2628. ENGLAND, Crisis in.—[continued].
What England is to become
on the crush of her internal structure,
now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee.
Her moneyed interests, created by her paper
system, and now constituting a baseless mass
of wealth equal to that of the owners of the
soil, must disappear with that system, and the
medium for paying great taxes thus failing,
her navy must be without support. That it
shall be supported by permitting her to claim
dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute on
every flag traversing that, as lately attempted
and not yet relinquished, every nation must
contest, even ad internecionem. And yet,
that retiring from this enormity, she should
continue able to take a fair share in the
necessary equilibrium of power on that element,
would be the desire of every nation.—
To Thomas Law. Washington ed. v, 557.
Ford ed., ix, 293.
(M.
1811)
