stand by the communion of one intelligent being with another intelligent being; and Mr. O. explains it from Cyprian by germanissimam societatem. At p. 196, he uses many metaphorical expressions to illustrate this matter. The misfortune is, metaphorical expressions have no literal meaning, and therefore afford us no distinct knowledge. Mr. O. indeed kindly puts the word union in CAPITALS, and if this mended the matter we should be much obliged to him; but I do not find the word more intelligible in upper case than it is in lower case letter. Mr. O. talks too of the incorporation of believers with Christ from the homilies, and the union or mutual participation, which is between Christ and his church from the judicious Hooker, which that great writer says, is by way of special interest, property, inherent copulation, original derivation, and mystical association. Now if these words have any literal meaning I wish Mr. O. would acquaint us with it, but if it is all metaphor, allusion, allegory, &c. which admits of no kind of precision, or distinct knowledge, then what becomes of that blessed experience which we are taught to look for? For how, as Mr. L. observed in his Essay, is it possible for us to experience a metaphor? How far the author of Scripture Characters, who has as much zeal, and more sense than all these moderate Calvinists put together, will think himself obliged to Mr. O. for taking up the cudgels in his behalf, and aiming at a defence, which he himself thought prudent to decline, not only in print, but even in a manuscript, circulated hugger mugger amongst his zealous friends, for the confirination of such weak brethren as unanswerable arguments might have unsettled, is not for me to say." p. 12, 13. "At p. 118, Mr. O. talks of a salvation begun in this life. I do not recollect that the Scriptures mention any thing of a salvation begun in this life; but as Mr. O. never tells us what he means, or what he thinks he means, by the words he uses, so it is very of ten impossible to discover whether he has any distinct meaning or not. He asks, indeed, at p. 110, whether it is improper, when the Redeemer thus blessed men by turning them away from their iniquities, delivering them from the condemnation and dominion of sin, and enabling them to serve him VOL. I. without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their life, to style it a present salvation! The question is not whether it is proper, or improper to call these blessings salvation, but whether the Scripture calls them so? And will Mr. O. say, that when he calls them salvation, he uses that word in its natural, obvious, plain, literal, true, primitive and original meaning and sense, p. 30, 46, 346, about which he can make such a fuss when it suits him; and can depart as readily as any, not only from the natural, obvious, plain, literal, true, primitive, and original sense and meaning, but from all sense and meaning whatever. But if we are to understand by the word salvation, what is always understood by it in Scripture, deliverance from hell, and admittance into heaven, I cannot see, whatever these deepsighted Calvinists (as Mr. Newton calls them) can see, that heaven or hell make a part of this present world; nor can I discover how men in this life can experience matters, which are not to be objects of their senses till the next." p. 15, 16. "But Mr. O. will prove from Scripture what is absolutely impossible, that men in these days may have the evidence of sense, for the reality of facts which took place almost eighteen hundred years ago, that is nearly as many centuries before they were born; and he wisely supposes this impossibility may be proved from 1 John v. 10. because there must be some sense in what St. John says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:' The witness of what? Not surely of the resurrection of Jesus, any more than of his baptism, his transfiguration, his crucifixion, or of any other event of his life. All the apostles, I suppose, believed on the Son of God, and yet we read that only Peter, and Janies, and John, were witnesses of his transfiguration: were then this text a proof that every sincere believer had the evidence of sense for the various actions of Jesus, it would equally prove that these believers were alive at the time our Lord was upon earth, and also that they possess at this time, all the inspired and uninspired knowledge of the apostles. But the word witness was in the text, and that was enough for such a reasoner as Mr. O." Ib. 3 A ORIGINAL CRITICISM AND CORRESPONDENCE. IN SIR, TO THE EDITOR. N reading the last number of your interesting work, I was gratified with your extracts from the important work of Mr. Thornton on paper credit; by perusing which my curiosity was excited, and I sent for the book to give it a careful perusal. And here, by the way, I beg leave to observe, that I find your analysis very useful in preparing me for the perusal of an author When a volume lies before me, I am apt to dash into the most interesting parts at once, without stopping to survey the contents, in order to see the full scope and design of the writer, whereby I have often missed my aim; but your plan arrests my impetuosity, and enables me to survey the author's plan before hand. Having procured Mr. Thornton's book, my attention was particularly excited to the latter part of his 2d chapter, in which he treats of "fictitious bills, or bills of accommodation," which the more interested me, as I have in my time smarted by them; and I confess I was much surprised and disappointed to find an advocate for them. But as I wish not to be guilty of misrepresentation, and as the subject interests every man in trade, I will beg the favour of you to insert the whole passage from Mr. Thornton's work, before I offer my remarks. "The interest which traders have in being always possessed of a number of notes and bills, has naturally led to a great multiplication of them; and not only to the multiplication of notes given for goods sold, or of regular bills of exchange, but to the creation of numerous other notes and bills. Of these, some are termed notes and bills of accommodation: and the term fictitious is often applied to them. It may be useful to describe them particularly. "It was before shewn, that the principal motive for fabricating what must here be called the real note, that is, the note drawn in consequence of a real sale of goods, is the wish to have the means of turning it into money. The seller, therefore, who desires to have a note for goods sold, may be considered as taking occasion to ingraft on the transaction of the sale, the convenient condition of receiving from the buyer a discountable note of the same amount with the value of the goods. A fictitious note, or note of accommodation, is a note drawn for the same purpose of being discounted; though it is not also sanctioned by the circumstance of having been drawn in consequence of an actual sale of goods. Notes of accommodation are, indeed, of various kinds. The following description of one may suffice. "A, being in want of 1001, requests B to accept a note or bill drawn at two months, which B, therefore, on the face of it, is bound to pay; it is understood, however, that A will take care either to discharge the bill himself, or to furnish B with the means of paying it. A obtains ready money for the bill on the joint credit of the two parties. A fulfils his promise of paying it when due, and thus concludes the transaction. This service rendered by B to A is, however, not unlikely to be requited at a more or less distant period by a similar acceptance of a bill on A, drawn and discounted for B's convenience. "Let us now compare such a bill with a real bill. Let us consider in what points they differ, or seem to differ; and in what they agree. a "They agree, inasmuch as each is discountable article; each has also been created for the purpose of being discounted; and each is, perhaps, discounted in fact. Each, therefore, serves equally to supply means of spe culation to the merchant. So far, moreover, as bills and notes constitute what is called the circulating medium, or paper currency, of the country (a topic which shall not be here anticipated), and prevent the use of gui neas, the fictitious and the real bill are upon an equality; and if the price of commodities be raised in proportion to the quantity of paper currency, the Remarks on Thornton's Paper Credit. one contributes to that rise exactly in "Before we come to the points in • note. Real notes,' it is sometimes said, represent actual property. There 'are actual goods in existence, which are the counterpart to every real Notes which are not drawn, in consequence of a sale of goods, are a species of false wealth, by which a ⚫nation is deceived. These supply only an imaginary capital; the others indicate one that is real.' "In answer to this statement it may be observed, first, that the notes given in consequence of a real sale of goods cannot be considered as, on that account, certainly representing any actual property. Suppose that A sells one hundred pounds worth of goods to B at six months credit, and takes a bill at six months for it; and that B, within a month after, sells the same goods, at a like credit, to C, taking a like bill; and again, that C, after another month, sells them to D, taking a like bill, and so on. There may then, at the end of six months, be six bills of 1007. each existing at the same time; and every one of these may possibly have been discounted. Of all these bills, then, one only represents any actual property. "In the next place it is obvious, that the number of those bills which are given in consequence of sales of goods, and which, nevertheless, do not represent property, is liable to be encreased through the extension of the length of credit given on the sale of goods. If, for instance, we had supposed the credit given to be a credit of twelve months instead of six, 1,200. instead of 600%. would have been the amount of the bills drawn on the occasion of the sale of goods; and 1,100%. would have been the amount of that part of these which would represent no property. "In order to justify the supposition that a real bill (as it is called) represents actual property, there ought to be some power in the bill-holder to prevent the property which the bill represents, from being turned to other purposes than that of paying the bill in question. No such power exists; neither the man who holds the real 371 bill, nor the man who discounts it, has which it was given: he as much trusts any property in the specific goods for giver of the bill, as the holder of any to the general ability to pay of the fictitious bill does. The fictitious bill may, in many cases, be a bill given by capital, a part of which the fictitious a person having a large and known bill may be said, in that case, to represent. The supposition that real bills represent property, and that fictitious bills do not, seems, therefore, to be one by which more than justice and something less than justice to the is done to one of these species of bills, other. "We come next to some points in which they differ. of accommodation, is liable to the ob"First, the fictitious note, or note jection that it professes to be what it only against those fictitious bills which is not. This objection, however, lies are passed as real. In many cases, it is sufficiently obvious what they are. Secondly, the fictitious bill is, in general, less likely to be punctually paid presumption, that the dealer in fictithan the real one. There is a general tious bills is a man who is a more adventurous speculator than he who carefully abstains from them. It follows, thirdly, that fictitious bills, besides being less safe, are less subject to limitation as to their quantity. The extent of a man's actual sales real notes; and, as it is highly desiraform some limit to the amount of his ble in commerce that credit should be dealt out to all persons in some sort of regular and due proportion, the tified by the appearance of his bills measure of a man's actual sales, cerdrawn in virtue of those sales, is some rule in the case, though a very im perfect one in many respects. modation, is evidently, in substance, "A fictitious bill, or bill of accom. the same as any common promissory note; and even better, in this respect,-that there is but one security to the promissory note, whereas, in there are two. So much jealousy subthe case of the bill of accommodation, means of raising money too far, that sists lest traders should push their paper, the same in its general nature with that which is given, being the only paper which can be given, by men out of business, is deemed some what discreditable when coming from a merchant. And because such pa per, when in the merchant's hand, necessarily imitates the paper which passes on the occasion of a sale of goods, the epithet fictitious has been cast upon it; an epithet which has seemed to countenance the confused and mistaken notion, that there is something altogether false and delusive in the nature of a certain part both of the paper and of the apparent wealth of the country. "Bills of exchange are drawn upon London to a great amount, from all parts, not only of Great Britain, but of the world; and the grounds on which they have been drawn, in a great degree, elude observation. A Jarge proportion of them, no doubt, partakes of the nature of bills of accommodation. They have, however, in general, that shape communicated to them, whatever it may be, which is thought likely to render them discountable; and it is not difficult, as the preceding observations will have shewn, to make use of some real, and, at the same time, of many seeming, transactions of commerce as a ground for drawing, and as a means of multiplying such bills. "The practice of creating a paper credit, by drawing and re-drawing, has been particularly described by Dr. Adam Smith; and is stated by him to have a tendency which is very ruinous to the party resorting to it. This practice, however, is often carried on at much less expence to those engaged in it, than Dr. Smith imagines. A, for instance, of London, draws a bill at two months on B, of Amsterdam, and receives immediate money for the bill. B enables himself to pay the bill by drawing, when it is nearly due, a bill at two months on A, for the same sum, which bill he sells or discounts; and A again finds the means of payment by again drawing a bill, at two months, on B. The transaction is, in substance, obviously the same as if A and B had borrowed, on their joint security, the sum in question for six months. The ground on which transactions of this sort have been stated by Dr. Adam Smith to be ruinous, is, that of the heavy expence of a commission on every bill drawn, which is paid by him who raises money in this manner. If, for instance, one-half per cent, is the conmission, and the bills are drawn at two months, and a discount of five per cent. per annum is paid, the money is raised ať an interest of eight per cent. Such transactions, however, are often carried on alternately for the benefit of each of the two parties; that is to say, at one time the transaction is on the account of A, who pays a commission to B; at another it is on the account of B, who pays a commission to A. Thus each party, on the whole, gains about as much as he pays in the shape of such commissions; and the discount in turning the bill into money, which is the same as that on any other bill, may, therefore, be considered as the whole expence incurred. Money may be raised in this manner at an interest of only five per cent. In the case recently proposed, the drawing and re-drawing were imagined to be only between A, of London, and B, of Amsterdam. This practice, however, is often carried on between three or more parties drawing from three or more places. In such case, the draft is drawn on the place on which the existing course of exchange shews that it will best answer to draw it. An operation of this sort may obviously be carried on partly for the purpose of raising money, and partly for that of profiting by a small turn in the exchange. Transactions which are the converse to this, are, on the other hand, entered into by those who hap pen to possess ready money. They remit, if the exchange seems to favour their remittance, and draw in consequence of having remitted. To determine what bills are fictitious, or bills of accommodation, and what are real, is often a point of difficulty. Even the drawers and remitters themselves frequently either do not know, or do not take the trouble to reflect, whether the bills ought more properly to be considered as of the one class or of the other; and the private discounter, or banker, to whom they are offered, still more frequently finds the credit of the bills to be the only rule which it is possible to follow in judging whether he ought to discount them." p. 29-36. Now, sir, I beg leave to offer my objections. 1. Fictitious bills are not strictly legal. Ifmy attorney does not deceive me, the holder of a bill cannot recover in law, without he can prove a valuable consideration given for it, either by discounting, or in a way of trade." 2. They carry falsehood upon the face of them, and the man who offers such a bill as real (which is, I presume, generally the case) attempts to impose on the person to whom he offers it. It is also a temptation to deliberate falsehood; for if interrogated as to the nature of the bill, few tradesmen, I presume, would have the honesty to confess the truth. 3. They encourage immoderate speculation by these means two or three petty tradesmen, with little or no property, may speculate to the amount of thousands; and as they have, in fact, nothing of their own to lose, may thus sport with the property of their creditors, and the credulity of their friends. 4. They are expensive. The very stamps, in many houses, amount to a considerable sum in the course of a year; and I have known some tradesmen pay a considerable proportion of their profits for discount at the bankers. Nor is this the worst. Bankers are often shy, and withdraw their discount. Friends tire and perhaps reprove. Other means must be resorted to, and more expensive. A third part, or even half the bill, must be expended to obtain discount. The butcher, the baker, the linen-draper, the mercer, the upholsterer, the silver-smith, the pawn-broker, and even the Jew billbroker, are applied to, and what are the consequences? The butcher charges high for his meat-the baker makes dead men-the linen-draper and mercer enrich the ladies' wardrobe-the upholsterer furnishes the house in an expensive stile-the silversmith covers the sideboard with plate, which is soon removed to the pawn-broker's-and the Jew bill-bro ker charges an enormous premium. At last the man fails-his spirits, his purse, and his credit alike exhausted. If these things are secreted, creditors wonder what is become of their property if they are found, the parties are charged with an extravagant stile of living; whereas, perhaps, in five instances out of six, these luxuries would not have been purchased, but to procure discount for bills of accommoda tion. Lastly, these bills generally plunge the unhappy tradesman deeper and deeper, till he finds his situation inextricable. A second bill must be discounted to provide for the first, a third for the second, and so on; and I withdraw from more pleasing avocations for a few hours, to take notice of the remarks of your correspondent Zeta, on a pamphlet entitled, “Plain Thoughts on the New Testament Doctrine of Atonement," published in the Monthly Epitome for April, 1802. And now request your indulgence, that the following observations upon them may be presented to the public through the same channel. He sets out by observing, "It is common with these" (the unitarian) writers, to magnify the reasoning powers of man." To this I reply, that it is common with those, the trinitarian writers, to degrade, and speak contemptuously of the reasoning powers of man; and I ask, which of the two ascribes most honour to the creator of man? "Disowning all dependence on the teachings of the Holy Spirit." This is not true, in fact; they perhaps deny it only in the unsupportable sense in which it is contended for by enthusiasts. "Declaiming against orthodox ministers under the name of Priests." This charge is true, applying it as the author evidently does to those pulpit dictators, who pretend to inspiration, and an immediate mission from God to man, assuming the title of ambassadors, and a tone of vast importance. "I take no notice of this feeble effort to overturn the satisfaction of Christ." And it certainly was a very prudent caution, for a man may some |