The Great Affair, We Always Find, Is

Such Regulations May, No Doubt, Be Considered As In Some Respect A Violation Of Natural Liberty. But Those Exertions Of The Natural Liberty Of A Few Individuals, Which Might Endanger The Security Of The Whole Society, Are, And Ought To Be, Restrained By The Laws Of All Governments; Of The Most Free, As Well As Or The Most Despotical. The Obligation Of Building Party Walls, In Order To Prevent The Communication Of Fire, Is A Violation Of Natural Liberty, Exactly Of The Same Kind With The Regulations Of The Banking Trade Which Are Here Proposed.

This Is One Of Those Cases In Which The Imagination Is Baffled By The Facts.

The Disposition To Admire, And Almost To Worship, The Rich And The Powerful, And To Despise, Or, At Least, To Neglect Persons Of Poor And Mean Condition Is The Great And Most Universal Cause Of The Corruption Of Our Moral Sentiments.

That Wealth And Greatness Are Often Regarded With The Respect And Admiration Which Are Due Only To Wisdom And Virtue; And That The Contempt, Of Which Vice And Folly Are The Only Proper Objects, Is Most Often Unjustly Bestowed Upon Poverty And Weakness, Has Been The Complaint Of Moralists In All Ages.

Great Nations Are Never Impoverished By Private, Though They Sometimes Are By Public Prodigality And Misconduct.