gay and happy Mily Muldoon was placed.

The men were drawn up in line and the band struck a low mournful air, as the cart slowly past up the line from left to right, to the fatal spot, a lonely olive tree, in the centre of the little valley. It is useless to dwell much longer on my painful story. He suffered severely for his crime, and some, perhaps, will say, that his punishment was dealt out with too rigorous a hand. He was the victim of strong passions, excited by wrong and injustice, and young Muldoon sleeps in that narrow little valley, beneath the lonely olive tree. But Maria, what pen shall describe her pitiable condition, when she heard of the fate of her lover, and of

his innocence and misfortunes-his miserable death? Her brain could not remain firm beneath the weight of grief that oppressed her, for she partly blamed herself for his death. She was seized with fever-a burning fever.She raved continually of her lover and his comrade-of hanging and shooting, and when the fever left her, it left her a miserable maniac. When we quitted the country, she was often to be seen seated on the brown mound of earth that covered the body of Muldoon, but I have since heard that she is dead. She left her father's house

one night very ill, they did not miss her for some time, and she was found lifeless on his grave.

J. L. L.

Since the discovery of America, vast quantities of the precious metals have been poured into Europe, and distributed from time to time, through the commercial world at large. Gold, the most valuable of these metals, is almost indestructible by the ordinary operations of fire in the process of melting or by the action of the atmosphere. Its weight, indeed, (like that of all other bodies, the parts of which are separable by attrition) may be diminished by friction, but cannot be les sened by heat or by moisture, or by any of the common causes which produce change in other substances of less intrinsic value. Hence we entertain no doubt, but that some of the gold now in general circulation, as money, may have descended to us from the most remote periods of antiquity, after having undergone a thousand transmutations of form. The same piece of metal may, perhaps, have served as pay to one of the warriors of Alexander the Great, and to one of the soldiers of his successful rival in fame, the Duke of Wellington. Silver also, though not so indestructible as gold, is yet a substance of such durability that it is capable of being transmitted from generation to generation, with little diminution of specific weight.

Under these circumstances, it may seem extraordinary that the quantity of these precious metals is not continually and sensibly augmented in the commercial world, in a high ratio indeed; and it may be worth while to investigate the operating causes, which in this respect counterbalance the effects of their incessant influx into the general commercial mart.

Gold and silver possess a real value in themselves, independently of their use as a circulating medium of commerce, in the form of coin. Their beauty, their capability of assuming and retaining any shape, either for use or for elegant display-their durability -their imperviousness to water-the

facility with which they may be kept clean; in short, their useful qualities soon attracted the attention of mankind, and their value was enhanced by their scarcity. To these qualities they owe the high degree of estimation in which they were held, long before any portion of them bore an imprimatur as current coin.

The precious metals may therefore be viewed in a twofold capacity-first, as the materials of sundry manufactures, and consequently articles of commerce on that account. Secondly, as a circulating medium of traffic in the form of money.

In the former capacity, their use is extensive, and the loss or waste of the metals themselves immense. So long ago as the year 1775, the quantity of gold and silver employed, by the manufacturers of Birmingham, in gilding and plating alone, and thus disqualified from again appearing in the gross form of these metals, amounted in value to more than £50,000 sterling per annum-(Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. 1st.) At that time the annual import of gold and silver by the Spaniards, amounted, according to the same author, to about £6,000,000. That a vast quantity of these imports must have been consumed, by the gilders and platers of all the other manufacturing towns of Europe, is obvious on the slightest reflection; and we know that the demand for such goods has been greatly increased since that period. Neckar affirms that, prior to the year 1789, the precious metals were consumed yearly in France to the amount of £840,000 sterling in jewellery, lace, and embroidered stuffs, manufactured in that kingdom. Forbonnais, as quoted by Humboldt, estimates the quantity of gold and silver subducted annually from the general circulation or stock in Europe, by friction, by lace, plated goods, &c. &c. in various forms, at £1,300,000; but we shall now, in further proof of this part of our argu

ment briefly recite a few particulars more immediately connected with the subject in hand,

Considerable quantities of these metals are expended in making gold drapery, silvered stuffs, gilt furniture-on books and picture frames-in setting jewels-in brooches, ear-rings, fingerrings, bracelets, clasps for girdles, chains, crosses, necklaces, silver purses, snuff-boxes, cords, assels, fringes, stomachers, embroideries of all kinds, silver and gold nets, and other ornaments for the hair, watches, and their cases, chains, seals, pins, pencils, thimbles, handles of pen knives, fruit knives, tooth and ear picks, rims of spectacles, and eye glasses; silver used in large and small bells, in keys of musical instruments, ink stands, &c.; also in sword hilts, epaulettes, and other military ornaments—cum multis aliis.

The annual expenditure of gold and silver, in making solid plate for domestic uses is also prodigious. Modern luxury and taste for splendour are not to be contented with such simple apparatus and table ornaments as satisfied our hospitable but unostentatious ancestors. The sideboards of our modern gentry groan with massy plate, and the rage for such costly utensils, has descended through every gradation of society in middle life.

Having thus cursorily glanced at the particulars recited above, we now beg leave to add, that a great portion of the European, American, and Asiatic trade, with the Chinese empire, is carried on by means of the precious metals, particularly silver, and in that populous country the purchase of goods, with these metals, is a mere barter. Their value is ascertained by their weight and purity, not by their character as coin. It is obvious that the Chinese buy gold and silver, not merely as a circulating medium of commerce, but also as raw materials for some of their manufactures, for there is a continual influx into China, and little or no efflux of those metals from that vast empire, in which, of course they must long ago have superabounded, if they had been employed as current money alone.

We shall now glance not only at

some of the uses to which the precious metals are applied to in China, but at some amusing particulars connected with this branch of our subject.

This

In China, the working of the gold and silver mines is, in a great measure, prohibited by the Government, lest a too great abundance of the precious metals might depress the interests of agriculture. The gold, therefore, or a great part of it, found there, is collected in the sands of rivers and torrents which fall from the mountains in the western boundaries of the empire. A good deal of it is procured from the kingdoms of Ava and Pegue, and from the different nations trading for the teas, spices, and manufactures of the country. A very considerable quantity of silver is sent from Manilla, Japan, and Corea, into China. metal is chiefly melted into sheets, being one of the two circulating mediums of the empire. Gold is never coined, being purchased according to its weight and fineness. The following seem to be some of the great causes of consumption of the precious metals in this very extensive region; and first, as to silver, which, being what may be called the principal currency of the country, is in much demand. The merchants, mechanics, &c. carry it about them in a great variety of plates, beaten either thinner or thicker, for the convenience of cutting. There is no stamp on these plates, so that they are cut up from the largest to the smallest possible dimensions, for which purpose each individual carries with him a pair of small shears, and with wonderful accuracy clips from the main piece a quantity, that on being weighed will exactly correspond with the value of the article purchased. The scales employed for this purpose are so nicely balanced, that the one thousandth part of a crown will turn them. Still waste and loss to a considerable extent must result from this mode of transfer; and this loss must be increased by friction, as the metal passes from hand to hand through this immense and populous empire.

As to gold; gilding in China, of which the inhabitants are very fond,

of Kian-li, than 500 furnaces.-Moreover, in the shops of the several cities and towns of the provinces great quantities of gold and silver utensils, jewellery and other trinkets, in the ornamenting of which this metal is employed, are ranged for sale in a most tasteful manner, and are not unlike the richest goldsmiths' or jewellers' shops in London. Above all-numberless pieces of gold and silver are put by the rich into the mouths of their deceased relations among other deposits, as a provision for the next world, when they are about to lay them in the grave. The same practice prevails among the Lolos, a people inhabiting the mountainous districts of Ava and Pegue, but subject to the Chinese government.

The Lifans also consume a great deal of gold in offerings to their idols, as do many of the wandering clans on the frontiers of the remote provinces. An extraordinary quantity of the same metal is continually employed in the decoration of Lama temples, some of which are so splendidly adorned, that they have been termed golden chapels. In short, the great drain of the precious metals in the various ways in which they are employed, has rendered the common rate of interest for money in China very high, and it is seldom less than 30 per cent. From 1775 to 1795, the amount of the bullion sent by the East India Company alone into China, came to £3,676,010. The quantity sent since that period is probably more than doubled-for the demand for tea, &c. has vastly increased.

The internal commerce of China, in which gold and silver form a considerable part, is greater than that of all Europe. The Chinese deal with the inhabitants of Siam, Manilla, Achun,

Malacca, Thorpatan, Ligon, and Cochin, China-from many of these places gold and silver are procured. There are few people more expert in the melting, refining, and working of the precious metals, than the Chinese. We learn from Gerboux, page 36-70, that before the year 1760, the East Indies and China absorbed annually £1,680,000 sterling of the precious metals extracted from the American mines. Humboldt estimates, that by the harbours of Canton, Macao and Emoue, £1,050,000 sterling enters China. He thinks that, by the commerce of the Levant, £840,000 sterling are annually subducted from the general circulation.

We shall now refer to a few specific authorities, for some curious particulars respecting some of the uses to which gold is applied in China.+

Grosier, in vol. 1, page 58, says, that in the island of Emouy is a pagoda consecrated to the deity Fo. On entering it, a vast portico presents itself, with an altar in the middle, on which is placed a gigantic statue of gilt brass, representing Fo sitting cross-legged. In another part of the pagoda the god Pousa is exhibited on a flower of gilt brass,(withseveral subaltern idols ranged around him,) and holding a young child in his arms. A gallery annexed contains twenty-four statues of gilt brass, representing the ancient disciples of Confucius, pages 61 and 62, vol. 1. In vol. 2d, Grosier states

ap

p. 201, that all the utensils employed in sacrificing in the great temple of the Tien-tan are of gold, and cannot be plied for any other purpose. In page 81, vol. 1, he says that in the city of Lintcin-tchiou, in the province of Chamtong, is an octagonal tower, in which are magnificent galleries with gilt balus