But the real situation of our trade, during the whole of this war, deserves more minute investigation.  I shall begin with that which, though the least in consequence, makes perhaps the most impression on our senses, because it meets our eyes in our daily walks:  I mean our retail trade.  The exuberant display of wealth in our shops was the sight which most amazed a learned foreigner of distinction who lately resided among us:  his expression, I remember, was, that “they seemed to be bursting with opulence into the streets.”  The documents which throw light on this subject are not many, but they all meet in the same point:  all concur in exhibiting an increase.  The most material are the general licenses[53] which the law requires to be taken out by all dealers in excisable commodities.  These seem to be subject to considerable fluctuations.  They have not been so low in any year of the war as in the years 1788 and 1789, nor ever so high in peace as in the first year of the war.  I should next state the licenses to dealers in spirits and wine; but the change in them which took place in 1789 would give an unfair advantage to my argument.  I shall therefore content myself with remarking, that from the date of that change the spirit licenses kept nearly the same level till the stoppage of the distilleries in 1795.  If they dropped a little, (and it was but little,) the wine licenses, during the same time, more than countervailed that loss to the revenue; and it is remarkable with regard to the latter, that in the year 1796, which was the lowest in the excise duties on wine itself, as well as in the quantity imported, more dealers in wine appear to have been licensed than in any former year, excepting the first year of the war.  This fact may raise some doubt whether the consumption has been lessened so much as, I believe, is commonly imagined.  The only other retail-traders whom I found so entered as to admit of being selected are tea-dealers and sellers of gold and silver plate, both of whom seem to have multiplied very much in proportion to their aggregate number.[54] I have kept apart one set of licensed sellers, because I am aware that our antagonists may be inclined to triumph a little, when I name auctioneers and auctions.  They may be disposed to consider it as a sort of trade which thrives by the distress of others.  But if they will look at it a little more attentively, they will find their gloomy comfort vanish.  The public income from these licenses has risen with very great regularity through a series of years which all must admit to have been years of prosperity.  It is remarkable, too, that in the year 1793, which was the great year of bankruptcies, these duties on auctioneers and auctions[55] fell below the mark of 1791; and in 1796, which year had one fifth less than the accustomed average of bankruptcies, they mounted at once beyond all former examples.  In concluding this general head, will you permit me, my dear Sir, to bring to your notice an humble, but industrious and laborious set of chapmen, against whom the vengeance of your House has sometimes been levelled, with what policy I need not stay to inquire, as they have escaped without much injury?  The hawkers and peddlers,[56] I am assured, are still doing well, though, from some new arrangements respecting them made in 1789, it would be difficult to trace their proceedings in any satisfactory manner.