of its subjects to lend it their money on extraordinary occasions. It foresees the facility of borrowing, and therefore dispenses itself from the duty of saving. "THE progress of the enormous debts which at present oppress, and will in the long run probably ruin, all the great nations of Europe, has been pretty uniform.. Nations, like private men, have generally begun to borrow upon what may be called personal credit, without assigning or mortgaging any particular fund for the payment of the debt; and when this resource has failed them, they have gone on to borrow upon assignments or mortgages of particular funds. "THE practice of funding has gradually enfeebled every state which has adopted it. The Italian republics seem to have begun it. Genoa and Venice, the only two remaining which can pretend to independent existence, have both been enfeebled by it. Spain seems to have learned the practice from the Italian republics, and, its taxes being probably less judicious than theirs, it has, in proportion to its natural strength, been still more enfeebled. The debts of Spain are very old standing. It was deeply in debt before the end of the sixteenth century, before England owed a shilling. France, notwithstanding all its natural resources, languishes under an oppressive load of the same kind. The republic of the United Provinces, is as much enfeebled by its debts, as either Genoa or Venice. Is it likely, that in Great-Britain alone, a practice which has brought either desolation or weakness into every other country, should prove altogether innocent? "THE System of taxation established in those different countries, it may be said, is inferior to that of England. I believe, it is so: but it ought to be remembered that when the wisest government has exhausted all the proper subjects of taxation, it must in cases of urgent necessity, have recourse to improper ones. has "WHEN national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid. The liberation of the public revenue, if it has ever been brought about at all, always been brought about by a bankruptcy ; sometimes by an avowed one, but always by a real one, though frequently by a pretended payment." Smith's wealth of nations-vol. 1. FINI S. dence and dastardly submission, before half-armed and undisciplined barbarians, many of them in so rude a state, as not to know how to raise grain, or to make bread as for instance, when he finds the descendents of those Britons who repulsed Cæsar, and so long defended their freedom against the utmost efforts of Rome, basely uttering what they called the "groans of Britain" to a Roman officer; or, when he finds the posterity of the Spaniards, who had resisted the Roman arms in their greatest strength, with firmer determination than any nation in the world, even for more than two hundred years, completely conquered by the undisciplined Vandals in the short space of two campaigns, THIS astonishing and destructive degeneracy that spread throughout the whole Roman empire, is accounted for in a moment, when this single fact expressly declared in history becomes knownthat "the jealousy of despotism had deprived the people of the use of arms.' THIS decree contained a volume of denunciations. It doomed them to shame, sorrow, fear, ignorance, and every suffering that could tend to degradation! of character. They were taxed, injured, insulted at the pleasure of rapacious, cruel, and arrogant masters. The principles and actions of their ancestors were worn out of their memories. T THE Editors regret they are not able to publish a complete list of their subscribers many subscription papers to which they have heard numbers have affixed their names, have not yet come to hand. 1 Subscribers Names. MASSACHUSETTS. Richard Cutts, esq. M. H. R. U. S. CONNECTICUT. Joshua Stow, Middletown. William Judd, esq. Farmington. John Welsh, esq. Elisha Hyde, esq. Norwich. Pierpont Edwards, esq. New-Haven. William Bristol. NEW-YORK. Aaron Burr, esq. Vice-President of the United States, 3 copies. George Clinton, esq. governor of the state. Rev. Samuel Miller, Edward Miller, M. D. Silvanus Miller, De Witt Clinton, esq. |