Committee were misled by the words of their appointment, and they misled all their witnesses by the questions proposed to them. They were pursuing a non-existence, or as Mr. Locke expresses himself on a similar occasion, "they were pursuing a shadow that constantly followed them, but which they could not overtake." The first question asked of their first witness was, "What is the present price of gold?" The words price of gold are iterated and reiterated through every page of their printed report, and it is every where assumed that gold is risen in price, and is a saleable commodity. Now, by considering gold as a commodity capable of being bought and sold, we are forced into the use of expressions that are direct contradictions; for when we say that gold is dearer, we absolutely mean that it is of less value, and when we say it is cheaper, we mean it is more valuable. The Select Committee in their Report thus express themselves: "If gold is rendered dear by any other cause than scarcity, those who cannot purchase it without paying the high price, will be apt to conclude that it is scarce." Gold cannot be rendered either dear or cheap by any cause whatever; it becomes indeed of more or less value, according to its scarcity or abundance, and according as more or less will purchase more or less commodity; but in the sense that the Committee state it of a high nominal price, gold does not become dear, bat cheap. The Committee seem well aware of this fact, and also that gold is invariable in price; for they also say: "Gold being thus our measure of prices, a commodity is said to be dear or cheap, according as more or less gold is given in exchange for a given quantity of that commodity; but a given quantity of gold itself will never be exchanged for a greater or a less quantity of gold of the same standard fineness." And again, "But generally speaking, the price of gold being measured and expressed in gold, cannot be raised or lowered by an increased or diminished demand for it." And again, "An ounce of standard gold bullion will not fetch more in our market than 37. 17s. 10d. unless 3. 17s. 101⁄2d. in our actual currency, is equivalent to less than an ounce of gold." And still further, "An increased demand for gold, and a consequent scarcity of that arti cle, will make it more valuable in proportion to all other articles; the same quantity of gold will purchase a greater quantity of any other article than it did before; in other words, the real price (value) of gold, or the quantity of commodities given in exchange for it, will rise, and the money prices of all commodities will fall; the money price of gold itself will remain unaltered, but the prices of all other commodities will fall." Notwithstanding the truth of the above observations of the Committee, and the proofs they contain of the impossibility of any change in the price of gold, or rather that gold cannot have a price, the Committee continued agreeably to the words of their appointment, to consider the cause of a high price, and they concluded without being able to find it ; for how could they find what is not in existence? The Committee did not discover that bullion is always a buyer, and could not itself be bought; and although they admitted the price of foreign bills, they never once adverted to the price of our own domestic bills, but considered them as the purchasers of gold, instead of the gold as the purchaser of the bills. Yet the Committee generally argued on the soundest principles, and their labour cannot be too highly appreciated. Since the sitting of the Bullion Committee, a host of writers have obtruded their observations; some contending, that it was the Bank Bill which had fallen, others that the Gold had risen, but all admitting a price of gold, and consequently, a variability in the measure of value and while all lamented the want of an : invariable standard of price, no one discovered it, though each one had it in his hands. If gold or silver, whichever is the legal tender, cannot be bought, it cannot have a price, and therefore must be invariably weight for weight in every part of the world. All the foregoing quotations have been selected with a view to prove the absolute necessity of entirely setting aside the phrase price of gold, together with the idea which it conveys, namely, that gold is a purchaseable commodity; and also, of a more careful appropriation of the words price, value, weight, and exchange. A LOMBARD. Mr. COMPENDIUM OF COUNTY HISTORY. OXFORDSHIRE. (Continued from p. 397.) HISTORY. 556. Near Banbury, Saxons defeated by the Britons. 572. Bensington taken from the Britons by Ceaulin, King of Wessex. 614. Near Bampton Britons defeated, and above 2000 slain, by the Saxons, under Cynegils and Cwhichelm. 682. At Burford a Council held by Kings Etheldred and Burthwald. 727. At Oxford was founded a Monastery by Didanus, lord of this county, and his daughter St. Fridiswide, the germ of the present University. 752. At Battle edge, near Burford, Ethelbald, King of Mercia, defeated by Cuthred, King of Wessex, through the valour of his chieftain Edelhun. 775. At Bensington Cynewulf, King of Wessex, defeated by Offa, King of Mercia. 778. This county being ceded by Cynewulf to Mercia, Offa made a ditch as a partition between his kingdom and Wessex, which may still be traced at Ardley, Middleton-Stoney, Northbrook, Heyford, and Kirtlington. 866, At Woodstock a Wittenagemot held by Ethelred I. 885. At Shifford a Wittenagemot held by Alfred. 886. Oxford University founded, and learned Professors placed in it, by Alfred. 917. At Hook, or Hogs Norton, Saxons defeated, with great slaughter, by the Danes. 958. At Dorchester a Wittenagemot held by Athelstan. 977. At Kirklington a Synod held by Edward the Martyr, and Dunstan, Abp. of Canterbury. 979. Oxford burned by the Danes. 1002. At Oxford, Gunilda, sister to Sweyn, King of Denmark, her husband Polingus, and all the Danes residing in the city, murdered by order of Ethelred the Unready. 1003. Oxford burnt by Sweyn, in revenge of the inhuman massacre of his sister and countrymen. 1009. At Ensham a Wittenagemot held by Ethelred the Unready.-Oxford again burnt by the Danes. 1010. Thame plundered by the Danes. 1015. At Oxford two Danish noblemen assassinated by order of Edric Streon, the infamous Earl of Mercia; and many Danes, who had taken shelter in the church of St. Fridis wide, burnt to death. 1016. At Oxford, Nov. 30, Edmund Ironside murdered. 1022. At Oxford, a great Council-held by Canute, in which the laws of England were first translated into Latin, and enjoined equally on his Danish as on his Saxon subjects in this realm. 1026. At Oxford a great Council held by Canute, in which the Edicts of King Edgar were confirmed. 1036. At Oxford Harold 1. surnamed "Harefoot," crowned. 1040. At Oxford Harold Harefoot died. 1069. Oxford having revolted and shut its gates against William I. was taken by him by storm. 1136. At Oxford a Parliament held by Stephen, when he abolished the tax of Dane Gelt, and granted great immunities to the people. 1139. At Oxford a Parliament held by Stephen, when the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury were imprisoned in consequence of a quarrel which arose between their servants and those of the Earl of Brittany. 1142. In Oxford Castle the Empress Maud was besieged by Stephen for three months, when the river being frozen over, and the ground covered with snow, she, accompanied by three Knights, dressed all in white, passed the sentinels of the garrison unobserved, crossed the river, and walked on foot to Abingdon. Thence she took horse, and arrived safely at WallingGENT. MAG. December, 1820. ford, ford, when she was joined by her son Henry, and her half-brother the brave Earl of Gloucester. The day after her escape, Oxford Castle surrendered to Stephen. 1154. At Oxford a Parliament was held upon the convention entered into at Wallingford for Stephen to hold the Crown for his own life, but to acknowledge Henry Fitz Empress as his successor, was fully confirmed. 11634. At Woodstock, a Parliament at which Malcolm King of Scotland, and Rees Prince of Wales, did homage to Henry II. 1166. At Oxford a Council held by Henry II. when 30 Germans of a sect called Publicans, probably disciples of the Waldenses, were examined and branded with a hot iron, after which they were discharged; but all persons being prohibited, under heavy penalties, from giving them any shelter or sustenance, they perished with hunger and cold. 1177. At Oxford a Parliament held by Henry II. when the Princes of Wales did homage to him, and his son John was declared Lord of Ireland. 1185. At Oxford a Parliament held by Henry II. 1203. At Oxford a Parliament granted an aid to John for his war with Philip of France. 1207. At Oxford a Parliament held by John, when a thirteenth of all moveables, both from clergy and laity, was granted to him. 1209. At Oxford a female inhabitant having been accidentally killed by a student, the townsmen seized three innocent scholars, and hanged them, In consequence of which many students quitted this town, and settled at Cambridge, Reading, and Maidstone. 1215. At Oxford, in April, John insultingly refused to grant the petitions of the Barons; but in two months after, they compelled him to sign "Magna Charta." 1217. At Oxford a Parliament held by Louis the Dauphin. 1238. At Woodstock (Sept. 8), one Ribband, pretending to be insane, at, tempted to stab Henry III. 1255. At Woodstock Henry III. entertained his daughter Margaret, and her husband Alexander III. of Scotland. 1258. At Oxford (June 11) assembled a Parliament, the first in which deputies from the Commons formed a part. The regulations then made are called "The Statutes of Oxford." By these the Government of the kingdom was transferred from Henry III. to 24 Commissioners (12 chosen by Henry, and 12 by the Barons), of whom Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was the President. 1263. At Oxford a dispute and battle between the students and the townsmen, after which many of the former removed to Northampton. 1264. Oxford taken by Henry III. who expelled the students, most of them being of the Earl of Leicester's party. 1275. At Woodstock a Parliament held by Edward I. 1312. At Deddington Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II, who had capitulated at Scarborough to the Earl of Pembroke on the terms of being safely conveyed to the King, was seized by the Earl of Warwick from Pembroke's custody, and in violation of the treaty hurried to Warwick, and beheaded on Blacklow Hill, near that town. 1349. At Oxford nearly one-fourth of the students and inhabitants died of the plague. 1354-5. At Oxford (Feb. 10) a quarrel between the students and the townsmen, when many of the students were killed. 1355. At Woodstock a tournament held by Edward III. to celebrate the birth of Thomas of Woodstock, his seventh and youngest son. 1387. At Radford Bridge, between this county and Berks, Thomas de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Marquis of Dublin (the first person on whom the title of Marquis was conferred in this realm; afterwards created Duke of Ireland), was defeated by Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Earl of Derby, afterwards Henry IV. and the Marquis with difficulty saved his life by swimming across the Isis. 1391. At Woodstock, at a tournament held by Richard II. John Hastings, the last Earl of Pembroke, of that name, was slain. 1469. At Danesmore, near Banbury, July 26, the Yorkists under the Earl of Pembroke defeated by Sir John Conyers, when 6500 men were slain. The Earl of Pembroke, his brother Sir Richard Herbert, who had twice cut his way with a pole-axe through the Lancastrian army, and Richard Widville, Earl Rivers, father of the Queen of Edward IV. were taken prisoners, and with 7 others beheaded on the following day. 1485. At Oxford a pestilence, which raged for 6 weeks, almost depopu lated the colleges and city. 1555. At Oxford (October 16) Nicholas Ridley, Bp. of London, and Hugh Latimer, Bp. of Worcester, suffered martyrdom by fire in front of Baliol College. 1555-6. At Oxford (March 21) Thomas Cranmer, Abp. of Canterbury, burnt in front of Baliol. Like Ridley and Latimer, he endured his sufferings with wonderful fortitude, and extending the hand which had signed his abjuration into the flames, he held it there till it dropped off. 1566. At Oxford Queen Elizabeth sumptuously entertained. 1577. At Oxford the Black Assizes, so called from an infectious fever of which the Lord Chief Baron, the Sheriff, several Justices of the Peace, and about 300 persons, died within 40 hours. 1625, at Oxford, August 1, the first Parliament of Charles I. assembled in Christ Church Hall, having removed from London on account of the plague. 1642, in Chalgrove Field, August 15, John Hampden first appeared in arms against his King, to put the ordinance for the militia in execution.-Oxford taken possession of by Sir John Byron for the King, but he was driven from it by Lord Say and Sele, Sept. 14.-Banbury Castle, in which was a garrison of 800 foot, and a troop of horse, and Broughton Castle, Oct. 27, (four days after the battle of Edge Hill) surrendered to the King, and next day Charles entered Oxford; whence he marched to Brentford, and, after the fight there, returned with his prisoners to Oxford, Nov. 28. 1643, at Oxford, 12 Commissioners from the Parliament, of whom Algernon Percy Earl of Northumberland was the chief, waited upon the King with proposals of peace, when other terms were proposed by Charles, but after much negotiation, the treaty was broken off, April 15.-At Caversham Bridge, between this county and Berks, April 25, Ruthven Earl of Forth, with the van of Charles I.'s army, repulsed by Lord Roberts in an attempt to relieve Reading, which surrendered ou the following day to the Earl of Essex.-At Wycombe and Postcomb, detachments of the Earl of Essex's army surprised in the night of June 17, by Prince Rupert, who on his return with many prisoners, and much booty, was overtaken in Chalgrove Field on the following morning, but, after a smart skirmish, the Parliamen tarians were repulsed, when Colonel John Hampden was mortally wounded (on the very field where he first appeared in arms against his Sovereign), and Prince Rupert returned in triumph to Oxford.—August 1, the King left Oxford for Bristol, after its capture by Prince Rupert, but returned on the 16th. On the 18th he proceeded to the unsuccessful siege of Gloucester, and on Sept. 23, three days after the battle of Newbury, again returned to Oxford. 1644, at Oxford, Jan. 22, a Parliament assembled by Charles I. in Christ Church Hall. Oxford being nearly surrounded by two Parliamentarian armies, under the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller, who intended to besiege it, the King, on the night of June 3, effected his escape from thence, and proceeded to Worcester, on which the Parliamentariaus abandoned their intention of siege.-At Cropredy Bridge, June 30, an indecisive action between Charles 1. and Sir William Waller, in which Sir William Boteler aud Sir William Clarke, two loyal Kentish knights, were slain. -Banbury, under Sir William Compton, besieged by Colonel Fiennes and the Parliamentarians, who were compelled by the Earl of Northampton to raise the siege, Oct. 25.-The King returned to Oxford, Nov. 27, and appointed Colonel Legge its governor, Dec. 25. 1645, near Islip Bridge, April 24, four regiments of the Royal horse routed by Cromwell, who on the same day took Bletchingdon-house without resistance, sistance, for which its governor, Colonel Windebank, was shot at Oxford, May 3.-Oxford left by the King, May 7, and besieged by General Fairfax, May 22; but the siege raised June 7.-The King returned to Oxford, Aug. 27; on the 30th he departed for Hereford, and on Nov. 6, he again came to Oxford, where he passed his melancholy winter, all hope of success being gone. 1646, Woodstock Manor-house, after a noble defence by Capt. Samuel Fawcet, surrendered to the Parliamentarians, April 26, and on the following day the King left Oxford to surrender himself to the Scotch army besieging Newark.-Banbury Castle, after an heroic defence of 10 weeks, capitulated on honourable terms to Colonel Whalley and the Parliamentarians, May 8. -Oxford, which had been besieged by General Fairfax, from May 2, surrendered by the King's command, June 24. 1665. To Oxford, Charles II. his Queen, Court, and Parliament, moved from London on account of the plague. 1681. At Oxford, March 21, a Parliament assembled by Charles II. which proving very tumultuous, and disposed to urge the Bill of Exclusion against James Duke of York, was suddenly dissolved, March 28. 1687. At Oxford, Dr. John Hough, President of Magdalen College, afterwards Bp. of Worcester, and 26 of the fellows, expelled and declared incapable of receiving any ecclesiastical preferment by the arbitrary mandate of James II. for their firm and manly refusal to elect as President the nominee of the King. On the approach of the Prince of Orange James restored them to their situations. 1715. Oxford, Oct. 6, entered by Major General Pepper, with a troop of horse, and several friends of the Stuarts seized. EMINENT NATIVES. Allam, Andrew, divine and biographer, assisted Anthony Wood, Garsington, 1655. Berriman, William, divine, author of "Sermons," Banbury, 1688. Blandy, Mary, executed at Oxford in 1752 for poisoning her father, Henley on Thames. Blount, Martha, friend of Pope, Mapledurham. Brigham, Nicholas, lawyer and poet (died 1559). Carleton, Sir Dudley, Viscount Dorchester, statesman, Baldwin Brightwell, 1573. CARY, LUCIUS, Viscount Falkland, loyalist, Burford, 1610. Case, John, physician and philosopher, Woodstock, 1546. Catharine, daughter of Charles I. died an infant, Oxford, 1643. Cheynel, Francis, nonconformist divine, controversialist, Oxford, 1608. CHILLINGWORTH, WILLIAM, protestant champion, Oxford, 1602. Cole, Johu, botanist, Adderbury, 1626. Coley, Henry, astrologer, assistant to Lilly, Oxford, 1633. Collins, John, mathematician, Wood Eaton, 1624. Cooper, Thomas, Bp. of Winchester, author of Latin Dictionary, Oxford, 1517. Cornish, Henry, founder of a school in 1640, Chipping Norton. Croft, Herbert, Bp. of Hereford, author of "Naked Truth," Great Milton, 1603. Davenant, Charles, political economist, Oxford, 1656. DAVENANT, SIR WILLIAM, dramatist and poet laureat, Oxford, 1605. De la Field, historian of his native parish, Hasely, 1690. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, Islip (died 1065). EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE OF WALES, Woodstock, 1330. Ellwood, Thomas, quaker, friend of Milton, Cromwell, 1639. Etherege, Sir George, wit and dramatist, about 1636. Etherydge, George, physician and scholar, friend of Leland, Thame, 1534. Fiddes, Richard, biographer of Cardinal Wolsey, Oxford, 1671. Fridis wide, |