And still in all my Observation, this Note came in my way, there was
always the most bustle and disturbance about the worst Feathers.

It was really a melancholly Thing to consider, and had this Lunar
World been my Native Country, I should ha' been full of concern to
see that one thing, on which the welfare of the whole Nation so much
depended, put in so ill a Method, and gotten into the management of
such Men, who for Mony would certainly ha' set up such Feathers, that
wherever the Consolidator should be form'd, it would certainly
over-set the first Voyage; and if the whole Nation should happen to
be Embarkt in it, on the dangerous Voyage to the Moon, the fall would
certainly give them such a Shock, as would put them all into
Confusion, and open the Door to the Gallunarian, or any Foreign Enemy
to destroy them.

It was really strange that this should be the Case, after so many
Laws, and so lately made, against it; but in this, those People are
too like our People in England, who have the best Laws the worst
executed of any Nation under Heaven.

For in the Moon this hurry about choosing of Feathers was grown to
the greatest heighth imaginable, as if it encreast by the very Laws
that were made to suppress it; for now at a certain publick Place
where the Bloutegondegours us'd to meet every Day, any Body that had
but Mony enough might buy a Feather at a reasonable Rate, and never
go down into the Country to fetch it; nay, the Trade grew so hot,
that of a sudden as if no other Business was in Hand, all people were
upon it, and the whole Market was chang'd from Selling of Bear-Skins,
to Buying of Feathers.