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Leader (1850-1860), 5th November 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 21, All the Year Hound; a Weekly Journal. Co...

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      Works Of Francis Bacon. Collected And Ed...

      These italicised phrases fully bear out the critic ' s proposition , that " Bacon had all the natural faculties which a poet wants : a fine ear for metre , a fine feeling for imaginative effect in words , and a vein of poetic passion . " In further illustra , tion , the following is quoted : — ' Thou carriest man & way aa with a tide ; , . . Sf doZm sivim all his tlvoughts that mounted high ; Much like a mocltfng dream , that , will not mac , But flies before the sight of wakingr eye ; Or as the grass , that cannot term obtain To see the summer come about again .

      "The thought , " says the able editor , " in the second line could not well be fitted with imagery , words and rhythm more apt and imaginative ; and there is a tenderness of expression in the concluding couplet which comes manifestly out of a heart in sensitive sympathy with nature , and fully capable of the poet ' s faith—That every flower Enjoys the air it breathes . In the opening of the 104 th Psalm he quotes also some heroic couplets which he thinks quite equal to Dryden . They are , indeed , grand samples of

      finished versification . Still finer , however , is Bacon ' s 7 ras w £ ia of a Greek epigram , attributed to Poseidippus , ' Plato the comic poet , and to Crato the cynic . On the basis of the epigram the parodist has , in fact , raised another and a better poem , and treated it in a very different manner . Herein may be found both " special felicity in tlie expression , " and " music in tlie metre , " with " a tone of plaintive melody , which is chiefly due to the metrical arrangement . " Here , too , we may add , are some Shaksperian lines ; e . g . — ¦

      " Who then to frail mortality shall trust , But limn * the water , or but writes in dust . " " What is it then to hare or have no wife , But single thraldom ^ or a double . strife ?" In others of these versions , similar beauties may be detected , such as— ~ " { Before the hills rfkl intercept the eye , Or that the frame was up of earthly stage , One God thou wert , and art , and still shall be ; The line of Time , it doth not measure thee . " "Or as a watch by nig-ht , that course doth keep . And goes , ami comes , uniuares to them that sleep . " ^ Ls a tale told , which sometimes men attend , And sometimes not , our life steals to an end . "

      This will suffice at least , to reinstate Lord Bacon ' s character as a poet , if it do no more . The contributions to this volume are both numerous and important . The reader will expect something of a list . It includes the " Advertisement touching a Holy War , " " The True Greatness of Britain , " " Colours of Good and Evil , " " Letter and Discourse to Sir Henry Savill , touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers" " Short Notes for

      Civil Conversation , " " Apophthegms , " " Promusof Formularies and Elegancies , " " Religious Writings , Prayers , Meditations , " & c , " Christian Paradoxes , " and of course the versions of the Psalms on which we have commented . The remainder of the volume consists of professional works , which are accompanied with a general preface , which is most ably written . A complete index concludes the volume—the merit of which , whether as regards the matter or the manner , is not easily to be paralleled .

      No. 502. Nov. 5, 185q.I The Le Ader; 123...

      No . 502 . Nov . 5 , 185 Q . I THE LE ADER ; 1233

      All The Year Hound; A Weekly Journal. Co...

      All the Year Hound ; a Weekly Journal . Conducted by Churles Dickens . Vol . I . Offices U , Wellington-street north . , M Awl thic YjsAU . round " is too wejl known to require any recommendation from us , and criticism would be out of place in our pages . The work is , wo think , more varied in its ; character tliau its predecessor , though managed on tlie aaruo plan , tho articles written in tho same style—hut often of a more public kind—such rta the article on the

      i- e * - ' ~ y f ' Note-book" are principally derived from observations in the families where the writer tia 3 been the doctor : " of course the real names of persons are withheld . " If the author is not a better " man of medicine " than he is a writer he is certainly not very clever . The physician should bear in mind the old saying , that " every cobbler should stick to his last . "

      " Franklin Expedition" nnd " The Great Eastern Steamship ;' " while the form is oxnotly the aarae as that of Household Words . Besides many—tho very many exquisite sketches nnd stories—nearly three hundred in all—by tho light infantry of our literature , tho present volume contains " Tho Talc pf the Two Cities , " a work of a different kind from any of Mr . Dickens' previous works , and of which we shall rosorve our remarks till it is completed , Trhioh we see will bo next month . Health , long life ,

      and prosperity to ouv contemporary ! My NotO'booh ; or Sayinqit and Doings oj a Miysioiau . —Sampson Low and , Co . Tun writer of , " My Noto-book " unites tlie clergyman wlth ' tho physician . Finding that many pf I he ills of his patients had boon brought about by their intemperance or other ungodly habits , hohna undertaken to show thorn that to bo woll in body Is noauly Always to 'be st » od in mind . Tho lectures if \ VMy

      Commercial. -^ ?—

      COMMERCIAL . - ^ ?—

      Bank Notes For India. It Is Not Strange ...

      BANK NOTES FOR INDIA . IT is not strange that currency questions will continually force themselves on public atten tion . The universal instrument of exchange the measure of the chief services which man ren ders to man—must always have a great interest for all classes : and Governments continually find after they have settled such questions for ever that they surge up again and again for renewed discussion and additional legislation . Just now we learn by the last arrivals from the East , that the authorities of Japan , in order to fleece the Europeans , or buy cheaply . from them , have re-, _

      duced the quantity of silver in the dollar to onethird ; or , which is equivalent , have issued a new coin which , being in exchange nominally a dollar , contains only one-third as much precious metal as a dollar . The government there , which seems like an old feudal one , has revived the practice of the barbarous ages , of Europe , and cheats by law . Just now , apropos of new financial measures for India , we find the advantages of bank-notes over coins elaborately set forth , so far as the liability to tion I ~ . ' g r

      falsification is concerned , in the weekly publica which is still the organ of the Finance Minister for India ; and the use of paper money in that country recommended . The Economist , however , acquiesces in the prohibition to use small notes in England , because the public feeling is opposed to the ° use , while it says we need have no fear that _ a paper currency will be vitiated by fraud in India . On the one hand , then , we have brought distinctly under our notice the liability of a coinao-e under the control of a Government to be a r f . ^ t "

      debased , and on the other the advantages , of the modern invention of paper currency as a very efficient guard against fraud . We have , at the same time , the wretched infirmity of our public men distinctly set before us , who continually acquiesce in what they avow to be wrong because the public , which they pretend to guide and govern , prefers , as they say , often calumniously , the wrong to the right . ' We may do a little service to the public by now briefly reminding it of the difference betwixt coin and paper representing coin as the instrument of exchange , and explaining why the pro-¦» n a / I j-. v-i-t .-il I » -n-w- # - /* a oi */ k -for 1 i * QQ f \(\ n lif" . f */ l f ; r \ . ITinifl-WfctJ % ww—— ———— j e I I C " I [ . ' h *

      [ / UDV ^ . 1 £ 3 ******* H \ JV \ S & * V * V ** V * * , ' .-v ^ . wj-r . w . where they are probably to bo introduced , than to England , wliere they are prohibited . The precious metals a re as universally recommended to man by their intrinsic qualities , as the instruments of the barter which grows from the natural division of' employmentsas water for his drink . The chief qualities which recommend them are their comparative unchangeableness , their homogeneity and uniformity , and I ^ ieir great v alue in small bulk . All these , and particularly the latter , depend on their weight or gravity—that great principle which keeps t-he whole universe , as well as the exchanges of insect inan in order . All that is really I ) I i i , , P ,

      necessary to bb done iu coining them is to divide tho precious metals in distinct ,, portions of some definite and well-known weiglit , and mark that weight on them . Governments have gradually usurped this especial business , and made it a crime for other poople to coin money Of this usurpation they took advantage , and ovorywhero most scandalously vitiated this great instrument of mutual service , b y falsely certifying the weight and value of coins , and .

      more striking of the incompeteney of Govemments than the injurious mariner in which they have dealt with coinage—a matter which , as long as they are honest , Is one of simple arithmetic . To them and their falsifications and complications of the currency were due all those evils of false coinage which , from the days of William III . almost to the reign of George IV ., sent troops of men and women to the gallows , and were , in the face of Europe , the scandal of England . In process of time paper promises to pay natural confidence which

      - — - , , , money , founded on the man must have in man , came almost universally ii into use . They are known amongst the Mongols , and were known at a very early period In _ I Europe , and are now in use all over Europe anc in America . The sum which they may promise " to pay is of very little consequence , whether I 113 , 001 grains of fine gold or 120 grains , when ' that amount is settled and known as a customary A coin to the people . Thus the use , in modern times , of paper money has lessened and obviated . 1 much of the prodigious inconveniences of having

      p coins of such equivocal weight and relations aa

      ours . . . . Another advantage of paper-money is , that it is much less difficult to issue false coin than forge bank notes . Accordingly it is a fact that while-the prosecutions for forgery of Bank of England notes was only thirty-three in 1858 , the number of prosecutions for false coining and uttering was 716 . A similar proportion is observable throughout the last ten years . But the reason assigned by our contemporary , and we think the just reason , for bank note 3 not being forged is , that they are continually sent back to the issuer , and are almost immediately detected . AH the bankers who issue notes have a strong interest in counteracting forgery , and there is nothing which they " would go to a greater expense " to prevent . It is sure , therefore , to be unprofitable .

      But such a reason does not apply to any Government issue of bank notes of any forced circulation of notes , such as the Governments of the continent have established , but only to the issues of notes by private bankers . Accordingly , it is found—and this is very important , both as to our legislation prohibiting the use of small notes in England and ' proposing it for India—that since 1 S 50 there has not been one prosecution for forging notes in Scotland , where the bulk of the circulation is one-pound notes , issued by private banks ; while between that period and the end of 1858 , there have been 190 prosecutions for forging Bank of England notes . The Bank of England is very cautious to cancel all notes that go back to it ; but beinjr a privileged national organ , issuing

      legal tender which all are obliged to accept , it is not liable to have them sent back so rapidly as private and competing banks send their notes back to one another ; and , therefore , Bank of England notes v are forged to a considerable extent , while bank notes in Scotland are now never forged . The new Minister of Finance for India docs not propose , wo believe , to allow all tho baboos of Calcutta and Bombay , who chose to set up a bunk to issue super notes ; biit while neither he nor any other person can doubt the utility of paper currency in India it seems inherent in the . adian Government , that it should keep the issue of such notes in its own lands . A plan , therefore , for Government to issue or sanction the issue of notes by somp oho B ; uik of India will want the one great safeguard against forgery winch belomrs to the issue of paper promises to pay by

      . private bankers . Thoy will not bo exactly , what they ouglit to bo , but they will bo a step m the I right direction , leading to further improvement . I A more philosophical and natural course would bo to allow gold" to be used as money , and for . the I Gove rnment to take it and issue it at its market i value in relation to silver . Then to allow bunkers , if they pleased , to issue any notes they liked ; ana as there would bo no Bank of England monopoly and

      to stand in the way of freedom , no legal tender notes declared to bo actual payments whon thoy aro only proinisos to pay , thore does not seem to bo any objection to froa banking in India , and to tlie freest issue of any notes tho bunkers please . A free trade iu money—though this is not tho doctrine of some eminent free traders in oorn—i » tho great instrument of all exchange- — will undoubtedly help forward the prosperity of India , and make it patient under the additional taxation now to bo imposed on it .

      inflioted thereby on society , through many years , more miseries than famine or plague . They adopted false measures— " an abomination in the sight of the Lord . " Their duty was perfectly simple and plain , it romnins perfectly simple and plain ; but , as we montionecl a fortnight ago , our Government now . performs it in tho , most moonvoniont and disgraceful manner , by making its unit of value of . the extraordinary weight of 118 , 001 grains of , fine gold . In the whole co / nj nSB , o , f . ij . uifunq , busincsa > ye , k j > 6 w ., np , iUusfcwtwn .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 5, 1859, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05111859/page/21/