[Sidenote: Grounds of security supposed for England.]
[Sidenote: Literary Interest.]
[Sidenote: Moneyed interest.]
There are several who are persuaded that the same thing cannot happen in
England, because here (they say) the occupations of merchants,
tradesmen, and manufacturers are not held as degrading situations. I
once thought that the low estimation in which commerce was held in
France might be reckoned among the causes of the late Revolution; and I
am still of opinion that the exclusive spirit of the French nobility did
irritate the wealthy of other classes. But I found long since, that
persons in trade and business were by no means despised in France in the
manner I had been taught to believe. As to men of letters, they were so
far from being despised or neglected, that there was no country,
perhaps, in the universe, in which they were so highly esteemed,
courted, caressed, and even feared: tradesmen naturally were not so much
sought in society, (as not furnishing so largely to the fund of
conversation as they do to the revenues of the state,) but the latter
description got forward every day.
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