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 ¬ CHAPTER XL ¬In which the Author begins to deliver his opinion concerning the state of Armata, and the remedies for the difficulties which Morven had related. ¬" You shall now then," I said, " be possessed of my opinions — I have little, indeed, to com- municate, having only in a manner to give you back what is your own. Your answers to my various inquiries have been so enlightened, that T can hardly mistake the condition of your coun- try, but its novelty throughout has perplexed me. The remedies, though they may be diffi- cult in the application, are in their principles obvious and simple. ¬" Your government, according to your own admission, had long ago absorbed a much larger proportion of the public wealth than can pos- sibly be consistent with the prosperity, I had almost said with the existence of any state. ¬And ¬