4, CURSORY-RHOUGHTS

fteady market to the farmer, at reafonable prices, under all circumftances. Were fuch a law made, which fhould be fimple in it’s operation, compre- henfive in it’s influence; and fhould it be freed from thofe numerous petty regulations that tend to fetter individuals in the management of their own private affairs, which it is fo much the fpirit of the prefent day to delight in; and which, as they cannot be executed, give rife to innumera- ble frauds and evafions that derange the public economy,—render the laws.difrefpeétful in the eyes of fenfible men,—perplex the legiflators, and occafion thofe innumerable alterations, un- der the title of amendments, of our laws, which fo much difgrace our code; and were this fimple efficient law, when once made, to be fuffered to operate fteadily for a fufficient length of time, no perfon can form an.adequate idea of it’s be- neficial tendency. But till a fet of men can be» found, who fhall be ferioufly difpofed to enquire with candour into the principles upon which fuch a law fhould. be. conftructed, without having a view toany kind of party influence whatever, no- thing elfe: can be expected but a feries of futile expedients, that are fubje€ted to a ftate of per- petual fluétuation, the natural tendency of which is to drive us, in time, like ancient Rome, to de-