FOR THE PORT FOLIO-REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

And do you think there any who are influenced by this?

Oh lud! yes, sir;-the number of those, who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed. SHERIDAN'S CRITIC.

Letter to Albert Gallatin, esq. on the Doctrine of Gold and Silver, and the evils of the present Banking System, in effect and tendency. By Publicola. New York, 1815.

An appeal to the public on the conduct of the Banks in the city of New York. By a Citizen. New York, Dec. 1815.

Plan of an Improved System of the Money Concerns of the Union. By Erick Bollman, M. D. Philadelphia, January, 1816.

THESE are the only pamphlets which have appeared on the important subject of our national currency since our editorial labours commenced: a subject that is discussed with so much want of knowledge in congress, and is viewed with so much indifference by the public at large, that it becomes a double duty to treat it at some length. But reflecting men would not wish to be considered as indifferent to a state of things, on which the present and future welfare of the community so materially depends. We have no national currency-we have 200 millions in paper, and 15 millions in specie— we have 260 independant banking institutions, whose paper does not circulate, on an average, above 30 miles from the bank that issues it

-no man can leave his home and travel two days' journey without having the paper refused, with which he started-no man can come from the western country to any of our seaport towns without being obliged to suffer a loss upon his paper, to the full amount of half a profit on the goods he wishes to purchase-every body complains, nobody can find the remedy-the jarring interests and views of those who act from pure, and those who oppose them from selfish motives, seem to threaten a permanency to the disgraceful system of swindling speculation, which taints so many of our banking institutions.

So far then from complaining of the "inundation of pamphlets" on the bank question, like one of the southern representatives in the present congress, we should be glad to see the ground still more trodden, until after diligent exploring we should feel satisfied that we were travelling on a certain and safe path.

In looking over the letter to Albert Gallatin, the first thing that strikes us, is, that there are ninety-four pages of close printing, without a single marginal note, chapter, division, or breathing place: no pause, no division of subjects, no mechanical assistance to the memory, no vantage ground, from which the reader may survey the surrounding country, and calculate the amount of his gains after suffering the smooth monotony of the road he has passed.

The next general remark obtruding itself, is, that all the sentences are well rounded, and the current of composition flows on with a measured, and even course, but without producing any distinct impression, excepting that sense is sacrificed to sound, and that the author has more command of words than of ideas. His style is stately without energy, and smooth without being lucid.

Another general remark, impossible to be avoided in perusing this book, is the boyish introduction of metaphysics into the discussion of a practical question, and bringing forward to the reader's acquaintance the "gigantic minds" of Locke, Newton, Stewart, Montesquieu, Hume, Smith, and Hamilton, and giving consequence to his own "pigmy conceptions," by mounting on the shoulders of these giants: for these are the author's own expressions, and he must not complain if we should adopt them. This ostentatious display of extensive reading, of high-sounding names, and exaggerated epithets, is a common fault among youthful authors every where, and particularly in our own country.

The writer agrees (p. 5) that the diseased condition of the circulating medium is not to be ascribed to the stoppage of specie payments by the banks. This is very true. There were many channels by which money flowed out of the United States during the war, which we shall notice hereafter, but few or none by which it entered. In addition to these circumstances, the want of a general circulating medium in the country rendered it impossible for the government to collect taxes or receive loans except in the paper current at the respective places where their demands were payable. Government therefore must have become possessed of notes of almost all the banks of the Union, with which it was obliged to make payments in sections of the country where these notes had not usually circulated, and would not pass. These

were bought up at a discount, and sent on to the banks that issued them, with a demand for specie in return. Moreover, the daily decrease of specie, and the disturbance of the usual circulation by the disbursements of government during the war, was among the most operative causes of the suspension of specie payments; which does not appear to have been occasioned, in any perceptible degree, by over-issues of the banks, or want of public confidence in them.

Had there been but one national bank in the United States, whose paper should be the foundation of all other bank issues, a suspension of specie payments might have been avoided. But under existing circumstances, the banks were compelled into the measure; and the blame must be imputed to the want of knowledge and energy in congress which permitted this state of things, rather than any want of confidence in the public, as to the solvency of the banks whose notes were in circulation.

Neither could the banks since, with any prudence, have called in their paper, so as to enable them to pay specie: such a reduction of their paper issues would have occasioned intolerable distress among their customers, and would have injured the credit of the banks as much as the credit of the trading public. Nor can specie payments be resumed, till the quantity of specie in the country be increased by commerce with those countries which supply it. These ideas however do not seem to have been contemplated by this author with any steady view: he speaks of the conduct of the banks with timidity: the subject is difficult-some are of one opinion, some of another-much may be said on both sides, and we are left in the same state of uncertainty in which he finds us; an uncertainty, not diminished by the strange difficulties he throws in the way, which would not easily have occurred to any other writer.

For instance, to probe this evil to the root (p. 7) we must inquire why banks possess the power of "suspending specie payments, and by what means they can with impunity wield that power, and overstep their charted rights. To determine the ultimate causes of depreciation, and the scarcity of specie, we must analyse doctrines the most intricate in the range of political economy.” He then goes on to enumerate those intricate doctrines, and brings

in review the writers already mentioned, whose opinions, as he says, were divided on this subject. This really appears somewhat like an elaborate inquiry, why a man, who is walking, possesses the power of standing still.

The author proceeds (p. 8) to investigate the divisions and the properties of mind and of matter as connected with this subject. Of mind, as divided into the social intellect and the warlike intellect: of matter, as divided into population and physical power; money being a part of this last division; and then follow some common-place remarks from Montesquieu, Hume, Stewart, William Pitt, and colonel Hamilton, apparently, as it should seem, to prove that if a man buys more than he sells, the balance of dealing will be against him. This position that reminds us of another great man, lord Monboddo, who in his "ancient metaphysics" tells us, that when a man opines, he opines something, and therefore the subject of an opinion is not nothing. But like a careful nurse, afraid of venturing his baby opinion into the world alone, he gives the management of the leading strings to Aristotle, and some other wiseacres among the ancient Greeks, under whose authority he shelters himself, like Teucer behind the shield of Ajax.

At page 13, we came to a passage of such profound and hidden meaning, that it strongly reminded us of the lucubrations of the teutonic theosopher, Jacob Behmen, the expositor of mystico-metaphysic theology. We transcribe it faithfully: "But although the natural state of things is impeded, it incessantly gravitates. Every thing'commercial, is constantly tending to its natural station, to its intrinsic level; and the tendency is most rapid and uniform, when social intellect is least cramped. The United States form an unparalleled illustration; and the gigantic expansion of Great Britain affords another, though in a minor ratio. Hence that nation in which social intellect and population are most expanded, physical capacity most improved, and gold and silver most abundant, has approached most nearly to its actual station, and possesses the least comparative expansibility; and vice versa.”

This may be a result and a specimen of extensive knowledge and profound research, like one of Hoyle's games of whist, or one of Dr. Vince's mathematical papers: to us, however, whose intellects are not commensurate with the depth of these observations.

and who are at a loss to conceive how any thing can approach to its actual station, they seemed perfectly enigmatical; and reminded us most forcibly of the plays of our childhood, when we inquired, “riddle my riddle my ree; I pray you unriddle what this may be."

This author has yet to learn, that to trace and discuss a subjeat through its remotest causes and minutest ramifications, is as useless as it would be endless; for in this world, all things are connected. In truth, there is seldom occasion for such a farrago of hard words as Publicola delights in, or for new fangled doctrines, and numerous quotations of ill-digested passages from authors of repute, who could not have foreseen the existence or the causes of the present state of things. If a man's head be fractured by a heavy blow with a club, and colonel Hamilton were asked why is this man dead, he would answer because his scull has been fractured by a heavy blow, and the world would understand him. Not so Publicola: he would be aware of the difficulties involved in the question: he would inquire why the man was knocked downwhen he was knocked down-what wood the club was made ofwhether he rose again after being knocked down-what were the symptoms of his death-with a discussion of the doctrines of weight, velocity, and momentum, and the anatomical structure of the parts that suffered lesion-this might lead to the more important inquiries as to the social intellect, the warlike intellect, intellectual expansibility, and Dr. Gall's craniography, with the sentiments of all the gigantic minds who have treated these abstruse investigations. This indeed might serve for an illustration of the old remark, that the longest way about is the shortest road home, but his readers would hardly thank him for the labour taken by himself or imposed upon them.

These remarks were suggested by the perusal of p. 47, among other passages liable to similar animadversion: here, after stating the remedies which he recommends for this national disease, viz. the erecting a specie bank of 30 millions, and a loan office for loans on improved estates, he proceeds to discuss the doctrine of interest. This he makes to depend on the play of affinities of his favourite elements, social intellect, warlike intellect, population, physical capacity, and particularly money: to which he joins stable govern