moral or intellectual, in any of them, they are, for the most part, marked by a purity and a fidelity to nature which, in healthful effect upon the feelings, may well be believed to outweigh far more brilliant and striking qualities. The The last branch of the hawkers' literature reviewed by M. Nisard comprises its Fiction; and we may include under the same head the lives of celebrated robbers, sharpers, adventurers, and other Newgate heroes, which he has placed in a different category. M. Nisard divides this important branch of hawkers' literature into two classes-the ancient and the modern. former still maintains an almost undisputed popularity in some remote rural districts; the latter has driven out his predecessor among the ouvriers and grisettes of the towns and cities, and is fast creeping in among the younger portion even of the agricultural population of many of the departments. 6 It is true that many of the books sold by the colporteurs, and some of those not the least popular, are quite unobjectionable. For a long time the tales of Madame Cottin, authoress of the well-known Exiles of Siberia,' enjoyed almost a monopoly of the market; and more recently her popularity has been shared by two other lady-novelists, Mesdames D'Aulnoy and Daubenton. Whatever may be the defects of these writers as regards taste, their moral tone is not liable to serious criticism. It would have been well if the trade had confined itself to their works, or even to those of a still more prolific writer, Ducray-Duminil, whose novels fall but little short in number of those of Mr. James, and whose works in general, although not quite beyond exception as regards their moral tendency, are purity itself in comparison with the garbage of the later school of the fiction of the colportage. ، 6 But, although these works, and such as these, together with many of our own recognised favourites, Robinson Crusoe,' Telemachus,' Gil Blas,' and the Arabian Nights,' have always maintained a steady circulation, it is equally certain that a similar, though more clandestine, popularity was enjoyed by such works as the Decameron,' the Cent Nouvelles,' the Romans' of Voltaire, Rousseau's Héloise' and Confessions,' Diderot's Tales, the more disgusting tales of Crebillon Fils, and others of more modern date, unknown in England even by name, but in principles and in colouring equally detestable. It is only necessary to cast an eye over the titles of the long series enumerated by M. Nisard in a note (vol. ii. pp. 579-581.), in order to see how demoralising must be the tendency, and how fatal the effect of such a literature. M. Nisard, as we have already observed, maintains a careful reserve as to the remedial measures contemplated or adopted by the Commission du Colportage. We learn, however, from the lecture of Cardinal Wiseman, referred to in the beginning of this article, that its first measure, after the calling in of the books for examination, was to order fully three-fourths of the whole number to be at once withdrawn from circulation. We collect, too, from the author himself, that an attempt has been made, as yet seemingly without much success, by the publishers in whose hands the colportage trade has hitherto been centered, to supply with approved and unobjectionable books the void thus suddenly created; and he appears to hold out something like a hope, that he may give us, in a future publication, an account of the new Littérature du Colportage,' which it is thus attempted to inaugurate. This, no doubt, is one of the great social problems of the age, hardly, if at all, inferior in interest to that of primary education itself; because it involves the success of that self-education, which bears even more directly on the practical formation of the character of the individual, and the determination, for good or for evil, at the outset, of the moral principles which, whether unfelt or openly avowed, are destined to be his guide of action throughout life. It is plain that the arbitrary enactments of a government, or the remedial measures of a commission, can but reach the externals: they deal with the symptoms rather than with the disease. Nor can we venture to hope that any real progress has been made towards its eradication, until we shall have an opportunity of judging of the character of the new literature which it is proposed to substitute, and of its suitableness for the true exigencies of so important a crisis. Meanwhile the subject is one in which we ourselves have a concern far deeper and more practical than that arising from the mere literary or antiquarian considerations which it involves. Such a revelation from abroad should awaken our curiosity, or rather a far more earnest feeling, as to the condition of affairs at home. Proximus ardet. We have before us at this moment several narratives of witchcraft, charms, and singular superstitions, in various parts of England, which would furnish a practical commentary on the blackest pages of the Grand Grimoire. The English almanacs for the present year contain predictions just as detailed and announced with quite as sober an air, as those of the Almanach Prophétique' itself. And, as regards 6 *Raphael's Prophetic Messenger' is a literal transcript of the French Prophetic Almanacs. Copestick's Prophetic and Commer'cial Almanac,' with a less solemn pretentious display of science, its corrupting and demoralising tendencies, we fear that there are to be found publications in our literature for the poor which may not unsuccessfully dispute that bad eminence' with the worst dregs of the 'Littérature du Colportage.' Let any man read Mr. Mayhew's brief, but pregnant, notices of the 'Costerliterature. Let him read of the sale by millions* of the 'gallows' literature' which is by far the most popular ware of our literary hawkers; of a single individual's selling on a Saturday night two thousand such publications; of families clubbing their pence to indulge this diseased curiosity; of the groups of listeners assembled even in the remote villages by the scanty light of a fire and drinking in with eager ears the exciting narrative, which initiates them in the vices of great cities; and of the morbid attraction of these publications to the young of both sexes. The retailers of these publications are, as Lord Campbell forcibly observed in bringing forward his measure for the suppression of obscene literature, moral poisoners' and we are satisfied that the Lord Chief Justice and M. Nisard have both done service to the interests of public morality in arming the law with additional power to crush these abuses. On the other hand, we are bound in fairness to say, that much has been done of late years in this country to bring excellent works of instruction and entertainment within reach of the middle and lower classes. The Railway book-stall has established a place for literature by the side of the great improvement in modern locomotion; and its contents are by no means worthless or contemptible. In one way or in another the demand for literary amusement will be supplied to the people, and it is of vital importance that this supply should be drawn from pure waters, and not from that subterranean current which is tainted with the superstitions of the past and the vices of the present age. is equally ludicrous in its guesses at the future. The death of the Emperor Nicholas made sad work in the predictions for 1855. *To show the extent of the trade in "execution broadsheets,” I obtained returns of the number of copies relating to the principal executions of late, which had been sold: 2,500,000 copies. 1,650,000 1,650,000 (Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, vol. i. p. 284.) ART. IX. Tracts and other Publications on Metallic and Paper Currency. By the Right Honourable Lord OVERSTONE. Collected by J. R. McCulloch, Esq. 1857. 8vo. [Not published.] NUMEROUS and valuable as have been Mr. McCulloch's con tributions to monetary science, his latest labour-that of collecting and editing the tracts and other publications of Lord Overstone-must be regarded, in so far as relates to immediate practical results, as one of the most useful and important. At the present juncture, when Parliament may be called upon to review our monetary system, and to decide on the expediency of renewing the existing charter of the Bank of England, the value of these remarkable productions cannot be over-estimated. The only thing to be regretted is, that they should have been reprinted, not for publication, but for private distribution only. It is due to the diffusion of knowledge upon a question deeply affecting the well-being of the community at large that they should be given to the public. As literary compositions, they are masterpieces; as contributions to monetary science, they rank with the congenial and analogous productions of Adam Smith, Horner, and Ricardo. It may, indeed, be truly affirmed that, as regards the investigation of questions peculiarly relating to the regulation of the circulation and to the theory of banking, Lord Overstone is in some respects superior to his illustrious predecessors. He is superior to Adam Smith in the choice and in the consistent use of the terms he employs, and in that logical precision which is the chief beauty of philosophical language; he is superior to Horner and Ricardo in the application to the complex phenomena of the money market of that searching analysis which detects the fallacies lurking beneath undefined and ambiguous terms, and reveals elementary principles previously unseen. Adam Smith, as has been shown by Mr. M'Culloch in the admirable notes appended to his edition of the Wealth of Nations,' fell into some fundamental errors. Horner and Ricardo rescued monetary science from the anarchy into which it had been thrown by the suspension of metallic payments, and restored it to the status in which it had been left by Adam Smith. Lord Overstone, while effectually disposing of the misconceptions and fallacies of the present representatives of Bosanquet, Castlereagh, and Vansittart, has built upon the foundations laid by Smith, and completed the structure which the illustrious founder of Economical Science had commenced. 6 This is high praise; but it will not be regarded as undeserved or as exaggerated by any one who has leisure to peruse, and ability to understand, the very simple and lucid exposition of elementary principles presented in the volume now before us: nor will the judgment we have ventured to pronounce be reversed by any competent authority who will contrast the state of the science of Currency and Banking, as it was left by Adam Smith and restored by Ricardo, with the state to which it has been advanced in the writings of Lord Overstone.* Adam Smith explained the nature and extent of the advantages which may be obtained by the establishment of a convertible paper currency. He showed that paper money, consisting of bank notes issued by people of undoubted credit, payable upon demand, without any condition, and in fact always readily paid as soon as issued, is in every respect equal in value to gold and silver. That the whole of the paper money, of every description, which can be easily circulated in any country, can never exceed the value of the gold and silver of which it supplies the place, or which, the commerce being the same, would circulate there if there were no paper money. That the substitution of paper in the room of gold and silver money replaces a very expensive instrument of commerce for one much less costly, and sometimes equally convenient; and that when such substitution is effected, the floating capital of the countrythe whole quantity of maintenance, tools, and materials by which industry is put in motion-may be increased by the whole value of the gold and silver which is disengaged from circulation. But although Adam Smith thus correctly explained the nature, the extent, and the ultimate limits of the advantages to be derived from the substitution of paper for metallic money, yet he not only failed to present a sufficiently comprehensive view of the theory of Currency and Banking, but enunciated a doctrine which, having been extensively adopted under the sanction of his high authority, has become a prolific source of error. failed to recognise the important and generic distinction between issuing notes and making advances from deposits,-in other words, between creating additional circulation and lending upon securities portions of the circulation already in existence; and He *We are also indebted to Lord Overstone and Mr. M'Culloch for another volume of great interest to the history of monetary science, entitled 'A select Collection of scarce and valuable Tracts on Paper Currency and Banking from the Originals, by Hume, 'Wallace, Thornton, Ricardo, Blake, and others, with a Preface, 'Notes, and Index, reprinted December, 1857.' |