So far from this able disposition of fome of the old republican legiflators, which follows with a folicitous accuracy, the moral conditions and propenfities of men, they have levelled and crushed together all the orders which they found, even under the coarse unartificial arrangement of the monarchy, in which mode of government the claffing of the citizens is not of so much importance as in a republic. It is true, however, that every such claffification, if properly ordered, is good in all forms of government; and compofes a ftrong barrier against the exceffes of defpotifin, as well as it is the neceffary means of giving effect and permanence to a republic. For want of fomething of this kind, if the prefent project of a republic fhould fail, all fecurities to a moderated freedom fail along with it; all the indirect restraints which mitigate defpotism are removed; infomuch that if monarchy fhould ever again obtain an entire afcendency in France, under this or under any other dynafty, it will probably be, if not voluntarily tempered at fetting out, by the wife and virtuous counfels of the prince, the most completely arbitrary power that has ever appeared on earth. This is to play a most defperate game. Finding no fort of principle of coherence with each other in the nature and conftitution of the feveral new republics of France, I confidered what cement the legiflators had provided for them from any extraneous materials. Their confederations, their spectacles, their civic feasts, and their enthufiafm, I take no notice of; They are nothing but mere tricks; but tracing their policy through their actions, I think I can diftinguish the arrangements by which they propofe to hold thefe repubHics together. The firft, is the confifcation, with the compulfory 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 laft I shall referve what I have to fay, until I come to confider the army as an head by itself. As to the operation of the firft (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 confifcation should 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 thefe confederate republics, both with relation to each other, and to the feveral parts within themfelves. But if the confiscation should so 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 scheme, which is an effect feemingly collateral, but direct, I have no doubt, in the minds of thofe who conduct this business; business; that is, its effect in producing an Oligarchy 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 fubftituted in the place of the coin of the kingdom, becoming thereby the substance 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 if we take into confideration the other part effentially connected with it (which confifts in continually drawing out for fale portions of the confifcated land, this continual exchanging land for paper, and this mixing it into circulation) we may conceive fomething of the intensity of its operation. By this means the fpirit of money-jobbing and speculation goes into the mafs of land itself, and incorporates with it. By this kind of operation, that species of property becomes (as it were) volatized; it affumes an unnatural and monftrous activity, and thereby throws into the hands of the feveral managers, principal and fubordinate, Parifian and provincial, T 3 all all the representative 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 greatest possible uncertainty in its value. They have reversed 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. 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 shall 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 schools, 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 peafant is worth them all. I have got more information, upon one curious and interefting branch of husbandry, in one short converfation with one Carthufian monk, than I have derived from all the Bank directors that I have ever con verfed verfed with. However, there is no cause for apprehenfion from the meddling of money-dealers with rural economy. These 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 less 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 fœnerator Alphius, They will cultivate the caffe 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 interefts. They will not follow the plough whilft they can direct treasuries, and govern provinces. Your legiflators, in every thing new, are the very first who have founded a commonwealth upon gaming, and infufed this fpirit into it as its vital breath. The great object in these politics is to inetamorphofe France, from a great kingdom into one great play-table; to turn its inhabitants into a nation of gamefters; to make fpeculation as extenfive as life; to mix it with all its concerns; and to divert the whole of the hopes and fears of |