Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/263

253 It is high time, for the ſake of humanity, that a ſtop were put to this enormity. The United States of America, though better ſituated than any European nation to make profit by privateering (moſt of the trade of Europe, with the Weſt Indies, paſſing before their doors), are, as far as in them lies, endeavouring to aboliſh the practice, by offering, in all their treaties with other powers, an article, engaging ſolemnly, that, in caſe of future war, no privateer ſhall be commiſſioned on either ſide; and that unarmed merchant-ſhips, on both ſides, ſhall purſue their voyages unmoleſted. This will be a happy improvement of the