authorized by the King of Spain can trade there but by force or ſtealth. Whatever profit is obtained muſt be gained by the violence of rapine, or dexterity of fraud.
Government will not perhaps ſoon arrive at ſuch purity and excellence, but that ſome connivance at leaſt will be indulged to the triumphant robber and ſucceſsful cheat. He that brings wealth home is ſeldom interrogated by what means it was obtained. This, however, is one of thoſe modes of corruption with which mankind ought always to ſtruggle, and which they may in time hope to overcome. There is reaſon to expect, that as the world is more enlightened, policy and morality will at laſt be reconciled, and that nations will learn not to do what they would not ſuffer.
But the ſilent toleration of ſuſpected guilt is a degree of depravity far below that which openly incites and manifeſtly pro-
