twenty-five manufacturers have lately addressed a letter to the Journal des Debats, saying such a policy (the enfranchisement of the duty on raw materials) would be of great service to them, and that they should regard such a change in the tariff of France as no sign of a free trade policy. The benefit would be mutual, and shall we not improve it to the encouragement of that interest that has wrought such changes in the Russian empire during the last half century. With these changes in her commercial and manufacturing interest, have also come equally great changes in the character of her government and the nature of her institutions. Freedom for the serf is now obtained by eight years service in the army; and Jerman assures us that the Czar is gradually effecting his complete and perfect emancipation.

By a decree of the Autocrat, a grammar school is established in every district of the empire; and years ago, Russia spent more money for her schools than does to-day the government of Great Britain.* That she is still despotic we would not attempt to conceal, and that confession may prompt many a warm republican heart to ask, Shall republicans seek a more intimate connection with the partitioners of Poland and the enslavers of Hungary? God forbid that we should apologize for, or seek to extenuate one of these acts, but truth compels us to say that Russia has its bright, as well as its dark and gloomy spots. If she partitioned, she has also for 140 years aided the Montenegrins in resisting the Ottoman power, and never has, even in a diplomatic note, acknowledged their dependence on Turkey and if she enslaved Hungary, she also for five years nursed in the heart of her great cities those sons of Greece who were planning their country's freedom; and when the struggle came, did for Greece what Kossuth asked republican Americans to do for Hungary, viz: guarantied her debt while struggling for liberty. Let her past be to us like the Star Chamber of England, the Bastile of France, and the murderous Diet of Poland, trusting to the unseen, yet mighty power of Commerce, to perfect her civilization, to moderate the character of her government, to temper always with mildness her sometimes harsh and unrelenting policy: and finally, to so mould the character of her rulers that it shall cease to be an arbitrary, and happily become a constitutional power.

Already her policy indicates the change, while her schools, colleges, Commerce, and manufactures are slowly, yet surely, producing these changes; and the day is not far distant when her rulers will look upon these agents, as genius and art now look upon the monuments of Greece and Rome, sure that while the one reminds them of a mighty empire past, the other, with its thousand voices, shall tell them of an empire's glorious coming future.

• Russia 27,734,141 roubles, England £341,000, or about one third of Russia's sum.

+ Lord John Russel, House of Commons, March 3d, 1843.

Times (London) March 2d, 1853.

Gordon's History of the Greek Revolution, (Introduction.)

Art. III. THE DISCOVERIES OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA AND AUSTRALIA.

THE effects which are being produced throughout the world by the large introduction of gold-upon the value and stability of property-is one of very important import, and in which the whole civilized world has a deep interest. Gold and silver were discovered in the earliest ages of the world. That the ancients were acquainted with mining, there cannot be a doubt. Job was not only acquainted with gold and silver, but was actually acquainted with the manner of obtaining it; "Surely," says he, "there is a vein for silver, and a place for the gold where they fine it." He farther adds, that the earth hath dust of gold. Even at an earlier period, Abraham, who lived 2,000 years before the Christian era, purchased a burying place, for which he paid 400 shekels of silver, which he delivered, not in coin, but by weight, according to the custom of merchants. This early use of gold by weight, according to the custom of merchants, was afterwards superseded by establishing mints to coin gold and silver into pieces more suitable to facilitate trade and Commerce.

Gold and silver, like all other minerals, have an intrinsic value,—the value of which is in relative proportion to the cost of production. The principle which I state, will hold good for a period of over 4,000 years in the history of the world. It represents wealth in itself, being the production of the sweat and toil of man. Silver and gold are not, as many writers on political economy say, merely the representative of property; gold and silver is real property is real wealth, and is no more the representative of 100 bushels of wheat, than 100 dollars worth of wheat can be the representative of 100 dollars worth of coal,--for the fact, that each is equivalent to the other; each is real wealth, and not a mere symbol or representative. Nor does gold or silver differ essentially from other items of wealth. The conversion of a bar of gold or silver into coin, does not change its nature in a greater degree than the smelting of iron or copper ore into bars and pigs,--of course the labor of refining increases, or adds to the value in proportion to the cost of labor. Therefore, the theory of many political writers, that the authority of government gives value to gold and silver, in any great degree, is absurd. The whole history of the world gives a lie to the dogma; wise men, legislators, and statesmen, may alter the weights of coin, or lessen their purity, but they cannot make a coin weighing an ounce, containing half an ounce of silver, worth as much as an ounce of pure silver.

Again, the utility of gold and silver in the arts is so great, that they would bear the same relative value, according to the cost of production, even if they were not the material of money, they would exchange for great quantities of corn, or any otheir commodities. This is, in fact, the history even before gold and silver were legalized as a currency.

One other position, which has been maintained more or less for centuries is this, that gold and silver have an arbitrary fixed value; this I contend is a great mistake; how so many intelligent and eminent writers on political economy and the sciences can have continued this great impractical error down to the present time, in the face of stubborn facts, which have been developed by the operation of the currency for nearly two hundred years, is most astonishing. To say, as they do, that the sovereign or eagle is a fixed, arbitrary measure of value, and measures, in the same ratio as to quantity and value, at all times, as a yard stick or a bushel measure, cannot

be proved, but only asserted, for the whole history of currency contradicts it. Men choose gold and silver for the material for money, for reasons similar to those which induce them to use cotton, wool, flax, and silk for material for clothing; and stone, brick, and mortar for material for building.

The ancients early found the precious metals of peculiar specific qualities, which fitted them to be standards and measures of value, and adapted, when in shape of coin, to the purposes of a circulating medium; to this use they are admirably adapted. An eminent writer upon political economy gives the following reasons for the admirable adaptedness of gold and silver for

a currency.

1st. Because they are divisible into extremely minute portions, and capable of re-union without any sensible loss of weight or value; so that the quantity may be easily apportioned to the value of the articles purchased.

2d. They have the sameness of quality all over the world. The difference between iron from different parts of our own country and of Europe, is well known to all dealers in that article. The copper of Siberia is superior to that of Germany; while that of Sweden is better than that of Siberia; and that of Sweden is surpassed by that of Japan. But one grain of pure gold is the same, and is exactly similar to another, whether it comes from the mines of Europe or America, or from the sands of Africa; time, weather, and damp, have no power to alter the quality. The relative weight of any specific portion, therefore, determines its relative quantity and value to every other portion. Two grains of gold being worth exactly twice as

much as one.

3d. Gold and silver, especially with the mixture of alloy which they admit of, are hard enough to resist very considerable friction, and are therefore fitted for very rapid circulation.

4th. Their rarity and dearness are not so great that the quantity of gold and silver equivalent to the generality of goods is too minute for ordinary perception, nor, on the other hand, are they so abundant and cheap as to make a large value amount to a great weight.

5th. They are liable to less variation than any other article from changes in the relation of supply and demand, including the cost of production among the conditions of supply.

6th. They are capable of receiving a stamp or impression, certifying the weight of the piece and the degree of its purity."

Such are the elements of gold and silver, and for such inherent qualities they have been considered precious, and for these only they are the best known in the world for use as money.

In the earliest ages of the world, in a more savage state, when the precious metals were comparatively unknown, wampum, corn, cattle, iron, leather, tobacco, cocoa, and copper, in point of fact, have been used as money in different ages and in different countries,--but they have long ceased to be used by commercial nations advanced in civilization. In the early periods of the world gold and silver passed from hand to hand by weight, and according to its market value. I have no doubt it would always have been better for the world had the original mode been continued to this day,--we should then have heard no complaints of the rise of gold and the fall of silver, nor the rise of silver or the fall of gold. The equilibrium would have kept uniform by the custom of merchants, regulated as it would have been by supply and demand. I know that the convenience which Commerce derives from gold being passed by tale, is great; but there is no difficulty in re

coining, at given periods, coin just the weight by which the custom of the world fixes the value. Before proceeding to apply the consequences of an increased supply of gold by the late discoveries, it may be proper to inquire somewhat into its history in former ages. The subject is of such immense magnitude that I can only give a very brief sketch of the operation of mining, and the quantities of gold and silver retained by the ancients in the early ages of the world.

The history of Solomon gives some information as to the quantity collected during his time. The amount collected in a single year of his reign, was computed at 666 talents of gold,-in our money 1 millions of dollars. The quantity afterwards became so plenty that silver was accounted as nothing; he also made silver to be as stones in Jerusalem.

The gold which accumulated in Babylon was immense, and vast in amount; the authenticity and accuracy of the amount is given by Herodotus; he says, that the annual tribute of silver and gold which Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia, after completing his conquests, received from the several provinces, about 480 years before Christ, was 14,560 talents of gold -which, in our currency, is $16,800,000. Xerxes took out with him into the field of war, so much money and valuables as loaded 1,200 camels.

The first coining of gold was by Darius, about 475 years before the Christian era. The coinage was of great purity, and were called Daric's, in honor of the inventor. They were nearly of the value of the American half-eagle.

The wealth of the great men of that age was immense. Pytheus, king of the petty territory Celaena, 470 years before Christ, was celebrated for his immense wealth. Lardue, an able French critic, estimates his wealth at $17,280,000 of our money.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt, after Alexander, was said to have possessed treasure to the enormous amount of 740.000 talents, or $85,340,000 of our money.

The precious metals were abundant, during the Macedonian Empire, over the whole shore of the Mediterranean. The enormous wealth of the Romans is beyond all calculation. Having subdued every petty province, and become masters of all the then known world, the whole wealth of the world was amassed within the Roman metropolis. Vespasian, at his accession, estimated the money which the maintenance of the commonwealth required, at a sum equal to 1,550 millions of our currency, per annum. The concentration of the wealth of the world at Rome, by the extension of the Roman Empire, fully accounts for the enormous wealth of private individuals. The fortunes of Crassus were equal to 8 millions of our currency, in money, and an equal amount in lands. Pallas C. C. Claudius Isidorus had about the same amount of property. Augustus left property to the amount of 155 millions of dollars of currency. Plutarch, in his life of M. Crassus, says, that no man could be accounted rich who was not able to maintain an army out of his own revenues. Many other instances can be named of those who held vast masses of wealth, and as vast sums expended. Just after the acquisition of universal empire, at that period, a large part of the treasure had been acquired by conquest, and had not been generally diffused among the masses; indeed, the wealth of the Romans was held by a small proportion of its citizens.

Having proved that vast masses of gold and silver were in existence in the remote ages of the world, it may be proper to notice, that, according to Ro

man history, the rise of property was a necessary consequence of the great increase of gold. As one among many instances which might be named, the house of Marius, at Miseum, was purchased by Cornelia for the sum of 75,000 drachmas, or about $11,620 of our currency. The influx of gold raised the price of real property enormously; and, in a few years, the house of Cornelia was sold to Lucullus, for the sum of 500,200 drachmas, or $77,529 of our currency-making a clear profit, by the rise of property, of $55,909 in the investment. Such was the operation of the influx of gold upon property at this period of the world.

My next inquiry will be in regard to the operation of mining. That a large portion of able-bodied citizens were employed in the pursuit of mining there cannot be a doubt; that they were well acquainted with the art and manner of obtaining gold and silver by mining we have authentic record by all the early historians. To trace out all the sources from which the immense amount of treasure was accumulated my limits will not permit. The probability is, that the discovery of gold was first known to mankind in the eastern part of Asia, and in Egypt; the whole of eastern Asia, extending along the border of the Caspian sea, which contained within its boundaries Persia, Siberia, Tartary, and whatever was known to the Persians in the days of Darius, of Thibet, China, and India, beyond the Ganges, a district on the eastern border of Boctriana, where the chain of mountains divides into two ranges, and the desert steppes of Cobbi were all literally dug over before the present era. The mines of Siberia must have been worked 150 or 200 years before Christ. The mines of Egypt and Nubia are said to have produced $28,800,000 annually; this was the statement of Diodorus, who visited Egypt 50 years before Christ. There can be no doubt that the product of gold and silver from the mines of that country exceeded the quantity which was drawn from the mines of the then known world, in subsequent ages, down to the discovery of America. The mining of gold and silver in southern Africa was carried on to an immense extent; the gold produced was obtained as in the present day in California, from the washing of the streams from the lofty mountains.

The

The inhabitants of Europe continued in a savage state some ages after the people of Eastern Asia and of Egypt had made considerable progress in civilized life. The inhabitants of the southeast part of Euro e, living near the more civilized countries of Egypt and Asia, and receiving from them some refugees, were naturally the first to imbibe the improvements of more advanced stages of society. The knowledge of the precious metals in Europe commenced about fifteen centuries before the Christian era. Phoenicians gave to Europeans the first impulse toward social life, and first introduced the practice of mining. The most civilized of the people of Europe, in the early ages, were found along the shores of the Mediterranean sea, and it is among them we discover the first steps in mining. The Greeks explored beneath the surface, in various districts in their own country, as well as in their eastern and western colonial establishments, and the searching for ore continued during a succession of centuries.

The Island of Cyprus yielded gold, silver, and copper;-the mines continued to be worked even till the times of the Romans. Gold and silver were also obtained in Italy.

Upper Italy, what is now the province of Aosta, in Piedmont, produced iron, gold, and other metals, also the country around Aquileia, and the whole district of Noric Alps, now Illyria, was exceedingly rich in gold. At