forbade one Hebrew to take from another any hire or consideration for the use of money, or other article of value which he might lend. They had also their statute of limitations. It took effect at every Jubilee, when all debts, wherever or however contracted, were cancelled; and then also came the all-important release, which, on that memorable day, restored every one to the landed inheritance of his fathers, freeing it from every claim that any other occupant or cultivator may have previously asserted with regard to it. These being settled and well-known laws respecting the validity of obligations, the creditor could not complain. If he disregarded them the fault was his own; and although in an extensively commercial community such statutes would be deemed too stringent, yet they contain a lesson as to the evil of running into debt, that all men in all pursuits would do well to remember. Especially in an agricultural community they were the life of the people; they saved many an inheritance from being squandered, many a family from being scattered, and many a heart from being broken and driven to despair. And I here take occasion to add that it must give every true philanthropist pleasure to perceive that many of those great principles of wisdom, equity, and mercy, which were embodied in these ordinances of the Hebrew Commonwealth, are becoming more

and more understood and brought into notice in our day, though with a difference of form adapted to the present condition of society. In times not long past, creditors who would even act the part of Shylocks, had all in their own way. They could tempt the necessitous into ruinous indebtedness, and then exact the pound of flesh from their unhappy debtor, or doom him to a prison where the whole man was wasted till he sank into the grave. We now consider imprisonment for debt, and which often placed the unfortunate on a level with the criminal, as a remnant of barbarism. The principle involved in the law among the Hebrews, protecting a landed inheritance from perpetual alienation, also begins to be appreciated. A statute has already been adopted by one of our States, and is contemplated by others, which is appropriately entitled "Exemption of the Homestead," as it exempts a man's dwelling from liability on account of his debts, in order that his family may be protected from expulsion and poverty, and that he may himself have a shelter for his own head, while he summons his energies to make further effort for them and for himself. If all our legislatures would adopt some provision like this, which might both mitigate misfortune and hold out encouragement for reformation, the country might, in a great degree, be relieved from that

squalid destitution, and despairing helplessness which, from the nature of the case, must be too often encountered in our crowded cities.*

This leads me to notice as another proof of the propitious influence of agriculture upon civil freedom: Its tendency to produce among a people a spirit of equality and close sympathy one with another. Extremes are prone to meet. In our cities we find wealth and poverty, intelligence and ignorance, refinement and debasement, in immediate view of each other; and notwithstanding the philanthropic labors which would bring the abundance of the rich to the relief of the poor, destitution and degradation must remain in painful contrast with luxury and pride. It was an unerring hand that drew, in the picture of Tyre, a description which applies more or less to all our great marts of commerce.—“ Thou art a merchant of the people, and art situated at the entry of the sea, and thou hast said I am of perfect beauty.-By thy wisdom, and by thy traffic thou hast increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches." Notwithstanding the indispensable importance of our cities for carrying out the great purposes of civilized life, not only as they form the centres of intercourse between

* Note P.

nations, but also give a tone and polish to manners, brighten and invigorate the faculties by the close contact of men with men in their daily pursuits; yet must the great majority of the population, from the very nature of their pursuits, remain so divided from each other as to produce something like a spirit of caste. Buying and selling, the giving of wages and the receiving of wages, which are the principal transactions of city life, place men in an attitude of collision, and create an antagonism of interests which tend to impair sympathy and community of feeling. The prizes in commerce also are comparatively few; while one man rises, other men often sink; and thus is the distance perpetuated which separates one class from another, and shuts out that sentiment of equality which is essential to a well-compacted Republic. For this equality, and the sympathy which grows out of it, we must look among those who are not dependant on the will of another for the employment by which they subsist, but who rely on the soil which they claim as their own, for every thing needful to their comfort and their welfare. The influence of such a position and such occupation in imparting a spirit of independence and self-reliance is seen wherever agriculture is pursued, and is held in merited honor. Though a man cultivates or owns but his hundred, or his

fifty acres, he feels that he has rank, and fellowship with his neighbor who may cultivate his thousands. They are both drawn together by a community of employment and of interests that leads them to forget the difference which arises from the mere amount of their respective possessions. Many who now hear me have felt the truth of what I am saying. There are constant examples of it at those annual and praiseworthy assemblages of our agriculturists, where they meet and bring together the choicest productions of their respective fields; the man of affluence, and the man of moderate competency standing side by side with mutual respect and goodwill; he who knows most of agriculture as a science, imparting the fruit of his studies, and he who is best versed in the practice, telling of his experience; both acknowledging the bond that unites them in the cultivation of the earth.

Agriculture also tends to strengthen the love of a people to their own country. It must be obvious to every one acquainted with the habits of living and the tenure of property in our cities, that they are not favorable to the growth of strong local attachments. The few square feet occupied by the inhabitant as a home, generally belongs to another, and not to himself; and even where the occupant of a house is its owner, his feelings cannot become bound