actions, I think I can diftinguifh the arrangements by which they propose to hold these republics together. The firft, is the confifcation, with the compulsory paper currency annexed to it; the fecond, is the fupreme power of the city of Paris; the third, is the general army of the ftate. Of this last I fhall referve what I have to fay, until I come to confider the army as an head by itself. As to the operation of the first (the confifcation and paper currency) merely as a cement, I cannot deny that thefe, the one depending on the other, may for fome time compose fome fort of cement, if their madness and folly in the management, and in the tempering of the parts together, does not produce a repulfion in the very outfet. But allowing to the scheme fome coherence and fome duration, it appears to me, that if, after a while, the confiscation fhould not be found fufficient to fupport the paper coinage (as I am morally certain it will not) then, instead of cementing, it will add infinitely to the diffociation, distraction, and confufion of these confederate republics, both with relation to each other, and to the feveral parts within themfelves. But if the confifcation fhould fo far fucceed as to fink the paper currency, the cement is gone with the circulation. In the mean time its binding force will be very uncertain, and it will ftraiten or relax with every variation in the credit of the paper. One thing only is certain in this fcheme, which is an effect seemingly collateral, but direct, I have no doubt, in the minds of those who conduct this bufinefs; that is, its effect in producing an Oligarchy garchy in every one of the republics. A paper circulation, not founded on any real money depofited or engaged for, amounting already to four-and-forty millions of English money, and this currency by force substituted in the place of the coin of the kingdom, becoming thereby the. fubftance of its revenue, as well as the medium of all its commercial and civil intercourse, muft put the whole of what power, authority, and influence is left, in any form whatsoever it may affume, into the hands of the managers and conductors of this circulation. In England we feel the influence of the bank; though it is only the center of a voluntary dealing. He knows little indeed of the influence of money upon mankind, who does not fee the force of the management of a monied concern, which is fo much more extenfive, and in its nature fo much more depending on the managers than any of ours. But this is not merely a money concern. There is another member in the fyftem infeparably connected with this money management. It confifts in the means of drawing out at difcretion portions of the confifcated lands for fale; and carrying on a procefs of continual tranfmutation of paper into land, and land into paper. When we follow this process in its effects, we may conceive fomething of the intenfity of the force with which this fyftem must operate. By this means the fpirit of money-jobbing and fpeculation goes into the mafs of land itfelf, and incorporates with it. By this kind of operation, that fpecies of property becomes (as it were) volatilized; it affumes an unnatural and monftrous activity, and thereby thereby throws into the hands of the feveral managers, principal and fubordinate, Parifian and provincial, all the reprefentative of money, and perhaps a full tenth part of all the land in France, which has now acquired the worst and most pernicious part of the evil of a paper circulation, the greateft poffible uncertainty in its value. They have reverfed the Latonian kindness to the landed property of Delos. They have fent theirs to be blown about, like the light fragments of a wreck, oras et littora circum. cc The new dealers being all habitually adventurers, and without any fixed habits or local predilections, will purchase to job out again, as the market of paper, or of money, or of land fhall present an advantage. For though an holy bishop thinks that agriculture will derive great advantages from the “enlightened” ufurers who are to purchase the church confifcations, I, who am not a good, but an old farmer, with great humility beg leave to tell his late lordship, that ufury is not a tutor of agriculture; and if the word enlightened" be understood according to the new dictionary, as it always is in your new fchools, I cannot conceive how a man's not believing in God can teach him to cultivate the earth with the leaft of any additional skill or encouragement. "Diis immortalibus fero," faid an old Roman, when he held one handle of the plough, whilst Death held the other. Though you were to join in the commiffion all the directors of the two academies to the directors of the Caiffe d'Efcompte, one old experienced peasant is worth them all. I have got more information, upon a curious and interefting branch of husbandry, in one short converfa tion with a Carthufian monk, than I have derived from all the Bank directors that I have ever converfed with. However, there is no caufe for apprehenfion from the meddling of money-dealers with rural economy. Thefe gentlemen are too wife in their generation. At first, perhaps, their tender and fufceptible imaginations may be captivated with the innocent and unprofitable delights of a paftoral life; but in a little time they will find that agriculture is a trade much more laborious, and much lefs lucrative than that which they had left. After making its panegyric, they will turn their backs on it like their great precurfor and prototype. They may, like him, begin by finging "Beatus ille"-but what will be the end? Sic cum locutus fænerator Alphius, Omnem relegit idibus pecuniam, They will cultivate the caiffe d'Eglife, under the facred aufpices of this prelate, with much more profit than its vineyards or its corn-fields. They will employ their talents according to their habits and their interests. They will not follow the plough whilft they can direct treafuries, and govern provinces. Your legiflators, in every thing new, are the very first who have founded a commonwealth upon gaming, and infused this fpirit into it as its vital breath. The great object in these politics is to metamorphofe France, from a great kingdom into one great play-table; to turn its inhabitants into a nation of gamefters; to make fpeculation as extenfive tenfive as life; to mix it with all its concerns; and to divert the whole of the hopes and fears of the people from their ufual channels, into the impulfes, paffions, and fuperftitions of those who live on chances. They loudly proclaim their opinion, that this their present system of a republic cannot poffibly exift without this kind of gaming fund; and that the very thread of its life is fpun out of the ftaple of these fpeculations. The old gaming in funds was mifchievous enough undoubtedly; but it was fo only to individuals. Even when it had its greateft extent, in the Miffiffippi and South Sea, it affected but few, comparatively; where it extends further, as in lotteries, the spirit has but a fingle object. But where the law, which in moft circumftances forbids, and in none countenances gaming, is itfelf debauched, fo as to reverfe its nature and policy, and exprefsly to force the fubject to this deftructive table, by bringing the fpirit and fymbols of gaming into the minuteft matters, and engaging every body in it, and in every thing, a more dreadful epidemic diftemper of that kind is fpread than yet has appeared in the world. With you a man can neither earn nor buy his dinner, without a fpeculation. What he receives in the morning will not have the fame value at night. What he is compelled to take as pay for an old debt, will not be received as the fame when he is to contract a new one; nor will it be the fame when by prompt payment he would avoid contracting any debt at all. Industry muft wither away. Economy must be driven from your country. Careful provifion will have no exiftence. Who will labour without knowing the amount |