from the groceries, because the account of the customs is not a perfect criterion of the consumption, much having been reexported to the North of Europe, which used to be supplied by France; and in the official papers which I have followed there are no materials to furnish grounds for computing this reexportation.  The increase on the face of our entries is immense during the four years of war,—­little short of thirteen hundred thousand pounds.

The increase of the duties on beer has been regularly progressive, or nearly so, to a very large amount.[43] It is a good deal above a million, and is more than equal to one eighth of the whole produce.  Under this general head some other liquors are included,—­cider, perry, and mead, as well as vinegar and verjuice; but these are of very trifling consideration.  The excise duties on wine, having sunk a little during the first two years of the war, were rapidly recovering their level again.  In 1795 a heavy additional duty was imposed upon them, and a second in the following year; yet, being compared with four years of peace to 1790, they actually exhibit a small gain to the revenue.  And low as the importation may seem in 1796, when contrasted with any year since the French treaty in 1787, it is still more than 3000 tuns above the average importation for three years previous to that period.  I have added sweets, from which our factitious wines are made; and I would have added spirits, but that the total alteration of the duties in 1789, and the recent interruption of our distilleries, rendered any comparison impracticable.

The ancient staple of our island, in which we are clothed, is very imperfectly to be traced on the books of the Custom-House:  but I know that our woollen manufactures flourish.  I recollect to have seen that fact very fully established, last year, from the registers kept in the West Riding of Yorkshire.  This year, in the West of England, I received a similar account, on the authority of a respectable clothier in that quarter, whose testimony can less be questioned, because, in his political opinions, he is adverse, as I understand, to the continuance of the war.  The principal articles of female dress for some time past have been muslins and calicoes.[44] These elegant fabrics of our own looms in the East, which serve for the remittance of our own revenues, have lately been imitated at home, with improving success, by the ingenious and enterprising manufacturers of Manchester, Paisley, and Glasgow.  At the same time the importation from Bengal has kept pace with the extension of our own dexterity and industry; while the sale of our printed goods,[45] of both kinds, has been with equal steadiness advanced by the taste and execution of our designers and artists.  Our woollens and cottons, it is true, are not all for the home market.  They do not distinctly prove, what is my present point, our own wealth by our own expense.  I admit it:  we export them in great and growing quantities: