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hands, and had been the cause of their bankruptcy. Justice will be done to all, by paying to all persons what this money actually cost them, with an interest of six per cent, from the time they re ceived it. If difficulties present themselves in the ascertaining the epoch of the receipt, it has been thought better that the State should lose, by admitting easy proofs, than mat individuals, and especially foreigners, should, by being held to such as would be difficult, perhaps impossible.
4. Virginia certainly owed two millions, sterling, to Great Britain, at the conclusion of the war. Some have conjectured the debt as high as three millions. I think that State owed near as much, as all the rest put together. This is to be ascribed to peculiarities in the tobacco trade. The advantages made by the British mer chants, on the tobaccos consigned to them, were so enormous, that they spared no means of increasing those consignments. A pow erful engine for this purpose, was the giving good prices and cre dit to the planter, till they got him more immersed in debt than he could pay, without selling his lands or slaves. They then reduced the prices given for his tobacco, so that let his shipments be ever so great, and his demand of necessaries ever so economical, they never permitted him to clear off his debt. These debts had be come hereditary from father to son, for many generations, so that the planters were a species of property, annexed to certain mercan tile houses in London.
5. The members of Congress are differently paid by different States. Some are on fixed allowances, from four to eight dollars a day. Others have their expenses paid, and a surplus for their time. This surplus is of two, three, or four dollars a day.
6. I do not believe there has ever been a moment, when a sin gle whig, in any one State, would not have shuddered at the very idea of a separation of their State from the confederacy. The tories would, at all times, have been glad to see the confederacy dissolved, even by particles at a time, in hopes of their attaching themselves again to Great Britain.
7. The llth article of Confederation admits Canada to accede to the Confederation, at its own will, but adds, l no other colony shall be admitted to the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. When the plan of April, 1784, for establish ing new States, was on the carpet, the committee who framed the report of that plan, had inserted this clause, provided nine States agree to such admission, according to the reservation of the llth of the articles of Confederation. It was objected, 1. That the words of the Confederation, no other colony, could refer only to the residuary possessions of Great Britain, as the two Floridas,
