Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/163

 ¬" The same consequences apply equally to com- munities as to individuals, and there is there- fore no safety for Armata, but, first, in the wis- dom of her government, and in the energies of her people, to raise the value of every species of property, by the almost infinite ways within their reach ; and secondly, by the immediate reduction of her expenditure to square with her revenue, as far as can be made consistent with the public safety and the principles of national justice. ¬" A great orator in our ancient world, when asked what was the first, and the second, and the third perfection of eloquence, still answered Action, not to exclude other perfections but to mark its superior importance ; so I, who am no orator at all, but a plain man, speaking plainly of the policy of an exhausted country, must say that your fiwst, and your second, and your third duty, is retrenchment, meaning, as the rhetorician, not that it is your zchole duty, but only that its pre-eminence may be felt. ¬" I am ¬