the weeds of discomfort and despair rankling around his heart.  If fortune ever enable him to regenerate from such obscurity, perhaps custom may have habituated him to privation till the return of comfort serves little more than to awaken recollections of past error or obligation, and to embitter future enjoyment.  Such a change may, however, empower him to adjust his conscience with men, of all satisfaction the most valuable; notwithstanding that the world is readier to exaggerate error, than recognise such sterling principle.  It is alike obvious, that men who are under the stigma of debt, do not enjoy that ease which they are commonly thought to possess.  The horrors of dependance, in all its afflicting shapes, are known to visit them hourly, although in some instances, buoyancy of spirits, and affected gaiety may enable them to appear happy; and ofttimes would they be awakened to a sense of these fallacies, and thus become reformed, were it not for the rigour of persecution, which renders them reckless of all that may ensue, and callous to the honourable distinctions of man.  This of a truth, is tampering with human weakness, and is too often known to prove the upshot of industry, by sacrificing principle to vindictive passion.

That a system of debt is identified with the existence and framework of all commercial republics, is well known; else, genius would cease to be fostered, enterprise would be cramped, and industry wither on her own soil.  Nevertheless, the system may be so extended, as to beget indifference for the future and neglect of our present concerns, which leads to gradual ruin.  Time “travels at divers paces,” but with none more quickly than the unprepared debtor; and he who allows his debts to get the start of his fortune, lives upon other men’s estates, and must accordingly become the slave of their passions and prejudices:  in truth, he may be thus said to be parting with his existence by piece-meal.  Hence, he becomes a kind of convict in society—­his debts resembling a log of wood chained to his body, and a brand-mark on his conscience.  Thus pent up with fear and disquietude, his imprisonment is twofold, and being an enemy to his own peace, he is apt to imagine all men to be leagued against him.  If his debts are those of youth, his old age will probably resemble the sequel to revelry, when appetite is fled to make way for disgust and spleen:  and he dies—­in debt.  Mark the lamentable scenes that follow, when the pride of inheritance sinks before the unsparing hand of the usurer, or extortionate mortgagee.

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

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SIR LUMLEY SKEFFINGTON.