the evening therefore at Montmedy. After dinner I walked to the top of the hill, a steep ascent of upwards of a mile, and ascended the ramparts to see the sun set. This town is full of Prussian troops; one of the sentinels forbid my walking on the ramparts without leave of the Commandant.

*

The country resembles the high moors in the North Riding, as far as regards the form and appearance of the hills, but it is all either covered with wood or corn stubble. In the evening we were waited on by two Prussian officers to know our business; they were extremely civil, and seemed to consider it only a matter of form. Our Inn was a decent one; the female servants, as usual, kindly attentive, and we had a bottle of capital champagne at 5ƒ.

August 18.-This morning we rose at four, and started before five; we had three horses; the postillion always rides a horse at the left side of the shaft horse; his horse is fastened by ropes to the Cabriolet, and he manages the shaft horse by a rope tied to his head, which he holds in his left hand; the third horse was placed on the right of the shaft horse, tied to the Cabriolet like the other, and its head secured by a rope to the head of the shaft horse. It was a wretched road, if road it could be called, over rugged dangerous hill sides, being in fact no regular thoroughfare, but a mere bye-way. Our postillion, who, though a young man, was an old soldier, had seen a great deal of the world, and knew most of the places through which we intended to travel; he was one of the 500,000 men whom Buonaparte conducted to Moscow, and one of the few that he brought back with him to France; after all the ups and downs he had seen, those which oc curred in driving us over these hills were trifles to him; he conducted us with great skill and generalship. The road improved as we approached the village of Malmaison, half way to Longwy; we passed through a country resembling a gentleman's park. The trees were beautifully disposed ·for picturesque effect, with occasional openings into uninclosed land which was all corn stubble. It was between seven and eight when we stopped to breakfast at the village of Malmaison; the good woman of the village Inn

had probably never before provided breakfast for Englishmen; she did her best for us; we had plenty of coffee and milk and good household wheaten bread; napkins were brought as usual, but she had no egg cups, nor wine glasses; nor any spoons for the eggs, except large pewter tablespoons; however, we managed to eat half a dozen eggs. She had no produceable butter, but one of her little boys brought in a saucer full of what he called white cheese; it was like the Somersetshire clotted cream. The young children seemed to wonder that grown people should not be able to talk so well as themselves. The charge for our own breakfasts and the postillion's was 4f. or 3s. 4d. At eight o'clock the thermometer in the garden, in the shade, was 59. The weather, since we left Paris, has been temperate, with the usual variety of clouds and sunshine; on Friday afternoon it threatened rain, aud on Saturday there fell in the evening probably the 10th of an inch; on Sunday it was again bright and fine. Both the country and the road improved as we approached Longwy, the last town on the French frontier; in our way to it we passed through a village in Luxembourgh. We stopped a short time at Longwy, and proceeded to Luxembourg to dinner.

(To be continued.)

X.

Mr. URBAN, Sept. 6. OR more than twenty years past, FOR the people of England have been much accustomed to hear of the price of gold and silver.

Soon after the year 1797, when the Bank was restrained from paying its bills in specie, it was said that gold had risen above the Mint price, i. e. above 31. 178. 10žd. per ounce.

I recollect, Sir, your pages gave, for a long period, a regular account of the different fluctuations.

During the years 1806 and 1807, standard gold was said to be as high as 47.; and toward the end of the year 1808, it began to advance rapidly, till at last it attained the height of 41.10s. and upwards. In the year 1810, the House of Commons appointed a Select Committee to enquire into the cause of the high price of gold bullion.

In my present address to you, Sir, I mean, with your permission, to as

sert,

sert, and I will endeavour to prove, that the precious metals cannot have a price.

While the commerce of the world was carried on by barter, there was no occasion which could rise to such a word as buying :—there were no buyers properly so called; every person was a trader, who, if he wanted to obtain some commodity, must have had some other commodity to give in exchange for it. Let the Reader carry his mind back to a market of barter, and consider what must have been the terms there made use of; no such word as buying could have occurred, for nothing was sold; neither could price have occurred, for there was no medium of price, and as to purchase where there was no price, there could be no purchase. Such terms as exchange truck, the giving of this for that, could be the only intelligible phrases there used. The same mode of expression prevails to this day, where the transaction is the same; nor does any person say, when two commodities are exchanged the one for the other, that the transaction is a purchase, or speak of the one as buying the other.

When, however, the inconveniences of barter had suggested a medium in any one place, its utility must have been so apparent, that other markets adopted the idea, and then the only difficulty was in the choice of a medium that should be so valuable as to be acceptable by all persons, and for which all persons would at all times be willing to part with the superabundant commodities which they desired to exchange for others.

The precious metals, gold, silver, and copper, offered the most inviting appearances, and subsequent experience of their fitness has raised such an opinion of their value, that they have become acceptable all over the world as an equivalent for every sort of commodity.

This selection and adoption of the metals, with the quality of universal acceptation, have given to them a function differing from any thing else in nature, for they have been chosen from the whole mass of commodities, to be the representative and buyer of all the rest. Hence they are no longer commodities, but are appointed to be THE PRICE, and consequently cannot themselves have

a price. As they are the price of all, there is none left to be the price of them.

Before this quality was given to them, they, like the rest, were received in barter, and there could then have been no knowledge of the terms price, buying, selling, purchase, and the like; but when general consent had made the metals universally acceptable, then, and not till then, the science of buying was introduced: they became universal buyers, and the word money has been chosen for their designation.

The most ignorant of mankind know the use of money, and all concur in considering it as the buyer of commodities. Whoever goes into a market with money in his purse, and there expends it, is a buyer, he who receives it is a seller, and receives the piece or pieces of price, while the other takes the commodity, the price and the commodity being as distinct as the buyer and the seller. All this may seem obvious enough, for no person doubts the power of money as a buyer, though very few have extended their considerations so far as to know that money is always a buyer in every transaction wherever it is used. I beg to repeat, that it is always a buyer, so exclusively so, that it cannot itself be bought, and consequently cannot have a price, it being agreed by all persons who have any thing to dispose of, that money shall be the buyer; at every move money maintains this character, and is never deprived of it. As well might the measure be said to be the thing measured, or the weight the article weighed, as that the price is the commodity.

Let us visit the precious metal at the mouth of the mine, and see how it can there be bought. The first possessor cannot buy it, for he has it by the bounty of Providence; it is the reward of his research and his labour. He knowing the office that is assigned to it, will not part with the least atom, but for some commodity, or for some service performed, and he thus buys the commodity, or pays for the service; at every subsequent move, the money, whether in the shape of coin or in bullion, is a purchaser, the first move is of this description, and so must be the last ; for no one can be honestly possessed

of

of money who has not by himself or his ancestors, had something to sell, or performed some service *. And as no one can obtain the metals at the mouth of the mines on any other terms, neither can they be had in any other place or way but upon the same terms: they march through the world and command all markets always as buyers, but never to be sold: though it is true, that in countries where silver only is the legal standard of price, there gold may be commodity and silver the purchaser; so likewise where gold is the standard, there silver may be commodity, and be bought with gold. But now in most countries, both gold and silver are standards of price, and their relative value is defined by the State.

I am well aware, that to persons who have not studied the subject, and who have been habituated to that common phrase, the price of gold and silver, it will appear a strange assertion, that they cannot be bought; and being still extremely anxious to convince, because I know that much confusion and much injustice does arise from not admitting this quality in the precious metals, I will endeavour to elucidate by example, though at the hazard of being thought puerile and trifling.

Suppose a quantity of standard gold or silver coins to be advertised for sale. How will the buyers come prepared for purchasing? Not one of them can bring any thing else but money, or the representative of money; and money against money can be no sale; it can only be exchange where each person will take care not to give a larger weight for a smaller; a parity of weight is the first thing considered, and the buyer (we will allow a buyer and a seller for the present purpose), must be allured by some advantage which the seller is willing to admit for some convenience that he seeks. Still this is not a sale; like is exchanged for like, and therefore it is a transaction of barter, and not of buying and selling. It will most likely be here said, if money cannot be sold, that at least bullion may. Let us try this also. Bullion is advertised for sale. How can this

I take no notice of the exaction of tribute, lest it should be allied unto rob. bery.

be bought? With money also? An ounce of standard gold is said to be purchased for 47. 10s. ; but let the money be examined and weighed, and its contents will invariably be found to be somewhat short of the ounce weight; for weight, as before said, is the first thing sought after, and some allowance of profit must be conceded on one side or the other. Neither of these instances is a sale, any more than if a large quantity of loose wheat should be offered for sale to be paid for by bags of the same wheat tied up in different sizes: this would be an exchange or barter of wheat for wheat, and would be erroneously called a sale; for the quality being the same, the exchange would be made as nearly as possible, bushel for bushel, allowing something for the bags. So it must ever be, when money or bullion is exchanged; the par is always sought for by the party who desires the exchange, and all that he expects to pay is some premium, commonly called agio, for accommodation.

That the precious metals have or have not a price, that they are or are not commodity, is one way or other, a matter of fact, and not of conjecture, and it is opprobrious to the age we live in, that the question is still undetermined.

To admit that gold and silver can` have a price, is, in my conception, to confound cause and effect, to destroy the distinction between the buyer and the seller, the grower and the consumer, the manufacturer and the user, the payer and the receiver ; and the practical consequence is, that the one very frequently afflicts and defrauds the other without either being conscious of the evil committed. To the same source may also be traced the use of a phraseology so bewildering, that all treatises upon the subject of Bullion, Money, &c. seem contradictory and unintelligible; and thus the influence and operation of the precious metals are hid from the sight of man.

This obscurity cannot, in my opinion, be removed but by a more careful appropriation of the terms exchange, commodity, price, value, and weight.

If you, Mr. Urban, are not afraid that my communications have already tired your Readers, I will on a fu

ture

I

Mr. URBAN,

66

HAVE seen some strictures in one of the late Numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine, upon "the white Lady" in the popular Romance of the Monastery." The anachronisms of which the author is guilty (and which he indeed acknowledges in a postscript to the last Volume, but which are not on that account less inexcusable), are still more objectionable than even the introduction of supernatural agency. The Tale commences immediately after the battle of Pinkie, which was fought in the year 1547, when we are told that Halbert Glendinning was nine or ten years old. In the second Volume be is described as being then nineteen, so that the date of the year must have been 1556 or 1557; a few pages before that time, however, Sir Piercie Shafton is made to say, "This courtly exchange of epithets of honour, is no more than the compliments which pass between valour and beauty, wherever they meet, and under whatever circumstances. Elizabeth of England herself calls Philip Sydney her Courage, and he in return calls that Princess his Inspiration." Now Sir Philip Sydney was born in the year 1554, and was not introduced to Elizabeth till the year 1575. Elizabeth herself ascended the throne only in the year 1558. In the third Volume the Author returns to the period of which he writes; for, speaking of the community of St. Mary, he observes, that "it was supposed to be protected by the powerful Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, whose zealous attachment to the Catholic Faith caused at a later period the great rebellion of the tenth of Elizabeth. In the same Volume, Christie of the Clint-hill remarks, that "it is a bedlam business." What could Christie know of Bedlam?

I am at a loss to discover the hero

Sir

of the piece, for none of the personages introduced in it excite the smallest interest. Halbert is a savage of nineteen, extremely ignorant, ready to embrace any faith that may be of fered to him, and whose chief excellence consists in being a "practised archer," and "six feet high." Mary of Avenel, to whom he is afterwards married, is so rarely introduced, that we can form no opinion of her; she is, however, sufficiently insipid. Piercie Shafton makes the greatest figure, and he turns out to be a tailor's grandson. With respect to the White Lady, her presence is no where required: the maxim of “nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodex," is set at nought by her appearance, for there is not a difficulty in the story which might not be overcome by natural means; neither is her character preserved; for the incident of the bodkin, the sight of which so violently agitates Sir Piercy, is too ludicrous for so grave a personage; the effect likewise is lost, and the circumstance forgotten before the rank of the Knight is discovered; there is a contradiction likewise in his boasting of it to a person whom he believes to be acquainted with his birth. Previous to the duel a grave has been dug by nobody knows whom, for nobody knows what, and it is covered and the grass growing on it immediately afterwards, nobody knows how: and the mystery has no sort of connexion with the piece. Sir Piercie too is run through the body and left for dead on the field; in a few minutes he is sufficiently recovered to walk away; and in the evening of the same day, scarcely the vestige of the cicatrice remains. The introduction of ideal beings can only be tolerated by supposing the tale to have been written in the days when their existence was a matter of popular belief. In the Romance of the Monastery this illusion is destroyed by the frequent reference to 'matters of recent date. In the last song of the White Lady, she speaks of "a holly waving without a wind;" the green willows are said to "wave in the wind," but who ever heard of a waving holly?

I believe that the Author of the Monastery and Waverley has hitherto kept himself concealed, although these Works and several others of the same description, are attributed

by

by many persons to Sir Walter Scott, an opinion which is strengthened by the liberal employment in them of that feeble expression, "he undid,” which so frequently disgraces the most beautiful passages in the Poems he avows. "He undid the door," "he undid the bolt," "he undid his helmet*." Whoever he may be, he is unquestionably a man of considerable talent; and it is to be regretted that one who can write so well should write so carelessly as to subject himself to animadversions such as these. Yours, &c. A. B.

A

"Carrier. Uds heart, old Dun has bin moyr'd in a slough in Brick-hill Lane. plague 'found it! yonder's such abomination weather as was never seen.' "

We are told by Dr. Percy +, from the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland, that horses were not so usually fed with corn loose in the manger, in the present manner, as with their provender made into loaves. As I have not the immediate opportunity of referring to Browne Willis's MS. I am unable to say whether any such Inn was known in Stony-Stratford; though, if I recollect rightly, one called the Horse-shoe stood at the lower end of the town, near to Old Stratford.

It appears that, till a garrison was established at Newport- Pagnel in 1643, the road from Woburn through

* From the following, however, and two or three other passages, he may be taken for an Irishman: "Not in this spot," answered the youth, "we would (should) be liable to interruption,-follow me, and I will bring you to a place where we will (shall) encounter no such risk."

+ Malone's Supplement to Shakspeare, vol. II. p. 349.

GENT. MAG. October, 1820.

that town to Northampton was but seldom used. Queen Elizabeth, however, came by that way, in the summer of 1575, in one of her Progresses. Stony-Stratford was one of the places where the hearse of Queen Eleanor, wife to Edward I., rested; and a Cross was erected to her memory, which was demolished, with the rest, by order of the Parliament, during the Rebellion.

In Speed's History of England, I find mention made of the arresting of the young King Edward V. by the Duke of Gloucester, as follows:

"Now was the King in his way to London, gone from Northampton, when the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham where re

came hither (Northampton) Rivers, the King's uncle, intending on the morrow to follow the King, and be with him at StonyStratford, twelve miles hence, early ere hee departed." P. 885.

"They tooke the way to Stony-Stratford, where they found the King with his company, ready to leape on horse-back, and depart forward to leave that lodging

for them, because it was too strait for both companies." P. 885-6.

"And as soone as they came in his presence, they alighted dowu with all their company about them; to whom the Duke of Buckingham said, 'Goe afore, Gentlemen, and, Yeomen, keepe your roomes.' In which goodly array they came to the King, and on their knees in very humble maner saluted his Grace, who received them in very joyous and amiable manner, nothing knowing, nor mistrusting as yet what was done."`

"And forthwith they arrested the Lord Richard, Sir Thomas Vaughan, and Sir Richard Hawt, Knights, in the King's presence, and brought the King and all his companie backe unto Northampton, where they tooke again further counsell." P. 886.

Mr. Malone, in his edition of the Play alluded to, seems to have been ignorant of the true signification of "Brickhill" (for he has divided it into Brick-lane): that place takes its name from a small market town in Bucks, near Hockliffe, where the Assizes were occasionally held in those times. It appears by the Parish Register, that on June 9, 1562, one James Shakespear suffered death* and

* No Commentator upon Shakspeare, I believe, has mentioned this circumstance. Some of your Readers, perhaps, may be able to discover whether the criminal was related to the poet.

was