funds gives them a degree of weight equally advantageous to themselves and the public. They are by interest, the strongest of all ties, attached to the coun|try which protects them, and by their correspondence with each other, how|ever widely dispersed, are enabled to col|lect intelligence of all the designs of fo|reign cabinets. It may occasion some astonishment, that Britain, which liberal|ly encourages their commercial enterpri|ses, should preclude them from possessing landed property. I will not say, that this prohibition proceeds altogether from wis|dom; but I am induced to think, that it has been productive of the happiest con|sequences. If the Hebrews had been permitted to purchase lands, many of them would have become mere farmers; an useful race of men, I confess, but on a narrow scale, if compared with mer|chants. The cultivator of the earth in a country not arrived at maturity, is un|questionably the first character; but in a more advanced state of society he must yield to the merchant. In the former state the landholder assists his country 0