not above modes of living which are in entire hostility, or altogether different from the ministers whom the Head of the Church chose for the propagation of the Gospel.

We are sorry that in a work which is of a class that is worthy of a nobleman to enlarge, should have been marred by such bigotry and ignorance, as the above specimens display. We wish, however, to part on good terms with the author, and therefore cite, in conclusion, the description of a scene and certain manners, as witnessed in Jura, which is no doubt as faithful as it is striking.

"On landing and reaching a height, in the midst of the waste howling wilderness, for wind and rain augmented the dreariness of the scene, I perceived on a distant knoll a solitary black spot, which might have been mistaken by an unpractised eye for a sign, infallible to the sportsman, of the place of his wounded quarry-a collection of crows or corbies, employed in accelerating the death or devouring the carcase of the poor animal. It proved, however, on near approach, to be a band of mourners assembled at a rustic funeral, in an ancient and perfectly sequestered cemetery, distinguished by the ruins of a chapel. A grave was digging to receive the remains of a shepherd of the laird of Jura; and beside the coffin lay two others, containing the bodies of his children, one of whom had been buried two years, and the other one year, and were now taken up to make room for their parent.

"When the grave was closed, the mourners, sixty in number, attended by their dogs, which were very numerous, sat down on the ground, now thoroughly soaked with heavy rain, which had been falling for some hours, and the brother-in-law of the deceased invited me to drink a glass of whisky, and eat some oat cake. About twenty women and girls were present, among whom were the mother and daughter, accompanied by the sons of the deceased. The mother, nearly seventy years of age, sat fixing her eyes earnestly on the grave, in which were buried her husband, and children, and grand-children, and just sipped the whisky which was first offered to her. The women seemed to dispense with this part of the ceremony, but the men and boys drank their three rounds, according to custom; and abundance of oat-cake was distributed. The repast was concluded with a prayer and thanksgiving in Gaelic, delivered by a brother-in-law of the deceased, who stood up in the midst of the circle, all present being uncovered.

"A man from Isla, whom I had asked whether prayer was ever offered on these occasions, replied with obvious suspicion as to the motives of the inquiry, and in a low tone of voice Yes, that is beginning: but it is Popish, and there are no Papists here;' at the same time he had no objection to the commencing and concluding with thanksgiving, which had taken place that day. He added that the brother talked all about the New Testament, which he could do very well: that they had schools, and that it was a great blessing to be able to read the Bible both in English and Gaelic.

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The mourners had assembled with the promptitude characteristic of their ancient obedience to any summons to a public occasion, for the deceased had breathed his last only the day before, at five in the morning.

Friends had been instantly despatched in all directions to different parts of Jura and Isla, inviting the mourners to the grave at three the following afternoon. The corpse had been brought half the length of the island that day: and the Isla man, with whom I had conversed, had walked thirty miles since morning, and intended returning twenty miles more to the ferry of Portaskig that evening. They had well earned the refreshment provided for them. The ceremony was conducted with perfect order and solemnity: and the mourners returned to Tarbert, where boats awaited them. The little public-house in Lagg bay, where we landed and I took up my quarters, was well thronged; and my companions soon exchanged their demure looks for smiling and merriment: those who had far to return were induced to stay, and they continued drinking and singing till past midnight, making an uproar which prevented the possibility of sleeping."-vol. ii, pp. 347-350.

ART. VIII.-The History of Banking in Ireland. By JAMES WILLIAM GILBART, General Manager of the London and Westminster Bank. London: Longman & Co. 1836.

PREVIOUS to entering upon the particular portion of our monetary system which is connected with the History of Banking in Ireland, we intend to offer some general observations, in regard to the extreme ignorance which prevails upon the subject; for we say it without hesitation, that if one thousand of the most busy and intelligent citizens of the great commercial metropolis of the British empire, were asked what commodity they most frequently bought and sold, we much doubt if any of them would give the right answer. It would probably never be supposed by them that that commodity was money. It is to a nonconception of this plain truth, namely, that money is as much a marketable commodity as any of those things for which it is given in exchange, that we must ascribe the ignorance that prevails concerning the laws by which its value and its distribution are regulated, and of the consequences which follow when the natural operation of these laws is disturbed. It would be deemed an unpardonable and shameful neglect in a manufacturer or merchant, if he failed to make himself acquainted with all that he could learn respecting those articles of trade which form the subject of his dealings; yet the far greater part of mankind never think of inquiring into the nature and properties of that one article in which, alone, all classes of all civilized communities deal in common. Unfortunately, too, there is a popular belief that the subject has in it something of obscurity, almost approaching to mysticism: an obscurity which we should much like to see fade away; and to assist in so doing, we do not think a few pages of our Review, or a few minutes of the reader's attention, would be wasted. We shall, therefore, detail, in as short a compass as possible, a few of the leading principles of this science; by the clear understanding of which

alone we can be saved from visitations of a similar nature to that which a few years since struck a panic among the mercantile and trading community of this country.

To commence, then, we may observe that there are two kinds of money in use in civilized nations: 1. that which consists wholly of the precious metals; 2. that which consists of written engagements. This last is called paper currency; and it exists in two ways: 1. when it is not convertible into coin or bullion; 2. when it is so convertible.

Supposing that the currencies of all countries consist of the precious metals, that the exportation of them from one country to another is perfectly free, and that coining is in every country performed at the expense of the state, and at the request of individuals; we will consider in this case what must regulate the quantity of money in any one country.

The precious metals are only to be obtained in the same way as other commodities, by labour; and their exchangeable value, though it depends at first upon their quantity, compared with the demand for them, must ultimately be settled according to the labour bestowed on their production, or in other words, according to the cost of extracting them from the mines. They are distributed among the nations of the earth, like all other commodities, by the giving of equivalents in exchange for them. Suppose England to want gold she sends to the country which possesses it as much of her manufactures as will purchase what she requires; and the quantity and value of these manufactures will depend upon the cost at which the owners of the gold (whether they be the original miners, 'or those to whom the miners sold it) can bring it to the market. The expenses of carriage and the profits of all parties must be paid; and adding these to the first cost of production, the amount must be the value at which, if circumstances which we shall presently notice do not interfere, gold will be obtainable in England.

The great ease, however, with which gold and silver, owing to their containing great value in little bulk, can be transported from one country to another (even when their transit is prohibited by law), causes them to be so nearly of the same value in most nations, that for all practical purposes, where the circumstances just alluded to do not interfere, their value is considered to be in all countries actually the same.

These circumstances are, the wants or desires existing in different communities, which regulate the commerce between them, and occasion, by means of that commerce, an increased or diminished demand for the precious metals.

Take, for example, the probable increase in our importation of corn, which it is supposed will be required this year; let us consider that that importation will take place from Poland; we are at the VOL. 11. (1836) nɔ. III.

D D

present time exporting there cloth, china, hardware, &c., and receiving back corn; we want more corn than usual, but they want no more of our manufactures, or perhaps find it more advantageous to purchase elsewhere, owing to the increasing price of our goods. Let us now consider what takes between the two countries; during the importation into England from Poland of corn to a greater amount than is paid for by commodities exported from England to Poland, there are of course debts due from English to Polish dealers, to a larger amount than there are debts due from Polish to English dealers. As far as the latter debts can go in discharge of the former, they may be applied to that purpose by a very simple process. The debtors to Poland have only to procure from the creditors of Poland, bills upon the Polish debtors of the latter, and the Polish creditors of the former can be satisfied, to the amount of these bills, by their transmission. If A in Poland owes 100l. to X in England, and Y in England owes 100%. to B in Poland, X may sell Y a bill upon A, which Y may send to B, and the payment of which by A will settle the transaction between all these parties.

But if the debts due from England to Poland are greater than the debts due from Poland to England, there are persons in England seeking to buy such bills as we have described, to a larger pecuniary amount than there are bills to supply their demands. Such bills, therefore, according to the law which regulates the prices of all commodities, rise in price, and a premium must be paid by those who buy them, beyond the amount of the sum which they represent. In this way, 1027. may be given by Y to X for a bill of 100l., and exchange is then said to be 2 per cent. against England, and in favour of Poland. As soon as this premium rises so high as to be equivalent to the expense and trouble of transmitting bullion or sovereigns from England to Poland in discharge of the debt, bullion or sovereigns will be sent, and exchange will rise no higher. No one would give 6 per cent. for a bill, if, at an expense of 4 per cent., he could discharge his foreign debt in money.

The rise in the rate of exchange is, then, the consequence of larger imports into England than can be balanced by her exports, and is posterior, in point of time, to the increase of exportation.

A change in the relative quantities of the currencies of the two countries results as a consequence of the change in the proportion of exports and imports, and posterior, in point of time, to the increased importation. The two events, therefore, the rise of the exchange and the alteration of the currencies, have no farther connection than in owing their origin to one common cause. In the case, however, which we have here supposed, the excess of imports over exports begins when the currencies of the two countries are of the same relative value, and when exchange is at par. As the rise in the price of bills is gradual, and proceeds for some time before

money is transmitted, the exchanger will, in this case, be affected before the currencies are disturbed. Both are affected by, and after, the altered proportions of exports and imports; but the exchange is equalized by the exportation of the precious metals from England, leaving the currency of England exhausted to the extent of the exportation, thereby affecting the relative value of all property, as the diminished quantity of gold is the medium of exchange, and measures the price of the same amount of goods that the larger quantity previously did.

But it may be objected that this theory is framed to meet a case that cannot occur in this country, as the currency consists both of paper and coin; yet, if any one will be at the trouble to consider that this paper can be turned into gold at the option of the holder, and exported to his advantage, they will perceive that the more paper that is issued, while the exchanges are against us, the more will the case become worse, the more injurious will it be to the country.

Having made the foregoing observations on some of the causes which regulate the value of the precious metals, we shall now direct the reader's attention to the contents of the work prefixed to this article, which gives a very clever and succinct account of the history of banking in Ireland. Speaking of the early difficulties it had to contend against, the author states:

"To be enabled to trace that progress during the period to which this section refers, I have had recourse chiefly to the Acts of the Irish Parliament. These are, I believe, the principal public documents from which authentic information can be obtained.

"I447. In this year an Act was passed against clipped money, money called O'Reyle's money, and other unlawful money, and against gilt bridles, peytrells, and other gilt harness. The following are the words of the Act. For that, that the clipping of the King our Sovereign Lord's coin hath caused divers men in this land of Ireland to counterfeit the same coin to the great hurt and destruction of the said land, and the making of gilt bridles and peytrells hath also wasted and consumed the gold of the said land for the more part, and is likely to do more hereafter, if it be not specially remedied. Wherefore, it is ordained and agreed by authority of this present Parliament, that no money so clipped be received in any part of the said land from the first day of May next to come, nor the money called O'Reyle's money, or any other unlawful money, so that one coyner be ready at the same day to make the coyn. And also, that no man be so hardy henceforward to use any gilt bridles, peytrells, nor any other gilt harness in no place of the said land, excepted knights and prelates of holy churches. And if any man be found with any such bridle, peytrell, or other harness, gilted from the same day, that it be lawful to every man that will to take the said man, his horse and harness, and to possess the same as his own goods.'

"In the same year an Act was passed levying a tax of twelve-pence per oun ce onall silver bullion exported. The preamble states, That this