nance, in the expression of which suspicion and pride were blended, "I did not think you were so observant, Emily!"

"Dear father, forgive me if I have offended you. If you had not taught me to love you as I have loved you, I might be less anxious about your happiness.

"Pshaw, my daughter, this is nonsense," he replied, while the gloom melted from his brow and a faint smile brightened his features. "If I was ill, it is over now that the heat and excitement of this business are past. These parties are a terrible infliction."

"They are, indeed," responded Emily-"aimless, fruitless, and without result, except in the extravagance and mental dissipation which they bring."

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Extravagance, indeed, my daughter, most ruinous extravagance; and you know in what trying times we are living. Should we fall, Emily, who would yield us respect and sympathy after such scenes?"

"All, I trust, whose sympathy is of any value, all whose respect is a gift worth possessing." The earnest, beautiful simplicity of her manner convinced Colonel Beers that the heart of his daughter prompted the sentiment which her lips uttered.

"We may have occasion to test the truth of what you say, Emily," he replied quickly and almost unconsciously, while his glance strayed for a moment from her features.

"Nay, father, I trust not."

"Trust in nothing but in heaven," he added with emotion, yet with bitterness. "You, Emily, have some share of sense remaining, and it is well that at this time we have met and alone, for I feel that the revelation ought to be made; but to your mother or your sister I cannot bring myself to speak of it. My daughter, I am standing on the brink of an abyss, and I scarcely know how to avert the ruinous stroke that threatens to overthrow me." He ceased to speak, for his proud, strong heart was struggling with his feelings; it prevailed, and he preserved his calmness. Never were the gentle sustaining influences of true womanly character exerted to better effect than in that midnight interview. For a moment, in the manner, the tone, the involuntary exclamation of his daughter, there was something that told how hard it is for even the purest and most unselfish Christian mind, to receive with composure tidings like these. The struggle while it lasted was exquisitely painful, but it was brief. Pride, fear, and the sudden dread of poverty, more appalling because unknown before, gave way before the Christian resolution, the high and glorious energy of the woman, who felt that for others' sake, even while she suffered, she must be strong.

We would not rudely lift the veil from the privacies of a scene alike trying and alike blessed to the father and his child. But there were knees then bent for prayer which had seldom bent before; and when Colonel Beers kissed his daughter's cheek, and blessed her, his heart was as the heart of a child within him.

ART. IX.-A MANUAL OF GOLD AND SILVER COINS.

Of late years the subject of currency and coins has been of great interest to all classes of the community, arising mostly from the disastrous results, in a commercial point of view, that have attended the transition from a highly inflated paper currency to one approximating a specie basis. A consequence of the universal and almost exclusive use of bank emissions as a currency has been a means of preventing the community from becoming familiarized with the character, nature, and distinctive marks of coins, even those of our own country. Those of foreign countries, owing to their great distance, have not found our shores except in masses in the hands of large merchants. This state of affairs has of late undergone a change. The application of steam to ocean navigation has brought us more directly into communication with the markets of Europe, and the financial revolution which has rolled over the commercial world since 1837, has nearly crushed the banking system in this country, and is still in force. Many of the states are without banking institutions. With a population of 17,000,000, there is now less paper in circulation than in 1830, when the population was 12,000,000. The productive wealth of the country is now immensely greater than ever; but the paper system has received so severe a blow, that in all probability the future necessary increase in the circulating medium must consist of coined money. The difficulty attending this is the want of experience on the part of the public in the use of coins. At this opportune moment a work has made its appearance calculated to impart the experience of ages, and the skill of the most eminent men, in the minutest details, to every individual. We allude to "The Manual of Gold and Silver Coins" of all nations, struck within the past century; showing their history and legal basis, and their actual weight, fineness, and value, chiefly from original and recent assays. This work is the re

sult of the combined labors of Messrs. Jacob R. Eckfeldt and William E. Dubois, assayers of the Mint of the United States, and is invaluable to dealers in money as well as in money's worth. The introduction of the work will give the best idea of its character, as follows:

"A new book of coins seems to be required by the commercial world about once in twenty years. In 1806, the Traité des Monnaies' of M. Bonneville appeared, and perfected the science of real moneys to that date. When the second and improved edition of Dr. Kelley's Universal Cambist' was published (in 1821,) although based in part upon the great standard just referred to, it had numerous alterations to supply; new nations had sprung into existence, old ones had been blotted out, the whole retinue of Napoleonic sovereignties was transformed, and the world had another currency. So we, from this year of 1842, looking back upon the time which has elapsed since the Cambist appeared, perceive even greater changes in the constitution of nations, and the order of their coinage. This last monetary cycle has witnessed the origin of the kingdoms of Belgium and Greece in the old world, and in the new, the Empire of Brazil, and the whole catalogue of Spanish American republics, claiming a prominent place by the abundance of their gold and silver. Besides, there have been many and essential changes in the moneys of other countries; insomuch that of the money systems of the sixty nations treated of in our second chapter, only eighteen remain as, they are found in Kelley's work, and

nine as in Bonneville's. Again, even if so great alterations had not ensued in the laws of coinage, experience proves that a watch must be kept upon the practice, and mint-assayers are continually testing the coins of foreign countries, choosing rather to trust to the cupel and balance, than to codes and allowances. From time to time, it devolves upon some of them to embody their results in a manual for public use. Since the opening of the nineteenth century, France has given the first standard of this sort, England has supplied the second, and a third is now offered from the United States.

"In this undertaking, singular facilities have been afforded us. We have operated on nearly all the kinds of coin current in the world for a hundred years past, and in the most important instances, upon considerable masses of them, and by frequent repetitions; so that a fair average has been attained. Out of 760 assays of coin stated in the second chapter, six-sevenths are original; the remainder, consisting chiefly of the older European and Oriental moneys, have been taken from Bonneville and Kelly, with a few from Becher. We have also had the advantage of an extensive correspondence, opened and conducted at our request by the present Director of the Mint, with foreign ministers and consuls of the United States. Nor would we forget the encouragement extended by the entire corps of our fellow-officers, to whose courtesy and worth it is a pleasure to bear testimony. Still, the labor of the enterprise has been such as to take from us, during three years past, most of the leisure which the daily and often urgent routine of official business allows.

"But we have aimed to do something more than to satisfy those who deal or take an interest in coins. The whole subject of Bullion demanded a methodical treatise; this has been attempted in the third chapter, and it is hoped will be found useful to those engaged in mining, or in trading with mining countries. In the fourth chapter, we have ventured to handle Counterfeit Coins. M. Chaudet, in his recent work, L'Art de l'Essayeur,' expresses his surprise that this subject has not found a place in the works of assayers, and makes a valuable contribution to it, in the chapter 'De l'examen des fausses monnaies françaises.' We have taken advantage of some of his suggestions, but not without laying the ground anew, and submitting the whole matter to a practical and patient investigation. Our fifth chapter contains an original and extensive series of results in the specific gravity of the precious metals, important alike to men of science and men of business. In the sixth chapter, we have sought to interest not only artists, but all who have a taste for engravings, by a brief history of the new process of machine engraving, and by numerous specimens of what it is able to achieve. The plates are fully described, and an attempt is made to acquaint ordinary readers with an easy method of distinguishing Oriental coins. In the appendix are statistics of various kinds relating to coinage, and tables of daily use to dealers in money, most of which are nowhere else accessible in print."

A very interesting and instructive description is then given of the principles of coinage, and the manufacture of coins. The subject is then taken up by countries, and each nation is treated of distinctly, in the order of governmental succession. The legal standards are then stated, in the national terms of the country and of our own. The annual product of precious metals, if any, and the amount of coinage, next receive some notice. Tables are then given of the gold and silver coins, serving the

inquiries of dealers and amateurs in coins, legislators, and persons of varied reading, desiring to extend their information in this direction. We have room only for a few of these tables, and therefore select those which are of the most immediate utility. Such are Great Britain, as follows:"Great Britain.-Our notice of the coinage of Great Britain will commence with the accession of George I. The various reigns since that date, have occurred in the following order: George I. 1714 to 1727; George II. to 1760; George III. to 1820; George IV. to 1830; William IV. to 1837; Victoria, from 1837, reigning sovereign.

"The basis of British money is the pound sterling, of 20 shillings. This was at first represented by the guinea, a gold coin, ordained in 1675, during the reign of Charles II.* After some years, from the depreciation of the silver coinage by wear and fraudulent arts, as well as from other causes, gold was thrown into market, at fluctuating and enhanced prices; so that the guinea, as compared with silver, varied from 20 to 28 shillings. This evil was not arrested until the third year of George I. (1717,) when, upon the recommendation of Sir Isaac Newton, then master of the Mint, the guinea was rated at 21 shillings, and has so continued ever since.

"The pound sterling had therefore no representative in any single coin, until the great era in British moneys, the coinage law of 1816. The guinea and its parts were then discontinued, and the sovereign, of 20 shillings, with subdivisions, substituted. The relative proportion of weight and value being preserved, the guinea continued to circulate at 21 shillings, though it ceased to be coined.

"In the same year, an alteration was effected in the silver coinage. The denominations, from the crown downwards, were maintained as before; but the old series was called in, and recoined at a reduced weight. The profit to government by this operation was not so much the object in view, as to give to the silver coinage a less intrinsic value than the gold, and thus to make the latter the only measure of value; the former to be used merely for making change, in the domestic circulation.† Silver coins are a legal tender only to the extent of 40 shillings at a time.

"Before proceeding to state in detail the legal regulations of the coin, a few general observations upon the metallic currency of this empire, may be in place.

"A very prominent and peculiar feature, is the vast preponderance of the gold over the silver coinage; and this, for a century before it became the settled policy of the nation. The causes which operated to produce this result, could not be explained in a work like the present. We only notice the fact, that from the accession of Queen Anne (1702) to the end of 1840, the gold coinage amounted to 160 millions sterling, while that of silver was but 12 millions. For the last twenty years, ending with 1840, the coinage of gold was 52 millions nearly, and of silver four millions. In every other country, the preference seems to be given to silver, as the specie basis, whether gold is a concurrent legal tender or not. "In general, it is noticed that a country does not recoin its own money, except upon a change of standard. A memorable exception took place in England, in 1774. The unskilful style in which, confessedly, the gold

* Ruding's Annals of the British Coinage.

This policy was brought before the public, eleven years before (1805,) by Lord Liverpool, in his Treatise on the Coins of the Realm.

coins had for a long time been executed, exposed them to the nefarious arts by which coins are diminished in weight. From these causes, as well as from ordinary wear, the circulation had become so depreciated, that it was judged necessary to call in all the gold coins below a certain weight, and recoin them, at the full standard. To this effect, an act of Parliament was passed in that year, providing also for making good the deficiency to holders of light coin, from the public treasury. This famous recoinage commenced in that year, and appears to have been in progress until 1788.*

"Another memorable event, in the monetary history of England, was the total suspension of silver coinage, at the mint, from 1788 to 1816-a period of twenty-nine years; and that at a time when such coin was never more needed. The reason was simply that silver was not valued high enough by law, in proportion to gold, and therefore went to the market instead of the mint. This, in its turn, was brought about by various causes, not the least of which was the policy of the French Republic, which exchanged assignats for silver, wherever it was to be had. In the single year of 1792, there was drawn away from England near three millions of ounces.†

"There was an obvious remedy for this evil, but the times did not admit of its application. So far from it, the scarcity of silver was only a precursor to a similar scarcity of gold. In the protracted wars of Europe, of which England had her full share, there was a continual necessity for remittances abroad, by the government. These were almost wholly in bullion, and were procured from the Bank of England. In 1797, the drain of specie had been carried to such an extent, that only a million and a quarter sterling remained in the vaults of that institution, and a suspension of specie payments was the necessary consequence. This suspension continued until 1821.

"Until the general pacification of Europe, there was no opportunity for reforming the monetary code, and establishing it upon a firm basis. Meanwhile the silver coinage, the need of which was most urgently felt for the smaller purposes of traffic, was supplied in a semi-legal way, by the issue of Tokens. In 1804, the Bank of England, with the approbation of his majesty's council, effected a recoinage of two millions of Spanish dollars, at the mint of Mr. Boulton, near Birmingham. The pieces were stamped with appropriate devices, with a valuation of five shillings. The Bank of Ireland resorted to the same expedient, making the dollar a token for six shillings Irish.* By act of Parliament of the same year, these issues were so far legalized as to make it felony to counterfeit them.

"As these larger pieces did not supply the deficiency, smaller ones were issued subsequently by the banks, and by local corporations; and as will

* The whole coinage, 1774 to 1788, was eighteen and a half millions sterling: probably three fourths of this was recoinage. The deficit of weight was an expense to the government of a little over half a million. Ruding, vol. i. + Marsh, quoted by Ruding, ii. 499. These assignats, or state bonds, were founded upon the landed property taken from the clergy. In five years, the issue amounted to 36,000 millions of francs. Eventually they were received at one seventieth of their nominal value, in payment for public lands. Thiers' French Revolution.

* It is stated by Ruding, that the silver coins in Ireland had by this time become so light, that twenty-one shillings were not intrinsically worth more than nine. As 12 pence English are equal to 13 pence Irish, the dollars of the Bank of Ireland "went further" than those of the other institution.