There are two expedients to be used, in order to defeat the bad effects of a competition which cannot be got the better of in the ordinary way. The first to be made use of, is, to assist the branches in distress with the public money. The other is patience, and perseverance in frugality, as has been already observed. A short example of the first will be sufficient in this place to make the thing fully understood. I have already said, that I purposely postpone an ample dissertation upon the principles which influence such operations. Let me suppose a nation accustomed to export to the value of a million sterling of fish every year, undersold in this article by another which has found a fishery on its own coasts, so abundant as to enable it to undersell the first by 20 _per cent._ This being the case, the statesman may buy up all the fish of his subjects, and undersell his competitors at every foreign market, at the loss of perhaps 250,000_l._ What is the consequence? That the million he paid for the fish remains at home, and that 750,000_l._ comes in from abroad for the price of them. How is the 250,000_l._ to be made up? By a general imposition upon all the inhabitants. This returns into the public coffers, and all stands as it was. If this expedient be not followed, what are the consequences? That those employed in the fishery are forced to starve; that the fish taken either remain upon hand, or if sold by the proprietors, at a great loss; these are undone, and the nation for the future loses the acquisition of 750,000_l._ a year. To abridge this operation, premiums are given upon exportation, which comes to the same thing, and is a refinement on the application of this very principle: but premiums are often abused. It belongs to the department of the coercive power of government to put a stop to such abuse. All I shall say upon the matter is, that if there be crimes called high treason, which are punished with greater severity than highway robbery, and assassination, I should be apt (were I a statesman) to put at the head of that bloody list, every attempt to defeat the application of public money, for the purposes here mentioned. The multiplicity of frauds alone, discourages a wise government from proceeding upon this principle, and disappoints the scheme. If severe punishment can in its turn put a stop to frauds, I believe it will be thought very well applied.