es. It is also different in its nature, though not in its
form, from what it was under the Plantagenets and Tudors. Court favour
cannot enrich a family in this country, and the operation of the law is
tolerably equal. As neither protection, nor rank, in this country, raise
a man above the rest of society, so the richest subject is obliged to
obtain, by his expenditure, that consideration which he would ob-

---
{109} Two centuries ago, land was sold for twelve years purchase,
and the rents are five times as great as they were then; 10,000 L.
employed in buying land then would now produce 5000 L. a year. Had
the same money been lent, at interest, it would but produce 500 L. The
land, too, would sell for 140,000 L. The monied capital would remain
what it was.
-=-

[end of page #130]

tain by other means, under another form of government, {110} and he
is as much compelled to pay his debts as any other man.

It is not, however, the great wealth of one individual, or even of a few
individuals, that is an object of consideration. It will be found that the
great number of persons, who live upon revenues, sufficiently
abundant to exempt them from care and attention, and to enable them
to injure the manners of the people, (being above the necessity of
economy, feeling none of its wants, and contributing nothing by their
own exertion to its wealth or strength,) is a very great evil, and one
that tends constantly to increase.

But if this progress goes on, while a nation is acquiring wealth, how
much faster does it not proceed when it approaches towards its
decline? It is, then, indeed, that the extremes of poverty and riches are
to be seen in the most striking degree.

The higher classes can never be made to contribute their share towards
the prosperity of a state; where there are no middling classes to
connect the higher and lower orders, and to protect the lower orders
from the power of the higher, a state must gradually decline.

It is in the middling classes that the freedom, the intelligence, and the
industry of a country reside. The higher class may be very intelligent,
but can never be very numerous; and being above the feeling of want,
except in a few instances, (where nature has endowed the wealthy
with innate good qualities,) there is nothing to be expected or obtained
of them, {111} towards the general good.

From the working and laborious classes, again, little is to be expected.
They fill the part assigned