r railroads, canals,
and other securities fail off, where is the deficiency to be made good?
In this country it would be made good by a tax being imposed upon the
population to meet the deficiency, and support the credit of the nation.
Here is the question:--will the majority in America consent to be
taxed? I say, No--if they do, I shall be surprised, and be most happy
to recant, but it is my opinion that they will not, and if so the
English capital will be lost; and if the reader will call to mind what I
have pointed out as to the probable effect of the power of America
working to the westward, and the direct importation which in a few years
must take place, he will see that there is every prospect of a rapid
decrease in the value of all their securities, and that the only
ultimate chance of their recovering the money is by this country
compelling payment of it by the Federal Government.

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Note 2. "At the time of the first settlement of the English in
Virginia, when land was to be had for little or nothing, some provident
persons having obtained large grants of it, and being desirous of
maintaining the splendour of their families, entailed their property
upon their descendants. The transmission of these estates from
generation to generation, to men who bore the same name, had the effect
of raising up a distinct class of families, who, possessing by law the
privilege of perpetuating their wealth, formed by these means a sort of
patrician order, distinguished by the grandeur and luxury of their
establishments. From this order it was that the king usually chose his
councillors of state.

"In the United States, the principal clauses of the English law
respecting descent have been universally rejected. The first rule that
we follow, says Mr Kent, touching inheritance, is the following:--If a
man dies intestate, his property goes to his heirs in a direct line. If
he has but one heir or heiress, he or she succeeds to the whole. If
there are several heirs of the same degree, they divide the inheritance
equally amongst them, without distinction of sex.

"This rule was prescribed for the first time in the State of New York by
a statute of the 23rd of February, 1786. (_See Revised Statutes_,
volume III, _Appendix_, page 48.) It has since then been adopted in the
revised statutes of the same State. At the present day this law holds
good througho