THE WEAETII OE NATIONS.

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PART II.

Causes of the Prosperity of next) Colonies.

The colony of a civilized nation wliicli takes possession,cither of a waste country, or of one so thinly inhabited that thenatives easily give place to the new settlers, advances more ra-pidly to wealth and greatness than any other human society.

The colonists carry out with them a knowledge of agri-culture and of other useful arts, superior to what can growup of its own accord in the course of many centuries amongsavage and barbarous nations. They carry out with themtoo the habit of subordination, some notion of the regulargovernment which takes place in their own country, of thesystem of laws which supports it, and of a regular adminis-tration of justice; and they naturally establish something ofthe same kind in the new settlement. But among savageand barbarous nations, the natural progress of law and go-vernment is still slower than the natural progress of arts, afterlaw and government have been so far established, as is ne-cessary for their protection. Every colonist gets more landthan he can possibly cultivate. He has no rent, and scarceany taxes to pay. No landlord shares with him in its pro-duce, and the share of the sovereign is commonly but a trifle.Helms every motive to render as great as possible a produce,which is thus to be almost entirely his own. But his landis commonly so extensive, that, with all his own industry,and with all the industry of other people whom he can getto employ, he can seldom make it produce the tenth part ofwhat it is capable of producing. He is eager, therefore, tocollect labourers from all quarters, and to reward them withthe most liberal wages. But those liberal wages, joined tothe plenty and cheapness of land, soon make those labourersleave him, in order to become landlords themselves, and toreward, with equal liberality, other labourers, who soonleave them lor the same reason that they left their first mas-ter. 1 he liberal reward of labour encourages marriage.The children, during the tender years of infancy, are wellfed and properly taken care of, and when they are grownup, the value of their labour greatly overpays their mainte-nance. When arrived at maturity, the high price of la-^°ur, and the low price of land, enable them to establish them-sc ves in the same manner as their fathers did before them.