That experience has also taught the petitioners, that the principal cause of the decay of the manufactures of Holland, particularly those of Leyden, is not to be found in any internal vice, either in the capacity, or the oeconomy of the inhabitants, but in circumstances which have happened abroad; and to which it is, consequently, beyond the power of the petitioners, or of any citizen whatsoever, to provide a remedy. That we might cite, for example, the commerce of our manufactures with Dantzic; and, through that commercial city, with all Poland; a commerce which was carried on with success and advantage heretofore in our city, but is absolutely interrupted at this day, and vanished, by the revolution which has happened in that kingdom, and by the burthensome duties to which the navigation of the Vistula has been subjected. But that, without entering into a detail of similar particular shackles, of which we might reckon a great number; the principal cause of the languishing state of our manufactures consists in the jealous emulation of the neighbouring nations, or rather of all the people of Europe; considering that, in this age, the several princes and governments, enlightened in the real sources of the public prosperity, and the true interests of their subjects, attach themselves with emulation to revive in their kingdoms and states the national industry, commerce, and navigation; to encourage them, and promote them even by exclusive privileges, or by heavy impositions upon foreign merchandizes; privileges and impositions, which tend equally to the prejudice of the commerce and the manufactures of our country, as your noble and grand Lordships will easily recollect the examples in the Austrian states and elsewhere.