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This reservation on the part of every Government, is made for the purpose of preserving inviolate the great medium of commerce and exchange. It is because coined bullion actually was, the real medium of commerce and exchange. With the same views, justified by the precedent of every civilized nation in Europe, the federal Government of America received from the people the exclusive right of superintending and regulating the coinage of the country, and of preserving the exclusive control over the mintthe mint of the United States.

The ground of this was, that the coin of the country, was every where the medium of the commerce of the country. The reason of the privilege therefore, points to this-that the Government of every country ought to have the exclusive control over the common medium of commerce, whatever that medium may be. If circumstances for instance, had rendered it convenient to substitute platinum for gold, or nickel for silver, the reason of the privilege would have extended to platinum and nickel, for the same cause that it extended before to gold and to silver.

In England, since the stoppage of specie payments, the medium of commerce is no longer gold and silver, but bank notes. The Government of England therefore as it appears from this speech of Mr. Grenfell, deem their privilege to extend to bank notes, for the same reason that it heretofore, and still does extend to gold

and silver.

We have imitated the financial conduct, publickly and privately of Great Britain to a certain degree. We have substituted as they have done, paper money for gold and silver coin. We pay in that, all private, all public debts. Paper money is now the medium of commerce: no one pretends that there is actually in the country, coin to redeem the paper money issued. The reason of the thing, extends therefore to paper money: and why should not we carry our imitations of Great Britain to the extent they arrogate? this is an important subject, which shall be taken up again. ED. The speech of Pascoe Greenfell, Esq. in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the 13th of February 1816, on certain transactions subsisting betwixt the Public and the Bank of England. With an Appendix. London, Murray, 8vo, 1816.

OF

[From the Monthly Magazine.]

F late years the Parliament of Britain has signalized itself by collecting and disseminating information on several important points of national economy. We imagine it would be hard for the most determined reformer to shew how, by mere extension of the elective franchise, or any enlarged constitution of the legislative body, an House of Commons could be found more worthy, in this respect, of the public confidence. At a time when party violence has graduated through various heights, until at last it seems to have reached its acme, it is well to resort to any thing which can excite, on fair grounds, a favourable view of the intelligence and integrity of the assembly which makes laws for us. On its reputation for wisdom or folly, the intellectual character, as well as the

LXXVI.

But oh! what words the vision may portray
The form of sanctitude that guards thy shrine?
There stands thy goddess, robed in war's array,
Supremely glorious, awfully divine!

With spear and helm she stands, and flowing vest,
And sculptured ægis, to perfection wrought,
And on each heavenly lineament imprest,
Calmly sublime, the majesty of thought;

The pure intelligence, the chaste repose,—
All that a poet's dream around Minerva throws.'

The following lines touch with a glowing pencil the frieze of the Parthenon now so well known.

XCII.

'Mark-on the storied frieze the graceful train,
The holy festival's triumphal throng,

In fair procession, to Minerva's fane,

With many a sacred symbol move along.

There every shade of bright existence trace,
The fire of youth, the dignity of age;

The matron's calm austerity of grace,

The ardent warrior, the benignant sage;

The nymph's light symmetry, the chief's proud mien,
Each ray of beauty caught and mingled in the scene.'
The other Elgin Marbles are alluded to as follows:

XCVI.

'Gaze on yon forms, corroded and defaced-
Yet there the germ of future glory lies!
Their virtual grandeur could not be erased,

It clothes them still, though veiled from common eyes.
They once were gods and heroes-and beheld
As the best guardians of their native scene;

And hearts of warriors, sages, bards, have swelled

With awe that owned their sovereignty of mien.

-Ages have vanished since those hearts were cold,

And still those shattered forms retain their godlike mould.'

The poem then gives a prophetic vision of the future trophies of our own country in the fine arts, the sole wreath yet unwon by her, and concludes with the following lines:

'So, should dark ages o'er thy glory sweep,
Should thine e'er be as now are Grecian plains,
Nations unborn shall track thine own blue deep
To hail thy shore, to worship thy remains;
Thy mighty monuments with reverence trace,
And cry, "this ancient soil hath nursed a glorious race!""

We now take our leave of the author, with a hope that we shall soon meet with her again, and earnestly recommend her work to all the lovers of elegant classical allusion and genuine poetry.

397

ART. VII.--Sketch of a Tradition, related by a Monk, in Switzerland. From the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine.

Mr. EDITOR,

N the course of an excursion, during the autumn of last year, through the wildest and most secluded parts of Switzerland, I took up my residence, during one stormy night, in a convent of capuchin friars, not far from Altorf, the birth-place of the famous William Tell. In the course of the evening, one of the fathers related a story, which, both on account of the interest which it is naturally calculated to excite, and the impressive manner in which it was told, produced a very strong effect upon my mind. I noted it down briefly in the morning, in my journal, preserving as much as possible the old man's style, but it has no doubt lost much by translation.

Having just read lord Byron's drama, "Manfred," there appears to me such a striking coincidence in some characteristic features, between the story of that performance and the Swiss tradition, that without further comment, I extract the latter from my journal, and send it for your perusal. It relates to an ancient family, now extinct, whose names I neglected to write down, and have now forgotten; but that is a matter of little importance.

'His soul was wild, impetuous, and uncontrollable. He had a keen perception of the faults and vices of others, without the power of correcting his own; alike sensible of the nobility, and of the darkness of his moral constitution, although unable to cultivate the one to the exclusion of the other.

'In extreme youth, he led a lonely and secluded life in the solitude of a Swiss valley, in company with an only brother, some years older than himself, and a young female relative, who had been educated along with them from her birth. They lived under the care of an aged uncle, the guardian of those extensive domains which the brothers were destined jointly to inherit.

A peculiar melancholy, cherished and increased by the utter seclusion of that sublime region, had, during the period of their infancy, preyed upon the mind of their father, and finally produced the most dreadful result. The fear of a similar tendency in the minds of the brothers, induced their protector to remove them, at an early age, from the solitude of their native country. The elder was sent to a German university, and the younger completed his education in one of the Italian schools.

After the lapse of many years, the old guardian died, and the elder of the brothers returned to his native valley; he there formed an attachment to the lady with whom he had passed his infancy; and she, after some fearful forebodings, which were unfortunately silenced by the voice of duty and of gratitude, accepted of his love, and became his wife.

In the meantime, the younger brother had left Italy, and travelled over the greater part of Europe. He mingled with the world, and gave full scope to every impulse of his feelings. But that world, with the exception of certain hours of boisterous passion and excitement, afforded him little pleasure, and made no lasting impression upon his heart. His greatest joy was in the wildest impulses of the imagination.

"His spirit, though mighty and unbounded, from his early habits and education naturally tended to repose; he thought with delight on the sun rising among the Alpine snows, or gilding the peaks of the rugged hills with its evening rays. But within him he felt a fire burning for ever, and which the snows of his native mountains could not quench. He feared that he was alone in the world, and that no being, kindred to his own, had been created; but in his soul there was an image of angelic perfection, which he believed existed not on earth, but without which he knew he could not be happy. Despairing to find it in populous cities, he retired to his paternal domain. On again entering upon the scenes of his infancy, many new and singular feelings were experienced he is enchanted with the surpassing beauty of the scenery, and wonders that he should have rambled so long and so far from it. The noise and the bustle of the world were immediately forgotten on contemplating

The silence that is in the starry sky,

The sleep that is among the lonely hills.'

A light, as it were, broke around him, and exhibited a strange and momentary gleam of joy and of misery mingled together. He entered the dwelling of his infancy with delight, and met his brother with emotion. But his dark and troubled eye betokened a fearful change, when he beheld the other playmate of his infancy. Though beautiful as the imagination could conceive, she appeared otherwise than he expected. Her form and face were associated with some of his wildest reveries, his feelings of affection were united with many undefinable sensations,— he felt as if she was not the wife of his brother, although he knew her to be so, and his soul sickened at the thought.

'He passed the night in a feverish state of joy and horror. From the window of a lonely tower, he beheld the moon shining amid the bright blue of an Alpine sky, and diffusing a calm and beautiful light on the silvery snow. The eagle owl uttered her long and plaintive note from the castellated summits which overhung the valley, and the feet of the wild chamois were heard rebounding from the neighbouring rocks; these accorded with the gentler feelings of his mind, but the strong spirit which so frequently overcame him, listened with intense delight to the dreadful roar of an immense torrent, which was precipitated from the summit of an adjoining cliff, among broken rocks and pines, overturned and uprooted, or to the still mightier voice of the avalanche, suddenly descending with the accumulated snows of a hundred years.

In the morning he met the object of his unhappy passion. Her eyes were dim with tears, and a cloud of sorrow had darkened the light of her lovely countenance.

'For some time there was a mutual constraint in their manner, which both were afraid to acknowledge, and neither was able to dispel. Even the uncontrollable spirit of the wanderer was oppressed and overcome, and he wished he had never returned to the dwelling of his ancestors. The lady is equally aware of the awful peril of their situation, and without the knowledge of her husband, she prepared to depart from tae castle, and take the veil in a convent situated in a neighbouring valley.

With this resolution she departed on the following morning; but in crossing an Alpine pass, which conducted by a nearer route to the adjoining valley, she was enveloped in mists and vapour, and lost all knowledge of the surrounding country. The clouds closed in around her, and a tremendous thunder storm took place in the valley beneath. She wandered about for some time, in hopes of gaining a glimpse through the clouds of some accustomed object to direct her steps, till exhausted by fatigue and fear, she reclined upon a dark rock, in the crevices of which, though it was now the heat of summer, there were many patches of snow. There she sat, in a state of feverish delirium, till a gentle air dispelled the dense vapour from before her feet, and discovered an enormous chasm, down which she must have fallen, if she had taken another step. While breathing a silent prayer to Heaven for this providential escape, strange sounds were heard, as of some disembodied voice floating among the clouds. Suddenly she perceived, within a few paces, the figure of the wanderer tossing his arms in the air, his eye inflamed, and his general aspect wild and distracted-he then appeared meditating a deed of sin, she rushed towards him, and, clasping him in her arms, dragged him backwards, just as he was about to precipitate himself into the gulf below.

'Overcome by bodily fatigue, and agitation of mind, they remained for some time in a state of insensibility. The brother first revived from his stupor; and finding her whose image was pictured in his soul lying by his side, with her arms resting upon his shoulder, he believed for a moment that he must have executed the dreadful deed he had meditated, and had waked in heaven. The gentle form of the lady is again reanimated, and slowly she opened her beautiful eyes. She questioned. him regarding the purpose of his visit to that desolate spot-a full explanation took place of their mutual sensations, and they confessed the passion which consumed them.

'The sun was now high in heaven-the clouds of the morning had ascended to the loftiest Alps-and the mists, "into their airy elements resolved, were gone." As the god of day advanced, dark vallies were suddenly illuminated, and lovely lakes brightened like mirrors among the hills-their waters sparkling with the fresh breeze of the morning. The most beautiful clouds were sailing in the air-some breaking on the mountain tops, and others resting on the sombre pines, or slumbering on the surface of the unilluminated vallies. The shrill whistle of the marmot was no longer heard, and the chamois had bounded to its inaccessible retreat. The vast range of the neighbouring Alps was next distinctly visible, and presented, to the eyes of the beholder," glory beyond all glory ever seen."

In the meantime a change had taken place in the feelings of the mountain pair, which was powerfully strengthened by the face of nature. The glorious hues of earth and sky seemed indeed to sanction and rejoice in their mutual happiness. The darker spirit of the brother had now fearfully overcome him. The dreaming predictions of his most imaginative years appeared realized in their fullest extent, and the voice of prudence and of nature was inaudible amidst the intoxication of his joy. The object of his affection rested in his arms in a state of listless happiness, listening with enchanted ear to his wild and impassioned eloquence, and careless of all other sight or sound.

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