528 
advetted to, that, in general eftimation, 
England is inking under the heavy load | 
of her debt, whit the United States of 
America, and fome of the principal flates 
of Europe, are reprefented as free from 
fuch an incumbrance, proiperous, and hap- 
py. Leaving ‘the account of the general 
debts of nations out of the queftion 
(which, however, are exclufively impor- 
tant in the difcuffions of their relative 
profperity), let us attend for a moment to 
the amount of cur debt to foreign na- 
tions, and individuals who belong to and 
refide in other countries, as. far as the na- 
tional funds are concerned. In this refpeét 
has our national debt been increafed in the 
Jafi ten years? This, which fome will 
confidently deny, all ought to doubt, It 
would be produétive of fome advantages 
to this country, if Government fhould in- 
fiitute an enquiry into this fact, and teil 
us the actual amount of our debt, the inte- 
reft of which paffes immediately into other 
countries. Is it forty millions? Ihave 
been told with confidence, that it does 
not nearly amount-to that fum. 
forty millions. Then, in ftri& truth, 
England is forty millions in debt, and not 
five hundred and fifty millions. But it 
will not. impoverifh and exhauft our coun- 
try to pay the intereft of forty millions, 
even of five per cents.- Five hundred 
millions! How can England raife taxes to 
pay the intereft of fuch a fum? The an- 
fwer is at hand. — From the debt the derives 
the power to pay the intereft it demands 
from her. Let not this affertion be deem- 
ed paradoxical, I have ftated that Eng- 
Jand is indebted five hundred millions zo 
berfelf. Does not this explain the whole 
myftery? Ithink it does. The taxes are 
the rivers which {well the ocean ; the ocean 
again, in clouds, returns the water to the 
rivers which feed its Amongft the indi- 
viduals who are taxed, the national credi- 
tors are numerous, thofe pay back part of 
dividends which they receive, to receive the 
money again in dividends at the end of the 
next half year. Do younow afk, what evil then 
is there ina national debt.thus circumftan- 
ced,whatever beitsamount? I anfwer,many 
and great evils refult from fuch a national 
debt; but that an inability to pay the inte- 
reft is not oneof thefe. Sucha debtincreafes 
the number of the luxurious and unpro- 
duétive clafs—renders Government more 
defpotic, by multiplying its agents and de- 
pendents, as well, as by making poffible 
revolutions more generally dreaded—fofters 
a fpirit of gambling and adventure in the 
country, and tends to deprefs the labo- 
rious Clafles below their proper level in 
Prefent State of Kentuckye 
Call it. 
# 
[July ts 
fociety, as has been pointed out in a for- 
mer number of your Magazine. But 
ecod-and evil are never to be divided in 
this world. Wheat and tares will grow 
together. The national debt is attended 
with advantages too. It is the mean of 
an ever-prefent difpofable capital, which, 
“applying its force fo every part of human 
induftry, wings the vefiel, moves the 
loom, and tills the ground. Should thefe 
cheering thoughts, on what is deemed a 
gloomy fubject, engage any attention, f 
may, perhaps, in fome future Number, 
prefent the reader with a view of the fame 
-kind, on the fubje@ of our manufactures, 
commerce, and capital, which feem at pre= 
fent not to fili the minds of my countrymen 
with the fame exultation with which they 
lately infpired them, A. B.C. 
ean are 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS from MR. TOULMIN Of KEN« 
TUCKY ; dated MARCH 26th, 1795. 
N a letter, which I have juft finifhed, 
addreffed to my I have informed 
you of the receipt of yours of June 16th, 
and September 13th, and not being able 
to finifh in a fingle fheet, 1 thought it 
better to form a diftinét letter of another, 
that you may with greater probability re- 
ceive one. I was giving you fome ac- 
count of our Seminary, agreably to your 
requeft. The moft unfavourable circum- 
ftance attending it, is the want of a pro- 
per boarding-houfe. The college-build- 
ing ftands upon a pleafant lot, of four 
acres; but confifts only of one large room 
below ftairs, for our Englifh {chool, and 
one above ftairs, with a library-room. 
In confequence of this, the boys and 
young men are fcattered about the town; 
a circumftance by no means favourable to 
difcipline or morals, though they have be- 
haved very well as far as I am concerned 
with them. I mean at the next meeting 
‘of the truftees (who are by law required 
to meet twice a year, being in number 
24, with the power of filling vacancies), 
to propofe it to them to fell a leafe of 100 
acres of land, in order to enable them to 
make fome addition to the houfe, and to 
procure a fteward to board them. Iffome. 
thing of the kind be not done, the femina- 
ry muf decline. We have already loft 
fix or eight for want of a good boarding- 
houfe. Laft Affembly the Prefbyterians 
applied for an aét, incorporating the truf- 
tees of a feminary they were eftablifhing, 
and fucceeded. The people in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Falls are procuring a . 
{chool-mafter. They are doing the fame 
at Wathington, near Limeftone 5 and si 
| | talk 
~ m4 
