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Show 4o COMMON SENSE. No country on the globe is [0 happily- iituatetl, or. fo ind ‘lernally capable of railing a fleet as America. Tar, timber, COMMON SENSE. 4, the lire-eta, or fields rather; and flept fecurely without lock! or bolts to our doors or windows. The cafe now is alter- We need go ed, and our methods of defenCe, ought to improve with our abroad for nothing. Whereas the Dutch, who make large profits by hiring out their [hips of war to the Spaniards and Portuguele, are obliged to lmpmt moil oi the materials they lncreafe of property. A common pirate, twelve months ago, might have come up the Delaware, and laid the city of Philadelphia under inflant contribution, for what {um he 'We ought to view the building a fleet as an artical of pleafed ; and the fame might have happened to Other places; iron, and cordage are her natural produce. life. commerce, it being the natural manufatlory of this crmntry. try, any daring fellow, in a brig of fourteen or fixteen guns. It is the beit money we can lay out. A navy when tiniilied is worth more than it cofl. And is that nice point in lia'l‘ onal policy, in which commerce and proteclion are united. might have robbed the whole Continent, and Carried of? half a million of money. Thele are circumflances which Let us build; if we want them not, we can tell ; and by that means replace our paper currency with ieady gold and filver. 1n point of manning a fleet, people in general run into great errors ; it is not necefl‘ary that one fourth part {hnuld be failors. The Terrible privateer, Captain Death, "and the hottefl engagement of any [hip lafl war, yet had not twenty failors on board, though her complement of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able and focial tailors will {con inflruéi a {umcrent number of aél-Tve landmen in the c0mmon work of a (hip. Wherefore, we never can be more capable to begin on maritime matters~than now, while our timber is (landing, our fiiheries blocked up, and our‘failors and [hipwrights out of employ. Men of war, of feventy and eighty guns were built forty years again New England, and wiry not the fame now? Ship building demand our attention, and point out the neceflity of naval proteét'ion. time, perhaps, will fay, that after we have tirade it up with Britain, ihe will protect us. Can we be [0 unwife n to mean, that (he will keep a navy in oar harbours for that purpnfe? Common fenfe will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to fubdue us, is of all others, the mofi improper to defend us. Conquefl may be efleaed tinder the pretence of friendfltip ; and ourfelves, after a long and brave remanee, be at raft cheated into flavery. And if her {hips are not to be admitted into our harbours,1 would aflt, how is {be to proteé't us i A navy three or four thoufand miles of? can be of little ate, and on ludden emergencies, none at all. Wherefme, if we mufi hereafter proteél outfélVes, why not do it for oarlelves? Why do it for another .? The Englllh lift of {hips of war, is hug and formidable,‘ but not a tenth part of them are at any one time fit for {er- is 'Ametica's greatefi pride, and in which, {he will in time Vice, numbers of them not in being t yet their names are excel the whole World. The great empires of the eait are moflly inland, and Confequently exctuded from the pofli- pompoufly continued in the lift, if only a plank be left of the {hip : and not a fifth part, of fuch as are fit for fervice, Africa is in a [late of barbarilm ; and can be {paired on any one t'tation at one time. The Eat}, and Welt Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts bility of ri‘valling her. no power in'Eutope, hath either iuch an extent of coat}, or tech an internal fupply of materials. Where nature hath given the one, {he has withheld the other; to America only hath [he been liberal of both. The vafi empire of Ruflia is almofi (but out from the fea ; wherefore, her boundlefa forefl, her tar, iron, and cordage are only articles of commerce. Over which Britain extends her claim, make large demands Upon her navy. From a mlxrure of prejudice and iontention, we have contraéled a talfe notion refpeétmg the navy of England, and have talked as if We ihould have the whole of it. to encounter at once, and for that reafon, {up- pofed, that we muft have one as large ; which not being in- In point of fafety, ought we to be without a fleet ? We flantly praéiicable, have been made ufe of by a ("of dif- are not the little people now, whith we were forty years geifed Tories to diloourage out beginning thereon. No- ago i at "in time we might have trolled our property ti‘n t e " ' ya thing |