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close to us, who was a Quaker, and very "strict" in his religious profession, had been for a long time grossly cheating him, relying, no doubt, on my poor brother's deficient intellect. But minds that are intellectually and in reason deficient, are often endowed with a large share of cunning and caution, especially in monetary affairs. Edmund guessed, watched, and discovered; but when the proof was in his hands, his proceedings were characteristically peculiar. He did not discharge the man, and have done with it; he retained him in his place, but seemed to take a let me sayinsane delight in exposing him to the religious circle in which he had been a star, and from which he was ignominously expelled; and in heaping every possible annoyance and disgrace upon him that the circumstances admitted. My dear, I think I should have preferred his wrath upon myself, to being the witness of my brother's miserable exultation over the wretched man, Parker. His chief gratification lay in the thought that, exquisite as were the vexations he heaped upon him, the man was obliged to express gratitude for his master's forbearance as regarded the law.

"He said he should never forget my consideration for him till death! Ha! ha!"

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thing that happened with the utmost distinctness. I spent the day chiefly in the garden, gathering roses for pot-pourri, being disinclined for any more reasonable occupation, partly by the thundery oppressiveness of the air, partly by a vague, dull feeling of dread that made me restless, and which was yet one of those phases of feeling in which if life depended on an energetic movement one must trifle. In this mood, when the foreclouded mind instinctively shrinks from its own great troubles, little things assume an extraordinary distinctness. I trode carefully in the patterns of the terrace pavement, counted the roses on the white bush by the dial (there were twen ty-six), and seeing a beetle on the path, moved it to a bank at some distance. There it crept into a hole, and such a wild, weary desire seized on me to creep after it and hide from what was coming, that-I thought it wise to go in.

As I sat in the drawing-room there was a rose still whole in my lap. I had begun to pluck off the petals, when the door-bell rang. Though I heard the voice distinctly when the door was opened, I vow to you, dear Nell, that my chief desire was to get the rose pulled to pieces before I was disturbed. I had flung the last petal into my lap, when the door opened and Mr. Manners came into the room.

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He did not speak; he opened his arms, and I ran straight into them, roses and all. The petals rained over us and over the floor. He talked very fast, and I did nothing but cling to him, and endure in silence the weight which his presence could not remove from my mind, while he pleaded passionately for our marriage. He said that it was the extreme of all that was unreasonable, that our lives' sane freak of a hardly responsible mind. happiness should be sacrificed to the inHe complained bitterly (though I could but confess justly!) of the insulting and

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intolerable treatment that he had received. He had come, he said, in the first place, to assure himself of my constancy-in the second, for a powerful and final remonstrance with my brotherand, if that failed, to remind me that I should be of age next month; and to convey the entreaty of the Tophams that, as a last resource, I would come to them and be married from their house. I made

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up my mind, and promised; then I im- | But when I knelt by the poor body, plored him to be careful in his interview lying awfully still upon the table; when with my brother, for my sake-to calm I kissed the face, which in death had his own natural anger, and to remember curiously regained the appearance of Edmund's infirmity. He promised, but reason as well as beauty; when I saw I saw that he was slightly piqued by my and knew that life had certainly gone dwelling so much on Edmund's feelings the Resurrection that was not all. The rather than on his. Ah! Nelly, he had storm had not fully broken till I turned never seen one of the poor boy's rages. and saw, standing by the fire, George Manners, with his hands and coat dabbled with blood. I did not speak or scream; but a black horror seemed to settle down like mist upon me. Through it came Mr. Manners' voice (I had not looked again at him):

It may have been half-past six when Mr. Manners arrived; it had just struck a quarter to nine when Edmund came in and found us together. He paused for a minute, clicking his tongue in his mouth, in a way he had when excited; and then he turned upon me, and heaped abuse on insult, loading me with accusations and reproaches. George, white with suppressed rage, called incessantly upon me to go; and at last I dared disobey no longer; but as I went I touched his arm and whispered, "Remember! for my sake." His intense "I promise, my darling," comforted me then - and afterwards, Nelly. I went into a little room that opened into the hall and waited.

In about twenty minutes the drawingroom door opened and they came out. I heard George's voice saying this or something equivalent (afterwards I could not accurately recall the words):

--

"Good-night, Mr. Lascelles; I trust our next meeting may be a different one." The next sentences on both sides I lost. Edmund seems to have refused to shake hands with Mr. Manners. The last words I heard were George's half-laughing:

"Next time, Lascelles, I shall not ask for your hand-I shall take it."

Then the door shut, and Edmund went into his study. An hour later he also went out, and I was left alone once more. I went back into the drawing-room; the rose leaves were fading on the floor; and on the table lay George Manners' penknife. It was a new one, that he had been showing to me, and had left behind him. I kissed it and put it in my pocket: then I knelt down by the chair, Nell, and wept till I prayed; and then prayed till I wept again; and then I got up and tidied the room, and got some sewing; and, like other women, sat down with my trouble, waiting for the storm to break.

It broke at eleven o'clock that night, when two men carried the dead body of my brother into his own kitchen-foully murdered.

"Miss Dorothy Lascelles, why do you not ask who did it?"

I gave a sharp cry, and one of the laborers who had helped to bring Edmund in, said gravely:

"Eh! Master! the less you say the better. God forgive you this night's work!"

George's hoarse voice spoke again.

"Do you hear him?" and then it faltered a little "Dorolice, do you think this?"

It was his pet name for me, (he was an Italian scholar,) and touched me inexpressibly, and a conviction seized upon me that if he had done it, he would not have dared to appeal to my affection. I tried to clear my mind that I might see the truth, and then I looked up at him. Our eyes met, and we looked at each other for a full minute, and I was content. Oh! there are times when the instinctive trust of one's heart is so far more powerful than any proofs or reasons, that faith seems a higher knowledge. I would have pledged ten thousand lives, if I had had them, on the honesty of those eyes, that had led me like a will-o'-thewisp in the ball-room half a year ago! The new year's dance came back on me as I stood there-my ball dress was in the drawer up stairs-and now! oh dear! was I going mad?

Chambers's Journal.
FRENCH GREENBACKS.

THE present generation of untravelled Englishmen know little by experience of the important difference which exists between paper-money and coin. Our national credit has, on the whole, been

good for a very long period, and although here and there banks have broken, and their paper has become depreciated, the disturbance of the public confidence which has ensued has seldom been more than temporary and local. Few can now say that they remember the time when they looked suspiciously at a five-pound Bank of England note, and gave themselves no rest until they had changed it into five golden sovereigns.

The tremendous struggle going on in America, however, is familiarizing our minds with a distinction which, happily, we have not had to learn at our own cost. A new name has been added to the vocabulary of the money-market. Every reader of the newspapers knows that the Federal States are at present flooded with "greenbacks ;" and all who know so much are aware of this also, that since these came to form the principal circulating medium in that country, the value of the paper-money has sunk to less than one half of its nominal value in coin; that is to say, suppose a similar depreciation to exist here, we should have to pay a five-pound note for perhaps no more than forty shillings in sil

ver.

NATS

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What will be the final issue of this financial disturbance, it would be very difficult to say, and it is not our purpose here to furnish any particular theory on the subject. But, in connection with the discussion of a problem which so many feel to be at once an interesting and an important one, our readers may be glad to have some information supplied to them regarding the origin and history of the famous ASSIG the French greenbacks, with which the leaders of the first Revolution fed their armies, and carried on the gigantic work which fell to their hands to perform. The times change, and we change with them; and there are many points in which the cases are not at all parallel. But we shall be surprised if the two stories, when they are both finished, do not throw some light upon each other; and, at any rate, what we have to tell will afford a solider basis than many at present have for their speculations about the future.

On the 17th of June, 1789, the deputies of the Tiers état retired from the States-general, which had assembled at Versailles in the beginning of the previ

ous month, and, along with some of the clergy, who threw in their lot with them, constituted themselves into a National Assembly. This event may be said to mark the date when the old régime ceased, and the new order of things was inaugurated. There was still a king in France, but after this the unfortunate Louis reigned only in name. The Revolution was accomplished. The Democ

racy was master.

It was no easy task, however, which the sovereign people had thus taken into their own hands. Before that eventful year had closed, they found difficulties of every kind to deal with, and duties and responsibilities of every description to discharge. For one thing, the treasury was empty; and with the court to be kept up, and the Paris populace to feed, and the business of the country to be carried on, it behooved them to find money somewhere. A new impost was of course the natural way of getting what they wanted, but the National Assembly, like the American Congress of our own times, exhibited a very decided disinclination to resort to further taxation. A simpler method of raising a revenue was suggested to them, and finally adopted. The illustrious example of Henry VIII. was followed. The church of France had vast territorial possessions; these, by a sweeping decree of the Assembly, were declared to belong to, and to be at the disposal of, the state; and out of this mine of wealth, so lightly got, and so extensive, not only was enough procured to meet their present necessities, but those immense financial resources were obtained which upheld for a long period the schemes and enterprises of the Revolution.

Some ingenuity was required, however, to turn the new-found property to account. Ready money was wanted, and to get this, the estates of the church had to be sold; but to have brought them all into the market at once, would have been, of course, in the last degree impolitic, since their value would have been thereby sensibly affected. A device was therefore resorted to, which is said to have been first suggested by Bailly, the mayor of Paris, and which, while it kept up the price of the land, put the administration in immediate possession of a new circulating medium.

The property of the clergy was trans-ing the revenue, and many were the arferred in the mass to the various munici- guments which were employed both by palities throughout the country; and by them and by their allies among the nobles them the contiguous estates were sold (who feared, and with some reason, that in detail, and as purchasers offered. At their turn would come next) to induce first, the municipal authorities had no the Assembly to abandon a scheme which money to pay for the possessions with was, they contended, not only irreligious which they were invested, and they gave and unprincipled, but financially unsound. bills at varying dates instead; but as The name of the great speculator, Law, the land was taken up, and the proceeds for example, was brought up, and the came into their hands, they became grad- memory of his bankruptcy revived. He ually possessed of funds, and thus able had issued paper-obligations, which, afto meet the obligations which they had ter various fluctuations, had gone down undertaken. These bills, then, which to nothing, and the paper that was now the government held, were of unques- to be thrown upon the country was sure, tionable value, and might have been paid they contended, to run the same course. away at any time as an equivalent for But the two cases were not parallel, and coin; but they were usually of large the inference, in consequence, unwaramount, and the state had many credit- ranted. The value of Law's paper-money ors to whom it owed smaller sums. To depended entirely on the profits to be meet their case, therefore, and also to gained by the India Company, which protect the municipalities against a too might be nil; while that of the assiggreat or early pressure, a subsidiary ar- nats was founded upon a territorial caprangement was entered into. The large ital, real and easily convertible. Given bills were broken up, as it were, into a the success of the Revolution, and an number of smaller promissory-notes, and assurance that the acts of the National these receiving the name of bons, fur- Assembly were authoritative, and the nished the first notion of the assignat. holder of a bon was as safe as if he held the equivalent in gold.

This expedient, however, gave only partial satisfaction and relief. When a But the French government had creditor of the state got a bon paid over learned a dangerous secret. It is so to him, he received what was capable of much easier to roll money off a printingbeing exchanged for something of real machine than to dig it out of a mine, or value; but that something might be wring it out of a nation by taxes, that nothing else than land, and he might not there must always be a temptation to choose to become the owner of that kind follow the first method, if it can be safely of property, or he might think the Rev- put into operation at all; and in the olution not so certainly accomplished as course which was now followed, Paris, to be able to give him a secure title to we may say, showed an example which it; or he might have conscientious scru- Washington has been only too ready to ples about laying his hand on the patri- follow. The time came soon enough mony of the church, and in his hand the when the national treasury required to paper would be practically inconvertible. be again replenished, and Mirabeau proIt was necessary, therefore, for the sake posed the short and easy plan of issuing of such persons, and for other reasons, eight hundred or a thousand million to advance a further step in the devel- more assignats. This motion was, of opment of the scheme. The Assembly course, resisted by many; and among must give to the assignat the faculty of others, by Talleyrand, who delivered a circulation. This, after some discussion, remarkable speech in opposition to it. was done; and four hundred millions of Those who remember the relief-the what was now to all intents and pur- sense of positive fulness and wealthposes paper-money, were sent forth from which was experienced in America after the national treasury; the only difference the first creation of greenbacks, will not between an assignat and an ordinary be surprised to hear that similar results bank-note being this, that the former followed in France. The four hundred professed to carry interest along with it. millions which had been formerly sent Of course, the clergy opposed them-out, had just been so much money added selves vehemently to this plan of increas- to the currency and apparent means of

the country; and many being sensible | sagacious politician say on the subject of of the ease which the issue had brought, the new currency. But the necessities were more than prepared for a repetition of the government were such that it could of the experiment. But the sagacious Talleyrand warned the Assembly against mistaking a factitious for a real prosperity, and predicted the course which the financial policy of Mirabeau would infallibly take.

"People," said he, "judge of this second issue by the success of the first; but they will not perceive that the wants of commerce, checked by the Revolution, naturally caused our first conventional issue to be received with avidity; and these wants were such that, in my opinion, this currency would have been adopted had it even not been forced. To ground an argument, however, on this first success, in favor of a second and more ample issue, is to expose ourselves to great dangers. The assignats will undoubtedly have characters of security which no paper-money ever had none was ever created upon so valuable a pledge, clothed with so solid a securitybut still it must be admitted that never will any national paper be upon a par with the metals, never will the supplementary sign of the first representative sign of wealth have the exact value of its model; the very title proves want, and want spreads alarm and distrust around it. Why will assignat money be always below specie? In the first place, because there will always be doubts of the exact application of its proportions between the mass of the assignats and that of the national property; be cause there will long be uncertainty respecting the consummation of the sales; because no conception can be formed by what time two thousand millions of assignats, representing nearly the value of the domains, will be extinguished; because money being put in competition with paper, both become a marketable commodity, and the more abundant any commodity is the lower must be its price; because with money one will always be able to do without assignats, whilst it is impossible with assignats to do without money; and, fortunately, the absolute want of money will keep some specie in circulation, for it would be the greatest of all evils to be absolutely destitute of it."

Much more in the same strain did the

listen at the time neither to threats nor remonstrances; and in the face of all Talleyrand's warnings and appeals, a new issue of eight hundred millions was ordered, with the new and important proviso, that the notes should no longer carry interest. This marked the second stage in the history, and having described these preliminary steps with some minuteness, we may glance more rapidly over what is to follow.

With a security so tangible as that of the assignats, it might have been expected that they would have maintained their nominal value for at least a considerable length of time. To the confiscated domains of the church was by and by added the property of the loyal emigrants, consisting not only of lands, but of houses and shares, with whatever movables, in the shape of furniture and jewels, they had been unable to carry along with them; and it cannot be doubted that if these had been sold at a reasonable rate, they would have brought more than enough to meet the expenses of the gov ernment during the first years of the Revolution. But notwithstanding this apparently favorable state of the public assets, the paper fell soon and rapidly.

One cause of this has already been indicated the inconvertibility of the security; but other things concurred with that in accelerating the decline; for example, the people had no confidence that the assignats which had been made to serve their original purpose-which had been paid into the treasury in exchange for value received-would be withdrawn from circulation. In one case, a quantity was known to be re-issued, and as what was done once might be done twenty times, the act gave a cast of insincerity and untrustworthiness to the entire scheme. Besides, what was done by the authorities, with the design of checking the fall, had actually the effect of rendering it more swift. In August, 1793, a silver franc was worth six francs in assignats, and two consequences, of course, followed-coin was hoarded, and the prices of every other species of commodity were raised. But instead of accepting these results as inevitable, the government, with that unhappy tendency to

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