scale, what it was proper for them long since to have 

 attempted on the great theatre of the Commonwealth! 

 It is a subject of regret, that the rulers of freemen 

 should have delayed so long to devise a system, 

 effectually to execute this constitutional injunction! 

 The rewards and encouragements bestowed by socie- 

 ties acting under limited delegated powers, and Vvith 

 inconsiderable means, shew what mighty effects could 

 have been produced, had legislative wisdom and libe- -' 

 rality been directed by more fortunate auspices. It is 

 not less a mark of good sense, and provident care, in 

 the conductors of a government, to stimulate the peo- 

 ple by suitable rewards to increase the treasures and 

 resources of agriculture and manufactures, than to 

 frame good laws for the protection of life, liberty and 

 property. A sentiment so favorable to private inde- 

 pendence, and the increase of public power, has seK 

 dom b^en felt, and never sufficiently realized. H ence 

 we observe the condition of a nation, its advance or 

 its decline, its rapid, or its retarded march towards its 

 destined perfection. The state of agriculture and the 

 extent of manufactures, determine the strength, and 

 the commercial prosperity of a state. If the legishi- 

 ture of a country encourage the people, by a system of 

 ways and means, to acquire a more ready and ample 

 subsistence, and open to them the way to opulence, 

 they soon become attached to their soil,'and a passion 

 for their local habitation and country becomes habitu- 

 al, and produces content. Thus cherished, and ac- 

 commodated by a government devoted to their hap- 

 piness, no spirit of restlessness invades their peaceful 

 homes, and no vagrant disposition impels them to 

 search for new and distant countries. The spirit of 

 emigration, the plague and the misfortune of New- 

 England would become extinct. For forty years the 

 spirit of emigration has exhausted this prolific region, 

 to accumulate strength, and wealtli, and glory, to dis- 

 tant states. Happily the public feeling is becoming 

 less torpid, aiid the public eye clearer sighted on this 

 momentous subject. The legislature of this Com- 

 monwealth manifests a solicitude to cheek this grow- 

 ing evil. The remedy is obvious. Qbey the consti- 



