Note 37 — PART IV. OF PUBLIC CREDIT. (continued 3)

Experience shews, that when the debts of a nation have come to a height, the public creditors become people of great consequence, upon account of the ease and affluence of their circumstances. They are not exposed to the many hidden expences incident to land proprietors. They are a class in the state but lately known; the capital of their wealth is hid; and opinions concerning their figure and rank are as yet unformed. Whereas the family of a land proprietor is known; his expence may surpass that of his predecessors without much observation; but if it should fall below it, he commonly sinks in the estimation of his neighbours, who seldom combine circumstances which can only be guessed at. An heir to a landed estate, is bred up from his infancy with the notion of living like his father: the son of a monied man has commonly very different sentiments; and even when any of this class takes a turn to expence, the lustre of it is all displayed round their own bodies; that is, in their own house, and in their own families: no country seats, hounds, horses, servants in every quarter, family interest to keep up, little oeconomy in spending. In a word, every one feels better than I can describe, that landed men commonly exceed, and monied men commonly live within their income.