200 
Benjamin Franklin [1777 
If then we consider and compare Britain and America 
in these several particulars, upon the question, “To 
which is it safest to lend money ?”’ we shall find: 
I. Respecting former loans, that America, who 
borrowed ten millions during the last war, for the 
maintenance of her army of twenty-five thousand 
men and other charges, had faithfully discharged 
and paid that debt, and all her other debts, in 1772. 
Whereas Britain, during those ten years of peace and 
profitable commerce, had made little or no reduction 
of her debt; but, on the contrary, from time to time, 
diminished the hopes of her creditors by a wanton 
diversion and misapplication of the sinking fund 
destined for discharging it. 
2. Respecting industry; every man in America is 
employed; the greater part in cultivating their own 
lands, the rest in handicrafts, navigation, and com- 
merce. An idle man there, is a rarity; idleness and 
inutility are disgraceful. In England the number of 
that character is immense; fashion has spread it far 
and wide. Hence the embarrassments of private 
fortunes, and the daily bankruptcies, arising from a 
universal fondness for appearance and for expensive 
pleasures; and hence, in some degree, the misman- 
agement of public business; for habits of business, 
and ability in it, are acquired only by practice; and, 
where universal dissipation and the perpetual pursuit 
of amusement are the mode, the youth educated in it 
can rarely afterwards acquire that patient attention 
and close application to affairs, which are so neces- 
sary to a statesman charged with the care of national 
welfare. Hence their frequent errors in policy, and