ment, it is said, was running a mad career, which the Bank resisted, and therefore it was destroyed; and the Government was thus enabled to ruin the commerce of the country by tampering unrestrainedly with the currency. On this statement, it is thought there arises a general presumption in favor of the Bank as the natural champion of the true commercial interests of the country, which it is the natural interest of the Bank, it has been urged, to support. But to support against whom?—against the Government ?—Then the Bank must be made strong enough to contend with the Govern. ment; and what are the effects of such a contest, we have too much reason to know. It is absurd to ask us to set up a power in the country capable of resisting its already established authorities; it is, in fact, proposing a change of our mode of government to talk of giving the financial interest body and form and independent power. And then what assurance have we that this power will be honestly used even for the true interests of the Bank itself, which are alleged to be identical with those of the public? The Bank shares are bought and sold in the market; the Government may hold a quarter, a very rich individual might possess himself of another quarter, and what would the "champion" do then?

The truth is, that we have fared like a ship with a whale on board, which might go on steadily enough while he lay quiet, but if we should attempt to take his blubber, he would perhaps knock away our masts "in self-defence.". You may exculpate him if you please; but the result of our experience remains to us-that we are not built to carry whales, and that we were best not take another such passenger.

2. A Bank is demanded as a regulator of the currency, i. e. the paper currency, and the scarcity or plenty of gold and silver as affected by it. Congress, it is said, has power to regulate commerce, and consequently currency; therefore let them put this power out of their own hands by giving a charter for twenty years to an institution capable of exercising it, and beyond their control. Now, this surrendering up of the constitutional powers by irrevocable delegation, is what Congress certainly cannot do on constitutional grounds, therefore this argument utterly fails. But is a Bank the best regulator of the currency? It is far from being proved! and on the other hand, there is much apparent force in a suggestion of Jones Loyd, the London banker, that the power of creating paper money ought to be separated entirely from the trade of borrowing and lending it. This is a curious, difficult, and immensely important question; let us not legislate upon it rashly for twenty years ahead. A paper currency suitable for this country is yet to be invented, if free trade in banking and well-organized exchanges will not give it; but the prodigious power of furnishing it ought not to

be put in the hands of any trading corporation, nor beyond the control of the representatives of the people.

3. A Bank is demanded as a regulator of exchanges, and especially of domestic exchanges; an office which the last Bank must be admitted to have performed in a convenient and satisfactory manner, and which, since its destruction, has been badly and expensively done to the great loss and inconvenience of the public. All this, we think, is proved; but we are perfectly convinced that the commercial interest is fully capable of doing this business for itself, and would have done it without the Banks had none existed, and would now do it were it certain that no new Bank would arise to assume the office. Correspondence must be organized, houses established, clerks salaried, and capital appropriated for a vast and complicated business; and perhaps, when all this mechanism is in motion, the unlucky enterprisers may find themselves competed with by a great company, actually paid by the nation for doing the same thing cheaper than the individuals can afford. And this brings us to look a little at the stipulations on this subject in the charter of the last Bank.

The Bank engaged, in consideration of receiving the Treasury deposits, that it would accept at all points of the Union its own notes whatever points payable in payments for Government account. That is, if I have in my possession U. S. Bank notes payable at New Orleans, and I have a Custom-house bond to pay at New-York, these notes are to be received for that bond, though perhaps at the same time the Bank will not accept them in deposit nor pay them in specie, except at the specified point of New Orleans. But the payments constantly due the government were so large as to absorb the greater part of these notes when they went astray from their homes, and they were never at a greater discount any where, we believe, than half per cent. and seldom at any at all. Now how does this work? Suppose I am a planter in Mississippi, and I have sent my cotton crop to New-York, and sold it for ten thousand dollars for which I am authorised to draw. I offer my bill to a merchant, who will only give me half per cent. premium for it; and he gives me a good reason he can remit U. S. Bank notes, and only lose half per cent. Were the Bank notes in the way, I should get two or three per cent., the actual cost of transmitting specie with insurance, interest, &c., two or three hundred dollars on ten thousand, but I only get fifty. The difference is my loss, so much less proceeds of my crop, so much less inducement to other planters to send theirs to New-York. And who gains it? We hear much said about equalizing exchanges, but who is benefited? In this case it is the New Orleans merchant, who wants funds in New-York, and obtains them at a cheap rate; and the effect of the "equalization of ex

changes" is to take two hundred dollars from me and give it to him. Just such an effect will be found to result from the analysis of any other case; and really the Government were well employed when they agreed to sacrifice the interest on the public money on condition that the bank should keep down the natural rates of exchange between the ends of the Union; that it should at considerable expense and risk injure Peter for Paul's benefit at one time, and Paul for Peter's benefit at another, and do no class any permanent good, and the public at large no service.

4. The Bank is demanded as a fiscal agent of the Government. It must be admitted, we think, that the last Bank performed this duty well, and that such an institution is well adapted to the purpose. But this is a matter of minor importance compared with the very important considerations which must decide whether such a thing shall or shall not exist. The expenditure of the nation may be taken perhaps at some twelve or fifteen millions a year, and the having or not having a good fiscal agent may make a difference of two or three per cent. in the expense and risk of collecting and paying this. If its standing balances are to be deposited at all in the hands of any bank or banks, they will of course blend with the other funds of such banks and their depositors, and, like them, be borrowed and lent, blending theirs with private monies. There is an objection to this at first sight, but perhaps it is not well founded.

Lastly. The Bank is wanted as a bank for the aid of commerce; and to this we reply, Free Trade, Free Trade. What is money, that the Government must put us in wardship in relation to it? Let every man bank that will, let every man issue his notes that will, let every man take or refuse notes as he will. If the practice of incorporating Banks, and allowing only such as were chartered to issue notes, had not given a sort of sanction to every bank note that appears, our population would judge that matter as shrewdly as they judge whom they may trust with bread or meat. But we have persuaded them, first, that a bank note is a bank note, one as good as another; and now we attempt to realize our own fiction, and make them all good alike. The system must fall; the people want no guardianship and commerce no aid. Let them alone.

A corporation is a sort of legal individual, which the States by general consent, and Congress by assumption, have power to create. But they have no right to grant such individuals powers which they cannot grant to any single citizen, or which they prohibit any to exercise. We must have equal legislation; our government must either assume the power of making paper money and regulating the currency, or renounce it. If they assume it, they cannot delegate it out of their own reach and hourly control; and if they renounce it, it then belongs equally to all of us.

VANDERLYN.

CHAPTER XV.

A Ball-room-Portraits-Social and political equality-American Romance

The Betrothal.

bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ;

A thousand hearts beat happily, and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again.

Childe Harold.

Ir was a gay season in New-York, the winter of 18-. The town was filled with officers, naval and military, and the events continually passing upon the Canada frontier, not less than the approach of a blockading squadron to our coast, kept up a kind of excitement that, shared by every one, gave an unwonted interest to the gayer circles, which are in general but little affected by the condition of the political atmosphere. People did not dance with less glee, nor rattle away with less cheerfulness; but there was an earnestness and vivacity in their intercourse that is not, in ordinary times, characteristic of the votaries of fashion. The number of strangers from other states, and of men of action in public life, that were intermingled with the customary congregation of mere idlers, raised and elevated the character of society, while converting the ball-room into a sort of social exchange, where one soonest heard the political news of the day; the movements of troops; the rumors of naval encounters; and often the last tidings of husbands and bro. thers who had but lately left the gay circle to mingle in the scenes of gathering war: and it is a curious fact, that in one instance at least one of the most desperate naval fights which took place during the war-the officers went into action in the same ball-room dresses in which they had figured at an assembly twenty-four hours previous; a sudden embarkation, followed by an instant chase and subsequent encounter, giving them no opportunity of changing the apparel which proved the grave clothes of too many of these gallant fellows.

The lights were shining brilliantly through the windows of No.

Broadway, and the military band of theth, to the officers of which gallant regiment the fete was given when about to take up the line of their fatal march to Canada, was making the walls resound as the hall door was opened to me, and I found my. self amid a group of military men and civilians in the entry. It was the night after my singular scene with Brashleigh, described in the last chapter; and with spirits but illy suited to such a scene, I had sought it in order to meet with one to whom I now wished to bid a

long farewell. Gertrude was there, the idol of an admiring throng, among which there were few who had not far greater pretensions than myself to claim a thought from the belle of the evening. Among those present were many who have since become well-known to fame, but who were then only known as the ornaments of the immediate circles amid which they moved. I remember being particu. larly struck with the tall, military figure of Lieutenant Colonel S., who had not yet won his laurels at Chippewa; while a slender and pale, intellectual-looking young man, who was engaged in an animated conversation with the witty and beautiful Mary F——, was pointed out to me as the author of some humorous writings, which were much admired at that time, and have not since been forgotten in the maturer productions of his genius. His face was then long and thin, and the slenderness of his person enhanced by the closely fitting uniform which he wore as one of the aids of the Governor, made Col. I. so different a looking personage from what the engravings now represent him, that if the modern portraits are correct, I do not think that I could identify his features; though I well remember that they made so distinct an impression upon me that I can never forget their peculiar character. Time, however, plays strange tricks with our memory as well as with our persons; and if our minute observation of each other had been mutual, my dis. tinguished countryman could hardly now recognize the prematurely gray old man in the brown-haired youth who then stood beside him.

I made several attempts to speak to Gertrude, and claim her hand in a cotillion; but the rooms were so thronged, that we could only exchange a distant bow, and I took my place by one of the doors, determined to seize an opportunity when she should pass out to the supper-room. Here, notwithstanding the deeper interest which I had at heart, I became unconsciously interested in a dis. cussion which was going on near me with the eloquent Mr. W., who had then but lately attained that eminence at the Bar from which an untimely death so sadly tore him. He was talking with old Judge L., and the glossy raven locks, the large dark eye, and face of glowing, manly beauty, which imparted such effect to the proud declamation of this distinguished advocate, were in singular contrast to the gray hairs, the pale, calm, and somewhat severe aspect of the high-bred old gentleman, who could yet forget the toils. of office, and relax the gravity of the bench, to mingle, among his light-hearted juniors, in such a scene.

So absorbed was I in the conversation of two such men, that I almost forgot what was passing around me, and the partner of Gertrude handed her in to supper without my having discovered that she had left the dancing-room. The evening was not yet well advanced, but I determined another opportunity should not be lost; and the moment that I made the discovery I followed to the other apartment. But here, just at the moment I was making my way around the supper-table to speak to Gertrude, my movements were most provokingly arrested by one of those prosing declamatory worthies who sometimes find a place in the best ordered circles, where they exercise their predominant propensity to the annoyance and discomfiture of all around them.