increases rather than diminishes the evil. It is currency, not security, that is wanted. Exchequer bills are not currency; and, if converted into bank notes at the Bank of England, have not the effect of adding to the currency, but only change the security in the Bank, from private bills to Exchequer bills. It is fit and proper that the issues of the Bank should be restrained, and even reduced on commer cial bills, at a time when there is Little or no legitimate trade; yet more currency is wanted for other purposes, and of course a new system of creating, issuing, and securing it, is called for by the public exigencies.

XVII.

gold and silver coin, which is prohibited from being exported; besides, coin has an arbitrary value set upon it by govern ments, and is often alloyed. Specie tends, therefore, to absorb gold and silver, and the purposes of internal circulation seem to be equally well answered by a coinage of paper, or of land in the portable form of paper. It appears, indeed, to be of little consequence, whether a man carry his bullion to the mint to be alloyed and stampt, of a given value, or whether he carry the titles to any estate there of equal amount, and receive stampt paper of corresponding value. Nor could there exist any preference in the community in favour of specie, over such paper, as an equal amount of each would always purchase an equal quantity of land.

XX.

The best and most important use of the precious metals is, to equalize accounts between merchants of different nations. If Spain, for example, consumes 100,000l. more of the produce and ma

To prevent an increase of the mise ries likely to result from the threatened reduction of labour and property, to the proportion of the currency, or to nearly half their present nominal value; and to enable the people to meet an increasing taxation, on which depend the powers and continuance of the government, it becomes necessary to increase the amount_nufactures of Britain, than Britain conof the currency to such an extent, as may be necessary, not exceeding its amount between 1800 and 1807, and on such a plan as shall render such currency the representative of real property pledged to government for future redemption, and as shall enable the government, if desirable, gradually to lessen the circulation, and to substitute the precious metals in place of such paper.

XVIII.

A steady amount of currency is not only necessary to the public happiness, for the purpose of maintaining any ac. quired price of labour and commodities; but an augmentation is demanded, when ever, from any causes, an increased circulation has taken place. Currency is always required and appropriated in proportion to the increase of transactions and circulation. Great trade, great cultivation, or great taxes, therefore require the ordinary circulation to be aug inented in amount, to meet the demands of merchants, to supply capital to farmers, to make up for the balances of taxgatherers, and facilitate the operations of the Exchequer.

XIX.

Since the discovery of the art of coining paper, a currency of specie seems to be less essential to the convenience of society. It is true, that gold and silver have an intrinsic and universal value, and serve as media of exchange between natiops, but this is not the case with our

sumes of the produce and manufactures of Spain, the balance of trade is so much. in favour of Britain, and the 100,000l. must be paid in bullion. A favorable balance of trade always produces there fore, abundance of bullion, and vice versa. If a nation improvidently consume the commodities of nations, which take no merchandize in return, the supply is only to be obtained for gold and silver. Savage tribes can obtain no foreign luxuries, because they have neither su→ perfluous produce, desirable manufactures, nor gold and silver; but, if they have either of these, they economize and trade on principles, easily traced, like civilized nations. This reasoning proves, that the scarcity of specie is no ground for public alarm; nor would the scarcity affect the public prosperity, were it forthwith represented by a well fabricated paper currency, issued on the security of real property, under the faith of parliament.

XXI.

A valid Standard Currency should be issued in small notes, under parlia-, mentary regulations, by a board of government, in the way of loans upon real securities, pledged or mortgaged. The borrowers should pay 24 per cent, interest, and the notes should have the present legal value and effect of Bank notes. The Law directing its creation should also restrict the issues of the Bank of England. to the present amount of twenty-four mil

lions, and it should require country bank ers to give landed security for their respective issues; and should claim of the Bauk of England, and of all such country bankers, an equal rate of interest. As an experiment, three or four millions per quarter might be created and issued for twelve months, each loan redeemable within two years; and the distribution might be made to counties in the propor tion of their population and land-tax.

XXI.

proved, or would be likely to prove, salutary to a country, and then to apportion public issues, or coinages, to the fluctuations which circumstances might require. Such a provision is evi❤ dently within the power of governments, and its importance imposes it on them as an imperious duty. Currency is an artifice of society springing out of social convenience and convention; it ought, therefore, to be an object of social regulation, and to be the instrument of governments, not the arbiter of their fate, and the tyrant of society.

COMMON SENSE.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

In due time, when this standard currency of the government was established, and its security and validity understood and recognized, it might be expedient, as a means of controling and checking the issues of the Bank of England, to make it a legal tender for the notes of that pri-losses sustained by forged bankOMPLAINTS among tradesmen of vate company. The various calls and checks upon its circulation would also enable the commissioners to replace part of it with specie; and government, in its changes and fluctuations, would be able to control, direct, and regulate it, keeping in view the principles of its creation, and consulting none but the public advantage.

XXIII.

The ruin of governments, and the decadence of empires, may be ascribed to a course of events something like the following: an influx takes place of the precious metals, which, as currency, raises the nominal price of all commodities; and afterwards a departure of that currency, from some adventitious cause, leaves the nominal prices without currency to support them. Hence, labour and commodities, at their established price, can no longer be purchased by the reduced (nominal) wealth of individuals; nor can the usual proportion of currency be transferred as before to the government; industry therefore languishes, the people emigrate, the power of the State is palsied, the bond of national union, cemented by the common interest, becomes void, and the country is con quered or destroyed.

XXIV.

The nature of currency and the prineiples of its circulation being therefore so intelligible, it appears that a wise and well ordered government should place it under control, and not leave its fluctuations to chance, nor suffer them to destroy the confidence and the energies of the people, It could not be difficult to deter mice on an amount lying between the maximum and minimum, which has

notes, has of late been so unusually frequent, that I have reason to suppose double the quantity of what has been known at any foriner period, is at present in circulation.

From the great numbers of those gross fabrications called Fleet-notes, which have been imposed on the public, we may be convinced of the impossibility of wholly curing this evil. If that which did not profess to be a Bank of England note could obtain a degree of currency, as such we may easily suppose, that, in spite of every precaution, and every art, an exact imitation of them may be made, which will impose not on the untutored multitude only, but also on the artist himself. In detecting base metals, we are possessed of various easy criteria, such as weight, sound, &c. but by what means a correct imitation on paper can be discovered to be spurious I cannot conjecture. The banker rests easy and secure under the protection of his private marks, while the public who accepts of them chiefly for his conveniency must be subject to an irremediable evil.

As the substitution of so cheap a material as paper, in place of the precious metals, must evidently be most advantageous to bankers, though very little so to the public, I have thought it rather hard that the whole of the risque aud loss of forgeries should be perpetually thrown on those who partake of none of the profits. If bankers cannot secure us against forgeries, I deem it no unreasonable demand that they, from whom the evil originates, and who enjoy the advantages, should, on all occasions of fair trade, hear the half of the loss. Such a practice

a practice would give no encouragement ing than a mere reference to the custom to forgers, fear of detection would pre- of using skins for mattresses. vent them from making any application for redress. Beside, I would propose that no forged notes should be thus indemuified, unless they could be satisfactorily traced back to their third possessor, which would operate also as a premium to detect the utterer or forger.

But the difficulty of distinguishing ge nuine from forged notes, is not the only perplexity to which we are subject; often must they be taken at all hazards, when offered by strangers whose address we have no opportunity of authenticating. Nor is this ail, for, we are taught, by a very remarkable and important anecdote recorded in your Magazine for April, that we are not safe, according to the strict interpretation of law, to accept of them from a substantial well-known neighbour, unless accompanied with the formality of neutral witnesses.

I wish to inquire of those who are learned in the subtleties of law, whether this formality might be dispensed with if the name of the person from whom the note is received be indorsed in bis presence, or with his own hand? W. N.

Bedford Row, May 22, 1812.

For the Monthly Magazine. ACCOUNT of the TOWNLEY STATUES in the BRITISH MUSEUM, by the REV. THOMAS

DUDLEY FOSBROOKE, M.A. F.A.S.

(Tenth Room.)

O. 1. A head of Adonis, covered

Nwith the pyramidal hod.

The lower part of the face and neck is covered with drapery. It is very fine, and, if correctly appropriated, is, I believe, Adonis in inferis.

No. 2. A piece of marble, ornamented with branches of the olive and the vine.

No. 3. Cupid sleeping upon a lion's skin. Mr. Dallaway says, of another Cupid in this collection, (Art. p. 386,) Mr. Townley has a Cupid, small life, bending his bow, as Cupid, conqueror of heroes, expressed by the lion's skin on the trunk,alluding to the spoils of Hercules. This is one meaning of Cupid and the lion's skin. He is here, however, sleeping upon a lion's skin. The ancients used skins for mattresses, covers of seats, &c. (See Il. A. v. 342.) and priests used to sleep upon skins of the victims in temples, in order to divine by their dreams. Cupid steeping upon a lion's skin may therefore bear no other mean

No. 4. An epitaph upon a Dog. I forget what nation it is which is mentioned by Plutarch, as building temples to dogs, and interring them, in particular, with great pomp. I think it was a nation of Magna Grecia; but the reader will recollect Martial's Issa, &c. &c.

No. 5. Juno crowned with a broad indented diadem. Winckelmann very properly notices the impropriety of applying the word diadem to the ornament of the head, peculiar to goddesses, especially Juno. This marble very clearly shows what Homer means by Bows, the eyes, being those peculiar to the Queen of Jupiter, are an obtuse oval, and are distinctly exhibited. The ornament of the head which characterises Juno is an inverted crescent, escalloped. See the bronze head found at Herculaneum, Tom. vi. P. 261.

No. 6. A head of Cybele. Ileads of Cybele are very rare: they are often confounded with personified towns or provinces. (Mongez Rec. d'Antiq. pars i. p. 1.) The French Imperial collection has an exquisitely beautiful gem, with the head of this goddess engraved in the above work, pl. i. fig. 1.

No. 7. A Lion's head from a sarcophagus.

No. 8. A granite bason.

No. 9. A mask from a sarcophagus, The masks fixed against the wall at Pompeia, by some sepulchres, are well known. Masks were very commonly figured upon sepulchral stones, and they have been found included in tombs, as in that of a child, in the gallery of S. Ig. nacius at Rome. Winckelmann observes, upon this subject, that the ancients took impressions in clay of the faces of the dead, and put this kind of masks in tombs, by the side of the bodies. According to Pachichelli, (de Mascheris seu Lurvis,) masks of saints are shown in numerous churches, as for instance, that of a Thea tine religious exhibited at Naples, In the cabinet of S. Genevieve is a plaister mask moulded upon the face of a famous criminal after execution: but the masks upon tombs are presumed by some writers to denote the sarcophagi of comedians, the mask referring to the character in which they most distinguished themselves. This is very unsatisfactory: masks were usual in many religious ceremonies, especially those of Bacchus: and Panvinius particularly shows their use in

funeral

funeral pomps. Upon a gem in Stosch, Lachesis, one of the Fates, sits upon a comic mask, and has before her a tragic mask; she winds upon a distaff the destiny of man. The tragic mask is the symbol of the fate of heroes, as the comic is of the private life of simple mortals. This gem shews that the mask hus a meaning, and I am far from thinking such as has been just assigned. It is annexed to a figure of a Fate who is winding up Destiny; the bitter and sweet of human existence seem to me to be alluded to in the tragic and comic mask. After all, however, the mask here may be a mere ornament, though, from the passages quoted, it is evidently not considered as such by our greatest antiquaries.

No. 10. An intoxicated Faun. No. 11. A head of Apollo. No. 12. A laughing Faun. Montfau. con quotes Horace for laughing satyrs, and has given from Beger a head of a Faun ; (i. p. ii. b. i. c. 25.) There he has the mouth wide open; but this is not the Faun smile. "The mouth," says Winckelmann, "is mostly a little raised at the extremities, which gives them that sweet smile, that soft and infantine aspect, which enchants us in the heads of Corregio."

No. 13. A torso of a small Venus. It is remarkably fine: the waist is very small.

man ladies, says Winckelmann, have coeffures of false bair. Thus the statue of Lucilla, wife of the Emperor Lucius Verus, preserved at the Capitol, has hair of black marble, made in such a fashion, as to take off or on, at option. (Hist. de l'Art,) Ovid, Martial, Pecerius, and Tertullian, speak of the false hair in the manner of wigs, &c. worn by

women.

No. 25. A small head of a young man, covered with a helmet, which is orna mented with the horns of a ram. Plutarch (in Pyrrhus,) says, that the helmet of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was ornamented with ram's horns. Lysimachus has ram's horns fastened to his diadem, not as son of Jupiter Ammon, but as a symbol of force and power. It is thus that the kings of Asia wore them, Antigonus, Demetrius, and Sapor, king of the Parthians. (Amm. Marcell. L. 19, c. 1.) See the portrait of Lysimachus in the Flo rentine Collection. (Gem. i. pl. 25.) Helmets of barbarians with horns occur in the trophies of Herculaneum.

For the Monthly Magazine.

RULES for ASCERTAINING by INSPECTION or MEMORITER the ROOT of any CUBE NUMBER not exceeding 9 PLACES of FIGURES, whose Root can be EXPRESSED in whole NUMBERS.

No. 14. A Muse sitting upon a rock and playing upon a lyre. It is Terpsichore; see the Etruscan tomb in Gori, T (Idser. Etrus. T. iii. pl. 33,) and a Corbelian, Paste, &c. in Stosch.

No. 15. A child with the breast naked. No. 16. A Diana, with the hair drawn up from the sides, and tied in a knot, at the top of the head, that is, the Corym bus, or uniform token of virginity. See Mr. Dallaway's remarks on this coeffure in his Arts: and the observations on No. 52.

No. 17 to 23. Liberas and Libers, or simple Bacchuses. One of these is a double head, joined back to back. The reason of these double heads, Janusfashion, is not commonly known. Count Caylus (Rec. ii. pl. 26, n. 2,) positively ascribes the invention to the Etruscans, who transmitted it to the Greeks and Romans. Winckelmann says, that they often formed the top of a door post, and were double, in order to appear both within and without.

No. 24. A small female head, the hair of which is formed of a distinct piece of marble, and is fitted to the head in the manner of a wig. Many heads of Ro

1

2

do this observe that-if the root R be,

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -the cube C is,

1 8 27 64 125 216 343 512 729 Note-For brevity-the figure in the place of units will be called the units figure," that in the place of tens, the "tens figure,"

and so on.

Rule 1.

To ascertain the " units figure" in root. This is done by simple inspection, for it will be seen by the foregoing table that the "units figure" in cube varies according to the units figure" in root; and, for the more readily remembering this, note if the "units figure" in C ends in 1, 4, 5, 6, or 9, the units figure" in R ends in a similar figure-the figures 2 and 8 reciprocate in roots and cubes, and the like of 3 and 7,—thus,

if C ends in 3 R ends in 8

To ascertain the "tens figure" in ront."
There