The History of the Insurrections, by George Minot

gence and economy, which constitute the best support of all governments, and particularly of the republican--Besides which, what was most to be lamented, the discipline and manners of the army had vitiated the taste, and relaxed the industry of the yeomen. In this disposition of the people to indulge the use of luxuries, and in the exhausted state of the country, the merchants saw a market for foreign manufactures. The political character of America standing in a respectable view abroad, gave a confidence and credit to individual citizens heretofore unknown. This credit was improved, and goods were imported to a much greater amount, than could be consumed, or paid for. The evils of this excess of importation were greatly aggravated, by the decayed condition of the commerce, and the little attention which had been paid during the war, to raising of articles for exports. The fisheries, which may be called the mines of Massachusetts, had been neglected, or but feebly improved, from the want of shipping and other causes. The whale fishery, which from trifling beginnings in the year 1701, at length brought into the late Provinces, no less a sum than 167,000l. sterling, annually, through the island of Nantucket alone, and which employed 150 sail of vessels, with near 2500 seamen, was, at the opening of the peace, reduced to be the object of nineteen sail only. A great, if not a pro-