odious light. The reader is made to feel insulted by this claim upon his sympathy and love for that which is intrinsically detestable. Indeed, we fail to discover altogether why our admiration for Burr is demanded.

We do not believe that Mr. Parton, by this book, will succeed in making Aaron Burr's character attractive, or even respectable, in the eyes of the American people. So long as Burr stands in our history where he has stood, as a character to be despised and abhorred-as a man whose life was not only an unhappy failure,' but one long exhibition of pride and vanity, hard heartedness and terrible guilt,-he may indirectly be the means of good. He may serve as a warning to others not to follow in his steps. We have too many men, both in private and public life, who would like a little encouragement in the course they are tempted to pursue. They would rejoice to have it made out, that Aaron Burr, notwithstanding his strange career of wickedness, is still deserving of our sympathy and respect. We have already heard it several times suggested, that if Mr. Parton succeeds with Burr, he had better try his hand with Benedict Arnold. This un

fortunate man has now for many years been waiting for some sympathizing biographer, to tell us of the wrongs he has suffered, and of the hard measure he has received at the hands of his countrymen.

ART. IV.-CURRENCY, BANKING, AND CREDIT.

Currency or Money; its Nature and Uses, and the Effects of the Circulation of Bank Notes for Currency. By a Merchant of Boston. Boston, 1855. Reviewed in the North American Review. Boston: January, 1858. The Nature and Uses of Money and Mixed Currency, &c. By AMASA WALKER. Boston: 1857.

Message of the President of the United States. December,

1857.

Messages of the Governors of New York, Massachusetts, &c., &c., &c. 1857-1858.

Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Banking Depart ment of the State of New York. Albany: Dec. 31, 1857. Letters to the President of the United States. By HENRY C. CAREY, of Philadelphia. Published in the Boston Daily Advertiser. 1857-8.

In times of epidemic, there is no lack of physicians or of remedies, which are regarded with admiring faith by their inventors. The recent commercial disasters have naturally produced numerous speculations respecting their causes, and the measures necessary to prevent their recurrence. The pamphlets and documents enumerated above furnish a fair specimen of these, and if they do not altogether illuminate a notoriously misty subject, they at least supply useful correctives to one another. Thus the Banking Superintendent eulogizes, with characteristic ardor, the 'secured' currency of New York, 'possessing a strength with the public beyond any in the world,' and only grieves that any portion of it, however redundant, was suffered to be redeemed. The President endorses the principle of 'security,' but remarks with quiet sagacity, that it may be so abused as to make the whole public debt of the country the basis for inconvertible issues of paper. The same illustrious functionary, in company with Mr. Amasa Walker

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and a Merchant of Boston,' condemns in no measured terms the whole system of paper money in general, and the issue of 'small notes' in particular;-on which Mr. Carey most inconveniently remarks, that the banks which first suspended payment, and whose suspension continued longest, were precisely those which were prohibited by law from issuing small notes! He might have added, that those most entirely unrestricted in their issues were not in fact compelled to suspend at all, and that the worst explosions and most utter destruction occurred where no notes were issued! No wonder that a puzzled public, after many vain attempts to reconcile conflicting theories and stubborn facts, should at last be disposed to relinquish all hope of understanding, or satisfactorily adjusting, this vexed question.

Practically, indeed, it can never be so adjusted, for no system can be perfect in its results, which is worked by imperfect beings. But it is something if we can disentangle the subject from the meshes of one-sided theory, and by a simple process of analysis point out where the difficulties lie, which we cannot hope entirely to remove. At the risk of adding one more to the numerous failures of the last few months, we propose to offer our contribution towards this desirable result.

The principal theories claiming our attention are two. The first, expounded and ably defended by Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Amasa Walker, and 'a Merchant of Boston,' takes the ground that all the inflation of prices and extravagance of speculation to which they ascribe our commercial revulsions, are directly caused by the issue of paper money. Their logical process is a brief and simple one. The prices of commodities in any given community being determined by the quantity of circulating medium in that community for which they can be exchanged, it is evident that by multiplying the currency fivefold or ten-fold, the nominal prices of commodities must be enhanced to the same extent. But as we have in circulation five or ten dollars of paper to one of specie, the conclusion is inevitable that we are really paying five or ten times as much nominal value for all our purchases, as if we enjoyed the blessings of a 'hard currency.' No wonder that such a state of

things invites incessant and excessive importations from more favored countries, where the circulation of paper being partially restricted, prices are only two hundred or three hundred per cent. above par, instead of five hundred or one thousand; and that national bankruptcy, more or less frequent and complete, is the invariable result.

To this view it is objected that as our bank notes are, like those of other nations, exchangeable on demand for specie, they cannot fall lower, or remain longer below the specie level, than the delay and expense of making the exchange may require. But this objection is met by another special theory, that though specie per se may retain its value, specie in a mixed currency must necessarily fall to the level of that currency, taken as a whole, and thus become (in a sense) itself depreciated as powerless to elevate the paper money with which it is associated and mingled, as the pieces of ice which remain floating in a vessel of heated water, are powerless to restore its temperature to the freezing point.

The first exception which common sense must take to this argument, is that it proves too much. If one half the effect were produced by our bank issues which is here ascribed to them, the country could not remain solvent for any six consecutive months. But secondly, this theory is utterly inconsist ent with facts. The last few months have witnessed perhaps the greatest and most sudden contraction of our circulating medium that has ever been known. The amount of specie in the banks of our principal commercial centres, has largely exceeded their total issues of paper-yet the prices of some commodities which have not been in excess of the actual wants of the community, have remained perfectly steady. Where there was an over supply, prices would ultimately have fallen under any ordinary conditions of currency, though an excess of circulating medium might have retarded the process.

The truth is, there is much delusion respecting this matter of 'currency or money.' Gold and silver are unquestionably the only real money we possess; but it is a great mistake to suppose that they can be made to take the place of a paper currency, in any highly civilized community. The days are

past when silver dollars and golden guineas were hoarded in countless strong boxes, or old stockings, all over Europe, as they now are by the enlightened, peaceful and happy denizens of Bengal and China. We have learned to consider these 'irresponsible banks' which excite the dread and abhorrence of our chief magistrate, as on the whole the safest, and certainly the most convenient receptacles for our spare cash. We have no desire to make of every rich man's town or country residence a tempting bait for the crew of 'distinguished highwaymen' who formerly infested both our mother country and her colonies. If a momentary panic or a foolish impulse leads us now and then to withdraw a few hundreds or thousands from their quiet resting place, we cannot sleep in peace till they are again out of our hands, and restored to the bank vault out of which they were taken.

If, then, we could stop the circulation of bank notes all over the country, our money would still be deposited in banks, excepting such small amounts as we could conveniently and safely keep in our purses. But would that prevent the circulation of paper? By no means. All considerable amounts would necessarily be represented by checks or bank credits, and payments would be made in these, as they now are in bank notes.* The truth is, that in a civilized community all merchandise not needed for immediate wants, will naturally become concentrated in depots at the most convenient points for distribution and replenishment. The advantages of such an arrangement in protecting the public both from plethora and scarcity, are too obvious to need explanation. In the case of money, which is not consumed like other merchandise, but may return again and again to the point whence it was issued, it is plainly desirable to have the concentration as great, and the alternate movement as restricted as possible. This is accomplished by substituting for it, both in domestic and foreign exchanges, the

*It is not many years since the ladies of Paris were obliged to go shopping with large bags of silver crowns, and within a still less period we have known a horse and sledge necessary to convey a thousand pounds in 'hard currency,' to the merchant's counting house, to provide for the payments of the morrow in regions temporarily relieved from the curse of banks and bank notes.