carry it to nearly 41. per quarter. An increase in the price of corn having also been experienced throughout the Continent, to what, says Mr. Parnell, can this be owing except to the great addition made, in the present day, to the currency of the world by the adoption of paper-money? The substitution of paper for coin in England must alone have thrown many millions of gold into circulation; and we are told that the bank-paper of Paris amounts to four millions, while that of Austria is not short of eight. Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and Portugal, have each their paper-currency; which, though depreciated like the Austrian, serves to supply to a certain extent the place of coin, and, in course, to lower the value of the latter. From these various considerations, Mr. Parnell assumes that too much stress had been laid on the computed influence of our taxes and deficient harvests on the general price of commodities. Taxes, he observes, (p. 11.) operate only on the articles specifically taxed, and the enhancement of corn is likewise of partial effect. If this should seem plausible, yet, when closely scrutinized, we shall find in Mr. P. an additional example of the prevalent habit of overstraining arguments, and looking too much to one side of the question. No doubt, the adoption of paper-currency in the present age has tended to depreciate money: but the extent of that adoption has been much smaller in other countries than in our own. No doubt, likewise, the enhancement of corn affects chiefly the wages of labour: but how few commodities are independent of the fluctuations in the rate of labour? Again, if he would prove the effect of taxation to be partial, let Mr. Parnell discover and point out any article which is not subject, directly or indirectly, to its operation. In other divisions of the subject, our ideas approximate somewhat more to those of Mr. Parnell. His observations on exchange (p. 41.) would be intitled to notice at length, had not the question been already fully before our readers. He thinks, with Lord Liverpool, that an excess in our paper-currency had begun to exist before the stoppage in 1797; and he dates this unfortunate circumstance from the permission granted to the Bank of England to issue notes so low as 51. This, it must be confessed, was a trespass on Dr. Smith's well known limit of Iol. for notes in London, and 51. in the country. Mr. P. does not, however, agree with Mr. Huskisson, that the recurrence of bank-stoppages is to be anticipated; since, in a country possessed of so much industry and capital as England may boast, it would be most extraordinary if we could not so manage our circulating medium as to provide against such disreputable and pernicious suspensions. Neither does he hold, with Mr. Horner, that the Bank of England, constituted as it is, has been an institution of great public benefit; since a larger share of advantage might (in his opinion) have been obtained had the banking-business been left free, as in Scotland. He omits, however, to mention the particular manner in which the exclusive privilege of the Bank of England has been most hurtful; we mean, in preventing the association of more than six names in any English banking-house; or, in other words, in precluding the country-part of England from the benefit of chartered banks. To what other cause are we to ascribe the endless multiplication of petty banks in small towns; and those examples of insolvency, unfortunately too frequent among bankers, which form one of the chief evils in the extensive diffusion of papercurrency ? The case of the Bank of Ireland in 1804 has given rise to much argument; the Bullionists maintaining that it was indicative of depreciation, which their opponents are equally resolute in denying. On this topic, Mr. Parnell's opinion is intitled to considerable attention. At the time of the suspension of the cash-payments of the Bank of Ireland in 1797, its notes in circulation amounted to 600,000l., and the exchange with England was generally in favour of Ireland: but, the obligation to pay in cash having been removed, the Bank of Ireland extended its circulation so rapidly as to raise it in 1804 to 3,000,000l., being five times its former amount. Country banks having gone on in the same hopeful ratio, it can excite little surprize to find that the exchange rose to 10 per cent. against Ireland. A parliamentary-committee having investigated this irregularity, and recommended a reduction of the quantity of bank-paper, the application of that remedy had the desired effect, and the exchange was re-established: but, say the opponents of the Bullion-committee, the circulation of the Bank of Ireland is again raised to three millions, and the course of exchange with England is not deranged. True, replies Mr. Parnell, but this proceeds from the depreciation of English currency. Were the present English currency equal to coin, or were it only equal to the value of Bank of England paper in 1804, we should soon see the rate of exchange turn against Ireland. If we look at the rate of foreign exchanges, we find that they are now nearly twenty per cent. against Ireland, while guineas bear a premium of more than fifteen per cent. It is said, adds Mr. P., that to alter our present system would be incompatible with the public safety: but do those who made this remark mean to assert that no danger will attend the continuance of that system? Is it a system beneficial to our commerce, and safe for our finances? We must not extend our abstract of this honourable gentleman's speech: but enough has been cited to satisfy our readers that, though though we may differ from him in the length to which he carries his conclusions, we are disposed to regard him as intimately acquainted with the subject, and as giving proof of the ability which we ascribed to him in our criticism of his former work, nearly nine years ago. V. Lord Lauderdale on the Depreciation. This nobleman may now be termed a kind of veteran in questions of political economy; and, in reviewing his principal production, the "Inquiry into the Origin of Public Wealth," (M.R., N.S., Vol. xliv.) we bore a favourable testimony to the extent of his reading, though we were obliged to dissent from several of his concluions. A similar declaration is required by the two productions before us, on the Bullion-question. In his first pamphlet, he confines himself strictly to the proof of the existence of depreciation, and enters (p. 25.) at considerable length on an examination of the arguments of those who ascribe the state of our continental exchange to an unfavourable balance of trade. Among the variety of curious matter introduced in the form of notes, we find (pp. 52, 53.) an estimate of the quantity of the precious metals annually added to their circulation in the world. The object of this statement, and of a great portion of argument which appears to us almost superfluous, is to shew the impossibility of specie rising in value while its quantity is on the increase. A point of a different nature, and less known to the public, is brought forwards in a subsequent part of the pamphlet, (p.62.) in an account of a notable trial, in July 1811, before the Court of King's Bench. The case was intitled Dennison v. Tollett, and stated that an agreement had been formed between Messrs. Lowndes and Batteson of Liver◄ pool on the one part, and Messrs. Dennison, Rainier, Thellusson, and others, eminent London merchants, on the other part, to support the credit of the former by the acceptances of the latter, which acceptances the Bank of England had agreed to discount to the extent of 100,00ol. The Bank kept its word, and discounted the bills three times over, for they were as often renewed: yet still this aid, as is almost always the case in bill-accommodations, proved ineffectual; Messrs. Lowndes and Co. becoming bankrupts, and the investigation of their affairs leading to an exposure of the transaction. The assist ance of the Bank was undoubtedly well meant: but after such a discovery its advocates cannot allege that its discounts are confined to bona fide transactions, or prevent their antagonists from saying that, were the Bank liable to pay in specie, no loans of such magnitude could be supplied. The noble Earl next proceeds to argue that the independence of the Bank with respect to Government affords no effec N 3 tual tual preventative against depreciation. Paper-money falls much faster, he allows, when circulated by a government: but it will still fall, if in excess, however popular may be the constitution of the body that issues it. Nothing will be found effectual in upholding its value but a limitation of its quantity; in proof of which his Lordship remarks that, in France, at the beginning of the Revolution, an emission took place in assignats, to the amount of 700,000l. sterling: a sum, which, though issued without any security, was too moderate to suffer any fall till it was followed by others of very different magnitude. Similar examples of maintaining the value of paper for a season, by limiting its amount, are furnished by the history of our North American colonies a century ago, and more recently in the war for their independence. In both cases, the subsequent course of events proved that depreciation invariably follows the undue increase of quantity. Moreover, adds Lord L., the early history of the Bank of England itself confirms this conclusion, and is replete with lessons of instruction directly applicable to our present state of embarrassment. At no period, he says, was more firmness exhibited in maintaining, against popular opinion, measures which a very critical situation of affairs rendered absolutely necessary for the salvation of the country. The manner in which our coin has travelled abroad, while our paper has remained at home, is very clearly explained by his Lordship (p.172.); though we are not fortunate enough to have him on our side with regard to the operation of mercantile causes in aggravating this mischief. Neither can we flatter ourselves that he would agree with us in considering the depreciation of our bank-paper as smaller with reference to domestic than to foreign commodities. We are thus at issue with his Lordship on several material points, and must confine our testimony of approbation to the extent of his reading, which is abundantly shewn by the mass of information interspersed throughout the notes. VI. In his second tract, Lord L. goes a considerable way farther, and discusses the means of restoring our circulating medium to a salutary state; while he explains the manifold injury sustained by the public, as well as by individuals, from our present pecuniary system. He every where affords evidence of long continued attention to the subject: but we see little reason for enlarging on the scope of his labours, since the course of public affairs promises soon to put it in the power of Government to redeem the irregularity of our currency. It is equally unnecessary to notice his Lordship's arguments against a perseverance in the present system, because the country at large seems to be decided in a wish to depart from from it; and the ministry, at least since the elevation of Lord Liverpool, appear to participate cordially in that desire. Under this impression, we decline to enter on the contents of Lord L.'s second pamphlet; and we shall merely remark, that his tables in the Appendix afford several documents and calculations which will be useful to the investigators of the Bullion-question. They contain a long list of local tokens, with the weight and value of each; as well as a variety of estimates, exhibiting the difference in value between a sum paid in notes and a sum paid in coin. With these are inserted several letters from different parts of the country, all concurring in the necessity of resorting to local tokens, and in the disappearance of the silver money issued some time ago by the Bank. Our readers may remember that considerations of this nature induced Mr. Vansittart, in the last year, to withdraw an intended motion for calling in the tokens which had been circulated by private individuals. ART. XIII. A Selection of Irish Melodies, with Symphonies and Accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson, Mus. Doc., and characteristic Words by Thomas Moore, Esq. The Vth Number. Folio. 158. Power. WE E not long since took notice of the first four numbers of this very popular work *; and having then given our opinion at some length on its general design and merits, little remains for us now to perform. The character and execution of the 5th Number do not materially differ from those of its predecessors; yet we think that, on the whole, something is observable of that wane, or decline, to which Mr. Moore alludes in the advertisement prefixed: It is not,' says he, so much from a want of materials, and still less from any abatement of zeal or industry, that we have adopted the re. solution of bringing our task to a close; but we feel so proud, for our country's sake and our own, of the interest which this purely Irish work has excited, and so anxious lest a particle of that interest should be lost by any ill-judged protraction of its existence, that we think it wiser to take away the cup from the lip, while its flavour is yet, we trust, fresh and sweet, than to risk any longer trial of the charm, or give so much as not to leave some wish for more. In speaking thus I allude entirely to the airs, which are, of course, the main attraction of these volumes; and, though we have still many popular and delightful Melodies to produce, yet it cannot be denied that we should soon experience some difficulty, in equalling the richness and novelty of the earlier Numbers, for which, as we had the choice of all before |