We were seated together alone, on the lawn, in the cool of the evening, until ten o'clock, when Mr. Law, with a light in his hand, kindly conducted me to my bed-room. During these two hours we talked freely; first, on the state of England, which, he says, must fall in a few years. "With [455] such a debt, and so many drones, and having all the world rivalling and excluding British manufactures, and with such a superabundant population, it is impossible that she can long exist in her present condition. A famine must certainly sweep away superfluous millions. It will be brought about, first, by a scarce year, and secondly, by the want of specie to pay for foreign grain; for specie only will do, when manufactures shall not be wanted in exchange for grain. Then the British people, instead of lying down and dying willingly like the Hindoos, a scene which I witnessed, will rise with an irresistible fury, sweeping all authorities before them." "After such a storm, will they dispense with monarchy, &c.?" "No, Sir, I think not. King, lords, and commons, seem acceptable to the people. The church and the debt only will be annihilated. My friends and others in the funds see that this catastrophe is coming. They are therefore unhappy. I see they are eaten up by anxiety; I am happier than any of them. Many of the rich, and several of my friends and family, live on the European continent, to spend their money in ease and peace. They are all unhappy in their prospects. It is true that I have been unsuccessful in my speculations here, but my wants are few. I was advised by General Washington to invest my money in and about this city, which every one then deemed a good speculation, and it would have been so but for the stupidity and blundering [456] ignorance of this government, which by diminishing the currency, has reduced our estates 50 or 60 per cent. and rendered all unsaleable. There is no money for use. It is impossible that a people can flourish without a circulating medium; a floating capital, which creates a fixed capital. This government, however, will see the need of it and resort to it; for, if the capital once in circulation had remained so, the public lands would have doubled their present value, and the industrious have flourished instead of sinking into ruin. The poor and industrious are the only proper objects of the care and protection of government." "You knew Paley. What think you of his philosophy, &c.?" "I knew him well; he was a good man, but his philosophy is false. Utility is made its basis; but impulse and feeling furnish the best moral guide. Every feeling in man points him to goodness." "But, Sir," said I, "is not his philosophy in accordance with Christianity?" "Perhaps it is." I rejoined that I could not help revering it, and that after reading it I thought myself both wiser and better. "That may be." "You knew and esteemed Sir Wm. Jones in India. Was he not a Christian?" "Why sir, Lord Teignmouth has endeavoured to make him appear so; but he was a free thinker, and unusually vain. Instead of studying his duties and introducing good laws, he was ambitious of learning all languages, and of being a finished antiquarian and poet. He fell a victim to his intense [457] application. He would never travel, except by night; the sun must not see him. He once travelled through my district by night, and I accompanied him. At sunset he would inquire: 'Is my enemy down?' If answered, 'Yes,' he would then start."
"Did you see M. Volney,[154] during his tour in this country?" "I did; he came, introduced to me by General Washington, and spent some days with me; he spoke our language well, and was a very wise man."
11th.—Mr. Law and myself rose about sunrise. I walked, while he was engaged in writing some materials or arguments for my journal. He writes with great velocity.
After breakfast we rode to the pleasant farm of Colonel Heb to dine, where, with his lady and family, we met a young Cantab, and his lady, who sweetly sung and played for Mr. Law on the piano, with which he seemed enraptured.
We then viewed the Colonel's estate, consisting of 600 acres, of hill and dale, 90 of which are meadow irrigated, and which produces 2,000 dollars in hay annually, while the tobacco[155] crop is [458] commonly worth from 100 to 150 dollars an acre. Here is a marl bank, by which the Colonel has improved the estate, which, including its first cost, employs 20,000 dollars, and nets, from 12 to 15 per cent. It is cultivated by from 12 to 20 negroes, who seem happy and well treated, singing and working merrily. The Colonel thinks slaves are better off than free-men. All slave-holders think so, especially those idle men who keep them merely for hiring out, that they may live entirely by the labour and breeding of blacks. Free blacks, in a slave state, are most of them unhappy.
Mr. Law thinks that Colonel Heb saves little or nothing from this estate, after deducting the expenses of hospitality, education, and other out-goings. Part of our dessert, at dinner, was strawberries, which, during the summer, bear fruit continually, each month yielding a fresh supply. We quitted this hospitable abode at seven, p. m., and, on reaching home, resumed our conversation till bedtime.
Mr. Law said, that when last in England, he visited his brother, the now Bishop of Chester, then living on a small benefice, at Kelshall, near Royston, where all the neighbourhood seemed dissenters. "My brother did all he could to please them, but they would not come to church. My brother did not like it, and feared that his congregation would be reduced to the clerk and his own family. Indeed it seldom was more. [459] What a nest," said Mr. Law, "is the church for hypocrites. All churches are evils, especially when they condemn a difference of opinion, and compel the dissenters therefrom to support the church. Religion is matter of opinion; all have a right to think freely thereon. I wonder how my brother got preferment, when I know he was refractory, and could not submit to the pride and domination of Lord Ellenborough."
"The convulsion in England," says Mr. Law, "will not last long, but it will be horrid; it will sweep away the drones. I saw my friends spending their days ingloriously, and descending to the grave, sick of themselves, and without doing any good to the world.
"My good brother, the Irish Bishop, the most learned of our family, came from Ireland, purposely to see me. He is now dead. There is no independence about bishops. They only seek preferment."
Mr. Law repeated to me some satirical lines which he wrote against the * * * * * * "These lines his lordship feared should be shown. He made peace with me and gave up to me. His lordship said, 'I must give up to Tom, or he will expose me to my brother lawyers, and I shall become their butt.'" These lines represented the * * * * * * as the perfection of pride, and seeking to be Chancellor, being already one in insolence.