ext to make
purchases of lands; and this selfish breach of confidence would have
disgraced Solon himself, had it not been found that he was personally a
great loser, having lent money to the extent of five talents.

In regard to the whole measure of the Seisachtheia, indeed, though the
poems of Solon were open to every one, ancient authors gave different
statements both of its purport and of its extent. Most of them construed
it as having cancelled indiscriminately all money contracts; while
Androtion and others thought that it did nothing more than lower the
rate of interest and depreciate the currency to the extent of 27 per
cent., leaving the letter of the contracts unchanged. How Androtion came
to maintain such an opinion we cannot easily understand. For the
fragments now remaining from Solon seem distinctly to refute it, though,
on the other hand, they do not go so far as to substantiate the full
extent of the opposite view entertained by many writers--that all money
contracts indiscriminately were rescinded--against which there is also a
further reason, that if the fact had been so, Solon could have had no
motive to debase the money standard. Such debasement supposes that there
must have been _some_ debtors at least whose contracts remained valid,
and whom nevertheless he desired partially to assist. His poems
distinctly mention three things: 1. The removal of the mortgage-pillars.
2. The enfranchisement of the land. 3. The protection, liberation, and
restoration of the persons of endangered or enslaved debtors. All these
expressions point distinctly to the Thetes and small proprietors, whose
sufferings and peril were the most urgent, and whose case required a
remedy immediate as well as complete. We find that his repudiation of
debts was carried far enough to exonerate them, but no farther.

It seems to have been the respect entertained for the character of Solon
which partly occasioned these various misconceptions of his ordinances
for the relief of debtors. Androtion in ancient, and some eminent
critics in modern times are anxious to make out that he gave relief
without loss or injustice to any one. But this opinion seems
inadmissible. The loss to creditors by the wholesale abrogation of
numerous preexisting contracts, and by the partial depreciation of the
coin, is a fact not to be disguised. The Seisachtheia of Solon, unjust
so far as it rescinded previous agreements, but highly salutary in its
consequences,