OF TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT.
We have ourselves, in our maritime parts, some experience of the
English, as traders [Kie-tee]. Something of their moral character is
known, not as traders only, but as representatives of the general
civilization of their tribe. It will be a long period before the
events of the _opium_ war are forgotten--when these selfish and cruel
Barbarians came with their big fire-ships and great cannons, and
massacred so many of our province, Quantung! Nor will the slaughters
of the people of our Central Kingdom, and the burnings and plunderings
at the Illustrious seat of our Exalted, pass out of mind for many
generations. Trade! yes, Trade is the _Moloch_ [Kan-ni-bli] of the
English; there is nothing (of character) which they will not sacrifice
to this Idol. The god by which they mostly swear, and whose name
they apply to themselves, knew nothing of trade, and his words, as
recorded in the _Sacred Writings_, condemn every practice customary in
it. This inconsistency is always found in the devotees of irrational
worship; where formal observances stand for practical virtues.
Perhaps dishonesty in trade is no more conspicuous, than immorality
everywhere; only traffic touching on all sides, and affecting nearly
every interest, carries with it an almost universal debasement. Blind
and conceited, it is the custom to speak of our _Central Kingdom_
contemptuously, and to brand our people as Heathen _thieves_ [ta-ki].
We have thieves, and punish them. But how strangely to those of our
people who know these Barbarians, this charge sounds! It is notorious
that the vile stuff packed up as _Tea_ by our knaves is for the gain
of English traders; and that the horribly obscene pictures of degraded
artists find a market with the Barbarians! We punish these plunderers
when we detect them; but these Christians who would _convert_ us
encourage this immorality!
The Law-making Houses are continually occupied (and occupied in vain)
to find remedies for the almost universal crime of _Adulteration_
[Kon-ti-fyt] _of Food_. Scarcely an article of food, or of drink,
medicine, what not, escapes this dangerous cheat. To make a larger gain
some cheap admixture, often poisonous and rarely harmless, is added
to nearly every article. It is not easy to understand how general the
moral debasement must be, when a thing of this sort, striking at once
at health, and even life, is so common as to be scarcely contemned! To
be cheated is a kind of _comedy_--one expects to be cheated--cheated
in his clothes, his wine, his horses, his dogs, his meat, his drink,
his beer, his sugar, his tea, _his everything_! To have been honestly
dealt with is a surprise--a thing to be remarked upon. To have been
cheated--a _shrug_ of the shoulder--an exclamation--"Of course!" In
fact, almost always the cause of a hearty laugh, especially if a sharp
trick--or at another's expense! The very laws of trade are based on
dishonesty; and a people will not generally be better than their laws.
The High-Caste affecting to despise trade, do, occasionally, in the
Law-making Houses (as I have said), feebly interfere with the general
rascality. Yet, they are so dependent, indirectly or directly, upon
trade or its gains, that they will not do anything to hamper it; and
any law which touches the utmost freedom of action in _buying and
selling_, in their opinion, has this effect. On the whole, they say,
better a few rogues flourish, and a few people be poisoned to death,
than that _commerce_ (an _euphuism_ for rascally traffic) be injured.
That man has a fine nature which traffic, in its best ways, cannot
tarnish; and laws should take their colour from the best--not the
sordid. The old Romans cultivated the land, and looked with contempt
upon traffic. When riches and its corruptions lowered manliness, and
Commerce spread through the provinces--still, the Roman jurisprudence
based itself upon equity--it did not place trade upon a pedestal above
Justice! They made no such Barbarous mistake as to suppose that any
business of a people could be more important to its prosperity, than
the maintainance of right principle!
The English Barbarians say the interests of the public require a
disregard of right; and their famous legal maxim (in the Roman) is
_Caveat emptor_--the buyer must take care--must sharply watch the
seller. This is to say, "The seller is to be expected to cheat; and,
if the buyer be cheated, let him thank his own stupidity!" The old
Heathen Romans made no such immoral rule; they required the most exact
good faith upon both sides. The seller could not sell a horse blind
of one eye, or incurably, though not always visibly, lame, and to the
complaint of the buyer answer, "Oh! I gave no assurance of soundness."
The High-Caste, despising trade of any useful sort, none the less
delight in traffic of a high-caste colour. They deal in pictures,
equipages, horses, jewels, sculptures, books, dogs, _nick-nacks_ of all
sorts; know how to bargain, and understand the _tricks_, especially
in horses, dogs, paintings, and the like, as well as those whom they
affect to despise.
The English are, doubtless, successful traders and plunderers. They
are rough, and brave, and reckless; and in traffic are as unscrupulous
as in predatory ventures. Their conquests abroad have been incidental
generally, commerce being the immediate object. But they have never
scrupled to use force when it has seemed fittest. The _plunder_ of a
people has been found easier, and the returns quicker and larger, than
the slower gains of traffic.
For this shameful and cruel conduct, the English and other Western
Barbarians find ample justification in their _Superstition_. For they
believe that the peoples beyond the seas are Heathen, and under the ban
of _Jah_. Their _Sacred Writings_ so declare; and that "the Heathen are
given to the Saints as a spoil, and their Lands as an Inheritance."
Now, these Barbarians affirm that they are the Saints; that the people
who do not worship their gods are Heathen; and that consequently they
(these Barbarians) have a right to the possessions and lands of these
distant and unoffending tribes! And not only this, that these tribes,
under the wrath of _Jah_, and subjects of the Devil and hell, ought
to be grateful for the inestimable boon of _the Gospel_ (_the Sacred
Writings_), by which they may learn the way to be saved; may, in fine,
become Christians!
Thus it comes about that the intercourse of the Western Barbarians
with peoples beyond the seas has been aggressive and piratical. From
the earlier part of the dynasty _Ming_, when these Barbarous tribes
first visited the great seas and distant regions in the far West and
mighty East, the Pope (then worshipped by all the tribes) gave to two
of them, very devoted to his worship and powerful in ships, the whole
world of _Heathen_. This meant all the wide world but that small region
in Europe wherein the Pope-worshippers lived. To the one tribe, called
_Portugals_, he gave the whole immense East, and to the other, styled
_Spaniards_, the vast regions in the West. Thus the two were possessed,
by the gift of their god, of the whole _Heathen_ world--India and our
Flowery Kingdom being portions!
In their many ships, these two tribes, sailing East and West, landed
upon the distant shores, and seized upon everything which they could.
They thought it pleasing to _Jah_ to put to death those who had
offended him, and were already under _his wrath_ and condemnation: the
Heathen were justly extirpated, unless they _believed_ and worshipped
_Jah_!
Not very long after this gift to the two tribes, the English and Dutch,
having quarrelled with the Romish Priests, refused to worship the Pope
and denied his authority. The Dutch first, and then the English,
growing more powerful in ships, made distant forays for plunder and
trade; and, following the tracks of the Portugals and Spaniards,
disregarded their pretended _exclusive_ title to the _Heathen_. They
determined to have a portion of this general transfer of the world
to _Christians_; they were in their own judgment the better, the
_Reformed_ Christians, and far better entitled!
Since this enormous Blasphemy [Swa-tze] of the Pope, History, as
known to the Barbarians, has been, to a large extent, an account of
its consequences. Wars between the contending _Christians_ for the
distant possessions, and savage and cruel depopulation, plunder, and
subjugation of the unoffending inhabitants. Whole races of men have
melted away in the presence of these Christ-god worshippers; and the
horrors of the dreadful Superstition, which in the regions of Europe
had made man more like the Devil of his Idolatry than anything human,
spread, with fire and sword, over the wide world! In the far West,
beneath the setting sun, a beautiful and peaceful people, rich and
numerous, suffered cruelties too shocking to tell; and in the civilised
and populous East, the very name of _Christian_ became a synonym of all
that is detestable.
None the less, the English Barbarians, to this day, acting upon these
Christ-god pretensions, will insist that this _Trade and Plunder_ is
the _handmaid_ of Enlightenment, the chief agent in the preparing of
the World for a knowledge of the true gods, and the ultimate salvation
of the Heathen!
Trade is, therefore, a civilising agency and a powerful helper in the
redemption of mankind from the awful Hell. A few poor Missionaries
are sometimes added to the general cargo of _means of conversion_.
The same ship which transports these Bonzes to convert the benighted
_pagans_ will, perhaps, have a few volumes of the _Sacred Writings_,
some bad rum, worse muskets (more dangerous to him who shoots than to
him to whom the shot is directed), gunpowder, flimsy articles too poor
for home trade; to these, add the licentious and degraded sailors; and
one sees how well the English Barbarians work to introduce their true
worship and save the Heathen! But this is feeble: only a trade-ship.
The great fire-ships, with big cannons, full of armed and fierce
barbarians, which devastate the populous coasts, and burn and plunder
the maritime parts--_these_ are illustrious workers in the spread of
the Christ-god _Salvation_ and a lofty Civilization! Thus the very
worship of the Barbarians has helped, by its cruel pretensions, to
_ingrain_ a wrong notion--one making them immoral and cruel. Taking the
_Jah_ of the old, huckstering Jews, as an object of idolatry, the whole
people has, in trade, become _Jewish_, as in much else.
I have referred to petty cheating, and to that wholesale criminality
of adulteration. But _fraud_ is very common, and often on an enormous
scale. Nor is there any remedy. In truth, it is so common, that, as all
hope to have a turn at its advantage, none care to punish heavily him,
who, by chance, has been too bold. The fraud must take the form of open
robbery, or be of such grossness as to be hardly disguised, before the
wrong-doer will be arrested. A man may enjoy unmolested, and even with
respect, a great fortune acquired by notorious _trickery_.
So universal is this toleration of roguery, that the Plays and Pastimes
are often enlivened by comical illustrations of the various arts,
tricks, and deceptions practised. The charlatans, rogues, cheats, and
the like, are shown in the Lawyer, the Doctor, the Bonze (low-caste),
and other professions and occupations. Endless are the villanies of the
Lawyer--the _quack_ pretensions and impositions of the Medical man--the
cant, hypocrisy and meanness of the Bonze.
Among the professions and trades, the teacher is a brutal _ignoramus_,
who beats and starves the wretched children under his care; the nurse
quietly drinks herself drunk and goes to sleep, leaving the sick man to
gasp and die for the drink close at hand, but which he cannot reach;
the milkman stops at the pump, and fills up his milk-cans with water;
the teaman shows and sells you one sort, but delivers a very different;
the grocer says his prayers, hurries to his goods, asks his servant if
"the sugar be sanded," "the rum watered," "the tobacco wet down," "the
teas mixed," "the _small_ bottles filled," and the like; the tailor
sells you more cloth than he knows will be required for your garments,
and _cabbages_ the excess; the cabman who knows you are a stranger
demands quadruple fare; the innkeeper gives you the meanest room, and
charges you the price for the best; and so on through every business of
life.
The learned professions take the lead in this exhibition of roguery
and immorality. The spectators never tire of these displays of the
general rascality. The roguish landlord, the villanous horse-dealer,
the artful, knavish servant, the Priest of Low Caste, and the Doctor,
afford the most common diversion. The Lawyer is generally _diabolic_,
the Bonze a hypocrite and knave, the medical man an impostor and dealer
in medicines of infallible healing power.
Much of this may be referred to the love of coarse humour--but its
real base is to be found in the _degradation of morals_. These
representations are _types_, and would only produce disgust, were not
the rascalities represented familiar. The excesses and exaggerations
are of the Play--but the _types_ are normal and common.
One great trading place is called the _Stock Exchange_--another,
perhaps more important, styled the _Merchants' Exchange_. These places
are established in every large town, and the _business_ done in them
absorbs the attention of traders and people who have any property,
throughout the Kingdom.
The _dealings_ [Keet-sees] of the former relate to _Certificates_
and _Bonds_. These are _Pieces of Printed and Coloured Paper_, which
represent in the words and figures a sum of money invested in a trading
concern, or a sum of money which somebody owes and promises to pay. The
_sum_ may be quite a fiction, and is usually either never to be really
paid, or paid at some very remote day. However, a small sum is promised
to be paid every six moons, or in twelve moons--this is for _not_
paying the big sum.
The business of the latter relates to the buying and selling of every
sort of merchandise, whether on land, or on vessels at sea.
Other great trading places deal in money, or rather in bits of _Printed
Paper_, which promise to pay money to him who has one of these _bits_.
These places get people to sell them these bits at a price, and
then resell at a greater price--or they _borrow_ and _lend_ these
bits, paying less for the use than they obtain. Very little money is
seen--business is in Paper--another of the ingenious _tricks_ of these
trading and gambling Barbarians, perhaps the source of more dishonesty
and cheating than almost any other. As the like has no existence in our
Flowery Land, it will not easily be comprehended.
The chief of these places for dealing in this money-paper is called the
_Bank_. The Government shares in the advantages of this invention. Its
object is to _bank up_, or hoard, all the real money (gold and silver)
which it can get in exchange for the bits of paper. These promise that
the Bank will always return the sum of gold which the bit acknowledges
to have been received. The man hands the Bank his gold-money to be
kept safely till he wishes for it, and the Bank gives him the _bit_ of
Paper (which is numbered and recorded in a book). He can carry this in
his pocket, but the gold-money would be too burdensome and more easily
lost. The Government pledges also that the gold shall always be safely
kept, to be returned whenever the bits of paper are returned. This
Bank-house is immensely strong and large, built of hewn stone, and is
guarded by men armed with swords and fire-arms for fear of the savage
and ignorant Low-Castes.
Ordinarily, only now and again, a few persons go to the Bank and
wish the gold; because if one wishes it, some one of whom he buys,
or to whom he owes, will take the money-paper and hand him the
difference--consequently, the paper goes from hand to hand for a long
time. Everybody takes it because it is convenient, and because he
thinks the gold attached to it is safe in the Government Bank-house.
The confidence in _Paper_ is called CREDIT. To which I shall more fully
refer.
Sometimes, when a great many demand the gold, it is suddenly found
that the Bank-house has it not! The promise of _banking up_ the gold
till wanted in exchange for the Paper _has been broken_. Down goes
_Credit_--every kind of value shrinks at once; for the Bank has _not_
the real money, and values have been measured by the paper!
The traders and everybody connected with them have incurred debts--that
is, made paper promises to pay, like those of the Bank, for property
_valued on_ the Bank-paper. It is found that this Bank-paper is too
much by one-half--the property has been over-valued in proportion.
Still the debtors are required to pay the amount of _their_ paper
promises!
It is impossible--ruin and _Bankruptcy_ ensue--the whole trading world
is convulsed, and tens of thousands are beggared!
The explanation is that the Bank is allowed by the Government (in
consideration of certain advantages to itself) to lend out the gold
for usury--that is, it lends a thousand pounds of gold to be returned
in three moons, for which use the borrower pays twelve or twenty
pounds! It makes its gains by thus using the gold which it has promised
safely to keep. It is permitted to do this, because the risk of having
_much_ gold demanded at once is small, and from experience the Bank has
discovered that if one-third part of its paper-promises of gold is in
hand, it will be in little risk of having more demanded! Backed by the
Government, it deliberately, for the sake of gain, runs the risk of
being a cheat and robber!
Then follows a curious contrivance of these dishonest Barbarians. To
save its own moneys and advantages in the Bank, and to save loss or
ruin to the owners of the establishment, who are very powerful and
numerous, composed of members of the High Castes as well as others--in
fact, to save the general wreck of the _sham_ paper-money (_Credit_)
upon which values are falsely based, the Government issues a Law,
forcing everybody to receive from the Bank its paper precisely as if it
were gold!
Thus, having assisted in one fraud, it resorts to another, to remedy
in some measure the evils of the first--extending and perpetuating the
evil, which a wise man would remove!
Another remarkable thing is the organised _Betting_. The Houses where
this is done are splendid, and the many people supported in them and by
the gains, live luxuriously, and are greatly respected. The gains are,
in small measure, also shared by those who put in money from which bets
may be paid, when the House loses the bet.
The betting may be about anything. But the chief Houses are those
where the bets have reference to length of life or injuries, to loss by
fire, to loss by sea, and losses by fraud. If a man wish to bet that
he will live say seventy moons, he pays down at once a small sum, and
the House accepts the bet--that is, gives him a _writing, promising_
to pay his heirs a very much larger sum if he die before the seventy
moons expire. If a man have goods in a _shop_, he bets, say, one pound
to 100 pounds, that they will not be burned during twelve moons--he
pays down the pound and receives a writing (as before) that if the
goods be burned during the time, he shall be paid the 100 pounds. So
on, as to bets upon goods and upon vessels on the seas, upon buildings
of all kinds, upon duration of life, and upon the life of another,
upon accidents to body, upon honesty of servants--upon almost anything
where the thing bet by the Houses is remote in time. This is the great
point; for these never pay anything down by way of _stakes_, but always
receive in money the _stake_ (bet) of the other party.
One may readily see how corrupting all this is in its nature, and how
falsely conceived. The rascally trader burns the goods, the possessor
of a building burns that, the owner of a ship has her wrecked, to
get the sums promised upon these events; and trade is promoted upon
unsound practices. Even life has been taken by a wretched gambler,
who has staked money upon the life of another. The _tendency_ is to
these crimes. Nor can there be anything but _loss to the public at
large_; for these expensive Houses and their numerous and richly-living
inhabitants are supported by the winnings made, without rendering any
useful service. This must be true, even when all bets made by these
Houses are _paid_. But another great mischief follows: they do not
pay, and are often only _Swindles_ [Kea-ties] on a great scale! There
are those which pay--that is, have so far paid--but as there are bets
for enormous amounts far in _the future_, no one can say that final
payments are certain. The great object of all the Houses is to secure
as large sums in cash as possible upon events a long way off. The
more remote the event upon which the bet is laid, the larger the sum
demanded from the individual who bets. _He_ pays--the House merely
promises to pay, and cannot be called upon to pay for a very long time!
In this way, great sums of money having been got (some bets having
been promptly paid to obtain confidence), the House shuts its doors!
The rogues share the plunder and _decamp_. Decamp is to run away to
distant parts to escape arrest and punishment. This is, however, rarely
necessary; for such are the cunning contrivances of the Lawyers, who
organise these Betting Houses, that very little risk is run--_forms_
of law, slack enough at best, have been so well adhered to, that the
rascals escape, though everybody knows that they have used those forms
as a cover to more effectually defraud, and then as a shield to more
effectually protect! These things are unknown in our _Central_ Kingdom,
and are only possible to a demoralised people.
The _dealing_ at the Stock Exchange is mainly only another form of
betting. It is hard of comprehension, unless by the _Initiated_. It is
a distinct trade. Those who deal constitute a secret and exclusive
_betting Ring_, or community. If by chance, when the doors are open,
a stranger inadvertently enters, he is greeted with caterwaulings,
howlings, "Turn-him-outs," and the like. "_Smash his hat!_" some one
cries; and suddenly the stiff head-covering is violently driven down,
completely over the face and ears, tearing the skin off the nose,
and reducing the thoughtless and astonished stranger to a state of
ridiculous helplessness!
Betting is a passion with the English Barbarians. The women, the
children, the servants--everybody bets about any and every thing. Horse
races, boat races, swimming races, all sorts of games and sports,
attended by both sexes, afford endless occasions for the indulgence of
it. Yet, after all, extensive, ruinous, and debasing as are the evils
of it in these sports and games, the mischief is vastly greater in the
Marts of traffic--in the Stock and Merchants' Exchanges.
In these, the dealings are, as I have said, either as to pieces of
paper representing values, or as to merchandise in hand or at sea; and,
I may add, as to _pieces of paper_, representing this merchandise,
called Warrants and Bills of Lading.
The betting in the Stock Exchange concerns itself with the Paper of the
former class, and the betting of the Merchants' Exchange with the Paper
of the second kind. All this grows directly out of the Bank paper and
the _Credit system_, before mentioned.
All values are founded upon these nominal promises to pay. But the
promises themselves are ever undergoing changes, according to the
varying circumstances. The promise _to-day_ looks well--it is
estimated at so much; _to-morrow_ it does not look so well--and it is
estimated at less worth. Besides, all the gold and silver in the world
could not pay a twentieth part of these promises. Thus the fluctuations
are incessant. The betting at the Stock Exchange has reference to
_these_ fluctuations. One of the _betters_ is interested to have a
rise, another to have a fall, of value. One agrees to deliver at a
future day, at a certain price; all are interested to bring about a
change either one way or another. The man who desires a rise may not
be scrupulous as to any means which may produce the rise; and he who
wishes a fall of price will eagerly second anything which will have
that effect. Consider the consequences upon the honesty and good faith
of those who engage in this betting!
The Merchants' Exchange is not so devoted to absolute betting; yet
its largest business partakes of that vice. One buys a cargo at sea;
another agrees to deliver a cargo three months hence. One sells what
he has not, for a future delivery. Another buys what he never intends
to receive, deliverable to him in the future. No money is paid, nor
received. The buyers and sellers are merely gambling--betting (as
in the Stock Exchange) upon the _rise or fall_ of prices! And are
interested--the one to advance the price, and the other to lower the
price, of the thing dealt in!
Consider the temptation to unfair practices, the inevitable tricks,
false rumours, lies, and deviations from honourable conduct involved
in such transactions! Reflect upon the consequences to the honest
trader, who is, in his very honesty, all the more easily tricked by
the unscrupulous!
The stronghold of these various gambling Establishments, and the grand
feature, in fact, of the English business life, is CREDIT--to which I
will devote some space. We have nothing like it, nor had the ancient
barbarians of the West. It is, perhaps, the most distinguishing thing
in the Barbarian life.
As already hinted, Credit means that a Promise shall stand for
performance.
It had its rise among the Barbarian tribes, not very long since, and
grew out of their incessant wars. Particularly the English, finding
they could not pay the armed bands, contrived to get the gold out of
the hands of the people in exchange for the Bank-paper, and then,
forcing the people to still accept the paper for gold, issued paper
to such an amount as Government needed! From that period the people,
especially the trading classes, making directly or indirectly nearly
the whole, found an advantage in resorting to the same fiction--and the
Government could do no other than give to the trader, who could not pay
_his_ promise, the same relief which it took for itself--for the Bank.
It allowed him to pay what he could, and go on as before! No matter
that he paid only one-third part--unless he had been guilty of some
extreme roguery, he received a discharge from all his promises, and
could begin to make new ones and go on in trade as before!
In this way, the Barbarian community is one wherein a false principle
corrupts all. Boldness, recklessness, cunning, to say nothing of
positive criminality, are encouraged; honour, delicacy, simple
integrity, are driven into obscurity. Let him who would preserve his
conscience smooth and clear, a mirror whence divinity be reflected,
shun all the marts and ways of trade!
The Revenues of the Government are derived largely from the dealers in
the great _Marts_, and it is immediately interested in the upholding
of the _Credit_ of the innumerable paper-promises of all kinds made by
these and by the Betting Houses. It is, in fact, the chief supporter of
the _whole sham_--it cannot be otherwise, for the English State rests
upon it. The promises of the Government to pay gold can never be kept,
and it forces an acceptance of a mere _fraction_, from time to time, as
a _sufficient_ redemption of its promises made generations ago!
Other sums are derived from taxes upon the tea, sugar, and other things
largely consumed by the lower castes; whilst rich silks, laces, and
costly things used by the High-Castes are not taxed. But then the taxes
are levied by the High-Castes!
A great revenue is collected from the _excise_, a tax upon the beer,
drunk in enormous quantities by the lowest Caste. To stimulate the
consumption of this article and increase the revenue, _Beer-shops_ are
to be seen on every hand, and the drinkers everywhere. Drunkenness,
wretchedness, riot, disorder--these flourish as the _Beer-shops_
increase; these are the associates of those places! Yet in vain do
good Englishmen try to remove these _evil dens_. What are the efforts
of these few in the midst of a general debasement--a debasement which
takes, without shame, a share in a traffic so vile!
I have spoken freely of the dishonesty of the Barbarian trade and
business--a dishonesty to be expected when one broadly views the whole
ground of their Society. Still, natural equity and its _instinct_,
especially when the mind is more or less cultured, will always prevent
absolute dissolution--thieving and roguery will be restrained in
tolerable bounds. A man of genuine integrity finds traffic no good
moralist in the best of circumstances. He needs the support of the
State, or he will fight an unequal battle, and be forced by dishonesty
to retire. The Barbarians are not yet sufficiently enlightened to
raise the _measure_ of honesty. The Government and the people are
one in this. They do not perceive that the evils under which their
industry, their peaceful pursuits, and all their interests suffer, are
those inseparable from a bad superstition and false principles--these
extend everywhere and into everything. Misleading in Statesmanship
[Lan-ta-soa], in dealings with distant peoples, in due ordering and
educating the people at home--stimulating wild speculation and extended
confidence (credit) at one time, only to be followed by disastrous
collapse, excessive distrust, and wretchedness, soon after! Giving, in
fine, to Barbarian society that aspect of restlessness, that apparent
but often vicious activity, that indescribable hurry and confusion,
that unhealthy excitement, unknown to an orderly and industrious
people, whose order and industry are grounded upon the simple and
direct rules of reason and truth.