universal equivalents, and of which coins are made; namely, gold, silver, and copper. But copper, though most used, and most useful, in small payments for the internal traffic of a nation, is not acceptable to foreigners, and therefore has not obfained sufficient consideration as a legal tender. Silver has been until lately the principal money of all commercial states; but as both that and gold are universally acceptable, and the mines are more productive of silver than gold, the latter has become the superior metal, and hence has arisen a question as to their relative value. On this subject much discussion has taken place, and endeavours have been made to fix a standard between them; but how can that be fixed by art, which is ever varying in nature? The mines themselves vary sometimes in the quantities produced, and nations vary at different times in the quantities they possess. Kiugs may, and ought to establish a relative price between the coins made of each metal; but their relative value is fixed by the dispensations of Providence alone. Should the silver mines become less, and the gold mines productive, then relative value must change, and silver might become the superior metal. The only way that nations can take is to abide by the standard prices they first fix upon, and leave commerce, by the exchange of the two metals, to adjust their value; it will be time enough for particular Governments to interfere, when general acceptance may, by reason of plenty or scarcity, have taken another bias:-if nature or dains a change, Governments will be forced to comply. However, there is not much to be apprehended on this score; for centuries have passed away, and no very material change has taken place in the production of the mines. The gold and silver coinage of some nations is as fourteen to one; of some, as sixteen to one; and of others (the greater part) as fifteen to one, which seems to be about the average. Those countries which have fourteen to one, must expect to receive their foreign debts in silver; while those of sixteen to one will be paid in gold; and thus are the metals always tending toward a common equilibrium. A little more than fifty years ago, the relative value of silver to gold was as nine to one in China:

consequently silver was continually travelling from Europe and South America to Asia, till, at length, the proportion has become nearly the

same.

In the present state of the world,' when commerce is so much extended, circumstances may occur, in which a nation may not only fabricate her own national coins, but also find it convenient to imitate those of far' distant nations, in order to tempt them into some particular branch of commerce. Thus the rude pagoda of the Indians, might be made in the same mint that has produced the most exquisite specimens of European coinage, and where it is done with fidelity, no evil can arise from it, though it ought to be prohibited to be done by individuals with as much caution as is used in national currency. It was said in France that during the last Bonapartean war,

a

vast quantity of twenty franc pieces, with the head of Louis the Eighteenth, was coined in England, in order to procure sustenance for the troops then serving in countries where that coin circulated, and to the ho nour of Great Britain, they were found to be equally valuable in weight and purity, and are now equally acceptable eveu in France itself. However, an example such as this, points out to all nations the absolute necessity of making and preserving their currency to the full amount of its se veral denominations for, if their currency is depreciated, foreigners will either pay them their debts in their own depreciated coins, or forge am imitation of them; in each case the debt will be discharged at a loss to the native and gain to the foreigner.

Nations who had heretofore accumulated large quantities of coin, may, by reason of a great dearth of bread corn in their own land, or in support of a foreign war, be compelled to spend the whole of their coinage, and thus be reduced to the necessity of substituting an artificial currency; and the promise to pay must, for a time, supply the place of actual payment. When thus reduced, nothing but time can restore to the people their antient standard; they can reobtain it only by the same means by which it was originally gained 3— if the nation has mines of its own, it must wait the supply that the mines

afford.

afford-if their war should be successful, they may recover a part of their expenditure; if they are a mercantile people, they may re-establish another coinage by the profits of commerce, and must wait for its operations, which, though slow, are certain; for commerce must inevitably obtain bullion,and consequently coins; and these will be retained by the people, if famine or war does not make a new draught. The balance of trade must always be in favour of a trading people, because they import more than they export; for goods will not be sent if they cannot pay for them, and they cannot pay for them, unless they have obtained money by former exports. A LOMBARD.

of our antient English Authors (as well those who disperse their thoughts in lofty rhime as in humble prose) I have acquired a partiality for antiquated words and phrases; and perhaps (as a direct consequence), some degree of astonishment that other Readers either do not understand, or do not relish the use of them as I do-and I was particularly struck on finding, by a late perusal of the Utopia (edited by the learned and agreeable bibliomaniac Dibdin), that even this deep-read Antiquary has been sometimes thrown out in his conjectures; and that, in places where I thought there was little difficulty either in the passages themselves, or in supporting and illustrating them by examples of frequent use amongst contemporary authors; not that I have in every case of doubt been able to find a corresponding or even synonimous word, or have at all times discovered the precise meaning of the word or phrase made use of. But I have been surprized, as well with respect to some of the words observed upon by Mr. Dibdin, as by others, that the frequent usage of the same word has not familiarized it to them.

To begin with the second volume of Mr. Dibdin, p. 5. In his note upon the word "jeopardous", used by Sir Thomas More as an adjective, he says, that such use of it is of rare occurrence among our old Authors. Now, I not only find the same adjective admitted into Bailey's and Ash's Dic

tionaries, and used in other places by Sir Thomas More (vide his General Works, p. 1403.) but I find the same adjective jeopardous, as likewise the adjective jeopardless, and the verb jeopard in the following places (and in many others infinitely too numerous to be set down), vide Erasmus's Paraphrase on the Testament, 1 Corinthians 18, 21, and 22 (reverse of each page). The Bishop's and Cranmer's Bibles are quite full of those words; but see only 5 Judges, v. 18. 3 Daniel, v. 28. 13 John, v. 37 and 38. 15 Acts, v. 26, and 27 Acts, v. 9.

"The waye of

Honestie is uneasie, painfull jeoperdouse," &c. is in Taverner's Adagies of Erasmus (1569.) "Jeoparte his person for to slee the Kynge" is in Lydgate's Bochas (1558), p. 43.

Page 6. Here I agree that the word "translating" is now rarely used in the sense of removing or taking away (the translating of a Bishop from one See to another excepted), but I must refer your Readers to Bailey and Ash; and to the following passages, "The portion of my people is translated;" vide Bishop's Bible, Micheas 2. v. 4. "Because of unryghteous dealing a realme shall be translated," &c. Ditto 10. Son of Sirach, 8. The bones of our father shoulde be translated out of their places." Do. 2 Baruch 24. "He translateth the mountains or ever they be ware," Do. 9 Job. 5. And "Covetousnesse will translate the hearts of men to infidelitie," is in Fenton's Christian Policy, 1574.

Page 11. The word Pullein or Pullen will be found in the Life of Esope, B.L. "He bought capons and many other pullen." Vide also Bailey and Ash.

Page 16. The word "skills" was in more common use than Mr. Dibdin supposes. "Jesus did make plain the things which he spoken for two skills," &c. Vide Erasmus's Paraphrase, 10 John, v. 71, 72. "It is little force to thee-it skills thee nothing." Vide Fisher on the seven penitential Psalmes (1555), sheet N. 4.

"It skills not whether you din'd or no." Gull's Hornbook, by Decker. "It skills not if the four knaves lie on their backs." Gull's Hornbook. "It skills not greatly who impugns our doom." Shakspeare's Henry VI. Part II.

The word "Knowledge" is used as a verb-active in the same sense as acknowledge in many of the early translations of the Bible, viz. Coverdale's, Cranmer's, the Bishop's, Taverner's, and Matthew's, and even by Wicliff in his Testament (1380). It was in such common use in early days that the accession of the syllable "ac" seems almost unnecessary. It is in Coverdale's Translation of Erasmus, in Musculus's Common Places, in Bishop Fisher's Sermons, in Becon's Sermons, in Marbeck's Notes, and in the Golden Legend.

Page 39. I think that both Johnson and Bailey give us the illustration of the word swing as here used-"The power of money is no other than the unrestrained tendency of it," &c. Vide Johnson's fifth illustration.

Page 46. I do not think that the mode of expression-he dotes for age —very uncommon. The word for, in the sense of because, is explained by Mr. Dibdin himself in the preceding page; and Addison is quoted both by Johnson and Bailey in the first example, “An old woman begins to dote," &c.

Page 66. Johnson is certainly mistaken when he asserts that wain is a contraction of waggon. Both the words are genuine Saxon, and I should contend that wain is the older, and is still a prevailing provincial word. What is more antient in English astronomy than Charles's wain?" He maketh the waynes of Heaven." 9 Job 9. Bishop's Bible. See also Magna Charta, Hen. 3. Article 15. Blackstone's edition, “ Villanus eodem modo amercietur salvo waynnagio suo si inciderit in misericordiam nostram;" thus translated by Rastell, &c. "any others villain than ours, shall be likewise amerced, saving his wainage, if he fall into our mercy."

Page 141. Recklessness is Saxon for carelessness and not for rashness. Vide the Articles of the Church. See also Ash and Bailey, and an bundred Divines.

Page 167. Wiped, in the sense here put, is not an expression peculiar to

master Raphe Robinson. You will find it both in Ash and Johnson, ren dered-to cheat, to defraud, and it is so used in the second volume of Erasmus's Paraphrase. St. James, fol. 26. "If Fortune blow backwarde, he shall ether bee wyped be sydes all his goods, and be banished to goe on begging," &c. Bailey quotes it (in the same sense) from Spenser.

Page 169. The usage of the verb "to crack," (to boast or vapour) is by no means peculiar to Robinson. Every Divine, from Latimer and Hooper to Beveridge and Tillotson, uses it in the same sense. In the controversy between Bishop Jewell and Harding, it is many times repeated. Sir Thomas More uses it in other parts of his works; and Shakspeare, more than once or twice, "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears," King John. See also the Bishop's Bible, 51 Jer. 55, “and made great crakes with your words.” Yours, &c.

OBSERVATOR.

1 Evening Lectures, signed "A Member of the Church of England." I have, for a great length of time, felt deeply interested in the vast importance of the more general adoption of this measure; and cannot but deplore in common with many others, the consequences that have resulted from the long-acknowledged want of it; being confident that the numbers who dissent from the Church, whether upon the plea of doctrine or discipline(but more particularly the latter), have been greatly increased by this deficiency in the service of the Established Church. Your Correspondent has related the gratifying effects of an Evening Lecture, in a place which he has lately visited. With your leave I will take another course, and briefly observe upon the state of the city wherein I live, and where, I am sorry to say, there is no such practice. With fourteen parish churches, and two chapels for Dissenters, the place is tolerably well supplied with accommodations for the population, which is about 12,000 persons. At nearly all the churches the morning service is regularly read,

is a on the N your last Volume, Part II. p.493,

and

and a sermon preached every Sunday. At ten of them the evening service is read between the hours of two and four o'clock in the afternoon, mostly without the addition of a sermon; and only at two churches are there Lectures, which are preached at four o'clock in the afternoon; and though well attended, would, I have no doubt, attract a much greater congregation, if the service began at six or half-past six o'clock. At both the Dissenting Chapels (which toge gether are capable of containing 2000 persons), there is worship in the morning, afternoon, and evening; and though one of the Chapels has been rebuilt lately, and the other considerably enlarged, they are in the evening crowded exceedingly.

The inhabitants of several of the parishes, have endeavoured, without success, to obtain the establishment of an Evening Lecture in their Churches many of the objections mentioned by your Correspondent have been urged," the expense of lighting," ""the danger of imitating the Methodists," and "the possibility of affording greater facilities to youth in forming improper connexions," with other equally frivolous and unimportant objections, have in most cases silenced the application. The result is, that many hundreds of young persons in this place are left to idle away the precious hours of the Lord's Day in loitering to and fro in the streets, or employing their time in a manner infinitely more dangerous to their morals.

If, Mr. Urban, this was the state of one place only, there would be much to regret; but when we know the same may be said of almost every village, and by far too many towns in the kingdom, when the sublime service which our ancestors in their wis dom designed for the evening, is read so early in the afternoon, as to be almost a continuation of the morning service; when these things, I say, are almost general, some new regulation does indeed seem to be necessary. In answer to one objection alleged by your Correspondent, "that the Service of the day is sufficiently fatiguing, without additional or super fluous duty," I would ask, why not read the Evening Service in the evening, instead of the afternoon And then, with the addition of a sermon,

you have all that constitutes what is commonly called an Evening Lecture. If any pious Clergyman (and of such, I trust, our venerable Establishment can boast, and proudly boast, of many) would make trial of this alteration, an extended audience would soon satisfy him that he had conferred a real blessing on his flock; and a perseverance in so excellent a practice would ensure to his Church a still increasing, rather than a diminishing congregation.

Should your Correspondent be in clined to favour us with some further remarks, I hope he will convey them in a spirit that will better beseem " A Member of the Church of England;" and that he will not again apply to the teachers of those who differ from us, the epithet of "Religious Mountebanks.” Such language as this is neither becoming in a Churchman nor a Christian, and more especially when indiscriminately applied to a class of men, amongst whom, he can. not deny, are to be found many eminent for their piety and virtue.

A LAYMAN, AND A MEMBER OF
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Mr. URBAN, Somers' Town, Jun. 9.
N your last Volume, Part ii. p.488,

J. G. refers to the account of the late Queen's journey from Harwich to London, on her Majesty's first landing in this country, as given by Dr. Watkins. Some of the circumstances of this journey are yet fresh in my memory. I was at that period at Tolleshunt Darcey, within a few miles of Colchester; and with other boys strongly invited by our friends to see the fine sight of a new Queen passing through that town. Doubtless, the route of the Princess, with all the particulars, is to be found in your pages; but the reason of her being taken to spend the night at Witham, in the house of Lord Abercorn, although unprepared, and as 1 recollect, in the absence of his Lordship, was obviously the more equal division of the journey, which would indeed have been considerably broken by another stage as far as Chelmsford. The Princess's first stage was to Colchester, where she took some refreshment at the house of Mr. Enneu, the then town clerk, and where Mr. Great, the grocer, a descendant of either a high or low Dutch family of

the

the name of Von Grot, long settled in Colchester, had the honour of presenting her Highness, on his knees, with a box of candied Bringoe roots, one of the staple articles of that antient town. To proceed with my gossip, Mr. Urban, the late respectable Dr. Clubbe of Ipswich, sou of the Rev. Mr. Clubbe, author of the " Antiquities of Wheatfield," in turning over the pages of which, you and I have had a laugh in days long past, served his apprenticeship to the brother of this Mr. Great, who was an apothecary. Much about the time of which 1 speak, Mrs. Enneu sustained a loss of that kind, very ill relished by those who are fond of good eating-she had all her turkies stolen, and that, as was guessed, by no ordinary professional thief.

I have mentioned Tollesbunt Darcey :—in the adjoining parish church, Tolleshunt Knights, about the year 1761, I saw, as I recollect, in the Nurth wall, a very antient monument of soft stone. Upon this tomb reclined at length a knight armed cap-a-pić, with two figures at his feet, traditionally said to be his two spaid bitches. As the story went, this knight aided by his two spaid bitches, waged a furious combat with his holiness the Devil, on a certain dispute as to the future site of a house called Barn Hall; the Devil insisting that it should not stand where the building was commenced, and in consequence, pulling all down by night which had been reared by day. Though the knight fought bravely, he does not appear to have been equally tam Mercurio quam Marti; for, making an unpardonable blunder in certain responses, which, by the laws of the combat, he was necessitated to make, the subtle Devil vanquished, and declared he would have him, whether he were buried by sea or by land, in church or churchyard: and so, in order to outwit the Devil, he was buried in the church wall. Now, as I have not been at Tolleshunt Knights from that time to the present, I wish much to know whether the knight lies snug and safe in the church wall still.

Seriously, I should be glad to be informed by any of your Correspondents in that part of Essex, whether this antient monument, which was in tolerable good preservation, although

It was a custom among the Lycians, that, during the period of mourning for a deceased relative, the men should wear the feminine dress, in order that the shame of appearing in that unmanly garb might the sooner induce them to lay it aside, and, together with it, their unavailing regret.Lib. 2, 6, 13.

In the year 501 (U. C.*) the Consul C. Cotta, having occasion to absent himself from his army while engaged in a siege, appointed an officer, a near relative of his own, as temporary commander in his stead. During his absence, the besieged made

*(U. C.)-Although, to the Classical Reader, this needs no explanation, it may be proper to apprise the English Reader, that the numbers accompanying the (U.C.) are the dates of the years from the foundation of Rome, which I shall, henceforward, thus briefly mark, in particular cases, where the dates may be of importance in estimating the manners and customs of different ages. a fu rious