40 



ferent from the situation of the agriculturist at 

 the present day. They have held merchandise 

 or manufactured goods in their hands, when, 

 from peculiar circumstances, there has been a 

 stagnation in the demand for them. The pro- 

 perty in their cases had not been alienated ; it 

 remained entire in themselves, and delay only 

 was wanted to renew the activity of the demand 

 for it, and restore to it its former value. But 

 the greater part of the agriculturists, and 

 those upon whom the present distress has fallen 

 the heaviest, at this time rarely hold any con- 

 siderable amount of the articles they deal in ; 

 and, if they do, those articles have suffered a 

 depreciation of the most serious magnitude, and 

 which is believed, under present and probably 

 future circumstances, to be permanent and ir- 

 recoverable. 



To lend them money upon the condition of 

 repayment, when this depreciation is removed, is 

 but to administer to their delusion, and to invite 

 them to affix another seal to their own ruin. 

 But, in truth, what security have they to offer? 

 The leases of those under these circumstances 

 will not obtain a premium, for they are worth 

 nothing; and their crops are already mortgaged 

 to their landlords and others. 



We come, then, to the popular modes of re- 

 lief of late so strongly pressed upon the public 



