if common report is true, not a beggar in London can purchase his
wretched pittance of coal, without paying towards the civil list of
the Duke of Richmond. Were the whole produce of this imposition but
a shilling a year, the iniquitous principle would be still the same;
but when it amounts, as it is said to do, to no less than twenty
thousand pounds per annum, the enormity is too serious to be permitted
to remain. This is one of the effects of monarchy and aristocracy.

  In stating this case I am led by no personal dislike. Though I think
it mean in any man to live upon the public, the vice originates in the
government; and so general is it become, that whether the parties
are in the ministry or in the opposition, it makes no difference: they
are sure of the guarantee of each other.

  25. In America the increase of commerce is greater in proportion
than in England. It is, at this time, at least one half more than at
any period prior to the revolution. The greatest number of vessels
cleared out of the port of Philadelphia, before the commencement of
the war, was between eight and nine hundred. In the year 1788, the
number was upwards of twelve hundred. As the State of Pennsylvania
is estimated at an eighth part of the United States in population, the
whole number of vessels must now be nearly ten thousand.

  26. When I saw Mr. Pitt's mode of estimating the balance of trade,
in one of his parliamentary speeches, he appeared to me to know
nothing of the nature and interest of commerce; and no man has more
wantonly tortured it than himself. During a period of peace it has
been havocked with the calamities of war. Three times has it been
thrown into stagnation, and the vessels unmanned by impressing, within
less than four years of peace.

  27. Rev. William Knowle, master of the grammar school of Thetford,
in Norfolk.

  28. Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected that
the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be
suspicious of public characters, but with regard to myself I am
perfectly easy on this head. I did not, at my first setting out in
public life, nearly seventeen years ago, turn my thoughts to
subjects of government from motives of interest, and my conduct from
that moment to this proves the fact. I saw an opportunity in which I
thought I could do some good, and I followed exactly what my heart
dictated. I neither read books, nor studied other people's opinion.
I thought for myself. The case was this:-

  During the suspension of the old governments in America, both
prior to and at the breaking out of hostilities, I was struck with the
order and decorum with which everything was conducted, and impressed
with the idea that a little more than what society naturally performed
was all the government that was necessary, and that monarchy and
aristocracy were frauds and impositions upon mankind. On these
principles I published the pamphlet Common Sense. The success it met
with was beyond anything since the invention of printing. I gave the
copyright to every state in the Union, and the demand ran to not
less than one hundred thousand copies. I continued the subject in
the same manner, under the title of The Crisis, till the complete
establishment of the Revolution.

  After the declaration of independence Congress unanimously, and
unknown to me, appointed me Secretary in the Foreign Department.
This was agreeable to me, because it gave me the opportunity of seeing
into the abilities of foreign courts, and their manner of doing
business. But a misunderstanding arising between Congress and me,
respecting one of their commissioners then in Europe, Mr. Silas Deane,
I resigned the office, and declined at the same time the pecuniary
offers made by the Ministers of France and Spain, M. Gerald and Don
Juan Mirralles.

  I had by this time so completely gained the ear and confidence of
America, and my own independence was become so visible, as to give
me a range in political writing beyond, perhaps, what any man ever
possessed in any country, and, what is more extraordinary, I held it
undiminished to the end of the war, and enjoy it in the same manner to
the present moment. As my object was not myself, I set out with the
determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by
praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my
purpose by any personal altercation, and the man who cannot do this is
not fit for a public character.

  When the war ended I went from Philadelphia to Borden-Town, on the
east bank of the Delaware, where I have a small place. Congress was at
this time at Prince-Town, fifteen miles distant, and General
Washington had taken his headquarters at Rocky Hill, within the
neighbourhood of Congress, for the purpose of resigning up his
commission (the object for which he accepted it being accomplished),
and of retiring to private life. While he was on this business he
wrote me the letter which I here subjoin:

                                 "Rocky-Hill, Sept. 10, 1783.

  "I have learned since I have been at this place that you are at
Borden-Town. Whether for the sake of retirement or economy I know not.
Be it for either, for both, or whatever it may, if you will come to
this place, and partake with me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see
you at it.

  "Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this
country, and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best
exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who
entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who,