580 LAISSEZ FAIRE A.D. 1776 1980 then can these two powers wage war with the produce of their commercial dealings as England does? England alone has room, notwithstanding the harbours that are shut against her, on the extensive globe, and the vast oceans that sur- round it. «The sums which Spain and Portugal are obliged to pay to France for their neutrality, cannot, at any rate, indemnify the latter for the expenses of the war, for the obstruction of ber commerce, and the loss of her colonies. Add to this, that the credit which France and Holland once had; 18 now so very, very trifling, as to cripple and paralyse every important enterprise in which they may happen to embark. «What then will be the end of this new war, carried on with so much fury? What are the catastrophes that will at last bring back peace, and appease enraged minds? No mortal will dare to give a decisive answer to these questions. 2 far But the attentive observer of the history of his time is, abe to however, at liberty to take a view of matters of fact, and of triumph én 416 resources of the contending parties, from which he may deduce tolerably accurate conclusions".” Had English statesmen been a little more confident of their real strength they might have been saved from a costly blunder; but in the terrible strain of the struggle they were tempted to make a ruthless use of their advantages. It was of course our object, as in the Revolutionary War, to destroy The ote oo the commerce of France and Holland. In this we were England to extraordinarily successful. © Not a single merchant ship,” as destroy the was asserted in 1805, “ under a flag inimical to Great Britain, of France now crosses the equator or traverses the Atlantic Ocean®” her with _ Markets formerly closed were now opened by force; England the United yo ates was able to take advantage of her maritime supremacy to prevent the transport of goods by other traders; she was thus once more brought into conflict with neutrals, and especially with the people of the United States. American shipowners had enjoyed a period of unwonted prosperity from 1793—1802 during the Revolutionary War; they had temporarily become the principal carriers in the trade between the French West Indian colonies and the 1 Reinhard, op. cit. pp. 43—46. 2 War in Disguise, p. 71.