From year to year since that time, ruin spread among the manufacturers. A large portion of them have been reduced to bankruptcy, from ease and affluence. Many are now on the brink of it. Most of them had entered into the business during the war, under an impression, as I have already stated, that there was a sort of implied engagement on the part of the government, that having been found so useful in time of need, they would not be allowed to be crushed, afterwards. To what extent there was any foundation for this idea, I am unable to decide. Suffice it to say, that all the calculations predicated on it were wholly and lamentably disappointed. The strong arm of government, which alone could save them from the overwhelming influx of foreign manufactures, by which they were destroyed, was not interposed in their behalf. Noble establishments, the pride and ornament of the country, which might have been rendered sources of incalculable public and private wealth, and which Edward III, Henry IV, Frederic the Great, and Catharine II, would have saved at the expense of millions, if necessary, are mouldering to ruins. And to crown the whole, millions of capital, which had every claim to the protection of government, has become a dead and heavy loss to the proprietors.