ing paper for the precious metals: but such a crisis must necessarily be of very rare occurrence.

A Standard of Currency. In this country, gold is the legal standard, but in the rest of Europe it is silver. Mr. R. inclines (p. 21.) to the expediency of adopting the rule of our continental neighbours; silver being more steady in value, from the greater regularity of its supply, and the use of paper superseding the objections arising from its bulk and conse quent unfitness for the large payments required in a commercial country. Another useful suggestion of the author relates to the means of preventing that scarcity of money which is so severely felt among mercantile men at particular intervals of the year:

The national debt has become so large, and the interest which is paid quarterly upon it is so great a sum, that the mere collecting the money from the receivers-general of the taxes, and the consequent reduction of the quantity in circulation, just previously to its being paid to the public creditor, in January, April, July, and October, occasions, for a week or more, the most distressing want of circulating medium.-Exchequer bills, which usually sell at a premium of five shillings per 100l. are at such times at so great a discount, that by the purchase of them then, and the re-sale when the dividends are paid, a profit may often be made equal to the rate of fifteen to twenty per cent. interest for money. At these times, too, the difference between the price of stock for ready money, and the price for a week or two to come, affords a profit to those who can advance money even greater than can be made by employing money in the purchase of exchequer-bills. This great distress for money is frequently, after the dividends are paid, followed by as great a plenty, so that little use can for some time be made of it.'.

Let the Bank be authorized by government to deliver the dividend-warrants to the proprietors of stock a few days before the receivers-general are required to pay their balances into the Exchequer.

Let these warrants be payable to the bearer exactly in the same manner as they now are.

Let the day for the payment of these dividend-warrants in bank-notes be regulated precisely as it now is.

If the day of payment could be named on or before the delivery of the warrants, it would be more convenient.

Finally, let these warrants be receivable into the Exchequer from the receivers-general, or from any other person who may have payments to make there, in the same manner as bank-notes; the persons paying them allowing the discount for the number of days which will elapse before they become due.

If a plan of this sort were adopted there could never be any particular scarcity of money before the payment of the dividends, nor any particular plenty of it after. The quantity of money in

circulation

circulation would be neither increased nor diminished by the payment of the dividends.

Those who are well acquainted with the economical system now adopted in London throughout the whole banking-concern, will readily understand that the plan here proposed is merely the extension of this economical system to a species of payments to which it has not yet been applied.'

Reduction of Allowances to the Bank.-After these arguments in favour of bank-paper, Mr. Ricardo proceeds to discuss another topic, and to hold a language of a very different nature respecting the Bank. In his opinion, the profits obtained by it during the long period since 1797 have been exorbitant, and ought to be retrenched as early as it may be possible. Government is pledged to respect the Bank-charter, and to maintain its right to the exclusive circulation of the London district for the next sixteen years: but it is under no such restraint with regard to the terms of payment for the transaction of business connected with the public debt. For the last ten years, the Bank is computed to have had (p. 43.) on an average not less than eleven millions of the public money. permanently in its hands; which deposit arises from the government-receipts being lodged in the Bank, (in the same way in which merchants lodge their disposable funds with a banker,) and kept there until withdrawn by the different departments to which the funds are respectively appropriated. Now on this average of eleven millions, the Bank is supposed to have made a regular annual profit of five per cent.; since nothing prevents the Directors from vesting it in stock, in Exchequer-bills, in mercantile discounts, or in any other way which is calculated to yield that advantage. Again, the Bank is allowed between 3 and 400l. a-year on each million of the capital of our public debt, for the trouble of keeping the books and paying dividends; a charge which Mr. R. considers (p. 54.) as double the necessary allowance:

The saving to the public is really effected by the money being brought to one focus, instead of being collected from various quarters. The Bank appear to consider the rule by which they are to measure the moderation of their charges, to be the saving which they effect to their employer, rather than the just compensation for their own trouble and expence. What would they think of an engineer, if in his charge for the construction of a steam-engine he should be guided by the value of the labour which the engine was calculated to save, and not by the value of the labour and materials necessary to its construction ?'

Appropriation of Bank-Profits. The last section of the pamphlet treats of a point of great interest to a bank-stockholder,the use that should be made by the Bank of its ac

cumulated

cumulated profits. On this head, the Directors have always chosen to observe considerable secrecy; admitting in general terms the existence of increased profits since 1797, and consenting to a material augmentation of dividend, but declining to enter into any specific explanation of the amount of the sum that has accrued in their hands. Mr. Allardyce, a mercantile man, and formerly a member of parliament, published a very full and minute inquiry into this subject in 1801. His essay was in the form of a pamphlet, and comprized a large collection of tables, calculations, and extracts from public documents: but, since his death, which took place about fourteen years ago, the Bank-Directors have met with no such inquisitor; or, rather, the proprietors have had reason to be satisfied with the increase of dividend paid since the year which we have mentioned. We can scarcely join Mr. Ricardo in blaming the Directors for their reticence on this delicate point; believing it to have been prompted by a wish to guard against that sudden change in the value of bank-stock, which was to be apprehended on the resumption of cash-payments: since a disclosure of the whole of the profits of a state of war might have raised the value of that stock to a rate which it could ill support on the deprivation of the grand sources of emolument. Peace operates doubly against the Bank; it diminishes the quantum of government-deposits; and it necessitates, or will soon necessitate, the sinking of a considerable sum in the dead fund of cash or bullion, to meet the demand for the exchange of notes.

Mr. Smith's Reply. This pamphlet proceeds from the pen of a writer already known to the public in discussions of this kind. His answer to Mr. Ricardo is marked by something of the keenness that characterizes an old antagonist; and, though in some respects founded on substantial grounds, it seems in others to amount to little more than a correction of a supposed error on the part of Mr. R. The latter, in inserting the imagined price of 31. 175. per ounce for standard-gold, no doubt did it for the sake of giving a specific form to his reasoning, and not (as Mr. Smith imagines) under an impression that gold was likely to be had at so reduced a value. We are more disposed to agree with Mr. S. in his general objections (pp. 12, 13.) to the arguments of the Bullion-committee, and their advocates, among whom Mr. Ricardo filled rather a pro minent station:- but the chief part of the pamphlet is appropriated less to a refutation of Mr. R. than to the support of a favourite notion urged by Mr. Smith in former publications, viz. "that the pound sterling is the standard unit, or sole standard of value in this country:"- a theory that would require a

very grave discussion, and of which we shall waive the consideration for the present, without any farther remark than that Mr. S. has not yet succeeded in making us converts to his system.

ART. XI. Report from the Committee on the State of the Police of the Metropolis: with the Minutes of Evidence, and an Appendix, containing Abstracts of the several Acts now in force for regulating Public Houses, &c. &c. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 1. 1816. 8vo. pp. 396. 75. Boards. Clement.

WE

ERE we inclined to discuss the question whether the world has or has not advanced in civilization and virtue, we fear that we should find many facts contained in these pages which would support the negative side of the argument: but we must not here enter on so extended a consideration, nor venture to balance opinions in this place on so speculative a subject. It is more immediately our duty to attend to the important facts which this inquiry has rendered but too undeniable; that the police of the metropolis, though it has been considerably improved in the present reign, has not been benefited to the degree that was expected by the alterations which have been at various times adopted;-and that the criminal law, even in the present day, contains many vices in its principles, and is subject to many abuses in its practice. The Committee, before whom this evidence has been given, and particularly its indefatigable chairman, are not blind to either of these facts, but seem inclined to apply remedies in each case which we sincerely hope they will be enabled to establish.

The present parliament, indeed, whose political death is ere long to take place, has exerted itself since its commencement with more than ordinary zeal in the formation of Committees to ascertain the causes of evils which have been represented as existing, to consider the mode of rectifying them, and to suggest general improvements on various subjects; and the members of those Committees have done themselves lasting and high honour by the industry and intelligence with which they have conducted their investigations and framed their statements. The Police of the Metropolis is not one of the least material of these inquiries; and though, in the short report which is merely made for the purpose of bringing up the evidence, the Committee observe that it is a subject by no means exhausted,' we regard the evidence already collected as of too interesting a nature to be withholden from our readers; especially since we feel convinced that a general consideration of the question will be

pro

productive of essential advantage, and may possibly be the means of suggesting new sources of inquiry, previously to the meeting of the Committee in the ensuing session.

The Committee sat 23 days during the months of April, May, and June last, and examined 54 persons. Their evidence embraced a great variety of questions connected with the police, and is here given without any order: but we shal endeavour to simplify it, by arranging the various topics under different heads, and noticing in their proper place such facts as have reference to them.

The subject, to which the Committee seems first to have directed its attention, is the Mode by which Police-Officers are Paid for the performance of their duty. This is three-fold; viz. a salary of one guinea per week, with some small allowances from the office to which they belong; - the fees received from private individuals who have suffered from robbery, under which may be included the large rewards offered by advertisements for the discovery of the offenders; and a share of the parliamentary rewards on the conviction of certain criminals, which are distributed by the Recorder among the witnesses for the prosecution. These latter consist of "401. upon conviction of every highwayman ;"-" of every person who has counterfeited the coin, or clipped, &c. the same, or shall bring into the kingdom any clipped or counterfeited coin;"" of every burgler or house-breaker;" and on the conviction" of any person of treason or felony relating to the coin, upon the act of 15 Geo. II. cap. 28." Also a reward of "20l. upon conviction of persons returning from transportation, before the expiration of the term for which they were ordered to be transported;"-" 10l. upon the conviction of every sheep-stealer;" and "10l. upon conviction of counterfeiting copper-money." A "Tyburn-ticket," exempting the holder of it "from parochial duties in the parish where the offence is committed," is also added in some cases; which is once assignable, and on sale produces from 121. to 201.-The policy of these rewards has often been considered as more than doubtful; and the recent trials of policeofficers for a conspiracy to induce poor ignorant fellows to commit a crime, and then to convict them for the purpose of obtaining these sums, will serve materially to strengthen that feeling. It is not satisfactory to say that these are individual instances, and that the indignation which they excited will be sufficient to prevent a repetition of the offence. Every inducement to do wrong should be carefully removed; and no part of our daily prayer should be uttered with more fervency, or practised in our intercourse with the world with

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