its further pernicious effects.

Having spoken thus on the subject of monopoly, which I shall
at a future period fully establish, and which has occasioned the
sacrifice of the public, to individual interest, I shall proceed
to advert, 8thly, to the loss which the government has sustained
in the dereliction of some of its most valuable servants, who
have been allured, by the rapid fortunes made by several
individuals, to quit the service of the public, and to embark in
traffic. The inferior officers of the settlement, and the
non-commissioned officers and privates of the regiment, have been
infected with the itch for dealing; and many of the settlers
themselves have either disposed of their farms or deserted them,
to obtain the means or the leisure to devote themselves to a
species of dealing which never failed to turn to good account.
Many who had also served their terms of transportation, instead
of remaining to aid the public service, withdrew themselves from
the stores, and turned their thoughts to trade. The consequence
of this universal inclination to one object, and that of such an
evil nature, being chiefly confined to the sale of spirits, soon
became obvious in the desertion of those farms which had been
previously tilled with so much advantage, and in the neglect of
all duties, whether of a public or private nature. The immense
profits made by this pursuit served as a new stimulus to its
continuance: One dealer was known to have cleared twelve hundred
pounds sterling in four weeks, and chiefly by the sale of
spirits; and an inhabitant of the lowest order, who commenced
dealing with five pounds, has been known to realize five hundred
pounds in the course of six months. It must naturally be
inferred, that the most base imposition must have been practised