2629. ENGLAND, Crisis in.—[further continued].
The approach of this
crisis is, I think, visible, in the departure of
her precious metals, and depreciation of her
paper medium. We, who have gone through
that operation, know its symptoms, its course,
and consequences. In England, they will be
more serious than elsewhere, because half the
wealth of her people is now in that medium,
the private revenue of her money-holders, or
rather of her paper-holders, being, I believe,
greater than that of her land-holders. Such
a proportion of property, imaginary and
baseless as it is, cannot be reduced to vapor
but with great explosion. She will rise out
of its ruins. however, because her lands, her
houses, her arts will remain, and the greater
part of her men. And these will give her
again that place among nations which is proportioned
to her natural means, and which we
all wish her to hold.—
To James Maury. Washington ed. vi, 52.
Ford ed., ix, 349.
(M.
April. 1812)
