izens, and urge great public improvements, and at
the same time gain a most sure and profitable investment. They can
pose as patriots in time of war, and urge that it be pressed with
energy at whatever cost of treasure and blood. It is not their blood
that is shed, nor their wealth that is wasted. It gives them the
opportunity of binding their burdens on the nation for the producers
of the coming generations to carry.

Usurers never wish public debts paid. They wish them issued for as
long time as possible, and then reissued, or the time extended before
they are due. This is done by the figment called refunding, as if it
were a concession and favor to a poor debtor. It is but a device to
keep the burden on the public back. It is not a financial feat and
triumph for the chancellor of the exchequer to refund a public debt.
He but yields himself as a tool to the usurers to continue their
loans. They resist the payment when due, but when an officer is found
willing to extend them before they are due all trouble is avoided and
the accretions of interest are not interrupted for a day.

Those who hold the bonds of a nation direct its destinies. The nation
borrowing is servant to the lender, just as an individual. The nation
compromises its freedom and becomes the slave of its bond-holders. The
usurers use their power for the advancement of their own material
interests, and hold all other purposes of government as inferior to
their own ends. This subordination of a people, to the creditors, is
fatal to republican and constitutional governments; the form may be
preserved for a time, but the substance of free government has
departed.

The concentration of wealth carries with it the concentration of
power, and is inimical to republican institutions. A proper
distribution of wealth and power must be preserved or popular
government is put in jeopardy.

The first bank of deposit and discount was the Bank of Venice, in the
republic of Venetia. It continued its existence for six hundred years,
until the government that gave it life itself perished. From its long
continuous business, and its success as a bank, it has been spoken of
in every work on banking as a model. It began its association with the
republic in 1171, and dominated it, sapping its life, and assuming
its functions, until the bank practically ruled the state, and when
one fell both perished in 1797. The usurers received their hold on the
state in a time of the great