I believe very few were able to enter into the effects of mere _terror_,
as a principle not only for the support of power in given hands or
forms, but in those things in which the soundest political speculators
were of opinion that the least appearance of force would be totally
destructive,--such is the market, whether of money, provision, or
commodities of any kind. Yet for four years we have seen loans made,
treasuries supplied, and armies levied and maintained, more numerous
than France ever showed in the field, _by the effects of fear alone_.
Here is a state of things of which in its totality if history furnishes
any examples at all, they are very remote and feeble. I therefore am not
so ready as some are to tax with folly or cowardice those who were not
prepared to meet an evil of this nature. Even now, after the events, all
the causes may be somewhat difficult to ascertain. Very many are,
however, traceable. But these things history and books of speculation
(as I have already said) did not teach men to foresee, and of course to
resist.
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