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appear to have been wholly overlooked, except in the closets of a few speculative writers who foresaw the ruin of the system, but miscalculated its period, from not taking into account the almost incredible energies of your extraordinary people. This was a great evil; because when the æra of their prophecies had passed away, it operated as a kind of license for unbounded pro-fusion. Œconomists were of course discountenanced, and jobbers of every description encouraged in a triumphant cry against factious predictions, until it seems to have become a received or rather an unquestionable axiom amongst you, that no debt which figures could extend to denominate would ever affect the invulnerable and immortal Armata; since, contrary to the experience of our jockeys in England, the more weight she had carried the greater had been her speed. That this bubble did not burst whilst hostilities continued may easily be accounted for.—Whilst your government was the universal paymaster, your forges resounded night and day, your looms were incessantly
