April

immediately increafe; and if the ftill greater increase of this demand would be prejudicial to the majority of the hundred, and to the bulk of the community of which they form part, the Government is juftified (as reprefenting the majority) in fufpending all the payments while the emergency lafts. The knowledge that this fufpenfion is neceffary, and the abfolute certainty that it is temporary, prevents the majority of holders, and, in confequence, the whole holders of the notes, from diftrufting their debtors. By law, the notes are rendered a full tender of payment in all bar. gains previously made. This the enactment can effect; but other confequences follow which no ftatute could fecure. By common confent, it is agreed to receive the fame notes as a valuable comamodity in all future bargains; and the confidence in the debtor continues exactly as high as formerly, merely because the defalcation is known to be neceflary and temporary.

Suppofe that, in this ftate of things, a law is paffed, rendering

the restriction perpetual, or

duration of the emergency which caufed and juftified it, can we for a moment fuppofe that confidence will now continue? The law may force creditors to receive payments in this useless paper; that is, may cheat all thofe who have previously entered into contracts for time: but no law can force men to enter into new bargains-no law can force them to give valuable commodities for a paper-money which it deprives of all value. The ninety holders of notes who do not prefent for payment, may now, with the ten who do prefent, burn the whole as ufelefs, if they have no debts to pay-no creditors with whom to fhare their lofs, and no chance of obtaining juftice from the Bank. But they will not furely give away more of their property for more of thofe notes: and if the Bank is again forced to pay, they will be rendered wife by the attempt to cheat them, they will inftantly demand

extending it far beyond the probable

Can the imagination of man, indeed, figure a cafe fo full of irreconcileable contradictions, as that which the pamphlet before us prefents to our view? Confidence fought for in fyftematic breach of faith; credit built upon neceffary failure; obligations to pay, iffued by men incapacitated from paying; promiffory notes received at par, by thofe who are previoufly affured that the promife muft neceffarily be broken! With all the contradictions and paradoxes of human nature before our eyes, and as little difpofed as poffible to extenuate or difbelieve them, we do not believe man to be quite fo ridiculous a creature, as the projectors of this truly original fcheme would require, for the reception of their unlimited paperfyftem. If paper-credit is neceflary to a mercantile ftate, in a much greater extent than the fimple arrangements of former times have of themfelves attained by a natural and intelligible process,

we

we fear human commerce wants a wheel which the eternal nature of things has doomed it never to acquire. The materials of which this wheel is propofed to be conftructed, are obviously of fuch a defcription, that their union would neceffarily prevent it from lafting a single second. If the existence of the work were poffible, when fo conftructed, would it not inftantaneously derange the whole machine, and crumble the surrounding fabric into duft? or, if the poffibility of reconciling all thofe contradictions be for a moment admitted, would not the operations of this new power concentrate in the additional wheel all the motions and force of the engine, to the infallible deftruction of every other component part?

The fupporters of this unprecedented fyftem, more particularly the practical friends of the perpetual restriction, will most probably couch their propofal in the form of a new temporary meafure. Accordingly, the author of this pamphlet, although at the outfet he speaks plainly of a permanent reftriction, (p. 5.), in feveral parts of his inferences, talks vaguely of a renewal of the former measure. The whole reafonings, however, if fuch they can be called, and all the general flatements of those who favour the fyftem of unlimited paper-credit, proceed not upon any appeal to prefent circumftances, but on fpeculative views of the advantages derived from paper-money. Indeed, although the meafure fhould be propofed in the infidious form of a constant renewal of the previous arrangement, (as it most probably will be), fuch a plan only deferves the more ferious reprobation. It may gull the public for a few repetitions; but the bubble must burst, as foon as men perceive that the neceffity no longer exifts, which rendered the measures of 1797 neceflary and excufeable. And let it be remembered, that all the fundemental objections urged against a restriction profeffedly perpetual, apply equally to the unneceffary prolongation of the former law, for however fhort a

time.

In these obfervations, we have confined ourselves entirely to the most general and fundamental view of the question. We have ftated, that the fubject appeared to us entirely new; and the ftandard to which the arguments that it involves must be brought, is obviously different from the criterion by which we must judge of the reafonings in favour of a temporary restriction. It may

proper enough, in difcuffing this laft meafure, to argue that the circumstances of the times render it neceffary. No circumftances can fo far alter the nature of human intercourse, and the ideas of obligation, as to render neceffary the perpetual breach of promife, and abufe of confidence, required by the system of the new projectors. It may be fair, in oppofing the temporary restriction, to state the evils of Government ever interfering with VOL. II. NO. 3. Bank

H

Bank-affairs; the dangers of fo unnatural a connection, as that between the executive, or even the legiflative branch of a regular conftitution, and a large, but private trading affociation; the abuses to which fuch an intercourfe may naturally lead, both on the part of the Government, and of the company. But, in expofing the abfurdity of the perpetual restriction, or rather of the total abolition of cash-payments, fuch puny arguments would be fuperfluous and nugatory; the innovation is beft refifted in that quarter which it first and most infufferably attacks. Nor can we be accufed of placing the queftion upon ground of too metaphyfical or abstract a nature, when it is confidered, that the very form and outward fhape, affumed by the inftrument of the propofed circulation, neceffarily reminds us of the contradiction inherent in its nature, and the grofs abfurdity, not to fay palpable fraud, in which its origin is involved.

The remarks into which we have unwarily been led, by the importance, and, we rejoice to fay, by the entire novelty of the fubject, apply rather to the general opinion and projects of thofe who fupport the doctrine of unlimited paper-circulation, than to the weak and vain attempts of this publication in recommendation for the fcheme. We have already given a few fpecimens of the ignorance and ftupidity which characterizes the whole pamphlet. We fhall now add a few more, fufficient, we conceive, to justify the contempt which it has excited in our minds, and the manner in which we have ventured to exprefs this contempt. In the following paffage, our author explains the foundation of his general doctrines:

Our own country, fince the eftablishment of the Bank of Eng. land, with comparatively a small circulation of fpecie, and fince the year 1797, with almoft none at all, has increased in commerce, riches, and national credit, to the envy of all neighbouring nations *.

The more thefe momentous truths are confidered, the more they confirm this important fact—that gold and filver coin do not establish or maintain public credit: but that it is beft fupported by a well-regulated paper-currency, united with honefty and punctuality.' p. 25.

In almost every page, indeed, we meet with the fame phrafes -honefty, punctuality, bona fide, regularity, &c. But in this work they are evidently unintelligible. For what does honesty, punctuality, &c. mean in the mouth of him who denies the expediency,

In Scotland, paper-money has been almoft the exclufive currency for the last fifty years, and the rental of that part of the kingdom has increafed during that period tenfold; while its commercial riches have kept pace with the improvement of its foil."

pediency, and recommends the prohibition of merchants performing obligations? Does not the perfon laugh at us, as well as cheat us, who talks of bona fide paper, when he would have the promise contained in it fyftematically broken? Should we not be inclined to fling fuch trash in his face, if he handed it to us at once as an equivalent for our property, and as a mark of his good faith? For the reft, we do not maintain-no one, for a long time paft, has maintained, that gold and filver coin alone eftablish public credit.' But this we will venture to ftate, that public credit, or confidence, muft neceffarily depend upon the performance of the obligations by the party which claimed that credit or confidence; whether the obligation is to pay metallic money, or leather, or thells, or cattle; that fo long as the notes, which are proposed to be made the circulating medium, confift of obligations to pay money, their reputation and circulation depends, firft of all, upon the belief, that this obligation will be fulfilled at the option of the holder of the note; and that all credit and confidence muft cease as foon as the refufal to pay money is the fyftematic line of conduct puríued by the iffuer, although credit and confidence may be maintained, while the refufal forms only a tranfient and obviously neceflary exception to his general behaviour.

In chapter third, we meet with the following very ftrange remark, which we notice, because it fhews the fingular effects produced upon weak and fuperficial minds, by a mifapprehenfion of fome of the most undoubted truths in the fcience of political œconomy:

Some may wish to believe the fpecie in circulation more than we can account for, and think a great stock a proof of profperity; whereas it would rather be a proof of indigence. France has at prefent a great deal of fpecie, and no public credit.

P. 54.

Now, if this propofition has any meaning, it is, that a nation is not the better for poffeffing much coined bullion-a grofs mifconception of the doctrines held by thofe who attack the mercantile fyftem. For, which of thofe political philofophers has faid, that a great ftock of coin, like a great stock of cattle, land, houfes, or any other valuable commodity, is not a proof of national wealth? When Dr Smith, with an inimitable vein of pleafantry, ridicules the anxious care of the mercantile ftatesmen and ípeculatifts, to multiply the quantity of the precious metals, and contrafts this with an anxiety for multiplying the pots and pans of the ftate, (Wealth of Nations, B. iv. c. 1.)-he does not deny that a nation poffeffing a large ftock of fpecie, or of pots and pans, would be wealthy and profperous: he only contends, that every flate will, if induftrious, poffefs as much of the former as

its commerce, and as many of the latter as its cookery requires; and concludes, that the endeavour to amafs an over-proportion of money, is as abfurd as the project of encumbering our warehoufes with a load of culinary utenfils. If France poffeffes much fpecie, the muit foon acquire public credit. It is a proof that her commercial dealings are extenfive: it is the demand which thefe occafion for money that attracts and retains money in the country; and all beyond the fum required to fupply this demand, muft be immediately turned into active ftock. Indeed, as a proof of confistency, and an answer to our author from his own words, we quote the following paffage in the preceding chapter:

As

It is to be obferved, that we are not speaking of the commerce of bullion, but the putting it out of commerce by coinage or hoarding. commodities, as articles of commerce, the precious metals are highly valuable; it is the prohibition we deprecate.

P. 32.

ART. XII. Profpectus of a Dictionary of the Language of the Aire Coti, or Ancient Irish, compared with the Language of the Cuti, or Ancient Perfians, with the Hindoftanee, the Arabic, and Chaldean Languages. By Lieutenant-General Charles Vallancey, Author of the Vindication of the Ancient History of Ireland. With a Preface, containing an Epitome of the Ancient History of Ireland, corroborated by late difcoveries in the Puranas of the Brahmins, and by our learned countrymen in the East. And an account of the Ogham Tree-Alphabet of the Irish, lately found in an ancient Arabic MS. in Egypt. Dublin. Graifberry & Campbell. 4to.

THE

HE ancient language of Ireland has long deferved the attention of the learned, both from the intimate connection which it holds with the hiftory of the British islands, and the neglected state in which it has hitherto been fuffered to perish. Though now confined to the mountains of Scotland, and a few of the wildeft Irish counties, it poffeffes many qualities which merit an accurate examination; it is entitled to a fhare of the labours of the philologist, on account of its antiquity; and particularly endeared to a patriotic Briton, as the primitive language of his country. More important reafons might have induced the antiquary to study it, and tranfmit it to pofterity. A confiderable number of ancient MSS., the work of the dark and middle ages, are written in Irish. The monks of that kingdom, without deferving the praise of being more enlightening than their brethren on the continent, had, however, the good fortune to escape, in fome measure, the Saxon and Danish conquefts, which extinguished learning in Britain. The hiftorians and antiquaries,

το