sent it. This was the beginning of a paper currency, and the origin of the banking system of our times. The bills thus constructed would be conveyed with ease and safety under circumstances in which the traveller could not carry a large sum of gold or silver. The promptitude with which specie was paid wherever demanded on the face of the note, at once established their credit, and, consequently, changed the whole financial machinery of the world. By this grand discovery, an immediate im petus was given to commerce before unknown; a new energy was manifested wherever the beneficial effects of the novel mode of conveying money was mentioned. In short, almost an entire revolution in the phys ical and moral world has been brought about by this simple, yet effective operation.

Before the regular construction of safe banking houses, such as are commonly seen in cities, the utmost stretch of mechanical ingenuity was call ed in requisition, to protect the treasures collected together by rulers and merchants.

To show what perplexities attended the preservation of money against the cunning and adroitness of thieves, in the first stages of society, the following account is principally collected from the biography of an Egyptian prince, Rhampsinitus, by the father of history, Herodotus. His description of a treasury house is, perhaps, the oldest on record. When the fact is remembered that it was written by a man born in the 73d Olympiad, or 2,325 years ago, nothing is lost in interest, even were it wholly untrue, inasmuch as it illustrates the powers of the human mind in the region of fiction, at a period that now seems like the infancy of mankind. The story is substantially as follows:

"The same instructors further told me, (alluding to the priests with whom he discoursed,) that Proteus was succeeded by Rhampsinitus: he built the west entrance of the temple of Vulcan. In the same situation he also erected two statues, twenty-five cubits in height.”

This prince possessed such an abundance of wealth, that, far from surpassing, none of his successors ever equalled him in affluence. For the security of his riches, he constructed a stone edifice, connected with his palace by a wall. The man whom he employed, with a dishonest view, so artfully disposed of one of the stones, that two, or even one person might easily remove it from its appropriate place.

In this building, when completed, the king deposited vast treasures. Some time after, when the artist found his end approaching, he called his two sons before him, and informed them in what manner, and with what intention, he had placed a moveable stone, that gave entrance into the central depository of the treasury house. And now, being confident that approaching death would deprive him of profiting, as originally intended, by a personal entrance, he therefore confided to them the choice secret, with a view to their future emolument, should their circumstances ever compel them to make use of this knowledge. A strange state of the public morals, to be sure, when a dying father encourages his children to become thieves and robbers!

He then minutely explained the particular situation of the pivoted stone; gave minutely its dimensions, by the observance of which, they might at any instant become masters of his majesty's treasure.

On the death of the father, though, perhaps, under no impulse of necessity, the sons were prompted by an insatiable curiosity to try their luck

to ascertain if all they had heard, it would seem, was actually true. Under the cover of a dark night, they visited the building, discovered the moveable stone, made an entrance, and returned home with a surprising sum of money.

It is worthy of remark that in this narrative we are positively assured of the existence of a coinage in Egypt, according to the priests, many centuries before the precious metals assumed any such forms at Rome.

As soon as the king entered the apartment the next morning, one of his regular habits, he noticed with astonishment that the vessels that contained money the day before were materially altered in appearance; and what surprised him beyond measure, was the fact that the seals on the door, renewed frequently, were unbroken, and all the customary entrances remained perfectly secured.

He could not direct his suspicions against any one of the royal household attendants, and as for gaining admission in any other way, it was conceived impossible. Entrances however were several times repeated, and the king witnessed the gradual diminution of the money and jewels, without being able to account for the mystery of their abstraction.

Finally, in order to effect a discovery of the thief, cunningly devised traps were placed near the holding vessels. The robbers came as before. One of them moved cautiously along, as usual, on former visits, in advance of the other, where he was secured by the traps in a twinkling of an eye. After deliberating upon his condition, and being satisfied of the impossibility of extricating himself, or being liberated by the brother, he saw instinctively, that the only way of preserving one life, was to sacrifice the other. With a strange presence of mind, he begged to be killed instantly, and charged the trembling brother not to be content with depriving him of life, but as his body could not be disengaged from the apparatus, to flee with the head, as the last and only means of preventing his own detection, and consequently, the death and destruction of the entire family.

Unnatural as it may appear, he decapitated the captured prisoner, and made an immediate exit with the head, leaving the body in the trap, closed up the opening, and returned home.

At daylight Rhamsinitus again walked in to inspect the urns-when lo! the first object that greeted his amazed eyes, was the headless body of a man, standing upright in the faithful machine, not the least alteration being perceived in any partition, or the strongly bolted doors. This confounded him more than any thing else. In this perplexity, he commanded the dead body to be suspended upon the outside, towards the high way, strictly enjoining it upon a number of trusty guards to seize and bring into his presence any one who discovered symptoms of compassion, or sorrow at the horrible exhibition.

The mother of the young man, on being made acquainted with the fatal result of the night's adventure, became exceedingly exasperated at the surviving son, and declared that unless he forthwith procured the body from its ignominious exposure, she would go herself to the king and disclose all the circumstances of the robbery.

Driven almost to madness with such a prospect of accumulating danger, the survivor endeavored to alter the distracted mother's determination by appeals to her maternal affection, but without the least ray of success. To save his own life, therefore, he resorted to a singular expedient.

Having procured some asses, they were laden with wine put up in the

ancient method, in sacks made of the skins of animals. The animals were driven near the spot were the soldiers were stationed. As soon as he had approached near enough to be noticed, a peg adroitly fixed in the mouth of a sack was started, and the wine consequently began to flow pretty freely from the orifice. He commenced beating himself and cry. ing out vehemently with pretended distress, at the loss. The soldiers perceiving the accident, ran with vessels to save what they could of the delicious beverage, which they considered a clear gain to themselves.

At first, with apparent anger, he reproached them for their unprinci pled conduct, but gradually listened to their endeavors to console him for the misfortune. The asses were then leisurely led out of the road, apparently to secure the leak. A brisk conversation, mutually agreeable, fol. lowed. He affected to be delighted with the drollery of one of the guards, to whom he gave a generous draught of wine, and with his companions he sat down to drink,-insisting that the generous ass driver should bear them company.

As previously anticipated, the wine produced its specific effects, and the whole of them became exceedingly drunk and fell into a profound slumber. Under the advantage of nightfall, the robber adroitly took down the body, placed it in one of the sacks, and before leaving the scene of the exploit, in derision, shaved the right cheek of the quiet guards, and returned home in safety with the object of his research.

The mother was reconciled to fate, and so far as she was concerned, no further mention is made of her in the narrative of Herodotus. Not so, however, with the king; when he was told what had happened, how the body had been clandestinely removed in the presence of a select band of vigilant guards, he was both enraged and marvel-struck at a recital of the incident; but in no way relinquished the idea of detecting the bold villain who had put his royal power at defiance. He renewedly set his ingenuity at work to detect him, and next adopted the following stratagem. The king commanded that a beautiful daughter, a princess on whom he doated with paternal solicitude, should seat herself in a magnificent apartment, alone, and a proclamation was made that whoever related the most extraordinary adventure in which he had been personally engaged, should be. come the son-in-law of the king. Each candidate was permitted to enter alone. A part of the story, of an incredible character, is here omitted. She had been previously instructed, in case any clue to the robbery of the treasury was discoverable, or the theft of the headless body, to seize the person, and give an alarm. The injunction was faithfully obeyed. The daring rogue who had already baffled Rhamsinitus more than once, could not forbear another attempt for the mere gratification of a mischievous propensity of his nature. To begin, he cut off an arm from the body of the murdered brother, at the shoulder, concealed it under a cloak, care. lessly worn, and in turn gained admission to the princess.

When asked the question that was propounded to each new-comer, what he had done that was remarkable? he replied, "that the most wicked thing that he had ever done, was cutting off the head of a brother, who was caught in a snare in the king's treasury. The most artful thing, was making the guards drunk, and by that means effecting the removal of the dead body from the treasury wall." On hearing this, the princess at once seized him, but caugh. hold of the supernumerary arm, made fast to the cloak.

Both were slipped off, and the rogue made his escape from her presence. When the attendants came in, lo! there was a cloak and one arm of a man, which when the king saw, he was, if possible, more puzzled than ever. Confounded by these repeated displays of an ingenious, though unknown rascal, information was extensively circulated, that if the bold offender would come fearlessly into his majesty's presence, he would not only grant a free, unconditional pardon, but would liberally reward him besides.

Trusting to the royal word, the thief made his appearance. Rhamsinitus was delighted with him, believing his transcendent skill in the art of deception beyond parallel. The king conceived the Egyptians superior in subtlety to all the world, but this man far excelled all his countrymen. Paper currency or paper money, is a department of political economy developed in modern times to its fullest extent. Its advantages and disadvantages are variously estimated by the community, and consequently there are ardent friends and bitter opposers to this excellent, though greatly abused project for facilitating extensive mercantile, as well as the minor operations of trade in our own and other countries.

Arguments, almost irresistible in themselves, might be adduced, to show the advantages resulting from an issue of paper money, to every individual of a nation, when the contract between the bank and the people has been rigidly maintained.

On the other hand, testimony apparently no less cogent, based upon the actual experience of immense losses, when the flood-gates of loosely guarded banking corporations are widely opened, is arranged to prove that nothing short of a strictly metallic currency can safely be tolerated in any government, whether elective or hereditarily despotic. In a word, in the United States, there are two great parties in a state of activity, so thoroughly divided on this important question, that the issue is necessarily involved in the obscurity of the future.

Any want of good faith in a bank to redeem its notes at sight, at once begets alarm, and evils of an exciting character are suddenly produced. An agitation arising from that cause, cannot be readily allayed; yet it is neither philosophical, politic, nor right to condemn a principle because errors have been discovered in the application of it to human society,―any more than it would redound to the sense of justice in a state to execute every inhabitant of a particular district, because one of them had been found guilty of a great crime.

The revolutionary struggle was wholly sustained by the issue of continental paper money--without which, that greatest and most masterly achievement of civil liberty, it is believed, could not have been completed. Fortunately, its rapid depreciation did not take place till the war had rescued the country from foreign control, or fear of further molestation. It was then apparent that congress had not the ability to redeem the bills, and it is even now doubted whether the originators and principal dramatis personæ in that most wonderful of all national emancipations, seriously entertained the expectation of doing so in future days of prosperity.

By the practical operation of the device, the country was saved, but thousands of brave estimable patriots and their families, who bore the burden of service and deprivation, were utterly ruined.

With that fatal crisis-fatal to the popularity of paper money, at least with one party commenced that systematic hostility and prejudice which

VOL. V.-NO. IV.

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has so pointedly shown itself on various occasions ever since. Still, however, accurate financiers discover in the modern banking system, with all its glaring defects, the source of widely extended prosperity. Without its facilities, the merchant would soon find himself circumscribed to narrow limits; and with an exclusively hard money currency, in the present character of trade, grow poor while his coffers were filled with the precious metals.

Our object being to give an historical account of the coinage of money, simply, and not to dilate upon the policy or impolicy of measures which have raised a formidable partisan feeling between the honest and patriotic over the Union, we here leave the subject, for the commencement of another chapter, whenever events shall furnish new materials.

ART. III. THE PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS.*

No class of men, we believe, is more deeply interested in the subject of storms than that which makes up the chief part of our readers. The same winds which waft to the storehouse of the merchant the treasures of distant climes, often, in their angrier moods, put a sudden termination to his brightest prospects, and in a single hour of tempest dissipate the earnings of many years. The mercantile community will not, therefore, deem it out of place if we call their attention to the very novel and original views of our countryman, Mr. Espy, who has just published a volume containing a full exposition of his theory of storms, together with a large amount of facts which he has collected in the course of his researches on winds, rain, hail, barometric fluctuations, &c. We have looked over its pages with an interest and gratification which we seldom feel in the perusal of a work on scientific subjects, and are constrained to say that what little of prejudice had been excited against the author, by the manner in which his name became so generally known to the public, speedily vanished before the strong facts and logical deductions which he has brought together, in support of his very simple and beautiful explanation of the phenomena of nature in the production and development of storms.

Franklin was, we believe, the first to discover that our great northeast storms "travel against the wind." A violent rain having set in at Philadelphia from the northeast, he naturally enough supposed that the storm came from that direction, and was greatly surprised, on consulting the papers from New York and Boston, to find that it commenced raining at New York several hours after the storm set in at Philadelphia, and that the time of its reaching Boston was still later. The same anomaly was also observed by Dr. Mitchell: but it remained for Mr. Redfield, of New York, to establish, by the most satisfactory proofs, the route pursued by these storms. In his papers on this subject he has fully demonstrated that they often originate in the Windward Islands of the West Indies, where they are mostly small and round, and progress in a curve towards the

The Philosophy of Storms, by James P. Espy, A. M., Member of the American Philosophical Society, and Corresponding Member of the National Institute, WashingBoston Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1841. 8v. pp. 552.

ton.