Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or other
description is it to be inquired for?
What do you think of the present situation of England? Is not this the
great and fatal crush of their funding system, which, like death, has
been foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of death, hidden from
mortal prescience? It appears to me that all the circumstances now exist
which render recovery desperate. The interest of the national debt is
now equal to such a portion of the profits of all the land and the labor
of the island, as not to leave enough for the subsistence of those
who labor. Hence the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other
countries, and the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him
to cover his back and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now
almost general, are of the hungry and the naked, who cannot be quieted
but by food and raiment. But where are the means of feeding and clothing
them? The landholder has nothing of his own to give; he is but the
fiduciary of those who have lent him money; the lender is so taxed in
his meat, drink, and clothing, that he has but a bare subsistence left.
The landholder, then, must give up his land, or the lender his debt,
or they must compromise by giving up each one half. But will either
consent, peaceably, to such an abandonment of property? Or must it not
be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably compromised, will they agree
to risk another ruin under the same government unreformed? I think not;
but I would rather know what you think; because you have lived with
John Bull, and know better than I do the character of his herd.
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