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    foundly convinced that lie is the bearer of joyful tidings to all who suffer from the ancient inconvenience of a limited command of money . Grant kirn but a trifling fulcrum , and Papyrus will undertake to move the whole commercial world . Turn a deaf ear to Crisis , and a continually recurring tightness in the money-market will vex you like an avenging plague . Shrink from the close columns of Bestrictor , and see the precious metals for ever vanishing from your empty grasp . Tell them not of Mrs .

    Macaulay ' s favourite boarding-school young lady , who can giggle at Mr . Pitt ' s notions of political economy , or sneer at poor Sir John Sinclair , or prove to you that our great historian liad a right to call John Law a dreamer and Chamberlayne " a fool , " upon the strength , of a few lessons in Mr . Marcet ' s Catechism . Your true currency theorist is determined to discover new -worlds by the sheer unassisted force of a great mind , and is generally as independent of Adam Smith , or Say , or Ricaruo , as an ancient Chaldee shepherd of Copernicus and Newton . We have been for some time in the

    habit of collecting such "books and tracts upon the subject as have come in our way , and have found it a wearisome and a melancholy task . It is capable of the easiest proof that more than one-half of the writers on the subject of the Bank Charter have no correct knowledge even of its provisions ; and a much larger proportion liave but . the vaguest idea of the functions of that institution . The Bank of their dreams is not in Threadneedle-street , London , ' but " anywhere out of the world . " Here is a gentleman who , iii the topmost of a heap of currency pamphlets at our side / tells us that liis " thoughts

    and speculations have arisen from frequent musings when the writer has been alone , in -the almost untrodden wilds of the Western World , when the silent majesty of nature lias surrounded him with an impressive , awful solitude , and . when the sublimity of the primaeval forests , " &c , &c . All these things are very absurd , but they are also very mischievous . The loose theories , raw speculations , contradictions , and eternal controversies of such writers have created in the minds of ordinary readers an impression that the currency is necessarily a subject of great mystery ' and perplexity . A notion is abroad

    that a sensible man will do well to leave such matters to idle theorists , and trouble his head only with the money which he gets and spends . But not to speak of the fact that tlxe history even of the latest times contains numerous examples of wrong and misery being inflicted upon whole nations by the roguery or ignorance of the issuers of money , which never could have been inflicted if a few simple principles had been popularly known , it is quite evident that all persons who do not live in caves and feed on roots have abstractedly as much interest in this subject as inmost of those about which we ordinarily think and . talk .

    There is , in fact , no branch of Political Economy which is better settled , or more certain in its teachings , than this one . The labours of Adam Smith , of Mr . Say , of the framers of the Bullion Report , of Lord Kine , Ricardo , Senior , Mill , and others , have completed a system of monetary science to which it may be safely said that no very im-Sortant truth can now be added . Forty years ago It . Ricardo , the shrewdest and most original of the English school of economists , apologized in his great work for repeating doctrines so well estalishcd . " Of those , " he said , " who have given their attention to sucli subjects , none but the

    prejudiced are ignorant of its true principles . " Men had indeed reason at that time to know something of these matters ; for an unwise tampering with the currency had then brought an amount of mischief and confusion into all money relations which had long gladdened the hearts of the foreign enemies of England , and was felt , every day , in every town and almost every village in tin ' s kingdom . We are convinced that it is quite possible to popularize sound knowledge on this subject . The real support of false teachers is the general ignorance . If a writer of established renut . nhoii . lil . fi

    Mr . Senior , Mr . Mao Culloch , or Lord Overstonc , would publish a short and simple exposition , or a "Handy Book" of the principles of monetary science , we cannot help tliinking that much mischievous error might easily bo dispelled . Mr . Sealy's large and imposing treatise is unfortunately not such a work , nor is its value much above the average of currency literature . It is made up of innumerable quotations from all kinds of writers and speakers , English and foreign , with comments which are mostly worthless . Mr . Sealy's acquaintance even with the facts upon which ho ventures

    to commentis frequently woefully imperfect or erroneous ; his frequent attempts to correct Adam Smith wholly unsuccessful . In contradiction to the latter authority , for instance , he contends that the effect of a seignorage is not to raise the value of coins above the value of the metal they contain :- — It is certain ( he says ) that the seignorage is paid by the person who carrier the bullion of the legal tender coin , whether silver or gold , to the Mint to be coined ,

    and the Mint or the Government gains it : the question is -whether he will be able to sell the coin to the next purchaser at the advanced price ; whether coined gold or silver being the legal tender coin to any amount will purchase an additional quantity of gold or silveT bullion beyond its weight equal to the seignorage—; tbat is the test of the theory . It will be found , I apprehend , that the person who has the bullion coined into the legal tender coin loses the amount of seignorage .

    Now this notion maybe immediately tested by the price of the precious metals in any country where a seignorage exists . Can a man in Paris buy with uncoined gold an equal weight of coined , gold of the same fineness ? Mr . Sealy , if he will ask a bullion dealer , will learn that he would have to give for every kilogramme of gold com a kilogramme of uncoined gold , and nine francs in addition . The reason is , that nine francs are the seignorage or charge for coining a kilogramme of gold at the French Mint , and it is because this seignorage must be paid for coming that the coin becomes more valuable than the gold by that amount . Even in England , although no seignorage is charged by our

    Mint , the same experiment may be tried , for the trouble of taking money to the Mint , and the slight delay and loss of interest , are found to be equal to a payment of three halfpence per ounce . Therefore , in our own market , coin is always worth more thanbullion . In fact , for every 1 . 60 ounces of coin we give not only the same weight of gold , but one sovereign in addition . One or two more points will serve to show the value of Mr . Sealy ' s labours . His advocacy of a silver standard for England is based upon the assertion that " all countries have a silver standard of

    value except -England ; " but even on this simple fact , he is , as we should hope our reader is aware , Su ite mistaken . The countries with which we have le largest commercial transactions have a gold standard . Even in France , although we express the exchanges in francs , silver was never "by law exclusively the standard , but both gold and silver , and each comes into use according to its relative Talue in the market . For some time , gold lias been the standard , as will probably henceforth always be , and every silver coin , save the smallest change , is , as all recent visitors to Prance know , rapidly disappearing . The whole of Mr . Sealy ' s speculations and confident assertions upon the French cvrrency are equally misleading . The French Louis d ' or of Adam Smith ' s time did not fiud " in . its exchange with the livres its best market . " Adam Smith was

    quite correct is stating that the price of £ 4 livres f ? xed by the Government underestimated its value , which was more than 25 livres . This is , in fact , proved by the circumstance that gold coins were at that time almost entirely out of use in France , nor were they adopted for general circulation until the recent gold discoveries , and the consequent trifling fall in tire value of that metal . It would be to little profit to proceed fiuther in showing Mr . Sealy ' s imperfect qualification for the task he has undertaken .

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    PHILIP PATERNOSTER . Philip Paternoster . A Tractarian Love Story . By an Ex-Puseyite . Two Vols . Bentiey . Tursis a clever but disappointing work . l « Yom the title the reader would naturally be led to expect some novel revelations of the inner life of Puscyism —some racy illustration of the Belgravian , scandals — something , in short , sufficiently " spicy " to take the two volumes out of the stereotyped pattern of circulating-library love stories . The author tells the render Hint his object in writing his fictitious

    biography was " soberly to note the peculiarities of a sect ; to ( ix the real character of the Anglo-Catholic system , or Tractarianism , as incipient Popery ; to view the system at work in the metropolis , with all its accessories , resources , prettinesscs , and paraphernalia ; and , finally , to show the certain fate of Tractar i an ism when subjected to the dispassionate examination of this analytical ng ^ e . " All these fine objects wo collect from the prelace . They are , however , l ) y no means realized in the performance . The author may be what ho wishes tho reader to understand he is , a converted Puseyite clergyman . He

    has displayed considerable acquaintance with the externals of Puseyism , so far as they have reached t e wondering public through the common channels of information , or as they may be seen in . operation in Pimlico , and elsewhere , and lie has also displayed a good deal of familiarity with Tractarian argon and observances ; but all this might be exhibited and performed by any clever book-maker , who , inspired by certain proceedings relating to confessional practices in the Church of England , which have of late acquired a good deal of notoriety , and being willing to take advantage of the awakened taste of the public for

    something more about the matter , has collected all the particulars accessible to industry , dished them up in a plausible form , and grafting on these materials amatory passages , in order to give the compound an aspect of .. reality , has sent them forth into the world in its present form . Now , we confess to a . little curiosity about Puseyism , Tractarianism , High Churchism , or whatever ism under which the peculiar modern manifestations of Christianity in the Protestant Church may choose to disclose itself . We should like to know the process by which the smoking-, boating , drinking :, blouse

    and wide-awake-wearing fast young men ot Oxford and Cambridge—especially Oxford—are converted into sober , saturnine , monastic-looking machines , and that , too , at a time of life when in this breathing , bustling world they may least be expected to relinquish its pomps and vanities . ms say we should like to have had exhibited before us the gradual intellectual change and the modes by which it was accomplished ; for though some may range themselves under the banner of Tractarianism , for whim or love of singularity , it is but justice to say that others adopt the change from conscientious and well-considered motives . But Peter Paternoster

    tells us little or nothing of tin ' s , throws no light on the p henomena of Puseyism , and so far 6 auses disappointment to the curious reader . Philip Paternoster comes before us at the outset as a half-fledged Buseyite , but externally exhibiting all the manifestations of a full-fledged convert , and apparently awaiting only a fair opportunity for that final leap which lands the leaper into the uncertain domain of Popery . But toe machinery which is put into action to effect this is somewhat , of the strangest , and fails precisely because it is quite too weak to effect its purpose on any but minds of very

    limited calibre . Two beautiful girls are introduced on the tapis , Hebe Walford and Henrietta Osborne , together with Herbert Osborne , brother to the latter —a kind of literary infidel . Hebe falls in love with Philip Paternoster , and Philip recriprocates the attachment—a contretemps quite against the views of the brother and sister , the gentleman haying booked himself for Hebe and the lady for Philip . After a declaration of mutual attachment , Phili p is seized with remorse of conscience for his sin , believing that , as a priest , his vow rendered the matrimonial condition incompatible with his priestly

    oihee . He deserts Ins fiancee . He is followed by the brother and sister , who , by way of revenge , plot in a novel sort of -way to drive Philip into the arms of the Romau Catholic Church . Philip falls willingly into the snare , resolves on taking the last step , but in order to increase his practical knowledge and reverence for Roman Catholic observances , he goes to Paris , frequents the churches , becomes acquainted with what he considers , to be the- true character of the priesthood , becomes disgusted ,

    renounces his purpose , returns to his deserted lady , is received as pleasantly as was the prodigal son , and all ends happily . We confess we do not like the way in which Osborne and his sister arc disposed of : the one commits suicide ; the other , after undergoing unmerited degradation , enters into a sister * hood in Paris . We have said the npvel is clever ; we nrmy go a step further , and say it shows considcmble talent , a cultivated and somewhat poetical mind , and satisfies us that the author can do better things .

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    A MONTH IN YORKSHIRE . A Month in Yorkshire . By Walter White , Author of " A Londoner's Walk to the Land ' s End , " " On Foot through Tyrol , " &c . Chapman and Hall . These are the rambles of an English pedestrian through portions of Groat Britain remote from the metropolis ; many readers will bo disposed to add from civilization also , when they havo digested these queer but characteristic traits of humble life . Flattering indications of their popularity , of a kind most congenial to tho literary mind , were of not

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    No , 435 , Jujme 24 , 1858 . ] THE LE ' A ' DB B . 717

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1858, page 717, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2252/page/21/