sm; and much regret was expressed that a distrust of the
permanency of the French revolution should be avowed. It was hoped and
believed that the present was the settled state of things; and that
the old order of things was unsettled for ever: that the French
revolution was as much more permanent than had been the French
despotism, as was the great fabric of nature, than the petty plastic
productions of art. To exclude the period since the revolution, would
be to exclude some of the strongest evidences of the friendship of one
nation, and the enmity of the other.

The animadversions which had been made on the report of the secretary
of state were retorted with acrimony. It was declared that he would
not suffer by a comparison in point of intelligence, accuracy, and
patriotism, either with the laborious compiler of the table produced
by Mr. Smith, or with the gentleman who had been judiciously selected
for its interpreter. Some explanations were given of the inaccuracies
which had been alleged; and the facts omitted were declared to be
immaterial circumstances, which, if inserted, would have swelled the
report, without adding to the information it communicated.

In reply to the argument which stated that Great Britain did not, in
common years, raise a sufficient quantity of grain for her own
consumption, and would consequently afford an increasing market for
American wheat and flour, it was remarked that this not only
established the all important position of the dependence of that
country on this, but suggested a very interesting reflection. It was
that the continual increase of debt and paper machinery, will not
produce a correspondent increase of ability in the nation to feed
itself. That an infinity of paper will not produce an infinity of
food.

In contrasting the ability of the two nations to support a commercial
conflict, it was said, "Great Britain, tottering under the weight of a
king, a court, a nobility, a priesthood, armies, navies, debts, and
all the complicated machinery of oppression which serves to increase
the number of unproductive, and lessen the number of productive hands;
at this moment engaged in a foreign war; taxation already carried to
the ultimatum of financial device; the ability of the people already
displayed in the payment of taxes, constituting a political
phenomenon; all prove the debility of the system, and the decreptitude
of old age. On the other hand, the United States, in the flowe