bi : OS6}- 
418 Letter on Affairs in general. [Ocr. 
{19 dim ao 
Officer (entering to the King)—“ My Lord, the French, troops lie 
within a hundred paces of your tent. DSB Noeie et 
, King.—Who. has. measured the ground ? id ear 
Officer.—The lord Grandprée. ‘pict ele 
_ King.—A most valiant and expert gentleman !” diols 
Privileged persons. The political economists are asses—that,| by, this 
time, every body knows. We must legislate for é¢mes and for emergencies, 
though we send “ fixed principles ” four times a week to the devil, 
Thus, we laugh at the Pacha of Smyrna, and his maximum for meat, of 
eighteen paras a pound; all the while valiantly maintaining a law our- 
selves which fixes a maximum for the hire of money at five per cent. 
Moreover, we hold—here is a choke-pear for ‘ fixed principle !”—that 
the Jew who lends on the worst security shall be punished if he take 
more than five per cent. for his money, though freely offered ; and yet 
allow the pawnbroker, who lends only upon the dest security, to demand 
from twenty to fifteen. But, in fact—the Benthamites affect to treat 
the law of usury as an exception from our general free commercial 
policy ;—there is not a more ridiculous humbug than to assert that, in 
England, every man is free to ask his own price for the commodity, in 
which he deals. There is a constant vigilance in the law—but that 
custom prevents us from observing it—to take care that no one man (even 
in trifles) shall have power to take advantage of the sudden necessities 
of another. Barristers, in ordinary cases, have no power, when re- 
tained, to make their own bargain ; but, by the rules of their profession, 
with the accustomed fee, must take a brief. What should we say of a 
physician, who, being sent for, and finding a patient in immediate 
danger, were to stop short, and demand two guineas instead of one, 
before he prescribed? How are the charges of attornies regulated—and 
God help us, if they were not so regulated !—but dy law ? How jis it that 
«“ yictuallers,” if all trades but that in money are freeé,—are compelled to 
furnish meat and drink to travellers at reasonable prices ?) Why, are we not 
going to pull down half the people’s houses in the Strand—and turn the 
very wild beasts at Exeter Change out of their homes—because. it 
suits the public convenience! and, shall we agree to let these dealers 
make their own demand, I wonder, or refer them to a jury to settle that 
which is fair compensation? And even for fear people should be over- 
charged, when they want to get home on arainy night from Vauxhall — 
even for fear of such a little inconvenience as this,—do not we—not 
merely most tyrannically fix the price. of a hackney-coach for every. 
mile’s riding ; but absolutely compel the owner of the yehicle, willy 
nilly,—in spite of wind, weather, or better offers elsewhere—inexorabl 
to sell the ministry of himself! and horses to the {first applicant who de- 
mandsit of him? — Sisas TOADUE 
And this very law about the “shackney-coaches,” it is—as the subject 
of a lady’s letter is to be found always in the postscript—which has been 
the cause of inflicting the above long paragraph upon the public! Only, 
that, now I am upon the subject, 1. must have a word with these wise 
menof Westminster—who,, if they were, sent. to Erebus, would oe for 
finding fault with the waters of the Styx,—and, who—if they will utter 
follies in St. James’s Park—content! forjit is at their own expense ;— 
but,, if thay succeed to whistle off law, and’ make their fortunes A 
usury—for the rogues are cunnlng—that would.be at the expense of the 
ublic : 
F Money, the economists say, stands in commerce in the same condi- 
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