffer by the motion.

It was justly observed, by the honourable gentleman, that a parallel may
be properly drawn between a nation and a private man, and, by
consequence, between a trading nation and a trader. Let us, therefore,
consider what must be the state of that trader who shall never inspect
or state his accounts, who shall suffer his servants to traffick in the
dark with his stock, and on his credit, and who shall permit them to
transact bargains in his name, without inquiring whether they are
advantageous, or whether they are performed.

Every man immediately marks out a trader thus infatuated, as on the
brink of bankruptcy and ruin; every one will easily foresee, that his
servants will take advantage of his credulity, and proceed hourly to
grosser frauds; that they will grow rich by betraying his interest, that
they will neglect his affairs to promote their own, that they will
plunder him till he has nothing left, and seek then for employment among
those to whom they have recommended themselves by selling their trust.
His neighbours, who easily foresee his approaching misery, retire from
him by degrees, disunite their business from his, and leave him to fall,
without involving others in his ruin.

Such must be the fate of a trader whom idleness, or a blind confidence
in the integrity of others, hinders from attending to his own affairs,
unless he rouses from his slumber, and recovers from his infatuation.