3. Whether a more equal Distribution of _Loss_ can be made, to please all Parties, especially the major Part; or who will be the greatest _Loser_ by the _Proposal_ herein mention'd? One great Calamity is the Loss of _Paper Credit_, on which our _Trade_ chiefly depended: We find already a great Decay, which will soon be more apparent. We have indeed at present too little _Cash_, and too little _Credit_, to support _Trade_; and if we do not take other _Methods_ than what has been yet practis'd, it will be entirely lost. It is the Prudence of a _Government_, to establish _Credit_ on the most solid Foundation; and what can be so solid as a _Parliamentary Security_? Will the _Government_ be trusted with any future Loans, if their Debts are settled upon a _precarious Bottom_? And are _Corporation-Pillars_ a good Foundation? The _Method_ already propos'd, is seemingly calculated for the Service of _Stock-Jobbing_, and a Parcel of _I know not who_, (_Sharpers_,) to reap the Benefit of it: And if so, the _Nation_ will be utterly ruin'd. For God's Sake, then, let us not run any more _Hazards_, but prudently take such _Measures_ as are most safe and advantageous. If the _Government_ will forgive the _South-Sea_ Company the Debt of _Seven Millions, Five Hundred Thousand Pounds_, and put them in _Statu quo_; they ought to sit down contented, and be easy and thankful. If the present _Scheme_ gives the Subscribers but _Twenty Five Pounds_ Capital Stock for a _Hundred_, and the _Government_ will give such Subscribers _Fifty Pounds_ for a _Hundred_, I hope they will have no Reason to complain. For should the _Subscriptions_ be ty'd down to _Four Hundred_, Thousands of Families will be ruin'd. If we consider the Debt we owe to _Foreigners_, and how they, on the _Advance of Stocks_, drain us of our Money; we shall find it very dangerous to suffer _Stocks_ to be sold above the intrinsick Value. If Common Interest be reduc'd to Four _per Cent._ as was intended; what _Proprietor_ can say he shall be a Loser? Setting aside the _Subscriptions_ and _Stock_, bought and sold at extravagant Prices; which is impossible to redress, without making a far greater Number of Sufferers. Will the _Proposal_ of Tying down the _Subscribers_ at _Four Hundred_, give a greater Interest than Ten _per Cent._ for the Capital? And what will the Capital be, when paid off? Will that be more than _Twenty Five Pounds_ for a _Hundred_? Does not this _Proposal_ give _Fifty Pounds_ for _One Hundred_, with a double Advantage to all; and at the same Time pays a great Part of our Debt, and settles our Credit on a solid Foundation? A Nation cannot flourish without _Virtue_; nor _Virtue_ without _good Conscience_. Sudden Ways of _growing rich_, must be ruinous to the _Publick_: There are of late those who have too suddenly got vast Estates, and others as soon stripp'd of great Fortunes.