continued to be made, until the proceeds of several years' industry had been consumed in advance. There was then but one remedy, either to continue to borrow in advance, or to stop paying. The former was impossible, and the latter was resorted to. The state of affairs is now entirely different. There being no national bank machinery to "regulate exchanges," or to extend loans, the year's business must be settled with its close. When the surplus produce of a section of the country, or of the whole, in relation to its external trade, has been sent forward and the proceeds applied to the payment of goods, if there is still a balance due, specie must discharge it, and the account of the new year opens anew. Under the bank system, the balance was, by the operation of creditors, transferred to the new year, which, at its close, presented an adverse balance enhanced more than 100 per cent., which was again thrown forward until payment became impossible. No systems of credits, how extensive soever they may be, can supply the place of actual payment. When the banks stopped in 1837, it was because, as Mr. Biddle stated, there was so large a balance due from the interior to the Atlantic cities, and from the latter to Europe that it could not be paid. The specie in the country was not sufficient to discharge the balance. From that time up to 1840, near $200,000,000 of State and company stocks were sent abroad and mostly sold; but even they were insufficient to discharge the balance, because the false system of credits was continued from Philadelphia as a centre. The result was, not that the solvency of the banks was restored, but that nine sovereign States were made bankrupt, and the remaining States narrowly escaped the same fate; and that only, as in New York, by the timely stoppage of loans. The changing of the form of credit while the same system of extravagance was continued, did not enhance the means of the people to pay; nor did it multiply the proceeds of their industry. No matter to what extent the credits might have been multiplied, the same result was inevitable. When the failure of individuals and banks was followed by that of States, it was proposed to substitute the credit of the federal government, by its assumption of State debts. That event would have prolonged the period of extravagance a few years, and have been followed by irretrievable national bankruptcy. Before the failure of the States, the interest due annually abroad had reached 16 per cent. of the whole value of exports. That is, of $6 worth of produce sent out of the country, one was for the payment of interest. Under the guarantee of the federal government, there is no doubt but that the foreign debts would have swollen until the interest would have absorbed a full half of the exports. In such an event, national ruin was inevitable; but happily the torrent of debt and extravagance was stayed before any fatal disasters had taken place. In the existence and operation of the late National Bank, may undoubtedly be ascribed all the speculation which took place from the commencement of the operation of the tariff of 1828 to the explosion in 1837. It is true that emanating from London as a common centre, a stream of credits flowed over the face of the commercial world, carrying with it the germ of disaster. But the cheap money of England and the speculations which it engendered, found a response only in those quarters where a system of banking existed which employed the means obtained by credit in multiplying outstanding obligations through all the channels of trade. In those years money from England formed the capital of banks in all countries. Canada, the West Indies, Australia, India, Austria, Belgium, France, as well as the United States, all presented a banking mania. And it was through the instrumentality of these banks that all the world became indebted to England. When she called back her capital, universal ruin was the consequence. In the United States, the late National Bank was the direct instrument in extending credits, which were applied mostly to the purchase of foreign goods, and which eventually could not be paid for. In order to show how closely and intimately the tariff was connected with the movement of that institution, we shall take a table of its loans, specie and circulation in July for a series of years, and a table of imports of goods into the United States, as follows :— LOANS, SPECIE, AND CIRCULATION OF THE LATE NATIONAL BANK IN JULY, FOR A SERIES OF YEARS, WITH THE IMPORT AND EXPORT OF GOODS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE CORRESPONDING YEARS. In the year, September, 1828, the import of goods was large, to avoid the duties which were imposed in September of that year. Now we observe that the movement of the banks, in the six years, from 1823 to 1829, was very regular. The tariff of 1824, which was moderate in its effects, caused an increase of 50 per cent. in the specie, and enabled it to raise its circulation to $10,000,000, at which point it remained until the close of 1828. Now it is observable that the excess of import over export for the eight years, closing with 1830, was only $24,192,076. In 108,118,311 the next three, with the same duty, the excess of imports was $53,710,742, because, in that period, the bank had doubled its circulation and increased its loans $20,000,000, or 50 per cent. Here is cause and effect very clearly established. Under the low tariff, prior to 1828, the annual excess of imports was $3,000,000; and in the subsequent year of high tariff, $16,000,000 per annum. The extension of the bank was more in proportion at the western branches than at the mother bank. The Kentucky branch, alone, increased its circulation as follows: MONTHLY LITERARY BULLETIN. AMERICAN. Prof. Von Raumer has a great philosophical work in progress on this country, its constitution, genius of its inhabitants, &c.; and it will form an admirable companion to M. De Tocqueville's popular volumes. The Professor, by the way, received the most marked attention by the citizens of Philadelphia, on his visits, recently, being invited to a splendid banquet on the occasion, at which numerous literary men were pre sent. Langley has announced a little Manual "On Headaches," by Weatherhead, anthor of sundry other treatises, &c. We hear Gregg's valuable volumes, "The Commerce of the Prairies," are selling rapidly, and that their meritorious author is likely to reap a golden harvest, not of opinions merely, but something more substantial. J. S. Redfield announces the "Elements of Comparative Anatomy," designed especially for the use of students, by Rudolph Wagner, M. D., Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Göttingen, &c. &c. Edited by Albert Tulk, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons; also, “The Pictorial History of the American Revolution," illustrated with several hundred engravings, in one volume, 8vo.; the "Mil tary Maxims of Napoleon,' translated from the French, with notes and illustrations by Col. D'Aguilar. The lovers of the comic will be gratified to learn that an American edition of the inimitable "Punch," has just appeared, under the title of " A Bowl of Punch,' comprising the best of the spicy ingredients of that creamy original. "Punch" has long been looked upon as the fountain of fun; he is often wonderfully clever, and always amusing. Some of the first pens of England have enriched his columns. While speaking of the humorous, we might mention another forthcoming novelty, which is shortly to appear, neatly embellished, and which we suppose the initiated will be glad to see; it is to be entitled “The History and Mystery of Puffing, or a Few Fragrant Whiffs from the Weed," &c.; a light and laughing mélange, by T. Buckey. Lea & Blanchard are about to publish a valuable historical series, on the popu lar plan; including, among others, the following: "Ranke's History of the Reformation;" ""Proctor's History of Italy;" "Thierry's History of the Conquest of England;" "Michelet's History of France;" "Walpole's Memoirs of George the Third ;" "Kohlarusch's History of Germany;" "Guizot's Essay on History," the complete work; "The History of the Unit States of America, from the plantation of the British Colonies till their Revolt and Declaration of Independence, by James Grahame, Esquire, with notes, additions, and a continuation;" "Wraxall's Posthumous Memoirs," and other works. "Count Julian, or the Last Days of the Goths," is the title of a romance by the author of the "Yeinassee," &c., which is now in the press. Mr. Griswold is preparing "The Bench and Bar in America," a biographical history, which will be rich in the curiosities of legal experience, in anecdote, and in general information respecting the profession, from the first organization of the courts in New England. Longfellow's volume, which, like Griswold's, will be issued by Messrs. Carey and Hart in a style to match the "Poets and Poetry of America," will comprise liberal selections from the poets of France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Sclavonian nations, translated by the learned editor, and other eminent poets and scholars, with an elaborate historical and critical introduction. A large and superbly illustrated edition of Campbell will be issued very soon by Lea & Blanchard. It will be preceded by a Life of the Poet, by Washington Irving; an Essay on his genius, by Lord Jeffrey, and accompanied with notes by Mr. Griswold. Dr. Copland's celebrated work, "A Dictionary of Practical Medicine," edited, revised, and brought up to the present time, by Prof. Charles A. Lee, has at length made its debût. We congratulate the profession upon the appearance of such a truly valuable work; and we cannot doubt that they will evince their estimate of its claims, by extending their unanimous and prompt support to it. It is to be completed in about twenty parts, fifty cents each, the first of which is now ready. We have purposely delayed the issue of the present Number of the Democratic Review, to the middle, instead of the first of the month, to await the decision of the Great Issue, which at the date of our last hung trembling in the scales of a most deeply and intensely anxious suspense. No one will accuse us of having been content, meanwhile, with a place among the inactive spectators of the fray; a daily paper, hotly engaged in its very midst, having borne daily witness to the contrary. We wished to know, before again meeting our readers, to whom in October we addressed a "last word before the election," what tone was meet for the "first word after," whether we should have to rejoice with them over our country saved, or to sympathize in their grief over her sore calamity, if not her fatal ruin. Whether, in the latter event, our present article might not have been our last, and whether we should have had the heart to continue any longer, through this or any other organ of political action, the vain struggle against the rising and overwhelming tides of corruption and wrong, we seriously doubt. But, thank God, our trust in the people, in our cause, in the destiny of our country, and in the Providence that watches over it, has not been disappointed. All the long struggles of weary years, for the maintenance of the true principles of our government, have not been in vain. The strong labors of countless powerful minds, and the earnest prayers of as many noble hearts, for the firm establishment in the popular mind of those great ideas which constitute the political Faith of the Democratic Party, have not been all wasted. The country has not been committed to the government of that badly great man, Henry Clay, and the ascendency of all those false and fatal heresies of doctrine summed up in the word which he has given to the political vocabulary, Clayism." Again, from the bottom of our heart, we exclaim, thank God for it ! We have grazed this great peril much closer than we had imagined we should. We have had a much more equal fight to fight, a much harder victory to achieve, than two or three months ago we dreamed could be the case. And when we dwell upon the small relative majorities by which we have carried the three great Democratic States of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia-together with our loss of some other States on which we had rested a confidence disappointed by the event-we feel as men who tremble as they look back on some fearful abyss miraculously crossed. But, slight and frail as may have been the narrow bridge by which the yawning gulf of political ruin has been thus cleared, we are at last triumphantly over, and again on solid ground, where a long career of happy and honorable success lies before us, smooth and safe, forward and upward, where no future perils, for many a prosperous year, menace our path, comparable to the one now so providentially escaped, so gloriously triumphed over. We confess that we had expected a much more sweeping victory. We regret that the States of Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio and (perhaps) Indiana, could have been brought, however small their majorities, to vote for Mr. Clay We did indeed much underrate the power of an active organization, reckless of its modes and means; actuated by high-strung party passion; stimulated by unlimited profusion of money; warmed by an unprecedented personal enthusiasm for a leader; and pushed to the point of extremest desperation, by the universal consciousness that it was the very last chance left, between the alternatives of most splendid triumph or most irretrievable disgrace and dissolution. We knew that such a party organization could do a great deal, but did not suspect that it could have done so much, to bear up under the depressing weight of such a candidate and such a cause. But it is all over now-it was but the last struggling convulsion of departing vitality;—and the great Whig Party of the last twelve or fourteen years, with the Chief in whose person had been concentrated its most complete incarnate representation, now lies like the Philistine giant whose spear was a weaver's beam, lifeless and stark at the feet of the young Genius of Democracy, still quivering with the excitement of the victory achieved only by the aid of a higher power than its own simple sling and pebble from the brook. The more reflection is bestowed upon it, the more strongly will the truth come forth, out of the confused background of the whole tumultuous movement of the late contest, that this is the most important election that has taken place in this country since that of Jefferson in 1800. Jackson's first and second elections were both very momentous ones-the first, for the sake of the vindication of the principle of the supremacy of the popular will over the corrupt intrigues of personal ambition, which made it necessary thus to punish and rebuke that first fatal great crime of Clay's political life, the Coalition ;and the second, for the preservation of the country from the perpetuated dominion of that mammoth money monopoly, now, thank heaven, disposed of for ever. But the present election has involved not only all the issues connected with these two, but also a great deal more. Mr. Van Buren's election did not immediately involve any other great point of political truth or public morality, than that of the importance of defeating an avowed attempt to frustrate the will of the majority of the people by the expedient of running three or four distinct opposition candidates, of various schools of political doctrine, in the different sections of the country, for the almost treasonable purpose of preventing an election by the people, and carrying the Presidency to be again bought and sold in the House of Representatives. And as for his second candidateship, which resulted in the election of Harrison and Tyler, though we had the great question of the Independence of the Treasury, yet it lost some of its importance from the non-committalism of the opposition on the subject of the currency and future fiscal system;and though it was highly desirable to rebuke by defeat the disgraceful system of electioneering then brought into play, from the very contempt, entertained by those who used it, for the people whom they insulted while they betrayed, yet after all it was rather in spite of, than by means of that system, that they succeeded as they did, by the operation of causes mainly fortuitous, and temporary in their nature. None of these late previous elections can be compared, in point of importance to the very vitals of our politics, with the present one, which involves, concentrated into one comprehensive general issue, everything that they all involved-with, as before remarked, a great deal more besides. The stakes won on all former victories were collected into one precious pile of hazard on this contest. This was the last closing campaign of the entire long war which began in Jackson's first term, and continued through various vicissitudes of success and defeat from that day to this. Henry Clay has been the great chief of the Bank Anti-Republican, Anti-Democratic party, in every battle of this prolonged and tremendous struggle of parties, principles and policies. If only once before, within that period, he was in person the actual Presidential Candidate of his party, it was from prudential distrust of his want of popularity, |