"Is there, Mr. Law, no aristocratical feeling in this country?" "Yes, Sir, amongst the black population." "You mean, Sir, amongst the masters of blacks?" "Yes, Sir. You, Sir, have visited Mr. Birkbeck?" "I have." "Is he not a very pleasant, intelligent man?" "He is highly so." "What is he doing?" "Fast spending dollars." "Had he raised any produce?" "None." "Why?" "He had been, he said, occupied in settling his neighbours, who together with himself have been supplied with provisions from Harmony at 100 per cent, above their value; but cheaper, they have {447} said, than they could have then and there raised them." "I, Sir, do not approve of going into the wilderness away from market and society, while land is to be had with both. What is Harmony?" "It is a most flourishing settlement, and indeed the only flourishing one I saw in the wilderness. What think you, Mr. Law, of the climate?" "Why, Sir, as Lloyd says, "With things at once so hot and cold, I can no friendship hold." Mr. Law talks in an oratorical manner, and with an energy of action which makes him appear much in earnest. He is full to overflowing, and quite inexhaustible. "His worth," says Mr. Elliott, "is not one-tenth of it known, but is thrown away upon this country." "It is said, Sir, that the population of this country is systematically unprincipled, and almost without virtue." "That, Sir, is not true. In the cities, since the commercial distress, the people seem dishonest. The commercial demand from England, and the withdrawing a paper capital by this government, have driven the people to desperation. They are unjustly done by. They were once esteemed good customers. A circulating medium only is wanted to heal the breach. In the country the people are anxious to meet their engagements." "Do you, Sir, think that no remedy but famine remains for England?" "No, Sir! no other." "Then the sooner it comes the better." "But, Sir, (said he) {448} such confusion, and horror, and calamity, will characterize the catastrophe as the world has not seen." "Do you think it will exceed the French revolution? Will the people of England be more bloody and heartless in such a struggle than the French?" "The desperation of their situation will make them so. Consider, Sir, the rage, anguish, and collision of so many starving millions, screwed up into a space not larger than our state of Virginia. Here, Sir, we have plenty, and whether sleeping or waking are safe in our houses, and liberty and prosperity are secure. You, I find, are deputed to collect information. Dine with me on Monday, and I will get my sons out to meet you."