dustry, it has been
observed, never is to be found for any great length of time in any
single line of men; consequently, there are few great monied men,
except such as have acquired their own fortunes, and those can never
be very numerous nor overgrown.

Besides our having facts to furnish proofs that there are no very great
fortunes, except landed fortunes; it can scarcely have escaped the
notice of any one, that no other gives such umbrage, or shews the
inferiority men =sic= who have none so much. {108}

That there is a perpetual tendency to the accumulation of property, in
the hands of individuals, is certain; for, amongst the nations

---
{108} If a man has wealth, in any other form, it is only known by the
expenditure he makes, and it is quickly diminished by
mismanagement; but the great landed estate, which is seldom well
attended to, is mismanaged to the public detriment without ruin to the
proprietor.
-=-

[end of page #129]

of Europe, those who are the most ancient, exhibit the most striking
contrasts of poverty and riches.

Nations obtaining wealth by commerce are less liable to this danger
than any others; at least we are led to believe so, from the present
situation of things: we are, perhaps, however, not altogether right in
the conclusion.

In France there were, and in Germany, Russia, and Poland, there are
some immense fortunes, though general wealth is not nearly equal to
that of England: so much for a comparison between nations of the
present day. Again, it is certain, there were some fortunes in England,
in the times of the Plantagenets and Tudors, much greater than any of
the present times. {109} England was not then near so wealthy as it is
now, and had very little commerce: it would then appear, that whether
we compare England with what it was before it became a wealthy and
commercial nation, or with other nations, at the present time, which
are not wealthy, commerce and riches appear to have operated in
dividing riches, and making that division more equal, rather than in
rendering their accumulation great in particular hands, and their
distribution unequal.

Before we are too positive about the cause, though we admit this
effect, let us inquire whether there are not some other circumstances
that are peculiar to the present situation of England, that may, if not
wholly, at least in part, account for it.

The form of government in England is different from that of any of
those countri