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gard to the price of provisions, and the depreciation of the circu lating medium, are the same. A distinction has, indeed, been drawn between gold and paper currency; and it has been contended, that as no banker parts with notes without value, it is impossible that any depreciation can arise from an increase in their cir culation. The same argument, however, applies to the precious metals. No man gives away a guinea, or a shilling, without value; and yet, by increasing the number, their exchangeable value is depreciated. But this doctrine is equally applicable to paper. A poor manufacturer, when on the point of bankruptcy, obtains bank-notes for several bills, and is thus enabled not only to carry on his business, but likewise to support his family in a more comfortable manner. He buys more butcher-meat, and eats more wheat bread, than he could have done had he not obtained the discounts; and as the same thing happens to a great number of individual traders, there will be a greater competition in the market; prices will rise, and money, both paper and coined, will suffer a proportional depreciation. A guinea is of value only because it gives the holder of it a certain command over the means of subsistence, or the property of a country; because it will exchange for a certain portion of any thing the individual wants. A banknote is valuable exactly in the same respects as a guinea. It represents a specific portion of property, and exchanges for a given quantity of goods or provisions; and, while it does so, every addition made to the quantity of notes issued by the various banks, or bills, which have the same effect, must infallibly lower the value of the whole money, of whatever denomination, circulating in the country.

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To illustrate this matter a little further, as well as to prepare way for what is to follow, let us suppose the case of an individual possessed of twenty millions of money, going to reside for life in a small island, where the inhabitants are poor, and where the arts and manufactures are still in their infancy. Such a sum would in no shape benefit the proprietor, if kept locked up in his coffers; and, therefore, he disposes of it gradually in loans to landholders, manufacturers, and others, who are thus enabled to engage more hands, and to give higher wages to those whom they employ. An additional stimulus is given to the industry and enterprise of the people. Every one becomes active, and strives to better his condition; but as his desires greatly outstrip the means of gratification, each will be less happy, or, at least, feel less satisfied, than before. From the great increase of money, too, prices, as already explained, must necessarily advance; and this will be complained of as a heavy grievance. Another source of complaint is the interest paid to the stranger, which, when the whole of his money has been lent out, will amount to one million sterling.

Nearly

Nearly the whole property in the island is mortgaged for it, and the payments of interest so greatly lessen the revenue of the proprietors, that they talk of their payments as a burden which cannot long be supported. The whole, however, is a deception. The issuing of the money does not, and cannot, impoverish the island. The rise in the price of provisions is amply compensated by the increase of money, and the advance of wages: And the interest, which appeared the greatest evil, was not only paid, in the first instance, out of the money previously lent, but was all afterwards returned to the islanders in the shape of higher prices for the productions of their soil, and their manufactures. If the stranger, indeed, were to hoard his interest yearly, in the view of again leaving the island, the payment of it would be truly a grievance. A million of money would yearly be taken from the circulating medium, without any return; and each year the island would be less able to spare it. But the supposition with which we set out was, that the owner of the money was to reside in the island for life; and, on that hypothesis, though he should draw annually one million from the inhabitants, he would yearly return them an equal sum, by expending his income. The payments are made at stated times, and in considerable sums; and are, therefore, very sensibly felt. The returns are indirect, irregular, gradual, and made through a thousand channels, and, therefore, not sensibly felt; but the consequences in regard to the solvency of the country at large, and the general comforts of the people, are the same as if the returns were made as directly and sensibly as the payments; and the interest so paid may thus move in a circle for a thousand years, or to the end of time, without occasioning any pecuniary embarrassment, or tending in any degree to general bankruptcy.

Exactly similar are the effects of the taxes. Sixty millions are paid annually; but can any one believe that sixty millions could be permanently spared from the circulating medium of the country? Nay, can any one believe that such a sum could all at once be withdrawn from circulation, without deranging the whole system of business in the kingdom? And if neither of these questions can be answered in the affirmative, it must, at first view, appear impossible that we should be able, for two years together, to pay such an enormous sum by way of taxes, unless all, or the greater part, were to be returned to the people.

Almost one-half of the revenue is applied in discharging the interest of the national debt; and this moiety, it is obvious, merely makes a circle. The country pays it, and half-yearly, by means of the national creditors, receives it back again. Nor, by such a proceeding, is it either richer or poorer. This sum is paid directly by one set of individuals; it is received directly by another, and by

them

them it is again, though indirectly, diffused through the community. In regard to the other moiety of the revenue, the circle which it makes is not quite so perceptible; it is paid directly in the shape of taxes; it is returned indirectly in discharging the expenses of our naval, military, and civil establishments. The creditors in our national debt distribute the interest which they receive to all those who can either minister to their wants, or sup ply them with conveniences and luxuries. It is divided among servants, tradesmen, artificers, merchants, and manufacturers, The money expended in supporting our various establishments is returned to those from whom it came, in the shape of payments for food and clothing to our soldiers and sailors, and for the ne cessaries and conveniences of life required by civil officers; by which means, the whole labour, goods, and manufactures, in the country, exchange for exactly sixty millions more than they would do, were the amount of the revenue not returned annually to the people; and thus every individual is enabled, from year to year, to meet the demands of the tax-gatherer. The vulgar idea, no doubt, is, that the sixty millions so paid are as much lost to the community as if they were thrown into the sea; and, if this were correct, the amount of our taxes would soon be productive of the most disastrous consequences. But we trust that we have satisfied every mind capable of understanding the subject, that the revenue, which is taken from the people directly, is returned to them gradually, and, for the greater part, indirectly, in the course of the year; that, even in the same year, one part of the revenue is restored to the country, to enable it to pay the remaining part; and that, generally speaking, the payment of all taxes, collected in money, is just commencing a movement by which the circulating medium completes a circle, in passing from the people to the treasury, and from the treasury to the people: nor can any amount of national debt, while that debt is due to subjects, nor any amount of taxes, while these are expended within the country, ever occasion any thing like national bankruptcy.

But the further discussion of this and other collateral subjects, as well as the consideration of some objections founded on the effects of the high price of labour, and consequent expense of ma❤ nufactures, must be left to a future number of our publication.

REVIEW

Review of Scotish Publications.

I.-C. Julii Cæsaris de Bello Gallico et Civili Commentarii. Acce dunt Libri de Bello Alexandrino, Africano, et Hispaniensi. E recensione Francisci Oudendorpii. Cura JOANNIS HUNTER, LL. D. in Academia Andreapolitana Litt. Hum. Prof. Cupar, 1809, 2 vols. 8vo. Pp. xv. 283, 260. 14s. Hill.

THAT department of literature in which Dr Hunter has earned so high a reputation has been little cultivated in this part of the island. A few of our countrymen have, however, obtained distinction as editors of Greek and Latin authors. In 1555, a treatise of Plutarch was edited by Edward Henryson, professor of the civil law in the university of Bourges; and in 1558, the collection of the Novells, by Henry Scrimger, who filled the same chair in the college of Geneva. Robert Balfour, the very learned principal of Guienne college, Bourdeaux, published editions of Cleomedes and Gelasius Cyzicenus. His cotemporary, the famous Thomas Dempster, distinguished himself by his editions of Claudian and Corippus. Patrick Young, a man of very considerable erudition, edited in 1633 the epistle of Clemens Romanus ; and, after a long interval, Alexander Cunningham acquired much celebrity by his editions of Horace and Virgil. Ruddiman's edition of Livy is remarkable for its correctness. Many correct and beautiful editions of classical authors issued from the press of the late celebrated printers to the university of Glasgow; and some of them are enriched with the annotations of the acute and learn. ed Dr Moor. Dr Hunter has already distinguished himself by his very accurate editions of Horace, Virgil, Sallust, Juvenal, and Persius. By his edition of Cæsar he has conferred a new obligation on the admirers of classical literature.

The text is professedly borrowed from the valuable edition of Oudendorp. The general plan on which the present editor proceeded is sufficiently explained in the subsequent extract from his preface.

"In Cæsaris Hirtiique Commentariis recognoscendis, editionem doctissimi Francisci Oudendorpii, quæ Lugd. Batav. anno 1737 in lucem prodiit, in plerisque omnibus secuti sumus. In quibusdam tamen locis, paucissimis illis quidem, ubi viri doctissimi emendatio levioris aut nullius momenti videretur, lectionem vulgatam retinemus. In pauculis aliis, lectionem codicum scriptorum, quam editores eruditissimi ex sola conjectura, et sine idonea ratione, mutâsse viderentur, in contextum restituimus. Parum, e. g. referre videtur utrum vesperam cum viris doctissimis, Clarkio, RuddiVol. I.

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manno,

manno, aliisque, legamus, an vesperum, prout semper edidit Oudendorpius."

Dr Hunter's edition, though not immaculate, appears to us extremely correct. It is elegantly printed by Mr Tullis of Cupar, and includes the engravings commonly appended to this author. The editor has not followed the example of Dr Clarke in subjoining the fragments of Cæsar. Dr Hunter's preface, which consists of thirteen pages, evinces his usual sagacity and erudition; and we regret extremely that he has not presented us with more copious illustrations of the text. If he had added notes equally learned and judicious, his edition would have been invaluable. It has been remarked by Dr Brown of Aberdeen, a very competent judge, that "the learned and acute Dr Hunter of St Andrews does more in a few lines than the herd of commentators were capable of doing in prolix dissertations."

In the preface we have discovered two errors of a very trivial nature. "Collega noster, in hisce studiis versatissimus, Jacobus Playfair, D. D." P. vii. If he had been writing in English, these initials would have been very proper; but we need hardly remark, that there is no such Latin phrase as " Divinitatis Doctor." The learned professor ought to have written, S. T. D. or P. The same error has been committed by Dr Beattie, in his epitaph on Dr Blacklock. "Ita legitur in editione Elzeviriana, a Julio Scaligero, ut præ se fert, recensita." P. xiv. The edition of Cæsar to which Dr Hunter alludes, bears the name, not of Julius, but of his son Joseph Scaliger. This seems to have been a mere slip of the pen; for, in the first page of the preface, he mentions the younger Scaliger as the editor of Cæsar.

We cannot take our leave of Dr Hunter without expressing an earnest wish that he would persevere in his learned labours, and communicate to the public a larger portion of that immense erudition which he is known to have amassed.

Tam longæ maneat pars ultima vitæ!

II.-Philemon; or the Progress of Virtue; a Poem. By WIL LIAM LAURENCE BROWN, D.D. Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Edinb. 1809, 2 vols. small 8vo. Pp. xxv. 205, 290. 14s. Oliphant and Balfour.

THE author of this poem has long been known to the public as a man of very uncommon talents. While he filled the office of professor of moral philosophy in the university of Utrecht, his Latin publications

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