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PAPER CURRENCY.

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the sea has been covered by them with vessels, which would otherwise have been growing in their native woods. In a word, nearly all that a stranger has to contemplate in Scotland, wherein art has been employed; every thing he sees around him, beyond things the most indifferent, has been directly or indirectly created and reared by the transcendant powers of paper money. We do not withhold a just expression of the truth on this subject, whatever may be the opinion of others, but the same candour which has actuated our comments, would incline us to remark, that unless very cautious measures be pursued, the blessings brought on the country by paper money may easily be changed into the most dreadful evils. The Scotch notes were issued only as a succedaneum, until a certain quantity of solid wealth was generated, and the question thence arises, whether the nation has yet arrived at that precise epoch when their services can be dispensed with. This is an exceedingly nice point of inquiry, but we do not despair of answering it satisfactorily. Judging dispassionately of the present condition and prospects of the nation, we are satisfied that the time has not come when the Scotch could do without notes; but we are equally convinced, that the extension of their issues may be attended with great danger. The country now enjoys a sufficiency of real and representative capital fit for all useful purposes. It is confessed by every one, that all kinds of goods are overstocked; and that there is no lack of money, artizans, or materials, to keep a regular supply without monopoly. But were any thing wanting to shew the necessity for instituting a check to the limitation of issues, the simple but surprising fact, that the gross amount of stock subscribed for in existing joint stock associations, including banking companies, in Edinburgh alone, is now not less than forty-five millions of pounds sterling, of which about a third is paid up, may alone form a good reason why, before any further new issues be made, some definite measures should be adopted for the purpose of having it declared, that the amount of paper

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DANGER OF OVER ISSUES.

money is not outrunning the value of the wealth it is supposed to represent. Under these circumstances, we would look upon the extension of cash credits; the institution of new banks, not absolutely requisite to modify monopolies; or the increase of discounts, as more of a dangerous than beneficial nature; and that not so much because the notes, so put forth, are less of a representative quality than those already issued, as that they may be productive of the most injurious overtrading, or calculated to encourage that unwholesome excess of thirst for luxuries and finery so manifest in the present day. Yet, with this concession, it must be owned, that the very act of instituting a check to the further issue of notes, if not done with the utmost delicacy, would be of itself productive of great evil, by shaking public credit. In ordaining a law to this effect, a very long warning would be necessarily required before it could with safety be brought to bear on the currency; and it is to be trusted, that in the case of any alteration being desiderated in the system, this will be the first step taken by the legislature.

The limitation of paper issues within just and natural bounds does not, however, infer a necessity for the extinction of notes. That would, indeed, superinduce a dreadful calamity. The wealth which has been created and disseminated by means of paper money is yet thinly spread; and as we have said, it is often very hollow. It is so weak that it still demands continual nourishment, and so infirm that it requires to be propped by the instruments of its existence. What the consequences would be were the one pound notes withdrawn, we dread to contemplate. Taxes, rents, wages of labour, and the price of every commodity have been settled, as well as debts incurred, under their dynasty, and a sudden obligation to renounce their services, and pay in gold, would produce a commotion, the like of which has not been witnessed in Scotland these many centuries. An instantaneous stoppage of credits could be almost calculated on. ramified is the dependence on loans, as already stated,

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RESULTS OF A RECAL OF NOTES.

363 and so far have a vast proportion of the community to live prospectively on their incomes, in order to maintain appearances, that nothing short of a general insolvency could be anticipated of an immediate recal of bank notes. So different are the circumstances in which England and Scotland have been placed, with relation to banking affairs, that the injury which would be sustained by the latter country on the withdrawal of paper money, would not stand in comparison, in the violence of its effects, with that acknowledged to have been suffered by the resumption of cash payments, and the abolition of the one pound notes in England.

It is perhaps idle to talk in a serious manner of what would be the result of a recal of Scottish bank notes, for it is to be hoped that no minister or parliament will be so far possessed with a demoniacal desire to sacrifice practical for theoretic good, as to alter the currency of the country. All that the most sober legislator can do with safety, is to prohibit the issues from progressing beyond a specified amount, leaving that quantity of paper money already created to work out its own ends. That an epoch is steadily and gradually advancing, when the money-broking operations of Scottish bankers will cease to be of moment, no one who is acquainted with the increasing accumulation of wealth will be able to deny. The banks have, in the course of years, been reducing the rate of interest they offer for money, just as it is becoming more plentiful; and such a procedure tells very explicitly, that ere long monied men will more frequently lay out their capital on speculations of their own, than lend it to others to do so through the intervention of banks. At present, the interest of two per cent. will gradually sink to one, then to a half per cent. and finally to nothing. When it reaches this point, it will be a pregnant proof that the wealth of Scotland is on a tolerably secure footing, and that the notes have nearly realized the intention of their creation. Their abrogation even then may, however, be disadvantageous, and it will become the duty of political economists of after times, to conde

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CONCLUSION OF BANKING INSTITUTIONS.

scend on the propriety of their protracted existence. In the meanwhile, it is very certain that the time has not come when they could be recalled with comfort to the people, or security to the government; and we therefore would bid the Scotch be perpetually on the watch over their interests in this matter. Let them be ever on their guard against the crude schemes of ministers in reference to a subject which, in whatever way it is viewed, involves the means of their very existence; and be at all times ready to resist, in a firm constitutional manner, any measure which may be calculated to tamper with the credit of their paper money, and the perpetuation of their banking institutions.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN SCOTLAND.

Every parish should keep a petty schoolmaster, which should bring up children in the first elements of letters.

SPENSER.

THE desire of instilling a knowledge of the rudiments of scholastic learning into the minds of the young, is a primary and creditable trait in the character of the Scotch, which is now established as one of the governing principles of the nation. That species. of education for which the people have become celebrated, is, however, of a very limited nature. It is the very general diffusion of letters on a meagre, though certainly useful, scale, and is only calculated to advance the pupil, at the very farthest, half way on the road to profound scholarship. The merits of the Scottish educational system are founded on the institution and preservation of that class of schools desiderated by Spenser in the above quotation. Its parish and grammar schools, in their constitution and mode of tuition, might serve as models for the imitation of every civilized people: Its colleges are such as few countries would be desirous of possessing.

Knox and other reformers comprehended the institution of schools, as well as kirks, in their general scheme of renovation; but except as regarded the tuition of young men for the clerical profession, they did not influence the progress of learning to an extent worth naming. The erection of a school in every parish capable of supporting it, was first projected and

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