It cannot indeed be otherwise. According to the definition of the political economists, law is not only unproductive labour in itself, but wherever it clutches its talons, it tears away the funds by which more valuable labour should be supported, and distracts and lacerates the spirit by which those funds should be applied. When a Scotchman from the country visits the Athens, and sees a long line of costly buildings mounting up in the air, he may rest assured, that for every shilling that those buildings cost, and every shilling that shall be spent in them, he and his compatriots must pay. The Athens herself,--the overtopping and overwhelming part of the Athens,--that part which rises by the power, and extends itself by the weight, of the law, produces nothing whatever. It is as sterile as the Castle rock; and, were it not for the folly of other people, its ascendency would not be so great as it makes the Athens feel. This, however, is a matter for the Scotch themselves; and it sometimes happens, with nations as well as with individuals, that a deformity or a vice is praised and cherished, while beauties and virtues are treated with neglect. It is matter of trite remark, that very few of the seed of Jacob have ever taken up their abode in the Athens, and that the few who have done so, have in a short time been starved to death or to removal; and it has sometimes been wondered why a people, who have been so successful in pillaging the other nations of Europe, should have failed so completely in this instance. A very slight acquaintance with the Athenian “men of business,” as they are called, will explain the fact, and resolve the difficulty. The man of business has all the natural rapacity and cunning of the Jew, and he is at the same time so well conversant with every quirk and turn of the law, that there is no possibility of calling him to account for his depredations.