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interest to the fishes in the little pool just alluded to, all the fears which they have been tormented with, on the part of the finny race.

"How charining is this solitude!" The sheet of water,presented on every side, is studded here and there with reed-bearing islets. The largest of these are converted into aviaries, filled with all kinds of animals appertaining to the feathered race, and they coms municate with each other, by means of little bridges constructed some in wood and some in stone, partly circular and partly straight. When the water lilies, with which the borders of the pond are adorned, open their flowers, they appear crowned with purple and scarlet, like the horizon of the south

ern seas.

On retiring, it is necessary to as cend a stair-case cut out of the living rock, by the labours of the pick-axe, the marks of which are still visible. The cabinet formed at the top, has nothing but simplicity to recommend it, although, indeed, it is sufficiently adorned by the view of an immense plain, where the Kiang winds through straggling villages and rice grounds. The innumerable barks with which this great river is covered; the labourers scattered up and down the country, and the travellers who crowd the roads, all contribute to animate this enchanting landscape. The azure

coloured mountains which terminate the horizon, at once charm and refresh the sight.

When I walk on my parterre, it is my delight to cull such medicinal plants there as I may wish to preserve. Does one flower delight me, I seize and become intoxicated with its perfumes. Is another drooping from thirst I water it, and its neighbours profit by my bounty. How often have ope and delicious fruits restored to me that appetite, of which the sight of the most delicious meats have deprived me? my pea hes and pomegranates are not better, perhaps, when plucked by my hand; but I myself am more pleased with them, while my friends, to whom I send baskets, scem always delighted to praise them. Do I perceive a young and straggling bamboo, which I wish to encourage, I cut it, or hend and interlace its branches, so as no longer to droop on the earth. The trargin of the water, the recesses of a wood, and the tertiuating point of a rock, al serve me equally, and by turns, for the purposes of repose. I now enter into my cabinet to behold my swans making war on the fishes; but scarcely have I sat down, when i take up my kin, and provoke the music of the neighbouring groves.

When I am weary of composing, and of writing among my books in the great hall, I throw myself into a bark, conducted by myself, and repair to taste the pleasures of my garden. Sometimes I land at the isle of the fishermen, and covering my head with a large straw hat, by means of bait I allure the fishes which sport in the bosom of the waters, and I study our passions in their mistakes.

At other times, with a quiver bung across my shoulder, and a bow in my hand, I climb among the rocks, and there lurking like a traitor for the rabbits which issue from the fissures, I pierce them with my arrows, at the entrance into their retreats. Alas! more wise than ourselves, they dread danger, and they fly from it! If they perceive my arrival, not one of them makes its appearance.

A large Chinese river.

The last rays of the sun sometimes surprise the, while considering in silence, the tender solicitudes of a swal low for her young, or the stratagems recurred to by a kite for the purpose of carrying away his prey. The mur mur of the waters, the futtering of the foliage gently agitated by the zephyrs, and the beauty of the heavens, serve by turns to plunge me in a swect reverie. All nature seems to speak to my heart. I am lost in listening to her; and the night is already half spent when I reach the threshold of my mansion. Sleep alone ravishes from me those charms which I experience; but if I am awoke by my dreams, I anticipate Aurora, by beholding from the top of some neighbouring cuinence, those pearls and rubies, which she scatters along the path traced by the sun.

My friends frequently interrupt my solitude, in order to recite their own works, or listen to mine, I associate them in my amusements. The juice of the grape gives gaiety to our frugal repasts; philosophy seasons them, and while the court dissolved in voluptuousness,caresses calumny, forges fetters

* A musical instrument, common in China,

and

and spreads snares for the subject, we invoke wisdom. My eyes are confinually turned towards her; but alas, her rays never reach me but through the medium of a thousand clouds, which are sometimes dissipated, how ever and that too, by a storm.

This solitude shall serve as the tem. ple of pleasure. What do I say! A father, a husband, a citizen, and a man of letters. I have a multitude of duties to fulfil; my life is no longer my own. Adieu, thou, my dear garden! The love of my country, calis me to the capital; but preserve all thy pleasures, that they may dissipate my new chagrins, and save my virtue from shipwreck, amidst future afflic. tions.

Abstract of the Report of the Select Com. mittee, on the Eigh Price of Gold Bul lion.

Continued from our last Magazine,

p. 294.

The restriction of cash-payments, as has already been shewn, having rendered the same preventive policy no longer necessary to the Bank, has removed that check upon its issueswhich was the public security against an exCCSS. When the Bank directors were no longer exposed to the inconvenience of a drain upon them for gold, they naturally felt that they had no such inconvenience to guard against by a more restrained system of dis. counts and advances; and it was very natural for them to pursue as before (but without that sort of guard and Imitation which was now become unnecessary to their own security, the same liberal and prudent system of commercial advances from which the prosperity of their own establishment bad resulted, as well as in a great degree the commercial prosperity of the whole country. It was natural for the Bank directors to believe, that nothing but benefit could accrue to the public at large, while they saw the growth of Bank profits go hand in hand with the accommodations granted to the merchants. It was hardly to be expected of the directors of the Bank, that they should be funy aware of the consequences that might result from their pursuing, after the suspension of cash payments, the same system which they had found a sate one before. To watch the ope tation of so new a law, and to pro, vide against the injury which might

result from it to the public interests, was the province, not so much of the Bank as of the legislature; and, in the opinion of your committee, there is no room to regret that this house has not taken earlier notice of all the consequences of that law

By far the most important of those consequences is, that while the convertibility into specie no longer exists as a check to an over issue of paper, the Bank directors have not perceived that the removal of that check rendered it possible that such an excess might be issued by the discount of perfectly good bills. So far from perceiving this, your committee have shewn that they maintain the contrary, doctrine with the utmost confidence, however it may be qualified occasionally by some of their expressions. That this doctrine is a very fallacious one, your committee cannot entertain a doubt. The fallacy, upon which it is founded, lies in not distinguishing between an advance of capital to merchants, and an addition of supply of currency to the general mass of circulating medium. If the advance of capital only is considered, as made to those who are ready to employ it in judicious and productive under, takings, it is evident there need be no other limit to the total amount of advances than what the means of the

lender, and his prudence in the selection of borrowers may impose. But, in the present situation of the Bank, intrusted as it is with the functions of supplying the public with that paper currency which forms the basis of our circulation, and at the same time not subjected to the liability of converting the paper into specie, every advance which it makes of capital to the merchants in the shape of discount, becomes an addition also to the mass of circulating medium. In the first instance, when the advance is made by notes paid in discount of a bill, it is undoubtedly so much çapital, so much power of making pr chases, placed in the hands of the merchant who receives the notes: and if those hands are safe, the operation is so far, and in this its first step, useful and productive to the public. But as soon as the portion of circalating medium, in which the advance was thus made, performs in the hands of him to whom it was advanced this its first operation as capital, as soon as the notes are exchanged by him

for

for some other article which is capital, they fall into the channel of circulation as so much circulating me dium, and form an addition to the mass of currency. The necessary effect of every such addition to the mass, is to diminish the relative value of any given portion of that mass in exchange for commodities. If the addition were made by notes convertible into specie, this diminution of the relative value of any given portion of the whole mass, would speedily bring back upon the Bank, which issued the notes, as much as was excessive. But if by law they are not so convertible, of course this excess will not be brought back, but will remain in the channel of circulation, until paid in again to the Bank itself in discharge of the bills which were originally discounted. During the whole time they remain out, they perform all the functions of circulating medium; and before they come to be paid in discharge of those bills they have already been followed by a new issite of notes in a similar operation of discounting. Each successive advance repeats the same process. If the whole sum of discounts continues outstanding at a given amount, there will remain permanently out in circulation a corresponding amount of paper; and if the amount of discounts is progressively increasing, the amount of paper, which remains out in circulation over and above what is otherwise wanted for the occasions of the public, will progressively increase also, and the money prices of commodities will progressively rise. This progress may be as indefinite, as the range of speculation and adventure in a great commercial country.

lustration place in a more striking point of view the extent to which such of the Bank directors, as were examined before the committee, seem to have in theory embraced that doe trine upon which your committee have made these observations, as well as the practical consequences to which that doctrine may lead in periods of a high spirit of commercial adventure, than the opinion which Mr. Whitmore aud Mr. Pearse have delivered; that the same complete se curity to the public against any excess in the issues of the Bank would exist if the rate of discount were reduced from five to four, or even io three per cent. From the evidence, however, of the late governor and deputy governor of the Bank, it appears, that though they state the principle broadly that there can be no excess of their circulation, if is sued according to their rules of discount, yet they disclaim the idea of acting up to it in its whole extent; though they stated the applications for the discount of legitimate bills to be their sole criterion of abundance or scarcity, they gave your committee to understand, that they do not discount to the full extent of such ap plications. In other words, the direc tors do not act up to the principle which they represent as one perfectly sound and safe, and must be considered, therefore, as possessing no distinct and certain rule to guide their discretion in controling the amount of their circulation.

The suspension of cash payments has had the effect of committing into the hands of the directors of the Bank of England, to be exercised by their sole discretion, the important charge It is necessary to observe, that the of supplying the country with that law, which in this country limits the rate of interest, and of course the rate at which the Bank can legally discount, exposes the Bank to still more extensive demands for commercial discounts. While the rate of commercial profit is very considerably higher than five per cent. as it has lately been in many branches of our foreign trade, there is in fact no limit to the demands which merchants of perfectly good capital, and of the most prudent spirit of enterprize, may be tempted to make upon the Bank for accommodation and facilities by dis count. Nor can any argument or il

quantity of circulating medium which is exactly proportioned to the wants and occasions of the public. In the judgment of the committee, that is a trust, which it is unreasonable to expect that the directors of the Bank of England should ever be able to discharge. The most detailed-knowledge of the actual trade of the country, combined with the profound science in all the principles of money and circulation, would not enable any man or set of men to adjust, and keep always adjusted, the right proportion of circulating medium in a country to the wants of trade, When the

currency consists entirely of the precious metals, or of paper convertible at will into the precious metals, the natural process of commerce, by establishing exchanges among all the different countries of the world, adjusts, in every particular country, the proportion of circulating medium to its actual occasions, according to that supply of the precious metals which the mines furnish to the general market of the world. The proportion, which is thus adjusted and maintained by the natural operation of commerce, cannot be adjusted by any human wisdom or skill. If the natural system of currency and circulation be abandoned, and a discretionary issue of paper money substituted in its stead, it is vain to think that any rules can be devised for the exact exercise of such a discretion; though some cautions may be pointed out to check and con. trol its consequences, such as are indicated by the effect of an excessive issue upon exchanges and the price of gold. The directors of the Bank of England, in the judgment of your commnittee, have exercised the new and extraordinary discretion reposed in them since 1797, with an integrity and a regard to the public interest according to their conceptions of it, and indeed a degree of forbearance in turning it less to the profit of the Bank than it would easily have admitted of, that merit the continuance of that confidence which the Public has so long and so justly felt in the integrity with which its affairs are directed, as well as in the unshaken stability and ample funds of that great establishment. That their recent policy involves great practical errors, which it is of the utmost public importance to correct, your committee are fully convinced; but those errors are less to be imputed to the bank directors, than to be stated as the effect of a new system, of which, however it originated, or was ren dered necessary as a temporary expedient, it might have been well it parialiament had sooner taken into view all the cousequences. When your com. mittee consider that t discretionary power, of supplying the angon with circulating medium, een exercis.

ed under an opinion that the paper could not be issued to excess if advanced in discounts to merchants in good bills payable at stated periods, and like. wise under an opinion that neither the price of bullion nor the course of exchanges need be adverted to, as affording any indication with respect to the sufficiency or excess of such paper, your committee cannot hesitate to say, that these opinions of the Bank must be regarded as in a great measure the operative cause of the continuance of the present state of things.

Your committee will now proceed to state, from the information which has been laid before them, what appears to have been the progressive increase, and to be the present amount, of the paper circulation of this country, consisting primarily of the notes of the Bank of England not at present convertible into specie; and, in a secondary manner, of the notes of the country bankers which are convertible, at the option of the holder, into Bank of England paper. After having stated the amount of Bank of England paper, your committee will explain the reason which induce them to think that the numerical amount of that paper is not alone to be considered as decisive of the question as to its excess and before stating the amount of country bank paper, so far as that can be ascertained, your committee will explain their reasons for thinking, that the amount of the country bank circulation is limited by the amount of that of the bank of England.

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1. It appears from the accounts laid before the committees uppa affairs in 1797, that for several years previous to the year 1796, the aver age amount of bank notes in circulition was between £10,000,000 and £11,000,000. hardly ever falling be low £9,000,000, and not often exceed ing to any great amount £11,000,000.

The following abstract of the several accounts referred to your committee, or ordered by your committee from the bank, will shew the progressive increase of the notes from the year 1798 to the end of the last year.

Average Amount of Bank of England Notes in circulation in each of the following years;

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Taking from the accounts the last half of the year 1809, the average will be found higher than for the whole year, and amounts to £.19,880,310.

The notes of the bank of England are principally issued in advances to. government for the public service, and in advances to the merchants upon the discount of their bills.

Your committee have had an account laid before them, of advances made by the bank to government on land and malt, exchequer bills and other securities, in every year since the suspension of cash payments; from which, as compared with the accounts laid before the committees of 1797, and which were then carried back for 20 years, it will appear that the yearly advances of the bank to government have upon an average, since the suspension, been considerably lower in amount than the average amount of advances prior to that event, and the amount of those advances in the two last years, though greater in amount than those of some years immediately preceding, is less than it was for any of the six years preceding the restriction of cash pay

ments.

With respect to the amount of commercial discounts, your cominittee did not think it proper to require from the directors of the bank a disclosure of their absolute amount, being a part of their private transactions as a commercial company, of which, without urgent reason, it did not seem right to demand a disclosure. The late goveruor and deputy governor, however,

4,868,275

at the desire of your immittee, fur, nished a comparative scale, in progressive numbers, shewing the increase of the amount of their discounts from the year 1790 to 1809, both inclusive. They made a request, with which your committee have thought it proper to comply, that this document might not be made public; the committee therefore have not placed it in the appendix to the present report, but have returned it to the bank. Your committee, however, have to state in general terms, that the amount of discounts has been progressively increasing since the year 1796; and that their amount in the last year (1809) bears a very high proportion to their largest amount in any year preceding 1797. Upon this particular subject, your committee are only anxious to remark, that the largest amount of mercantile discounts by the bank, if it could be considered by itself, ought never, in their judgment, to be regarded as any other than a great public benefit; and that it is only the excess of paper currency thereby issued, and kept out in circulation, which is to be considered as the evil,

But your committee must not omit to state one very important principle, that the mere numerical return of the amount of bank notes out in circulation, cannot be considered as at all de, ciding the question, whether such paper is or is not excessive. It is necessary to have recourse to other tests. The same amount of paper may at one time be less than enough, and at an

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