1830.]

The Currency and its Evils.

allowable, were the most useful of all. Mr. Huskisson (to whose principles of political arithmetic I can never subscribe,) put it into Mr. Canning's head that the abolition of the one pound notes was the only way to keep the gold in the country. All these dreams about a sound currency arise from an utter mistake of its nature and objects. Persons calling themselves statesmen, do not see whence these delusions arise. They come from the interested intrigues and falsifications of the stock-holders and monied capitalists, who, not content with having made Jew bargains by their loans on the public industry during the war, thus contrive actually to double their extortions, and render the weight of taxation quite intolerable.

The fear that paper money will continue to augmeut prices, is the grand stalking-horse. This is a fundamental error. If it augments them only so far as to bring remuneration, it is a necessary good; beyond that, the augmentation can be only nominal. Prices depend on the actual labour and actual capital employed-except so far as those are varied by a variation of demand. The foreign vent will be determined by these, and not by nominal price. ́ ́All foreign commercial intercourse must be substantially an The country exchange of barter.

which gains most will have to receive the difference in cash. If the balance of trade is in our favour, the higher the value of gold, the more we gain. Currency is a measure of labour and cost; and paper forms this measure quite as correctly as gold. If its nominal amount is greater than that of the gold for which it is substituted, still it represents the same quantity of labour and cost as that of gold. But an increased quantity of exchangeable articles, without au increased quantity of currency, will infallibly be followed by starved production, because labour and cost will want adequate remuneration.

The beneficial effects of the Scotch system of banking have been admirably explained in an article of a late "Quarterly Review." What pretence can there be for not adopting it in Englaud?

With regard to agriculture-so long as there is a total want of employment of a portion of the poor, and they can only derive support from the parish GENT. MAG. December, 1830.

505

rates, it would answer to cultivate even
the worst soils. Hence they would at
least draw a part of their sustenance, if
not their entire sustenance. All the
arguments in favour of foreign supply,
are the fallacious and selfish logic of
the commercial ranks of British so-
ciety, who entirely rule the opinions,
as well as the purses, of our over-ma-
nufacturing nation. They are always
acute, subtle, and intelligent; but, I
must say, seldom comprehensive and
profound. We have heard of “
chant-kings" in Republics: they now
reign in England. An outcry is raised
against this mode of talking, as the re-
sult of narrow prejudices: they who
most use this outcry are, many of
them, too sagacious not to know that
it is the reverse of prejudice; but it
answers their purpose to join in the
cry.

iner

Look at our Parliamentary representation; look at the cities and boroughs. Who are returned by them? Not persons connected with them; not men of property from the neighbourhood: but, utter strangers, chiefly from the Stock-Exchange; who thus become our legislators and rulers.

As to those to whom the cant term of "Squirearchy" has been lately applied, they are annihilated! They are in the last gasp of expiring languor. It is on them that taxation has worked with double and treble force, leaving them only a nominal property. All indirect taxation, as well as direct, operated most severely on them, by making the expense of mere repairs often exceed the rent. In five-andthirty years the told amount of the repairs of one farm 1 possess, has far exWhen Mr. Pitt, in ceeded the rent. the Income tax, only allowed an avededuction of 10 per cent. for rerage pairs, it did not half cover the cost. Yours, &c. W. M-NW-G.

506

Milton a Performer in his "Comus."

Mr. Thomas Egerton, his brother;
the Lady Alice Egerton ;"-and there
can be no doubt but that these per
formed the two Brothers and the Lady.
Henry Lawes, in his dedication to
Lord Brackley, intimates that he him-
self represented the Attendant Spirit,
or Thyrsis; but it is not stated who
performed Comus, the principal cha-
racter. This is rather remarkable;
and, on considering the matter, I think
it was
no other than Milton him
self, who was thus both author and
actor. My reasons for this conjecture
are these:-Had it been any person of
distinction, why should not his name
have been given equally with Lord
Brackley and his brother, and Lady
Alice Egerton? But then, it may be
asked, "If it was Milton, why should
his name have been concealed?" To this
it may be answered, that, though the
Masque was acted in the year 1634, it
was not published till 1637, and then
not by Milton, but by Lawes, and
without Milton's name to it, stating
that, although not openly acknow-
ledged by the author, yet it is a legiti
mate offspring, so lovely, and so much
admired, that the often copying of it
hath tired my pen to give my severall
friends satisfaction, and brought me to
a necessity of producing it to the pub.
licke view." Now, if Milton was
thus chary of being known as the
author, it is probable that he would
be much more so of being an arowed
actor.
Milton was connected with
the Puritans; and, with them, to write
a drama would be an offence; but to
act in one would be a much greater.
A second edition of "Comus," with
some of Milton's other poems, and
with his name to them, was published
in 1645, when, probably, it was in
vain any longer to attempt to conceal
the author. But, by this time, the
Puritans had made a very great head.
In the Preliminaries to the Treaty of
Uxbridge, in Feb. 1644-5, the abo-
lition of the playhouses was positively
insisted upon. In Milton's second
edition of his poems, in 1673, the
Dedication by Lawes to Lord Brack
ley, though he was still living, under
the title of Earl of Bridgewater, was
suppressed. Mr. Warton says, "Mil-
ton was perhaps unwilling to own his
early connections with a family con-
spicuous for its unshaken loyalty, and
now highly patronized by King Charles

[Dec.

the Second."-(See Todd's Milton, ed. 1809, vol. vi. p. 178.) And Todd informs us, that on the title page of a copy of Milton's "Defensio Populi," published in 1651, now in the Marquis of Stafford's possession, "The amiable and learned Earl of Bridge water, who had performed the part of the First Brother in his Comus," had "written, Liber igne, author furca, dignissimi," and had "disdained his acquaintance."-(Todd, vol. i. p. 77,

note.)

That Milton himself soon began to regard this juvenile performance with a less favourable mind is probable, from a passage in the Introduction to his "Reason of Church Government," published in 1641, in which, speaking of his literary projects, he says, perhaps with a reference to this very work:"Neither do I think it shame to co venant with my knowing reader that for some few years yet I may go on trust with him towards payment of what I am now indebted, as being a work not to be raised from the heat of youth, or the vapours of wine, like that which flows at waste from the pen of some vulgar amourist, or the trencher fury of a riming parasite; nor to be obtained by the invocation of dame Memory and her Syren daughters; but by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases."-(See Todd, vol. i. p. 48.)

That it is not improbable that Milton should have a part in the perform→ ance, may be argued from Lawes, the musician, having one; and, if he was worthy to perform with the young nobility, much more the poet, a young man of great learning, and who had had his education at the University. He was probably, likewise, well quali fied for it. Plays were still performed at the University, and Milton might have performed in them. I have none of them to refer to. His "Latin exercises," we are told, "he recited publicly," and that they are" marked with characteristic animation.”— (Todd, vol. i. p. 9.) That he was suited to the character in his personal accomplishments seems sufficiently evident. He was then not twenty-six years of age. "Milton, in his youth,

508

CLASSICAL LITERATURE.

tempt of Mr. Nixon (a native of, and resident in Liverpool), in the construction of an instrument of a similar description to those just mentioned, but in some respects more remarkable. Mr. Nixon is represented as an enthusiast in music; but his other avocations, as a private literary tutor, have prevented his extending his knowledge beyond the theoretical principles of the science. At its earliest introduction one of the little toys before mentioned by chance came in his way; and, delighted with the souud, an improvement thereon, upon a grand scale, instantly suggested itself to his mind. After two years' perseverance, (assisted by the best artificers, under his own immediate direction,) he has produced an instrument which, in the opinions of all who have privately heard it, bids fair 10 astonish the world with its powers of harmony.

It is described to be six feet long, four feet high, and two feet six inches deep; and has six octaves, and an odd note, or seventy-three æolians. Though very powerful, it is sweet, and clear in its tone. The bass notes resemble the human voice closely; the upper notes are very fine. It has bellows, a wind chest, and three swells; one the common organ swell, the others are of Mr. Nixon's own invention. The instrument, in its present unfinished state, produces a most delightful combination of sounds, in which the finest tones of

[Dec.

the trombone, horn, bassoon, hautboy; clarionet, and other instruments, are so associated as to baffle all power of description in its harmonic effect.

There is one grand difference be tween Mr. Nixon's æolian, and the ordinary church organ; some of the metal pipes of the bass of the latter are fifteen feet long, nine or ten inches diameter, and weigh about a hundred pounds, at a cost of 101. and upwards each. One of the metallic pipes of the Eolian, producing the saine note, is only seven inches long, and weighs no more than two pounds and a half.

This instrument, it is fairly presumed, will never deviate in tone from the effects of changes in the temperature of the atmosphere; as Mr. Nixon, after heating one of the pipes, found not perceptibly changed. Arrangements, it is understood, are making by Mr. Nixon, with the aid of his friends, for a public display of the powers of his instrument immediately upon its completion.*

that the tone was

J. W.

There appear to be rivals in the field; as we find from the Literary Gazette of Dec. 4, that "The Æolophon, which is played like a piano-forte, in its notes resembles the Eolina, but has much greater compass. It was performed upon, last Saturday, at St. James's Palace, when her Majesty's partiality for the simple style in music was apparent. There are daily performances at Mr. Chapell's."-EDIT.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE.

Micatio Digitorum, 'Ezáλλağıs Aaxtúλwv, Tsoey-Moey. THERE is a curious coincidence

Tobservable between a game described in Adams's Antiquities, p. 458, as common among the Romans; and one which is at this day in universal and familiar use among the Chinese. Adams observes, that "there was a game of chance (which is still common in Italy, chiefly however among the vulgar, called the game of morra), played between two persons, by suddenly raising or compressing the fiugers, and at the same instant guessing each at the number of the other. When doing this, they were said, "micare digitis," Cic. Divin. 11, 41. Off. 3, 23.

The game called by the Chinese

Tsoey-moey, (says Sir T. Staunton, in his Notices of China,) is most usually played during entertainments at which wine is served, the guests severally challenging their neighbours to the contest. Both parties raise their hand at the same instant, and call out the number of fingers they guess to be jointly held up by themselves and their adversaries; and when any one calls the right number, his adversary drinks off a cup of wine by way of a fine. The fist closed indicates 0, the thumb alone 1, the thumb and one finger 2, and so on.

As the action of the hand and utterance of the number, when the game is played fairly, are perfecily simultaneous, there appears no room

Game of " Micatio Digitorum," &c.

micaretur.'-Cic. Off. 8, 77, c. 19.
non turpe est dubitare philosophos, quod ne
rustici quidem dubitent? A quibus natum
est id, quod jam tritum est vetustate prover-
bium; quum enim fidem alicujus bonita-
temque laudant, dignum esse dicunt, quicum
in tenebris mices.'-Idem de Fin. 2, 52. Cur
justitia laudatur? aut unde est hoc contri-
tum vetustate proverbium, quicum in tene-
bris ? Nempe in tenebris micanti simpli-
citer fides habenda, cum nulla re convinci
possit."-J. M. Gesneri, Thes. L. L.