I am a country gentleman, and a Member of Parliament, with an estate of about 1400_l_. a year, which as a Northern landlord, I receive from above two hundred tenants, and my lands having been let, near twenty years ago, the rents, till very lately, were esteemed to be not above half value; yet by the intolerable scarcity of silver[4], I lie under the greatest difficulties in receiving them, as well as in paying my labourers, or buying any thing necessary for my family from tradesmen, who are not able to be long out of their money.  But the sufferings of me, and those of my rank, are trifles in comparison, of what the meaner sort undergo; such as the buyers and sellers, at fairs, and markets; the shopkeepers in every town, the farmers in general.  All those who travel with fish, poultry, pedlary-ware, and other conveniencies to sell:  But more especially handicrafts-men, who work for us by the day, and common labourers, whom I have already mentioned.  Both these kinds of people, I am forced to employ, till their wages amount to a double pistole,[5] or a moidore, (for we hardly have any gold of lower value left among us) to divide it among themselves as they can; and this is generally done at an ale-house or brandy shop; where, besides the cost of getting drunk, (which is usually the case) they must pay tenpence or a shilling, for changing their piece into silver, to some huckstering fellow, who follows that trade.  But what is infinitely worse, those poor men for want of due payment, are forced to take up their oatmeal, and other necessaries of life, at almost double value, and consequently are not able, to discharge half their score, especially under the scarceness of corn, for two years past, and the melancholy disappointment of the present crop.

The causes of this, and a thousand other evils, are clear and manifest to you and all other thinking men, though hidden from the vulgar:  these indeed complain of hard times, the dearth of corn, the want of money, the badness of seasons; that their goods bear no price, and the poor cannot find work; but their weak reasonings never carry them to the hatred, and contempt, borne us by our neighbours, and brethren, without the least grounds of provocation, who rejoice at our sufferings, although sometimes to their own disadvantage; of the dead weight upon every beneficial branch of our trade;[6] of half our revenues sent annually to England, and many other grievances peculiar to this unhappy kingdom, excepted for our sins, which keep us from enjoying the common benefits of mankind, as you and some other lovers of their country, have so often observed, with such good inclinations, and so little effect.