interest to the fishes in the little pool just alluded to, all the fears which they have been tormented with, on the part of the finny race.

"How charming is this solitude!" The sheet of water, presented on every side, is studded here and there with reed-bearing islets. The largest of these are converted into aviaries, filled with all kinds of animals appertaining to the feathered race, and they comnunicate with each other, by means of little bridges constructed some in wood and some in stone, partly circular and partly straight. When the water lilies, with which the borders of the pond are adorned, open their flowers, they appear crowned with purple and scarlet, like the horizon of the south

ern seas.

*

On retiring, it is necessary to as cend a stair-case cut out of the living rock, by the labours of the pick-axe, the marks of which are still visible. The cabinet formed at the top, has nothing but simplicity to recommend it, although, indeed, it is sufficiently adorned by the view of an immense plain,where the Kiang winds through straggling villages and rice-grounds, The innumerable barks with which this great river is covered; the la. bourers scattered up and down the country, and the travellers who crowd the roads, all contribute to animate this enchanting landscape. The azure coloured mountains which terminate the horizon, at once charin and refresh the sight.

When I am weary of composing, and of writing among my books in the great hall, I throw myself into a bark, conducted by myself, and repair to taste the pleasures of my garden. Sometimes I and at the isle of the fishermen, and covering my head with a large straw hat, by means of bait I adore the fishes which sport in the bosom of the waters, and I study our psions in their mistakes.

At other times, with a quiver hung across my shoulder, and a bow in my hand, I climb among the rocks, and there lurking like a traitor for the rabbits which issue from the fissures, I pierce them with my arrows, at the entrance into their retreats. Alas! more wise than ourselves, they dread danger, and they fly from it! If they perceive my arrival, not one of them maxe is appearance.

A large Chinese river.

*

The last rays of the sun sometimes surprise me, while considering in si lence, the tender solicitudes of a swal low for her young, or the stratagems recurred to by a kite, for the purpose of carrying away his prey. The mur mur of the waters, the fluttering of the foliage gently agitated by the zephyrs, and the beauty of the heavens, serve by turns to plunge me in a sweet reverie. All nature seems to speak to my heart. I am lost in listening to her; and the night is already half spent when I reach the threshold of my mansion. Sleep alone ravishes from me those charms which I experience; but if I an awoke by my dreams, I anticipate Aurora, by beholding from the top of some neighbouring entinence, those pearls and rubies, which she scatters along the path traced by the sun.

My friends frequently interrupt my solitude, in order to recite their own works, or listen to mine, I associate them in my amusements. The juice of the grape gives gaiety to our frugal repasts; philosophy seasons there, and while the court dissolved in voluptaousness, caresses calumny, forges fetters

* A musical instrument, common in China,

and

and spreads snares for the subject, we invoke wisdom. My eyes are continually turned towards her; but alas, her rays never reach me but through the medium of a thousand clouds, which are sometimes dissipated, how ever and that too, by a storm.

This solitude shall serve as the temple of pleasure. What do I say! A father, a husband, a citizen, and a man of letters. I have a multitude of duties to fulfil: my life is no longer my own. Adieu, thou, my dear garden! The love of my country, calls me to the capital; but preserve all thy pleasures, that they may dissipate my new chagrins, and save my virtue from shipwreck, amidst future afflictions.

Abstract of the Report of the Select Com. mittee, on the High Price of Gold Bul. lion.

Continued from our last Magazine,

p. 294.

The restriction of cash-payments, as has already been shewn, having rendered the same preventive policy no longer necessary to the Bank, has removed that check upon its issueswhich was the public security against an excess. When the Bauk directors were no longer exposed to the inconvenience of a drain upon them for gold, they naturally felt that they had no such inconvenience to guard against by a more restrained system of dis. counts and advances; and it was very natural for them to pursue as before (but without that sort of guard and limitation which was now become unnecessary to their own security) the same liberal and prudent system of commercial advances from which the prosperity of their own establishment had resulted, as well as in a great degree the commercial prosperity of the whole country. It was natural for the Bank directors to believe, that nothing but benefit could accrue to the public at large, while they saw the growth of Bank profits go hand in hand with the accommodations granted to the merchants. It was hardly to be expected of the directors of the Bank, that they should be fully aware of the consequences that might result from their pursuing, after the suspension of cash payments, the same system which they had found a safe one before. To watch the operation of so new a law, and to previde against the injury which might

result from it to the public interests, was the province, not so much of the Bank as of the legislature; and, in the opinion of your committee, there is no room to regret that this house has not taken earlier notice of all the consequences of that law

By far the most important of those consequences is, that while the convertibility into specie no longer exists as a check to an over issue of paper, the Bank directors have not perceived that the removal of that check rendered it possible that such an excess might be issued by the discount of perfectly good bilis. So far from perceiving this, your committee have shewn that they maintain the contrary doctrine with the utmost confidence, however it may be qualified occasionally by some of their expressions. That this doctrine is a very fallacious one, your committee caunot entertam a doubt. The fallacy, upon which it is founded, lies in not distinguishing between an advance of capital to merchants, and an addition of supply of currency to the general mass of circulating medium. If the advance of capital only is considered, as made to those who are ready to employ it in judicious and productive under. takings, it is evident there need be no other limit to the total amount of advances than what the means of the

lender, and his prudence in the selec tion of borrowers may impose. But, in the present situation of the Bank, intrusted as it is with the functions of supplying the public with that paper currency which forms the basis of our circulation, and at the same time not subjected to the liability of converting the paper into specie, every advance which it makes of capital to the merchants in the shape of discount, becomes an addition also to the mass of circulating medium. la the first instance, when the advance is made by notes paid in discount of a bill, it is undoubtedly so much eas pital, so much power of making pur. chases, placed in the hands of the merchant who receives the notes: and

if those hands are safe, the operation is so far, and in this its first step, useful and productive to the public. But as soon as the portion of circulating medium, in which the advance was thus made, performs in the hands of him to whom it was advanced this its first operation as capital, as seou as the notes are exchanged by him

for

currency consists entirely of the precious metals, or of paper convertible at will into the precious metals, the natural process of commerce, by establishing exchanges among all the different countries of the world, adjusts, in every particular country, the proportion of circulating medium to its actual occasions, according to that supply of the precious metals which the mines furnish to the general market of the world. The proportion, which is thus adjusted and maintained by the natural operation of commerce, cannot be adjusted by any human wisdom or skill. If the natural system of currency and circulation be abandoned, and a discretionary issue of paper money substituted in its stead, it is vain to think that any rules can be devised for the exact exercise of such a discretion; though some cautions may be pointed out to check and con. trol its consequences, such as are indicated by the effect of an excessive issue upon exchanges and the price of gold. The directors of the Bank of England, in the judgment of your committee, have exercised the new and extraordinary discretion reposed in them since 1797, with an integrity and a regard to the public interest according to their conceptions of it, and indeed a degree of forbearance in turning it less to the profit of the Bank than it would easily have admitted of, that merit the continuance of that confidence which the Public has so long and so justly felt in the integrity with which its affairs are directed, as well as in the unshaken stability and ample funds of that great establishment. That their recent policy involves great practical errors, which it is of the utmost public importance to correct, your committee are fully convinced; but those errors are less to be imputed to the Bank directors, than to be stated as the effect of a new system, of which, however it originated, or was rendered necessary as a temporary expedient, it might have been well if parlialiament had sooner taken into view all the consequences. When your committee consider that this discretionary power, of supplying the kingdom with circulating medium, has been exercis.

ed under an opinion that the paper could not be issued to excess if advanc ed in discounts to merchants in good. bills payable at stated periods, and like. wise under an opinion that neither the price of bullion nor the course of exchanges need be adverted to, as affording any indication with respect to the sufficiency or excess of sirch paper, your committee cannot hesitate to say, that these opinions of the Bank must be regarded as in a great measure the operative cause of the continuance of the present state of things.

Your committee will now proceed to state, from the information which has been laid before them, what appears to have been the progressive increase, and to be the present amount, of the paper circulation of this country, consisting primarily of the notes of the Bank of England not at present convertible into specie; and, in a secondary manner, of the notes of the country bankers which are convertible, at the option of the holder, into Bank of England paper. After having stated the amount of Bank of England paper, your committee will explain the reason which induce them to think that the numerical amount of that paper is not alone to be considered as decisive of the, question as to its excess: and before stating the amount of country bank paper, so far as that can be ascertained, your committee will explain their reasons for thinking, that the amount of the country bank circulation is limited by the amount of that of the bank of England.

1

1. It appears from the accounts laid before the committees upon affairs in 1797, that for several years previous to the year 1796, the average amount of bank notes in circulation was between £10,000,000 and £11,000,000. hardly ever falling below £9,000,000, and not often exceeding to any great amount £11,000,000.

The following abstract of the seve ral accounts referred to your committee, or ordered by your committee from the bank, will shew the progressive increase of the notes from the year 1798 to the end of the last year.

Taking from the accounts the last half of the year 1809, the average will be found higher than for the whole year, and amounts to £.19,880,310.

The notes of the bank of England are principally issued in advances to government for the public service, and in advances to the merchants upon the discount of their bills.

Your committee have had an account laid before them, of advances made by the bank to government on land and malt, exchequer bills and other securities, ia every year since the suspension of cash payments; from which, as compared with the accounts Jaid before the committees of 1797, and which were then carried back for 20 years, it will appear that the yearly advances of the bank to government have upon an average, since the suspension, been considerably lower in amount than the average amount of advances prior to that event, and the amount of those advances in the two last years, though greater in amount than those of some years immediately preceding, is less than it was for any of the six years preceding the restriction of cash pay

ments.

With respect to the amount of commercial discounts, your committee did not think it proper to require from the directors of the bank a disclosure of their absolute amount, being a part of their private transactions as a commercial company, of which, without ur gent reason, it did not seem right to demand a disclosure. The late go. vernor and deputy governor, however,

17,534,580 19 001.890

at the desire of your committee, furnished a comparative scale, in progressive numbers, shewing the increase of the amount of their discounts from the year 1790 to 1809, both inclusive. They made a request, with which your committee have thought it proper to comply, that this document might not be made public; the committee therefore have not placed it in the appendix to the present report, but have returned it to the bank. Your committee, however, have to state in general terms, that the amount of discounts has been progressively increasing since the year 1796; and that their amount in the last year (1809) bears a very high proportion to their largest amount in any year preceding 1797. Upon this particular subject, your committee are only anxious to remark, that the larg est amount of mercantile discounts by the bank, if it could be considered by itself, ought never, in their judgment, to be regarded as any other than a great public benefit; and that it is only the excess of paper currency thereby issued, and kept out in circulation, which is to be considered as the evil.

But your committee must not omit to state one very important principle, that the mere numerical return of the amount of bank notes out in circulation, cannot be considered as at all de ciding the question, whether such paper is or is not excessive. It is necessary to have recourse to other tests. The same amount of paper may at one time be less than enough, and at a