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war, while at the same time her exports had risen to 5,457,733l.; and when the great war with France broke out, early in 1793, she owned 16,079 merchant vessels of 1,540,145 tons, under the management of 118,286 seamen.

Yet though comparatively ready for war, its actual declaration caused a serious monetary convulsion, nor have we any record of so many commercial failures on the declaration of any previous war. The struggle for the retention of the American colonies had produced, as war invariably does, numerous evils; and the South Sea Bubble, many years earlier, had spread general ruin among those of her trading community who had rushed wildly into the field of speculation; but now commercial houses of the highest standing gave way under the shock. Indeed the sufferings of the people became so intense that Parliament, after much discussion, resolved to issue 5,000,000l. of exchequer bills as a temporary loan to such of the merchants of London, Bristol, Hull, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leith as could furnish property equal to double the extent of the loan they requested. The announcement of the intention of the government to support the mercantile interests went so far towards dispelling the wide-prevailing alarm, that the entire amount applied for did not, after all, exceed 3,855,624l.; and in spite of this panic and of the calamities of war, English merchant shipping continued to prosper. Indeed