The average circulation of bank notes, for the next three years, was 11,844,2161. an addition only of; totally inadequate even to the former amount of trade. But the average

imports and exports of this period increafed to the fum of 50,867,8181. hence the ftagnation in February, 1797.

The laft return of bank notes is 15,450.970.

The average imports and exports, for three years, ending in 1799, amounts to 59,129,046.

Admit the circulation for the firft period to have been adequate, though it undoubtedly was deficient in a very great degree, the queftion is, what ought to be the proportional increafe of circulation, to the increafe of imports and exports in the last period? If 42,204,410. requires 11,500,0431. what will 59.129,0461. require? The answer is 16,112,584.

The actual circulation therefore is below the fum required by 661,970l. which, upon the whole circulating medium, is fomewhat above one twenty-fifth less than the fum which might have been added to it, in due proportion to the iffue of bank notes in 1793. But it must be allowed, that the amount of the bank notes, in 1793, was inadequate to the circulation, which at that period the commerce of the kingdom required.

The amount of that deficiency may, with very reafonable certainty, be known by the fupport which government then gave to commercial credit, which in truth was nothing more than an extenfion of the iffue of bank notes, through the medium of Exchequer bills. The Bank itfelf might, with the fame advantage, have performed the fame operation, by increafing its difcounts.

The whole fum advanced by government was 2,129,200l. all repaid (after every expence of an extraordinary commiflion defrayed) with a final profit. The alarm, from a want of. circulation, had been fo general, that a fum of five millions had been thought neceffary to provide for the exigence.

The actual demand, in the firft moment, did not much exceed three millions and a half; of which the unwarrantable claims did not amount to 400,oco'. and had the Bank, in the due exercife of its own difcretion, in admitting or rejecting discounts (to which it was at leaft as competent as the commiflioners named by government) iffued a fum equal to that which, without any lofs, was advanced by the public, it may be profumed, that the diflrefs of credit would not have arifen, and the Bank would have gained the discount.

This tranfaction proves, that the state of commerce in the country, in 1793, required and would have abforbed a circulation, to the extent at leaft of two millions beyond the 11,500.cool. it then poffeffed in bank notes.

If this be a juft fuppofition, the increase of bank notes from that period, muft appear to be indeed very moderate: for, if 13,500,000l. be a neceffary circulation for a commerce of 42,000,0001. 15,500,000l. is furely not too much for a commerce of 59,000,000l.

If the comparison therefore was fairly drawn, between the fum to which the circulating medium, by means of the Bank, ought to have been provided in 1793, ftill more in 1796, and the prefent amount of that circulation, the Bank may ra- ́ ther be charged with being too timid in its operations than too profufe.

If the commerce of 1793, required a circulation of thirteen millions and a half, that of 1799, would require a circulation of eighteen millions inftead of fifteen millions and a half.

This proof feems to us fo undeniably evident, that it would hardly be arrogant to conclude it with a mathematical Q. E. D. With this therefore, which, if admitted, deftroys the whole: force of the pamphlet, we conclude our confideration of it.

ART. XI. Archæologia, or Mifcellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Vol. XIII.

IN

(Continued from our laft, p. 597.)

N recurring to this volume, our attention is carried to a num ber of curious infcriptions, autographs, names, crefts, arms, and devices, found on the walls of a room in the Tower, which the ftare-delinquents at different times confined there, being ge-, nerally denied the use of books, feem to have made by way of amufement, and to alleviate the horrors of imprisonment. The refident Secretary, with a laudable zeal to refcue from oblivion. what these unfortunate men ufed their only means to record, has had them copied in seven plates, and given along with them biographical sketches, which together form the next article.

VII. Account of Inferiptions difcovered on the Walls of an Apartment in the Tower of London. By the Rev. John Brand, Secretary. Read Nov. 17, 1796.

Our readers will be beft informed in Mr. B.'s own words, how they happened to be brought to light.

"There is a room in Beauchamp's Tower, in the Tower of Lon don, antiently the place of confinement for state-prifoners, and which

has

has lately been converted into a mefs-room for the officers of the garrifon there*. On this alteration being made, a great number of infcriptions was discovered on the walls of the room, which probably have, for the most part, been made with nails, and are all of them, it should feem, the undoubted autographs, at different periods, of the feveral illuftrious and unfortunate tenants of this once dreary manfion. For the discovery, as well as the preservation, of these most curious memorials, the Society ftand indebted to the unremitted zeal and attention of their refpectable member, Colonel Smith, F. R. S. Major of the Tower of London." P. 68.

There is but one date later than the time of Elizabeth, and none prior to that of Henry VIII. The earlieft is 1518. In the reign of the latter, the principal causes of these imprisonments feem to have been of a religious nature, and for denying the King's fupremacy in that of the former, for plots against the Queen's government, and for aiding and abetting her Scottish rival. We shall mention fome of the moft curious particulars.

The device of the ambitious John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, done lefs than a month before he was beheaded." His name, in the spelling of the age, is under the crest of the lion and bear and ragged staff." Underneath is a puning infcription.

A repetition, taken from different fides of the room, of the royal title of the amiable and unfortunate Lady Jane Gray.

"She had, perhaps, a latent meaning in this repetition of her fignature, Jane, by which the at once ftyled herself a Queen, and intimated, that not even the horrors of a prifon could force her to relinquifh that title." P. 70.

"The autograph of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, and fon of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded, A. D. 1572."

This is fubfcribed to a fhort fentence in Latin, full of piety, and which accords well with his character.

"Here he lay above four years before he was brought to his trial, which came on April 18, 1589, and of which the particulars are preferved in the collection of State Trials. Though condemned to die, he never felt the edge of the axe, but was reprieved from time to time till his death in the Tower, Oct. 19, (Collins fays Nov. 19, 1595) and aged about 40 years; thus compenfating, as it were, by a clofe confinement for ten years, the fatal stroke that had been undergone by his father, grand-father, and great grand-father." P. 2. 73.

* An infide view of this room alfo is given, in its original state.

Rev.

An

An infcription and cyphers of Arthur and Edmund Poole, brothers, who were confined here on an indictment of treafon :

"That they and others, named in the fame indytemente, as false traytors and rebells agenfte the Queen's majefty, did compaffe, imagyne, and goe aboute not onlye to depryve and depofe the Queen, but also her death and deftruction; and to fette upp and make the Skottyfhe Queen, Queen of this realme."

But the parties, though found guilty, we are told, did not fuffer; at least, the lives of the Pooles were fpared, in confideration of their being of the blood royal.

"It should feem, however, that both Arthur and Edmund Poole were confined during their lives in the Tower: for in the register of the Tower chapel there remain, between the years 1565 and 1578, the two following entries:

"Mr. Arthur Poole, buried in the chappell.

"Mr. Arthur Poole's brother, buried in the chappell." P. 77. The last article in the collection exhibits a charge of a very different nature.

Hugh Draper committed the 21st of March, 1560. This man was brought in by the accufation of one John Man, an allronomer, as a fufpect of a conjuror or forcerer, and thereby to practise matter againfte Şir William St. Lowe and my ladie." P. 98.

He does not feem, however, to have been very much alarmed by his confinement. For he had left a fpecimen of his very art upon the wall, which is copied here in a falio plate, ne fourth of the fize of the original. This he has entitled

a fpher," or the cafting of a nativity. It is a moft claborate performance, and one of the beft inftances we have feen of the "operosè agendo nihil agens." The poor man was most probably deranged in his intellects, and ought to have been delivered over to another fort of cuftody. But that a perfon, who it appears was but a tavern-keeper, and of otherwife reputable character, fhould have been imprisoned in the Tower on a charge fo abfurd, is a strong proof of the fuperftition and credulity of the age.

VIII. Copy of an Original MS. entitled “ Instructionns før every Centioner to obferve duringe the Continuance of the Frenche Fleet

*The generality of our readers may perhaps with to have fome explanation of this term. "Centenarius Gothorum propriè et Germanorum eft, qui comitum territoria per centenas five centurias (Tacito pagos) dividebant, fingulum fingulæ præhcientes, centenarium inde et

cen

Fleet uppon this Coft, untill Knowlege fhal be had of ther Difpercement; given by Sir George Carye, Captein this first of Sep. 1586." Communicated by Sir William Mufgrave, Bart. F. R. S. and F. A. S. Read Feb. 16, 1797.

From thefe inftructions, which are but fhort, we fhall extract the following, for the fake of making a flight remark.

"That yow take order in all the perrishes within your canton that no bells be ronge in the churche for fervice, christeninge or burriall, But only on bei during this tyme and uppon the alaram al the bells to be ronge out.

"That yow appoint fome of your heblers during this tyme ftil to attend yow, and that ther horfes be alwais in a reddines to pas in haft as occafion fhal be offred." P. 101.

In an extract from Camden's Britannia, fubjoined by way of note, it is faid, that it had been the custom antiently for horfemen, then called hobelers, to be stationed in most places, in order to give notice of the enemy's approach in the day?" But this does pot give an exact explanation of the word. The boblers, Lobelars, hobbyllers, or hobilers, were light-armed horfemen mounted on little fleet horfes, called babini or hobbies, a term peculiar to England*: which Du Cange in v. explains by equi difesporti (not furnished, or light) as oppofed to equi sperti (furnished, or heavy). In the 28th of Edw. I. their pay was 6d. a day.

IX. Account of the Fall of fome of the Stones of Stone heng in a Letter from William George Maton, M. B. F. A. S to Hylmer Bourke Lambert, Efq. F. R. S. and F. A. S. Read June 29: 1797.

Of the three trilithens (each confifting of two uprights and an impoft) which had till then remained in their original pofition, the one ftanding on the right hand, as you advance from the entrance, fell with fuch a tremendous crash, on Jan. 3,

centurionem apellatum, Francis centonem." Spelman's Gloff. p. 151. So that thefe centioners, to whom the inftructions were fent, were nothing elfe than Domini Hundredi (Ang). Hundredors) às it is expreffed afterwards, p. 155. "Noftrum autem centenarium (quem hodiè Dominum Hundredi vocant) è legibus afpice Edouardi Conteff. cap. 32." Rev. *Hence hobby-bors for children, from their fize. Liber Gardero br, p. LI. et gloff. ad fin. p. 3c6. Thefe boblers are mentioned in the Pafton Letters, II. 329, where, it is remarked, that "they were light horfemen, who by the tenure of lands were obliged to maintain their nags, and be in readinefs, on fudden invafions, to fpread intelligence."