able to endure a life of leisure and ease, he had gone uncalled for into the presence of his Maker. An eminent merchant of Boston, when asked by some one why he did not quit his business, as his fortune was ample, replied, "that his repose would be his death." We know well that the spring of enjoyment would dry up, and soon, with inactivity, life would become a burden. The celebrated commentator, Dr. McKnight, completed his work on the epistles when not far from sixty years of age. Nearly thirty years of his life had been occupied with that great labor. His employment had been regular and cheerful, and the purple current of life had flowed noiselessly and joyously along. He refused to go on with the Gospel, as he had earned his respite, he said. His faculties were in their usual vigor. In leaving his regular employment, his mind soon lost its tone, and he sunk almost into a driveling idiocy. Had he continued his employment, a mellow and a green old age would have been his portion, and his sun gone down at last in unclouded splendor. It is employment that has made us what we are. Our sky is inclement, our soil hard and tough; but the sun shines on no land where so many people enjoy so much substantial good. The alchemy of labor can turn our ice into gold and our rocks into bread. Employment given to the millions of Europe now indolent and hungry, would quench many a volcano and put down misrule and insubordination. It was Lord Bacon, I think, who said that "all rebellions commence in the stomach." Let a nation be both destitute and idle, and it would not be strange if they should become turbulent also. Sodom had three great sins; one of them was "an abundance of idleness." Palestine, in the time of Solomon, contained a nation of men who were daily employed, and a race of women who could both "clothe their households with scarlet," and "consider a field and buy it." These were the days of Israel's prosperity. Gold and silver were abundant; the mountains were terraced up to their summits with fruit, and the valleys were hot-beds of vegetation. It is now a land of indolence. The same sky is above the people-they tread the same soil beneath their feet; but all is desolate, because all are indolent. The owl and the cormorant sit now in the palaces of David and Solomon. When men were proud to say, "I am a Roman citizen!" Rome was governed by emperors whom she called from the plow. They led her invincible legions to conquest. Now indolence broods over the whole land of the Cæsars like the miasma over the pleasant home of man-desolation and ruin are seen on all sides. We should be glad to address you on many other topics which will, and must, enter into your business prosperity. That courtesy to all, based on principle, that costs so little and yields so large a return; that courage and business faith that will not only make you enterprising and far-seeing, but enable you to be singular and odd even when duty calls or danger is to be avoided; that regard for your word that will command credit; that high moral character which will make your word as good as your bond; that integrity that will induce you to meet with amputation sooner than repudiation, and cause you to select some other road to fortune than that of defrauding your creditors; that principle without which no smartness, no talent will avail; but these, and all other things by them suggested, must be left to your own thoughts and your own application, and so also must that certain success that will attend the application to the business of life. Art. IV.-A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF COINAGE FOR COMMERCIAL NATIONS. DR. J. H. GIBBON, of the United States' Branch Mint, North Carolina, has forwarded us a copy of his report on the utility of a uniform system in measures, weights, fineness, and decimal accounts for the standard coinage of commercial nations. This report was made in compliance with a resolution passed by the Commercial Convention assembled in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 10th of April, 1854. The commercial importance of a uniform system for the coinage of commercial nations to facilitate mutual exchanges, and the interesting historical and other data furnished by Dr. Gibbon, renders any apology for publishing it entire in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine unnecessary. The subject has already been introduced to Congress in a letter to the Hon. HANNIBAL HAMLIN, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, &c., in the United States' Senate, by ALEXANDER VATTEMARE, accompanied by a historical, popular description of the metrical-decimal system, by Wм. W. MANN, Esq., of Georgia, and reports by Mr. SIBBERMANN, Superintendent of the Conservatoir des Arts et Metiers, and by Mr. DURAND, Commissary General of Coins and Medals.* To render the subject of uniformity in coinage generally intelligible, slight references to history appear indispensable. After the settlement of North America, from Europe, the earliest metallic currency of the colonies consisted of coins of the mother country. In 1652 Massachusetts provided for the coinage of shillings, six-pences, and three-pences. The example was followed by Maryland, where silver and copper coins were issued in 1662. In 1694 the Carolinas struck a half-penny; and two-penny and penny pieces in 1723 and 1733. In 1773 Virginia also introduced a half-penny coinage. Trade was carried on principally by barter. As Commerce and population increased, foreign gold coins were introducedthe English guinea, the Portuguese joannes, the Spanish doubloon, the French pistole, with Spanish dollars and their proportions, British silver coins, and, finally, French crowns. After our Revolutionary struggle, various emissions of silver and copper were made by States-Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont issued cents of varied weights. In 1783, J. Chalmers, at Annapolis, in Maryland, fabricated the smaller silver coins, carelessly proportioned. In 1830, Templeton Reed, in Georgia, and Christopher Bechtler, in North Carolina, coined gold pieces, literally at the pit's mouth, from veins and deposits worked in those States. The pound of the colonies was originally the same as the pound sterling of Great Britain, but became greatly altered in consequence of excessive issues of paper money, in very unequal proportions, by different colonial, authorities. In 1782 the Congress of the United States directed a report upon the subject of coins and currency, which was made by the financier, Gouverneur Morris. He labored to reconcile the moneys of the different States upon the pound basis, and expressed an opinion that it was "very desirable money should be increased in a decimal ratio, because, by that means, all calculations of interest, exchange, insurance, and the like, are rendered much more simple and accurate; and of course more within the power of the great mass of the people." In 1784, Mr. Jefferson, on behalf of a committee, also advocated the decimal system, stating: "The most easy ratio of multiplication and division is that by • We are indebted to M. Vattemare for a copy of his letter and the other documents referred to above, in English and French, and shall probably notice them in a future number of the Merchants' Magazine. ten. Every one remembers the facility of decimal arithmetic at school, and the bulk of mankind are school-boys through life." Mr. Jefferson differed from Mr. Morris upon the unit of value, and proposed the Spanish dollar as the basis, which was adopted in 1785. The Confederation of the States had already provided that " Congress should have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coins." The Constitution of 1789 arrested local issues, and vested the right of coinage solely in the general government. In 1790 Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, made "A Report on Moneys, Weights, and Measures." In 1792 a code of laws and regulations was enacted for a mint, in Philadelphia, with denominations for coinage in gold, silver, and copper. The standard of fineness for gold being fixed at .917, that for silver at .882 milliemes, or thousandths, according to the French mode of computation, now employed in the mints of the United States, instead of the ancient expression by carats and eighths. In 1793 and 1796 slight modifications were made in the weight of copper pieces," on account of the increased price of copper in the commercial market." In 1819 Mr. Lowndes proposed to raise the value of gold against silver. To provide a remedy for their recognized disproportion, engaged the attention of eminent statesmen for fifteen years. The fineness of the gold coins was ultimately reduced to .899 and a fraction. In 1834 an act was passed changing the weight and fineness of the gold coins, and also the relative value of gold to silver. The first basis, 15 to 1, being found too low, at the market value, which, although constantly fluctuating, was near 16 to 1, the original Spanish ratio. "The effect of our previous legal proportions was to reduce the coinage of gold, and to retain its circulation. Being always at a premium, the coin was immediately exported to Europe in the course of trade, and there quickly wrought into other shapes."* But the disadvantages of a complex standard of fineness in gold and in silver, determined the director of the mint to suggest the more simple and modern standard of France, established upon a distinct basis. This was acted upon by Congress in 1837, the standard being fixed at .900, or 90 per cent of fine metal, for gold and silver coins, in the 1,000 parts. In the year 1835 branches of the mint were directed to be established in Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina, all the coins being uniform. A mint in California and an assay office in New York have since been decided upon. In Great Britain, the basis of the value of money is the pound sterling of twenty shillings. This pound of standard silver was represented by the guinea, a gold coin, ordained in 1675, during the reign of Charles the Second. From a depreciation of silver coins in England, Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint, during George the First, recommended, in 1717, that the guinea should be rated at twenty-one shillings. In 1816 the sovereign, a new gold coin of twenty shillings, slightly differing in weight from the guinea, was substituted, and an alteration again effected in the British silver coinage, silver being made a legal tender only to the amount of forty shillings at a time. In the history of the British mint, the coinage of the year 1816" will be remarkable," writes Dr. Kelley, "not only on account of important alterations then made in the monetary system, but also for the great accommodation afforded to the public." At the present moment still greater conveniences are desired in that country. A recent report of a select committee to the House of Commons of Great Britain, founded upon careful inquiry among intelligent and practical men, encourages a modification of measures and weights in all money accounts. The decimal system of computation being acknowledged so simple and easily • Manual of Coins and Bullion, by Eckfeldt and Dubois. understood at home and abroad, compared with the mode at present employed, that "he who runs may count, his fingers being a text-book!" A governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Hankey, examined in reference to the sale or purchase of bullion, declared, "a more complicated system than that lately in use, and one more fraught with incidents to error, would hardly be conceived." Three elements enter into the consideration: 1st. The weight calculated in troy pounds, ounces, pennyweights, and grains. 2d. The quality of the gold, subdivided by 24 carats and their eighths. 3d. The element of value estimated in pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings. Prof. George Biddell, acting Astronomer Royal, remarked-"That if gold was adopted as the standard of value by other countries, it would be possible to have such international arrangements as would make the coin of different countries interchangeable at fixed rates." Sir John Herscheli, Master of the Mint, "recommended a decimal coinage, accompanied by a decimal system of weights and measures." The only point on which witnesses were divided in opinion, before the select committee, was the precise basis which should be adopted. Under an impression that "the laws of physical nature operate uniformly, the unit of measure in England was fixed by ascertaining the length of a pendulum, vibrating seconds, in the latitude of London, at the level of the sea."** To this length a yard measure was referred, and subdivided into three feet of twelve inches each. "The unit of measure is the element from which is deduced the unit of weight." By such contrivances the magnitudes and distances of the planets, as well as the fineness and weights of coins are measured, by the graduated scale of a yardstick; "the motions of the heavenly bodies being governed by general laws, applicable to all matter." During 37 years, from 1689 to 1726, no less than nine changes were made in the standard value of gold coins in France. In 1795 the present system was commenced in that country, based, however, upon a different calculation from the English, by an admeasurement of our planet, the earth, the distance from the equator to the pole being computed, for a standard of measure, the French meter. A cube of pure water, at the temperature of melting ice, measuring each way the hundredth part of this meter, offered a certain standard weight, called a gramme. From such bases the franc coin was deduced. These units of admeasurement were multiplied decimally into other denominations, by which the system is thought to possess "completeness as well as simplicity." Before the year 1772 there were thirty-one mints in France-these were afterward reduced to eighteen. Finally, only six remain. The coinage of the French is very large, and especially their specie circulation in silver, while in England a gold coinage is more predominant. The minor purposes of trade are supplied in populous portions of Asia-China, Burmah, and Japan-by a "current money," composed of thin plates of hardened, mixed, base metal, like brass or bronze, stamped with devices, and sometimes apparently cast in molds, each piece having a square hole in the center, by which these coins are strung like button-molds, in parcels of one hundred, for the convenience of counting and of carriage. Their computations of money are subdivided decimally. Being excellent judges of the purity of foreign coins, the Chinese separate good from bad with rapid accuracy. They recognize the character and fineness of metal by the sight, the touch, the smell, and the sound. Dr. John Bowring, formerly and now consul to Canton, stated before the select British committee, that "in Japan, accounts had been kept in decimals from time immemorial, and that the Chinese system is one of great simplicity and ease." The integer, or whole number, is one ounce of pure silver, which is divided into 1,000 parts, called "cash." Dr. Bowring declared "he never could approach his Chinese servant in the celerity with which he kept his accounts." These anciently civilized nations employ refined gold and fine silver, in bullion bars, without coinage, for exchanges of all large sums in trade. The Chinese notation of fineness is by hundredths, ours by thousandths. Some fine silver bars, fabricated in China, exhibited upon assay at the mint in Philadelphia a purity of .982-a very high grade, equivalent to 98 and 2-10ths per cent of fine silver. The Chinese money system we conceive to be similar to that recorded during the residence of the Hebrews in civilized Egypt. Identity in quality was the most ancient process of preparation for monetary calculations, as it is now"pieces of money" were checked "by weight" in the interchange between Joseph and his brethren, when Jacob sent into Egypt for corn. Abraham is described to have had servants "bought with money of the stranger," as well as some "born in his house." These references are presented for the satisfaction of those who dread novelties, to convince them our object is not a new one, but as old as the days of the Hebrew Patriarchs. In Assyria, Persia, and Hindostan, a coinage of gold was known and valued at the conquest of Alexander. From these countries the Greeks and Romans derived the models of their measures, weights, and devices, which have since prevailed in modern Europe, and now among us. From the time of Aristotle, we have a generally accepted definition-"Money is a standard measure," by which the value of all things are ascertained, regulated, and represented. Money forms a language of mathematical proportion, by which commercial interchanges are readily made and generally understood. In Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals or coins, Mr. Addison describes them as 66 a kind of printing, before the art was invented, giving great light to history;" we now know that the invention of printing claims a high antiquity. Napoleon-as great in civil as in military administration-proposed to have throughout Europe money of the same value, but with different coins or devices. Identity of coins has been employed to produce a stronger bond of union among nations. For this purpose the relations between the silver coinage of Russia and Poland were projected, to facilitate their intercourse. The coinages of Italy and Spain were assimilated, at one time, with that of France, as those of Greece, Rome, Saxony, and Baden now are. Uniformity is desirable in all national measures and weights, but especially to regulate coinage. Nations that have mints possess means for one common measure, or standard of proportions. The varieties which now exist result from want of concert in the elements of art, and needless dissimilarities in mint usages. The principles upon which the practices of different mints are founded, prove that different nations may act upon the same general system in all money accounts. The distinct units of weight, fineness, and value form curious and important portions in the arrangements of our coinage. The properties of numbers were held sacred by the ancients, and regarded as of divine authority, from the evident system, exactness, order, and harmony in the varied arrangements of the natural world. · THREE Considered perfect, comprehending-"The Beginning, the Middle, and the End "-one conspicuous name of The Divinity. Pythagoras was thought to mingle fancy with the truths of mathematics. |