ey shut their
purses, the whole machinery of the government must stop." I could have
told this discontented Caledonian a different story. I could have told
him that all our capitalists, merchants and monied men, especially in
New England, had shut their purses against our administration, and
yet, in spite of these detestable sons of mammon, our governmental
machine went steadily on, while we vanquished our enemy by land and by
sea; but I did not wish to mortify a civil, friendly man. "In
England," continued he, "the merchant governs the cabinet; and the
cabinet governs the parliament; and the sovereign governs both; but,"
said he, "the capitalists, (by which he meant the mercantile interest)
govern the whole." I did not choose to controvert his opinions; but,
"thinks-I-to-my-self," ah! Sawney, thou art mistaken; America,
democratic America, has proved that the most democratical government
upon the terraqueous globe, has gone steadily on to greatness, to
victory and to glory, with the capitalists or mercantile interest, _in
direct opposition to its wondrous measures_!

I believe that our surgeon was a good man, and not ill qualified in
his profession; but no politician, and pretty strongly attached to
his tribe; who, from his account, never spent much money in buying
meat and strong beer. He talked much of the machine and _wheels_ of
government; from all which I concluded, that the court of St. James's
was the hub, or nave, where all the spokes of the great wheel of the
machine terminated; and that the laboring people, manufacturers, and
merchants were doomed, all their days, to grease this wheel. It is
remarkable that David, the royal Psalmist, among the severest of the
curses bestowed on his enemies, expressly says, "_Lord, make them like
unto a wheel._"

CHAPTER VIII.

The month of April, which is just past, is like our April in New
England, raw, cold, or as the English call it, _sour_.--But their
month of May, which is now arrived, is pleasanter by far, than ours.
By all that I can observe, I conclude that the vernal season of this
part of the Island of Britain, is full fifteen days, if not twenty,
earlier than that of Boston. I conjecture that this spot corresponds
with Philadelphia.

The Medway, though a small river in the eyes of an inhabitant of the
new world, is a very pleasant one. The moveable picture on its
surface, of ships, tenders, and barges, is very pleasing, while its
banks are rich and be