STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

NEW era has sprung up in the merous and so powerful, they would history of our paper-money not, if they had had the argument also from an accidental circumstance, un- on their side, called in such weapons foreseen by ministry or opposition, to their assistance. We must look It has occasioned very extraordinary back to former times. Formerly the debates in parliament, and as curious priests bore sway in this country, and discussions out of the house. Where to call in question their impudent as the disputants are not agreed either in sertions brought down their vengeance the principles of their reasoning, or on the unfortunate culprit, and fire and in the facts, which are the basis of it, faggot determined the cause. In those we may naturally expect diversity of days they issued the paper of the bank opinion and confusion of ideas. We of Rome under the name of indul must not call the bank note an assig- gences, and from it got no small gain, nat, nor compare the paper of Eng- and woe to the man who called in land with that of France and America. question their value. These indulThe two last have had their day. They gences did not on a sudden obtain the have disappeared, and left not a trace highest estimation, they had their behind: but the paper of the Bank of rise, and their flourishing days, and England is, it is said, sui generis; it is their decline. But let a Bank note of like the abestos. Fire cannot hurt the present day be compared with an the one, and the other, like gold, has indulgence of former times, and then a value not to be shaken by opinion; let an impartial man declare who are but the criterion of this value is, alas! the greatest fools, we or our ancestors? not to be defined; it is a mystery to be believed with awful respect by all, who wish for the welfare of the Bank, that is of the country.

But, as in religion, so in politics, there will be some bold spirits daring enough to penetrate behind the veil. They will inquire in what consists this superiority of the Bank paper over that of other countries? what it is that should prevent their following the same fate? and they will assert not only that the symptoms already have appeared of a tendency to the same end, but that it is impossible, if the system continues, to prevent a continued depreciation. A nobie Lord has brought the question to an issue. He has called upon his tenants to fulfil the contracts in their leases, and to pay him in gold; or if they choose rather to pay him in Bank notes, to pay him according to the value of the present Bank note, which is nearly a fifth below its original value.

This declaration of the Peer has acted like an electrical shock over the whole country, and no small degree of abuse has been poured upon him for daring to demand his due. We are not to be led away by these insinuations, but, on the contrary, are very much inclined to believe that the Peer is in the right, and his opponents in the wrong; for, as they are so nu

Lord King conceived a Bank note of one pound not to be worth twenty shillings, and acted accordingly. Upon this Earl Stanhope thinks it adviseable that ar act of parliament should settle the question, by declaring that no person shall receive less than twenty shillings for a Bank note of one pound. The ministry doubted first of the propriety of the measure, but at last gave into it, and the new doctrine was carried by very great majorities in both Houses. The legislature is no doubt competent to make any law it pleases; but the beautiful story, which all our children read, illustrates the nature of such acts. King Canute ordered his chair to be fixed on the sand near the sea, and then commanded the waves not to moisten the royal feet: but they pursued their usual course, and in the moral as well as the natural world, it is in vain to attempt to destroy the regular progress of affairs. If the Bank note is really depreciated, and we believe it to be depreciated in the manner stated by Lord King, this act may preserve in petty dealings the usual exchange of twenty shillings for a note; but in all the great valuations of property, there will be a difference between the gold and paper prices.

Lord Stanhope was led to his bill by the idea, that there was no gold in

the kingdom; but if his lordship had between twenty and thirty millions of been familiarised with the games of our usual coin, and consequently was cards, played very generally, he would a gainer by this transaction of upnot so easily have adopted such an wards of a million annually. The opinion. When a party sits round a gold naturally disappeared, according table for quadrille, counters are dis- to the custom of the quadrille table, tributed to each person, bearing the and neither half-guineas nor sevenvalue the mistress of the house chooses shilling-pieces were to be seen. A to assign to them. They pass from very great inconvenience was felt in hand to hand for this value, and the the little concerns of life, as our silver boxes of some are filling, the others currency, base as it is, was not adeemptying. The latter are at last com- quate to the necessary exchanges of pelled to produce the cash for a sup- the pound notes in the shops. To reply, which is granted by the rich medy this inconvenience the Bank holder, who deposits his coin at the issued silver tokens, and there seems bottom of his box, where it remains, to have been an unnecessary soliciunless a turn in the game should com- tude that these tokens should be nearly pel him to have resort to the same equal in real value to the sum they means of supplying his wants. Cash stood for. But if the Bank could never appears as long as the representative of it remains in any one's hands: and it is the same in this kingdom, no one parts with a guinea as long as he has paper. There is gold enough amongst us for all the purposes of life: but it will not circulate again during the stoppage of payment at the bank.

make a piece of paper not worth a farthing, pass for one, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand pounds, why might it not take any hard metal, and let it pass, when properly stamped, for the sum it denoted? There was no necessity for using dollars to represent five shillings: a piece of metal intrinsically worth only sixpence, would have done quite as well. We are, however, obliged to the Bank for this error, and the prudent in the game of life will act like the players at quadrille; they will keep at the bottom of the box what has the most intrinsic value.

It is not, however, to be asserted, that the note of the Bank of England is an assignat. Lord Stanhope's bill does not go so far as that: he does not force the acceptance of this paper; but, if the paper is accepted, then it must be parted with at not less than the sum in shillings or gold according The Bank first issued dollars, worth to the legal currency, which the pound about four shillings and sevenpence, for or pounds in the note would make, or five shillings; they now pass them at the bank tokens that are now coined five shillings and sixpence. Since in silver to answer for shillings. But our last they have issued tokens for Lord Stanhope's bill may produce three shillings, which are said in the many uneasy sensations; for hints papers to have been valued by a Bank were thrown out that a compulsory director in parliament at 2s. 9d. and bill, in favour of notes, might, if to weigh nine pennyweights and eledeemed necessary, be adopted. We ven grains. Hence we may form a shall only observe upon this, that the bank notes are not at present assignats, but the moment the legislature compels us to receive them as cash, then they become to all intents and purposes assignats, and similar effects will follow from such a paper, as took place in France and America.

Has the bank acted with sufficient regard to its own interest in these transactions? Government allowed it to issue paper to stand in the stead of coin, aud by its printing presses and paper manufactory, it procured, at very little expense, what passed for

comparison between the statute and the Bank currency. One pound of silver makes sixty-two shillings, and consequently nine pennyweights and eleven grains is worth 2s. 54d. This supposes the Bank silver to be equally good with the statute silver. By following the common rules of arithmetic, the statute currency is found to be to the Bank currency in the proportion of about eleven to nine: that is, nine legal shillings are worth eleven shillings banco.

This mode of comparison should have been kept out of sight by the

bank. There was no need of it. Bell foundation. A civil action has been metal would have served its purpose commenced in Scotland relative to a just as well, and when issued, would sum of money which is claimed by have found advocates to maintain that the baronet, and the defendant has set it was just as good as standard silver. forth a very extraordinary plea for reThey have been wrong too in the ap- taining the money, which he mainpearance of their token; a more con- tains to have been entrusted to him temptible stamp has seldom or ever for the produce of an unlawful conappeared. Now this might have been nection between the baronet and some prevented; a very trifling sum would lady of high rank, whose name is not have made the medal elegant, and mentioned. The fact is denied by they ought to have recollected that the Sir Francis, who pleads that he has gilding of the pill makes it go down no children but by his own wife. The better. The indulgences of the bank fact then remains to be proved by the at Rome were well written, and ele- defendant; and in the present case, to gantly ornamented. The bank seems say the least of it, there is allegation to have given far more silver than the against allegation. We have not the public required, and what they have name of the party mentioned, who is given they have done in a slovenly supposed to be the mother of the manner. The next time they will, child: we know not that there is a we are persuaded, be more attentive child, since its name is not mentioned. in both respects to their own interests. The whole may be a fiction; and on It would be curious to examine the the face of it, it seems strange that profits of the bank from the first de- money, if it were trusted under such rangement of its affairs. Other bank- circumstances, should become a subers, when they stop payment, feel ject of legal discussion. However, the inconvenience and loss: the value of mere application to a court of law for bank stock has, on the contrary, risen; what he deems his right, and the sim-* they have issued bonuses, and have, it ple reply to it, without any decision is said, many millions of exchequer of the judge or even examination of bills in their coffers. This is an amus- witnesses, is deemed sufficient by ing fact. The government permits those, who would eagerly sieze any the bank to issue its paper, which weapon to destroy a valuable public kicks out our gold, and absorbs the government paper. For the government paper we lose five per cent. annually, as much of it as the bank keeps it gains an easy profit by. It lies in their coffers, and produces an annual income without trouble. This system cannot last long. It carries too plainly with it the seeds of its own destruction; but had the landholders come forward at the beginning in the same manner as Lord King has now done, if they had been as firm in the support of their own interests, as the bankers and principal traders of the metropolis in support of their commercial system, the kingdom would not now be in its present dilemma, and gold and silver would have as free a circulation as in former times.

As Lord King has occasioned, by his letter to his tenants, a stir in the nation, the enemies of Sir Francis Burdett have taken no small pains to excite an outcry against him upon surmises, which dwell on a very sandy

UNIVERSAL Mag. Vol. XVI.

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character. We shall hear with regret that Sir Francis Burdett has given any the slightest grounds for this attack upon him-not that we expect our public characters to be immaculate; nor would we, on account of private frailties, lose the champion of our rights: but we should be sorry that his domestic happiness has been impaired, and that he has fallen into the same snare into which too many great and noble minds have been inveigled. Time will, however, unravel the mystery, and we cannot give any credit at present to the improbable tale in circulation, which involves in it a suspicion of breach of trust and of family bitterness, which has hardly ever been manifested to the world in such odious and glaring colours.

Two magnificent fêtes have distinguished the last month, the one at Cambridge, the other in town. That at Cambridge lasted several days, and was in honour of the Duke of Gloucester, their much beloved and respected Chancellor, on his installation. I

But we are drawn from our thoughts on festivals by a melancholy theme, which has thrown a gloom over the whole nation. The council, before who is laid a state of the king's health, reported that hopes were still entertained that he might resume his royal functions, but at what time it could not be foreseen. Scarcely had their paper been circulated, when daily bulletins again commenced at Windsor, for the king had had a relapse, and his disorder returned with greater violence than ever. The couriers that passed upon this occasion, and the intelligence that transpired made a serious alarm upon the public mind, and the dread of approaching dissolution became very general. In this situation his Majesty was for some days; but, by degrees, the bulletins gave tidings of amendment. shock will, however, retard the recovery, and diminish greatly the expectations formed of a restoration to the royal functions.

The academics, old and young, vied consequence there was a genteel mobwith each other in their endeavours to bing, a squeezing, and crowding, and give splendour and dignity to their shoving of the well-dressed, and those solemnity; and, we may add, that they who ought to be the best behaved; were crowned with complete success. and any one, who witnessed the scene, Never perhaps was a festival in which would wish, in future, if he must be so great a number of persons were so in a croud, to be in one of dustmen, highly gratified, and from which each coal-heavers, draymen, tinkers, taycould so aptly exclaim on retiring, lors, and fishwomen, rather than in a Conviva satur. The occasion demand- mob of fine ladies and gentlemen. ed it. The object of their choice, of the blood royal, had been educated amongst them: his conduct as an under graduate had been exemplary: he had frequently after visited the academic groves, and the part he had taken in public life gave pleasure to every studious mind. Every heart exulted at his success; and the mixture of solemn meetings at the church and the senate-house with the gay ones in the splendid halls, at festive boards, or in gardens, enlivened with the sprightly dance, rejoiced old father Cam, and Alma Mater viewed with satisfaction and delight her sons relaxing from their graver pursuits, and receiving from the fair sex due encomiums on their taste and liberality. At Carleton House there was more wealth, more jewels, more grandeur displayed; but there was not the variety of entertainment that prevailed at Cambridge. It was a royal supper, and for meat, drink, and clothing it has not often been surpassed. Of course, whatever was high and noble in the nation, was present. Two circumstances deserve notice upon this occasion; first, that so large a party was never before introduced to any public place with such ease, for every thing had been laid down with such regularity, that every carriage came to the portico with almost as little trouble as if no other preceded or followed it. This was owing to the excellent arrangement that had been made, and it was unfortunate that the necessity of a similar arrangement had not been foreseen for the exhibition of the following days. The Prince, with the kindness peculiar to him, understanding the general wish to see the apartments as they were on the festive night, gave orders for the admission of visitors by tickets. No plan had been laid down for the movements of the fashionables as there had been for those of the horses, and in

The

If we turn from domestic occurrences, those abroad are far from being satisfactory. Great Britain and America have long been on such terms, that very little is required for either party to break, as it is called, the usual relations of peace and amity, and to vent their resentments in the ridiculous and cruel appeal to the sword. Either party has now suffcient grounds for war. An action has taken place between an English and an American armed vessel, of which both parties have given an account. Several persons were killed and wounded, and the question is not yet decided which fired the first shot. Each party throws the blame on the other; but as our vessel is so much inferior in size to the American, it seems like madness for it to provoke a quarrel, in which it must be eventually the greatest sufferer; and we shall naturally be inclined to give the greatest cre

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nue to bear the yoke of the worst of governments. Some melioration has been proposed and adopted by the Cortez, but the Peruvians may form a junta of their own, and govern themselves till the authority of Ferdinand is duly acknowledged in Spain, and they can receive orders from a cabinet under his authority, or a Cortez duly elected by the nation.

dit to the relation made by our own offers to shake it off, they will conticaptain. What steps have been taken in consequence of this transaction by the cabinets of the two countries we do not know; but doubtless an explanation has taken place, or at least one has been demanded by us. Our ship was by far the greatest sufferer; but it refused the assistance proffered to it by the American: and certainly it cannot be denied, that if we were right in the first instance, the honour of our flag Europe presents a different scene has been maintained with great spirit. from what was exhibited in our last. The etiquette of naval salutes is not Spain is the most important feature, so well ascertained as it might be, and and there the French have now the a word and a blow seem to follow each ascendancy completely, for they have other too rapidly. If our ship did driven us again into Portugal. We not answer the American, or vice versa, were too sanguine in our ideas of the where would have been the harm in campaign of Lord Wellington, in the the question being repeated; or if a north of Portugal. The French regun is to be fired, why might it not treated through necessity, and they be in the first instance without ball, were the assailants in those battles, that the hailed ship might know to which were fought on the frontiers of what it was exposing itself without a the two kingdoms. If we repulsed reply. Here seems to have been no wish them gloriously, we were not able to on either side to fight as decided ene- pursue them into Spain, nor to obtain mies, and a little time for explanation other fruits of the victory, which the might have prevented the mischief enemy also claims, than the fall of that has taken place. Who, however, Almeida, and the deliverance of Porwas to make the explanation? Which tugal. In the south, the victory of was first to answer the other's question? Let us hope that there is room enough for reconciliation, and that both parties will see the folly of going to war, from which both must inevitably be the losers.

Marshal Beresford, which the French also claim, gave our troops the entrée into Spain, and Badajoz was invested. Lord Wellington joined the southern army, and we were expecting the fall of the town, and the deliverance of Andalusia, by an irresistible attack of the combined armies, assisted by a host of Spaniards, burning with revenge to take up arms, and to extirpate the foe from their province.

Of the Spanish Americans we can give but meagre intelligence. Mexico is unquiet: the Caraccas are consolidating their independence. The government of Buenos Ayres is completely prepared to resist that of Our expectations have been disapMonte Video, and the efforts of the pointed. Bajadoz is not taken. The latter will not tend to any great results. besieged made a very vigorous resistOur attention is carried to Peru, by ance, and repulsed the assailants in the arrival of some gentlemen from two separate attacks on practicable thence into this country, who are sup- breaches. Still the place could not posed to be delegated with sufficient have holden out, if other measures authority to correspond with our go- had not produced an entire change in vernment. We trust, that, with the the position of the combined armies consent of the Cortez, the embarass- in those quarters. The French bements now in the way of trade will be held, with mortification, the deliverremoved; and whatever is done, we ance of Portugal, and our troops on cannot doubt that the great province the frontiers of Spain, and they reof Peru will, in no short time, shake solved to make every effort to prever t off its dependence. There has been us from entering into the latter kingin that district much greater attention dom. With this view they collected paid to literature and science than in their troops from all quarters, and the other Spanish colonies; and it is made Badajoz their rendezvous. Lord not likely that, when an opportunity Wellington's army was in the environs