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Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 018.djvu/5

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH ;

AND

22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.

1825


text: Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 018.djvu/6


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The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges/Chapter IV

the preceding chapter we have been engaged in considering the indebtedness which constitutes the subject-matter, and the bills of exchange which are the instruments, of international adjustments between country and country, of reciprocal payments between importers and exporters, creditors and debtors. We proceed to the more complicated question of the differences in the value of such bills of exchange, of the causes which determine and limit the extent of these difference, of the phenomena of which they are the index, and the measures by which they may be rectified.

The primary difference of value clearly arises, as was previously pointed out, either from the aggregate amount of the claims of any given country upon others exceeding the sum of her liabilities to them, or, vice versa, falling short of that sum. In the first case, those who have bills to draw (whom for the sake of conciseness we will call the exporters, though the class embraces all those have claims of any kind on foreign countries) will not find sufficient purchasers to take all their bills; for only those will buy who have debts abroad to settle, and these debts are by our hypothesis of less amount than the claims. Accordingly the exporters, competing with each other for the sale of the bills, will take less money for them than their nominal par value; that is to say, will sell them at a discount. In the second case, the importing class, those who have incurred liabilities to foreigners, having by our hypothesis larger remittances to make than the exporters can supply them with, bid against each other for such bills as may be got, and pay a premium to secure them. In both cases, what exporters and importers are seeking to avoid is the transmission of bullion, with all the sacrifices thereby entailed, and accordingly the extent of the premium or discount which can be given is determined by the extent of these sacrifices. Let us suppose that importers foresee that the bills which they will be able to procure, will not suffice for all the payments which they have to make. They accordingly become aware that the balance will have to be remitted in bullion; and each individual, to avoid this necessity falling to his share, hastens to offer a slight premium to those who draw, in preference to running the risk of having to send bullion, on which he would have to pay freight and insurance and lose interest besides. The premium may rise to within a fraction of a bullion remittance; nay, may even reach that actual point; because though the premium paid for the bill and cost of the specie remittance were absolutely equal, it would still be more convenient to send the bill. Beyond this point the balance of trade cannot cause the premiums to rise; nor, on the other hand, can it cause the discount at which bills are sold ever to exceed the sacrifices which exporters would incur, if they found themselves obliged to instruct their foreign debtors to send them bullion, in consequence of bills upon them no longer being saleable. The time, however, when they would receive payment would, in this case, be an important consideration. As long as the exporters can find purchasers for their bills, they get payment at once; but when they cannot dispose of their bills any more, they are not reimbursed for the value of their exports, till their equivalent is returned in gold. Accordingly each individual will submit to a sacrifice in order to sell his bills before the demand for them is exhausted and a discount is established; but the discount will not be greater than the estimate which the seller makes of the sacrifices which have been pointed out. The case may be briefly stated in figures, taking an instance from two commercial centres where the premium or discount paid on bills between them is not hidden or rendered more complicated by differences of currency, and where accordingly the par value is immediately plain. Let us take New Orleans and New York; for, though in the same country, their transactions together will be governed by the same principles as determine the adjustment of indebtedness between different countries. When the bills which have to be drawn from New Orleans on New York are equal in amount to the remittances which have to be made from the former to the latter - that is to say, when their mutual indebtedness is in a state of equilibrium - the seller of a bill for one hundred dollars, payable at sight in New York (for differences in point of time, and consequently of interest, must at present be eliminated), will receive exactly one hundred dollars from the merchant who owes the amount in New York and must remit it. When, however it becomes plan that a greater sum is due to New York than can be drawn against the claims of New Orleans upon that city, those who have to remit, hasten to pay a small premium to the drawers, and give them one hundred dollars and a half, because they fear that if they defer their purchases longer, they may be obliged to send gold, which might cost them one and a half dollar for each hundred dollars in freight and insurance. Thus the more it becomes evident that the stock of bills is insufficient, and the more the supply actually diminishes, the higher the premium rises, till the sellers are able to realize almost one and a half dollar profit. At this point the premium is so high, that remitters will become indifferent whether they buy bills or send gold, and some will despatch gold and others buy the bills, while the surplus which had to be remitted is gradually diminishing, owing to the gold which is sent. The exporters, becoming aware of this by being less pressed for their bills, begin to lessen the premium in order to secure some profit before the demand is entirely satisfied; and consequently the price of bills begins to fall, the premium is reduced, and the exchange may soon be again at par, or below it. Conversely, when there are more bills than purchasers of them, the drawers, feeling that their export business may have to bear the charge of one and a half per cent for bullion shipped to them from New York as returns, begin to sell at a discount long before that point is reached; a discount which can never fall lower than one and a half per cent, provided that the charges on bullion shipments do not exceed this figure. It is clear deduction from these considerations, that the limits within which the exchanges may vary, (provided the bills are drawn at sight and in the same currency,) are, on the one extreme, the par value, plus the cost of the transmission of bullion; on the other extreme, the par value, minus this identical sum. Practically the exchanges rarely touch either extreme, but fluctuate between them, owing to the various measures and influences which are brought to bear upon the situation before the extreme case arrives and which cause a reaction in the opposite direction.

There are occasions, however, when the exchanges sink and rise much below the specie point; and as this is not to be accounted for by the cause which we have been engaged i analysing, viz. a balance of indebtedness either in favour of, or against any given country, we must endeavor to discover others.

The recent fluctuations in the rates of exchage in the United States, reaching far below the specie point, furnish us with a suitable instance of such investigation.

The balance of trade had been clear in favour of America; the very considerable exports of grain and flour, coupled with a reduction of imports, in consequence of political apprehensions, established a surplus of claims on foreign countries over the debts due to them. Accordingly it was natural that the exchanges should fall to specie point; but the fact was, they fell much below it. How is this to be accounted for?

The reason must be sought in the peculiarly urgent necessity under which the exporters found themselves, of selling their bills immediately, at any sacrifice. It was a question of time. Three or four per cent. were sacrificed to secure the proceeds of the bills on England at once, instead of waiting for the arrival of gold. The exporter had two courses before him, -either to sell his bills at what they would fetch, or to send them himself to Europe, with instructions to his correspondents to encash them and remit the amount in bullion. The latter course was cheaper, but as he required funds immediately, (or, under the influence of panic, believed that he would thus require them,) he adopted the former.

In ordinary times there would have existed a certain competition on the part of capitalists to buy up the drafts of urgent sellers, in order to remit them to Europe for their own account, so as to secure the profit between the low price paid for the bills and their specie value; that is to say, to buy at a heavy discount, much below specie point, in order subsequently to realize at least the specie value (which we have seen to be the par value, minus the charges on the bullion remittance). But at a time of commercial panic, such capitalists are seldom willing to launch out into a speculation which deprives them, during the weeks which must elapse before the gold arrives, of the command over their funds. They may fancy that during that interval the rate of interest ma rise to such a height as to neutralize the anticipated profit. For instance, let us suppose that they expected to gain one and a half per cent. net on the exchange: in their calculation they must have taken into account the interest they would lose from the time when they paid the drawer for his bill up to the moment when the returns in gold arrive. The amount of interest on this interval, which we will call a month, they may have calculated at six per cent. per annum, or one half per cent. for the month. Now, if the rate of interest should suddenly rise to twenty-four per cent. per annum, they would have to borrow money at the rate of two per cent. for the month, in order to replace that portion of their capital which is traveling to Europe and back; that is to say, one and a half per cent. more than they had calculated on; and accordingly, that being their estimated profit, they would gain nothing on their exchange operation. We accordingly may conclude that what is technically called a stringent money-market, acts materially upon the exchanges, inducing sellers to force sales, and creating a reluctance on the part of purchasers to buy unless absolutely compelled to remit. This cause will, however, not come forcibly into operation when the international transactions are in a state of equilibrium; for then there will be as many purchasers on compulsion as there are sellers, and the dearness of money may only operate so far so to induce purchasers to deter their remittances to the last moment, whereas sellers would wish that they should be hastened. Its full force will be felt at a time when the country where money is supposed to be dear, or where panic exists, has exported more than it has imported, and when it is accordingly certain that gold will finally have to be ordered, while no individual is himself willing to wait for its arrival. It is seldom, however, that this peculiar contingency will occur; as, generally, the money-market in such a country as has taken less from other countries than it has given to them, is particularly well supplied with surplus capital.

There are, however, further causes which determine the fluctuations in the rates of exchange. We have hitherto, in order to obtain a clear view of the first leading principles, considered all bills as drawn payable at sight; but, practically, an immense majority are drawn payable at various periods after the date of their issue or first presentation to the acceptors, giving rise respectively to the expressions, payable at so many days after day, or so many days after sight. Thus, two new elements of value are introduced which will affect the rate of exchange. In the first place, the consideration as to what deduction should be made from the price, in consequence of the bill which is bought for ready money not being itself payable till after a certain time; and, secondly, as to the security which the purchaser of the bill can feel that the drawer and acceptor of the bill continue solvent till it becomes due. Thus, the state of credit in both countries, and the rate of interest in that country whether the bill is remitted, likewise become determining elements in the rate of exchange.

It has been shown that the stringent state of the money-market in the country where the bill is drawn, affects the exchanges, since it renders the seller more eager and the purchaser more reluctant; and, as one or the other must bear the loss of interest which must ensure till the proceeds of the bills reach their hands, this loss of interest will be at the rate established in their own money-market at home. But when any bills other than such as are payable at once, form the subject of bargain, the buyer must further consider what is the rate of interest in the country on which the bills are drawn. If he owes money abroad, he will be paying interest to his foreign creditor at the foreign rate, and this interest will not cease till his remittance becomes due. Accordingly, it will make a difference to him of two months' interest at the foreign rate, whether the bill which he purchases as a remittance is drawn payable at once or sixty days after its arrival; and, as the foreign interest rises, he will insist on paying less for the sixty-day bill, whereas, if it falls, he can afford to pay more. A heavier deduction must be made from the price in the first instance than in the second. Or, in the case of the capitalists who buy up bills at a time of pressure in order to send them abroad and have them converted into gold, their foreign correspondents will have to discount the long bills for them, and the amount of discount affects their profits. If they fear the rate of interest in the country on which the bills are drawn will be high, they pay so much less for their bill; if they anticipate cheap rates, they pay so much the more. Without any doubt, the New York capitalists, who suffered the price of bills upon England to sink three and four per cent. below the specie point, were influenced by a natural anxiety as to the rate which they would have to pay in England for the discount of their sixty-day remittances.

In the rates of exchange for all bills other than bills at sight, there is no element of value so constant and so effect as the rate of interest in the country on which the bill is drawn. The fluctuations in bills at sight are limited, to a certain extent, by what we have called the specie point: they can exceed the specie limit either upwards or downwards for a time; but, be it remarked, only when the two countries are at a considerable distance from each other, so that specie cannot be rapidly sent to and fro, and when immediate returns become a matter of importance; in face, only under very extraordinary circumstances.

The fluctuations in long bills, on the other hand, are unlimited, because they are co-extensive with the fluctuations in the value of money in the accepting country, and co-extensive, too, with the apprehensions which may be felt as to the solvency of the names on the bills. The effect of the value of money, or rather of every variation in the prevailing rates of discount, upon the Foreign Exchanges, is a matter of the highest importance, and will have to be considered with some minuteness later on.

On the other hand, the extent to which the solvency and credit of the drawer, as well as of the acceptor, of a bill, affects the value of that bill, and consequently the rate of exchange at which it will sell, does not require much elucidation. Firms of first-rate standing are said, in technical language, to "make the best exchanges." The price which is paid to a merchant of undoubted position for his sixty days' sight bill on a foreign country, will be higher than that which is granted for a second-rate bill on the same place. The purchasers of bills must be induced, by a concession in price, to take an article of inferior security. They must be indemnified for the greater risk. Credit is a very important element to be considered in the rate of exchange; and so notorious is this amongst those engaged in international trade, that the price at which exporting houses can sell their foreign bills, is looked upon as an unerring test of the credit which they enjoy among their neighbours. Thus credit causes a difference in the value even of such foreign bills as are drawn on the same day, rendering it difficult to give any exact or definite quotation of the price of long-dated paper; and, further, it operates on exchanges generally in times of commercial panic or excitement, and causes the prices of all bills to fall. In the case of America, to which allusion has been made, doubtless the purchasers of bills felt bound to indemnify themselves by a large discount for the risks which they thought they ran; either the bills might not be accepted at all, in consequence of an enormous fall in the value of the goods against which they were drawn, and the drawers whom the purchaser would then have to call upon to refund the amount, might have failed in the interim; or, the bills might have been accepted, but not be paid at maturity, owing to the difficulties in which it was expected that all connected with America would be involved.

Thus, too, when a whole nation falls into discredit, it is difficult to sell bills upon it, and large concessions must be made in consequence. It is felt that little security can be placed in the acceptor. The purchaser has then only the security of the drawer, and not, as is otherwise the case, of the drawer and acceptor jointly. However, this argument cannot be pushed very far; for, generally speaking, when a whole country is in discredit, there are many other influences at work to lower the value of bills upon it, and it is not easy to separate to what extent the different causes have respectively operated; how much, for instance, is due to a so-called adverse balance of trade and excessive indebtedness, how much to loss of credit, and how much to a further element of value which we have still to examine, -the depreciation of the currency.

It will be remembered that the basis of a settlement through a bill of exchange, is the payment of a sum of money in one place, in order to receive the equivalent at another. The purchase of a bill on France, consists in the payment of a certain amount in sterling money to a merchant trading with France, against his giving an assignment for the same value on a French merchant. Hitherto, all that has been said has been applicable to all countries equally. The principles which have been examined would exist, and be in constant operation, even if a universal currency had been adopted, and the perplexing calculations between francs and florins, and dollars and roubles, were no longer necessary. But now we have to deal with the actual fact, that when an exchange of a given sum in London for the same sum in Vienna or St. Petersburg has to be made, it is excessively difficult to ascertain what may be called the par value. When there is a gold currency in both countries, the calculation is comparatively easy; though, if a large paper currency exists side by side with the gold, the problem because somewhat more involved. Between two countries of which the one has a gold, and the other a silver currency, a comparison becomes still more complicated, while it is hopeless to look for any trustworthy results when either of the two countries has an unlimited or inconvertible paper currency. Given one hundred pounds sterling in London; what is the value of these hundred pounds in Vienna? What are the laws which govern the exchanges in this case? Applying experimentally the principles which we have previously examined, we discover them apparently to break down here. The fluctuations in the prices of foreign bills have been exhibited hitherto as confined within certain limits, subject indeed, within these limits to the ordinary laws of supply and demand, but unable to rise or fall beyond the indicated boundary, except under extraordinary circumstances. If the drawers were more numerous than such as had to remit - that is to say, if the creditors of any given country were more numerous than the debtors - it was shown to be difficult to sell bills on such a country, and the sellers had to make a sacrifice. On the opposite hypothesis, the buyers were mulcted in a premium. But in either case, the sacrifice could not materially extend beyond the loss which would accrue directly and indirectly in the transmission of bullion. If he who has money to claim abroad, cannot draw and sell a bill against the amount to advantage, rather than submit to a sacrifice beyond the limit indicated, he will instruct his foreign debtor to send him gold. So if he who owes moneys to merchants abroad, cannot buy a bill except at a loss greater than the expense of sending bullion in payment, he will naturally at once adopt the latter plan. But what is to be done in either case, if the country on which we suppose the bills to be drawn, has an unlimited paper currency, represented by no bullion at all? or, if bullion cannot be thence obtained except at an enormous premium? or if the export of bullion is prohibited altogether, or if it be illegal to give or take a premium on gold? It seems evident at once, that the limits previously assigned to the fluctuations of exchanges are, under most of these hypotheses, removed altogether. If the creditor of such a country loses the alternative of being able to obtain gold in payment of his claim, there is no limit to the sacrifice which he may be compelled to make, in order to sell his bill, except in the competition of those who may be obliged to purchase it. Similarly, if, as is very unlikely in the case of a country with a depreciated currency, its foreign debtors should be more numerous than its foreign creditors, so that the demand for bills upon it would exceed the supply, the debtors (being deprived of the alternative of sending a specie remittance by the fact that gold, though enhanced in value like everything else by the depreciation of the currency, still is prohibited from commanding in the country in question its legitimate premium) would have to pay the price demanded by the sellers of bills, this price being apparently only limited by the competition of sellers. However, on closer inspection, it will be found that a kind of limit, similar in nature to that which has been pointed out, is after all in operation; and it will be possible to discern it when the case of a country in which there is a depreciated currency, but in which a premium on gold is regularly established and is not restricted by artificial means, has been examined. It will appear that, in this latter case, we shall not be far wrong if we add the premium commanded by gold in the depreciated currency to the expenses which are incurred by the creditors of such a country, who have to recover their claim by sending for the gold instead of selling bills, or if, in the opposite case of the debts, we make a corresponding deduction. If the latter, rather than pay an extravagant price for the bills which they wish to purchase and remit, incur the expense of sending bullion, the premium which they will obtain on such bullion will naturally go in reduction of the expenses incurred. This will accordingly give them a great advantage over the sellers; in other words, over the creditors of the country in question.

The consideration of the various cases under examination, from the two opposite points of view of the drawers and purchasers of bills respectively, tends to embarrass the course of the argument, but cannot be avoided entirely. When in the course of the discussion the case of one class only is considered, it is highly desirable that the reader should himself clearly realize the converse proposition, and consider the results form the opposite point of view.

In propounding the fact, that the fluctuations in the prices of bills on a country, where the currency is depreciated, are governed, not only by all those elements of value previously considered, but to a much greater degree by the premium on bullion as compared with the depreciated currency, we are stating the final result rather than the process by which this position is reached - the ultimate limit, rather than the gradual development. We shall arrive at the same conclusion by the following reasoning, in which more prominence is given to the depreciation of the paper circulation than to the premium on bullion, which however, in reality, is almost the same thing. Practically, the idea of the premium on bullion, though more easily and clearly intelligible in theory, rises less to the surface than the depreciation, or smaller purchasing power, of its paper competitor.

For, in a country where there is a large and incovertible paper currency, the precious metals tend to recede from their more important function as the circulating medium, while their character of ordinary merchandize comes out into stronger relief. As another currency exists, with which they are by no means identical, they no longer constitute the standard, but themselves become subject to another standard. Accordingly, when, owing to this new standard, the prices of all merchandize begin to fluctuate, bullion is subject to the same influences; and when, through the over-issue of paper money, a general rise of prices ensues, the price of gold, as measured by paper money, rises with the rest. Thus, supposing the Austrian Government to be constantly depreciating the Austrian currency by issues of paper money, the value of gold in Austria will be constantly rising, and one hundred English sovereigns will be worth so many more Austrian paper florins. Those who purchase a bill on Vienna will, accordingly, in such circumstances require a corresponding exchange; they who have bills on Vienna to sell, that is to say, to whom a certain sum of florins is due in Austria, will have to throw in so many more florins, in order to induce the buyers to give them gold for the depreciated article. And why? Because, otherwise, the buyer who is going to remit would do better to send the gold itself. Just as an English traveller in Austria will at such a time obtain fifteen florins instead of ten for his sovereign, so will those who pay sovereigns for florins on the London Exchange, require the same favourable terms. We have thus discovered an influence which apparently affects the fluctuation in the Foreign Exchanges far more powerfully than any previously discussed; -interest of money, a balance of debts over claims, panic, distance, and so forth, practically cause the exchanges to vary within a few per cents.; a variation of ten per cent., owing to all these circumstances combined is considered something extraordinary, and only occurs under rare combination. But, as soon as the element of currency is introduced, we have had at once an instance before us in the Vienna exchange of a variation of fifty per cent. So in the Russian exchanges, owing to the enormous amount of paper afloat, which is practically inconvertible, the most violent fluctuations are constantly occurring.*

But in a certain sense these fluctuations are apparent, and do not involve the same gain or loss, the same difference in value, as those alluded to above. As the depreciation in currency affects, generally speaking, all prices alike, the fifteen florins bought by the Englishman for his sovereign are not worth more to him than the ten which he bought for the same money before. When the fluctuations were determined simply by the balance of trade, (within the limits of the specie point upon either extreme,) the purchaser when he bought cheap - that is to say, when he obtained a greater sum than usual in foreign coin for his own money

 * This passager was written in 1861. Great changes have since then occurred in the Austrian and Russian Exchanges. The former has fallen very considerably, and the florin is worth much more than it was two years ago.  The Russian rouble has even touched its par value.  But the measurestaken to bring the Russian currency to its specie value have broken down, and the paper rouble is still, what it was when the above passage was written, practically incovertible - December, 1863.

- secured an actual advantage; this greater sum of foreign coin had an actual greater purchasing power. But where the cheapness of the bills is caused by the depreciation of the foreign currency, he has no advantage; for the purchasing power of the nominally larger sum is not greater than that of the smaller.

Again, while the purchaser of the bill has been shown to have no advantage, so neither, after the new standard of exchange is established, has the seller any loss; it is true that he will be under the necessity of ceding a greater number of florins for the sovereign which the buyer pays him; but the produce which he has sent abroad against which he draws, will, under our present hypothesis, have risen in value in the same proportion, and therefore yield him a proportionately greater number of florins for which he can draw. For instance, before any great fluctuation, he exported a certain quantity of sugar, and sold his drafts against this sugar for a certain price: let us suppose him to have sold the sugar for 10,000 florins, and to have sold these florins at the rate of ten to the pound. He would thus realize £1,000 for his sugar. A fluctuation of ten per cent. now occurs, owing to an over-issue of paper in Austria. Prices generally rise 10 per cent., and the exchange rises also. The same foreign merchant now sells his sugar for 11,000 florins, but he must sell his florins at the rate of eleven to the pound, thus realizing £1,000, precisely as before. It is scarcely necessary to observe that in assuming a general equal rise in prices, it is not intended to express an opinion that such an event could actually occur. Some prices will rise much more than others, according to the well-known principles of political economy relative to this subject. In Austria the manufacturers insisted that they made considerable profits by the depreciation of the currency, as the cost of labour had not risen in the same proportion as the manufactured goods. The raw material being imported from abroad had risen to the full extent at once; and this enabled the manufacturers to increase the price paid for their products in the same ratio, though one element of production, labour, remained comparatively stationary. But this could only be temporary. The adjustment must take place sooner or later; and if the demand for labour had remained the same as before, wages would have risen till they commanded the same amount of the labourer's necessaries as before. As far as the force of the previous argument in concerned, the assumption of a general equal rise of prices is admissible, and it will appear that the apparent fluctuation in the exchanges extends no further than the apparent increase of value which has resulted from the same cause. A parcel of manufactured goods commands more florins, and an English sovereign commands more florins also; but neither in teh one case nor in the other has any greater purchasing power been acquired.

Hitherto the comparison has been instituted between a transaction before any given fluctuation and a transaction after it; and it appears that the difference in the exchange, when it has been caused by the depreciation of the currency, does not give rise to any difference of result. However, it will be seen at once that the very opposite is the fact, when the fluctuation is not supposed to occur between two different transactions, but between the beginning and the end of the same operation. Suppose the exporter of sugar to have shipped his sugar first, and to have sold it, as assumed before, for 10,000 florins, the exchange being at the time 10 florins to the pound. However, he defers his drafts against these 10,000 florins for some time, and, in the interval, the rate of exchange changes to 11 florins to the pound, as in the previous case. Accordingly, his florins, having to be divided by 11, only realize nine hundred and nine pounds odd, instead of the thousand, which the former exchange would have given him. In fact, a fluctuation in the exchange, produced by a depreciation of the currency, makes the existing claims on a country in such a situation worth so much less, whereas all debts due to it can be so much more advantageously discharged; the creditor of the country loses and its debtor gains. If its imports and exports were in a state of equilibrium, that is to say, if it owed as much as it had to claim, there would, on the aggregate of transactions, be neither loss nor gain resulting from the apparent fluctuation; but the individual creditor of the country might consider himself robbed, and the individual debtor might rejoice when proceeding to discharge his liabilities, to find himself able, for the same sovereign, which previously would buy only ten florins, now to purchase eleven.

The examination of the nature and tendency of the fluctuations just described, serves to lead us conclusively enough to their limits, which is the special object of our present investigation. The bills on a given country fluctuate in value, in proportion to the extent to which the prices of all purchasable articles - bullion included - are affected by the depreciation of the currency; in other words, in proportion to the discount of the paper money, or the premium on gold. Beyond that proportion, the fact of the depreciation of teh currency cannot cause them to deviate; otherwise, if it were possible, the creditor of any sum payable in the inferior money, rather than submit to a further sacrifice in the exchange, would request his debtor to send him gold for the amount of his debt, notwithstanding the premium upon it; for, under the hypothesis, such a premium would be less than the loss entailed in settling the transaction by the sale of a bill.

What, however, will be the case if the export of bullion from the country, where the depreciated currency exists, is prohibited? or if it is impossible to buy up gold, either because it is illegal to pay a premium, or because all bullion has actually disappeared? -And these are the more frequent cases which, in practice, arise. How is the holder of a claim on such a country to encash that which is due to whim? Let us suppose the case of merchant who had supplied Russia with cotton when the export of bullion from Russia was practically prohibited. How as he to exact payment? when the cotton was sold, he became entitled to a certain amount of roubles in St. Petersburg. how could he convert those roubles in English sovereigns? Or, put the case otherwise: a Russian spinner has imported the cotton, and owes the amount thereof in English sovereigns to a merchant in Liverpool. He has roubles sufficient in his hands in paper money, but what steps is he to take to procure sovereigns for them? Being debarred from sending bullion, he has only two courses open, -either to buy a bill on England from others who happen to have sent produce thither, and thus have a claim on an English house, which he can buy and transfer to his Liverpool creditor; or to send the produce, which will sell for sovereigns, himself. Where there is a pause in exploration, as in the case during a large portion of the winter season in Russia, he would be absolutely unable to send any remittances at all, unless he could find bankers or others who might draw on England, or on some other foreign banking centre, in anticipation of future exports, and would sell him the bills. But it will be apparent, that, as to price, he is entirely in their hands. If, as is often the case, such Russian as are indebted to foreigners are bound at any cost to place funds in English money into the hands of their creditors by a given day, there would be no limit to the price which might be exacted from them - in other words, no limit to the fluctuations in the exchange. The relative value of their paper roubles to bullion seems not to enter into the question at all. Supply and demand alone determine the price. And if the exports of such a country do not equal the imports, (and this is by far the most general case,) so that the demand for bills to pay for the imports exceeds the quantity of bills which is supplied by the exports, the balance which the country has to pay can only be settled by an enormous sacrifice, -in fact, cannot be settled at all except by a cessation or diminution of imports, or by a foreign loan, the latter being only an expedient to gain time and an adjournment of the payment of the balance due.

It will be easily seen why it is possible to assume that a country in which a depreciated currency and a prohibition to export bullion exist, is likely to be importing more than it is exporting. If it were otherwise - if its exports exceeded its imports - bullion would be flowing towards it; other countries would be paying part of their debts to it in gold, and no grounds for a prohibition of the export of bullion would have existed. The currency, too, would be in the course of improvement, and not of depreciation. Probably there are as many cases in which the depreciation of the currency is, directly, or indirectly, the consequence of excessive importations, as in which it is due solely to the errors and bankruptcy of Governments. Often, both influences are combined, taking alternately the position of cause and effect. Sometimes Governments, simply for their own purpose, issue a quantity of paper money: the natural consequence of the increase in circulation, and accordingly attract commodities from other markets, while the exports, having risen also, will be less easy of sale abroad. Or, over-importation takes place in the first instance, and Governments, in order to remedy artificially and apparently what can only actually be remedied by the cessation of the real primary cause, commit the fatal error of increasing the circulation by an issue of paper money. They think thus to increase the means of paying the debts which are being incurred; but the only effect is, still further to increase the evil; for importation, instead of being checked, is fostered by such a plan. When, during a period of apprehension caused by a large efflux of gold from England to America, views were expressed in Manchester and Liverpool, that a much larger issue of bank-notes ought to be permitted, this opinion tended manifestly to a depreciation of our currency. But as the consequence of the depreciation of the currency in any country is to off inducement for further importation, by creating an appearance of high prices, and at the same time to increase the difficulty of paying for such importations, how is the final balance to be paid? The efflux of specie shows that the balance of trade is against that country for the time; the equilibrium must be restored, when the specie is exhausted, by slackening importation and consumption.

We were led to these somewhat premature reflections regarding the result of an over-issue of paper money and over-importation, by the consideration of the position of such debtors to foreign countries as were prohibited, either by the actual absence of bullion or by legal enactments, from making specie remittances, and were therefore entirely at the mercy of such as had drafts on other countries to sell - their only resource being, in case they were met by prices too exorbitant, to buy produce and send it themselves. The fluctuations in the exchanges in these cases will depend entirely on supply and demand; and, if the demand for bills exceeds the supply, there is theoretically no limit whatever to the price of bills.

It may, however, be asked what will be the general range of the exchanges in such a case, if the importations and exportations are, for a time, in a state of equilibrium? What would be the natural value in sterling money at such a time, of a bill on St. Petersburg, payable in roubles? The natural value at such a time seems to be, not the nominal par of exchange, not the value of the rouble when it was convertible and was in reality a silver coin, but this value minus the depreciation which the rouble has suffered in Russia itself. If at the time when the currency in Russia, owing to the enormous paper money afloat and the insufficient stock of bullion to meet it, was actually - though perhaps unconsciously to the Russians themselves - depreciated 5 per cent., then we apprehend the natural value of the rouble in sterling money would have been at such at time 5 per cent. below the nominal par of exchange; but it cannot be too often repeated that no calculation can be founded upon this proposition, as practically, owing to the system of credit and deferred payments, there is never an equality between exportations and importations; and an increasing balance of debts lowers more and more, at least in reference to the Foreign Exchanges, the value of what, in this case, we have called rouble.

Such seem to be the general principles which regulate the fluctuations of the exchanges in those cases where bills are sold payable in a depreciated currency. The treatment of the subject would not be complete without considering the case as between silver and gold. When a bill on Hamburg, payable in silver, is bought in London for a certain price, payable in sovereigns, what will determine the value?

We shall arrive at this value by a similar process of reasoning as determined the previous case. Either gold or silver will be at what may be called the par value between the two, or, as is more generally the fact, the one will be at a premium as compared with the other. With the exception of France, which with its double standard, is subject to somewhat different influences, gold is simply merchandize in such countries as have a silver currency, and silver is merchandize in such countries as have a gold standard; and according to the price of the merchandize at a given moment, so will the exchanges fluctuate. When a bill on Hamburg is to be sold in London, all the previous elements of value will have to be taken into consideration - the rate of interest in the two countries, the state of credit, relative indebtedness, and so forth; but the value of silver in England will enter largely into consideration, or in the opposite case, the value of gold in Hamburg. When there is a great demand for silver in England, as is the case when large shipments are to be made to the East, there will be a great demand for bills upon Hamburg; for one means of procuring silver will be to buy up such bills as entitle the purchaser to certain amount of silver in Hamburg, and to send these bills for encashment, with instructions that the silver thus encashed is to be actually shipped to England. Thus, if silver is at a premium in England, those who have claims on Hamburg are able to exact this premium from the purchaser of their claims by raising the price of their bills; that is to say, the buyer will have to pay more sterling money for the same amount of "marks banco," or, what comes to the same thing, he will receive less marks for his pound sterling. If, when silver is not at a premium, he receives thirteen marks and a quarter for his sovereign, as the price of silver rises he will receive less; for instance, only thirteen marks and an either; and the exchange on Hamburg being expressed by the number of marks banco which are to be had for a pound, the exchange on Hamburg will be said to have fallen; the fact, however, being clearly that bills on Hamburg have risen in price, a less amount of marks commanding the same amount of gold. Conversely, supposing the case of a Hamburg merchant who wishes to procure gold for any purpose whatever - let us say for the purpose of sending it to America to buy cotton therewith, - bills on London will serve his purpose, as they entitle him to an amount of that metal which he requires; and if there is competition for such bills, owing to a general demand for gold for the object indicated, those who have bills upon London will be able to exact a premium for them, and in this case more marks banco will be demanded for every pound which is placed in London at the disposal of the purchaser of the bills; accordingly, the Hamburg exchange will rise, and thirteen marks and a half may be given for the pound. The limit of the fluctuation is, however, easily discernible, and will be found to correspond exactly with that which was discovered in the case of two countries, one of which had a metallic currency and the other a depreciated currency, with a premium permissible on gold. The limit will be the extent o premium obtainable. If the holders of bills on London, in the case last put, exact too many marks, those who are anxious to purchase gold will find their advantage in sending the silver itself over to England, and selling it there for gold; or if the English merchants, who desire to ship silver to the East, find that the price demanded by such as have bills on Hamburg to sell, is out of proportion to the existing premium on silver, they will either pay that premium for such silver as may be procurable elsewhere, or they will send gold to Hamburg, sell it there at a discount at which gold will stand in Hamburg, under the circumstances, and have the proceeds invested in silver and shipped over to them. The assumption necessary for the argument is, that a sale of gold is always possible in Hamburg, and a sale of silver possible in England; the price may, in either case, sometimes be exceedingly low, and the premium on the other metal accordingly be a heavy charge to the purchaser; but the sale may generally be assumed to be possible, and thus defines the limits of the fluctuations in the rates of exchange.

This result has, in the case before us, been attained by the consideration of transactions which arose from the fact of certain merchants being obliged to possess themselves of that one of the two precious metals which did not constitute the currency of their own country, and endeavoring to obtain it by the purchase of bills on such countries where it formed the standard. The truth of the proposition is, however, quite as self-evident if we confine ourselves, as before, to the case of debtors and creditors. An English merchant owes a certain amount of Hamburg money; that is to say, an amount which he is bound to pay in silver. Silver, let us suppose, is, when his debt becomes due, considerably dearer than usual in England. The amount of the difference he will be compelled to pay either by purchasing silver in the English market at the enhanced price and shipping it to Hamburg, or by buying a bill on Hamburg, payable in marks, an unfavourable exchange. The price of silver having risen, the price of bills payable in silver rises also, and the purchaser will receive fewer marks for his pound; but if the seller of the bill were to ask a greater difference of price than would be warranted by the rise of silver, those who have payments in silver to make will prefer to pay the premium in the open market for the article itself. Thus the limit of the fluctuations in the rates of exchange which may result from the difference in value between gold and silver is clearly and easily established.

The case of transactions between two countries like England and France, of which one has gold currency, and the other a currency of gold and silver combined, offers no difficulty whatever. The fluctuations in the prices of bills of one upon the other cannot, except under a most rare and almost impossible combination of circumstances, exceed the limits of such variations as can exist between two countries having the same currency: they will be determined by that which is common to both of them; that is to say, by gold. How, indeed, could a bill on Paris, payable on demand, be sold at a higher value than that of the gold which it represents, plus the expenses and commissions incurred in sending that gold to Paris? For, if a higher price were asked, it would be cheaper to send gold itself.

It is clear that, as soon as a premium is paid in any country on gold or silver, this premium will increase the value of bills which are payable in that particular metal - but only if they are payable in no other. If a bill on Paris is payable either in napoleons or in silver five-franc pieces, it will be sure to be paid in that coin which is least in demand, in that which is at a discount as compared with the other. Thus, the purchaser of such a bill will not allow the price to be enhanced by the existence of a premium on one portion of the currency. The fluctuations in the rates of exchange will be as strictly limited as they were shown to be when the currencies of any two countries were practically identical.

In concluding this portion of the subject, it is necessary to remark once more than no stress should be laid on any of the special cases selected as illustrations being correct in fact. It is rather the mode in which the question should be handled and the principles, which the present treatise endeavours to evolve, on which reliance should be placed when any particular instance is to be analyzed and examined. For this purpose the different elements of value which enter into consideration in the sale of foreign bills, have been dwelt upon at some length; but the proportion in which they stand to each other in any particular case, and the details which must be studied in considering how far the currency of one country coincides with or varies from the currency of another, do not fall within the scope of this inquiry.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neale, William Johnson


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neate, Charles (1784-1877)


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Rh

reputations have been gained, still it often happens that few are really acquainted with the grounds on which they rest. Most people have heard of the name of Bewick. Yet inquire of the many upon what foundation the fame of this name is built, and, nine times out of ten, the answer shall be, "upon the excellence of his wood engravings." Even so. Ask what sort of excellence, and, upon the second interrogatory, the catechumen is at a nonplus. We shall be excused if we devote a few pages to the genius and works of Bewick.

Thomas Bewick was born in the year 1753, at Cherryburn, in the parish, and near the village, of Ovingham, one of the few places in Northumberland which can boast of having given birth to a man of pre-eminent talent. He was educated, together with his younger brother John, at Ovingham school, then conducted by the Reverend Christopher Gregson. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to the late Mr Ralph Beilby, engraver at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. At this time, it is said, he rarely omitted a Sunday's visit to his father at Cherryburn, a distance of about fourteen miles. Sometimes, on his arrival, he would find the river Tyne too deep to be forded. On such occasions he would shout his inquiries across the water, and contentedly return home. He seems to have early turned his attention to that peculiar branch of his art for which he has since become so celebrated. In 1775, he obtained a premium from the Society of Arts for his wood engraving of the "Old Hound." The position of the huntsman's house in this little cut betrays some faint traces of his genius. This success probably incited him to the more eager prosecution of this species of engraving. The result was, that the first edition of the History of Quadrupeds was published by Mr Beilby and himself, for they had now become partners, in the year 1790. This was the spring of his reputation. In 1795, Mr William Bulmer, the well-known printer, published the Traveller and Deserted Village of Goldsmith, and the Hermit of Parnell, with woodcuts by Thomas and John Bewick. The beauty and novelty of the engravings strongly attracted public attention. Many, indeed, were at first sceptical as to the possibility of such effects being produced from wood. Amongst the incredulous was said to have been his late Majesty, who was only convinced of the truth by actual inspection of the blocks. In 1796, the Chace of Somerville was published in a similar manner; and, in the same year, Mr Bewick lost his younger brother and coadjutor John, who died of consumption. He was now rapidly rising to celebrity; and in the year 1797 was published the first volume of his History of British Birds, containing the Land Birds. This, perhaps, is the best of his works. There is a little anecdote connected with this publication. In one of the tail-pieces, Bewick's strong delight in satirical humour led him a little too far across the debateable land of decorum. Unconvinced, however, and inconvincible did he remain, until a considerable number of impressions had got into circulation. He was then compelled to have the offending part in the remainder of the Rh


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2 edition daubed over with Indian ink. In the second edition the block is altered. The second volume of British Birds, consisting of the Water Birds, was not published until 1804. Lastly, in 1818 were published Select Fables of Æsop and others, collected and embellished by Thomas Bewick. It may be interesting to some to know, that the tail-piece at p. 162 of the first edition of this work bears the date of his mother's death; and that at p. 176 of his father's. The final tail-piece is a view of Ovingham churchyard, in which is the family burying-place. Such is the brief outline of the life and principal works of Bewick. The external history of genius is in general easily told.

That Thomas Bewick has been the great improver of the art of wood-engraving, it is needless to say. He may indeed be called the father of the art; and his fame has, more than anything else, been the cause of the attention which has ever since been paid to this species of engraving. It cannot be doubted, however, that, in the mere mechanical excellence of his craft—in fineness of line—in sharpness and in smoothness, he has been outdone by some of his pupils. Bewick's excellence is not of the mechanical sort. He will esteem this no left-handed compliment. His fame does not rest upon this. It is his graphic tact—the truth of his conception and delineation of nature, that will carry him down to posterity. He is in reality, in essence, as one may say, ; and his fame rests upon a foundation similar to that of other painters. It is true he uses the graver, not the pencil. It is true he has limited his range of subject. But the great—the captivating excellence of Bewick is, nevertheless, pictorial. He is great as an admirer and faithful exhibitor of nature; not as a cutter of fine lines, and a copyist of the designs of others.

Of Bewick's powers, the most extraordinary is the perfect and undeviating accuracy with which he seizes and transfers to paper the natural objects which it is his delight to draw. His landscapes are absolute fac-similes; his animals are whole-length portraits. Other books on natural history have fine engravings,—they are coloured or uncoloured; copper or wood,—but still, to use a common expression, they "are all tarred with one stick," Neither beast nor bird in them has any character—like a servant who has never been at place—not even a bad one. Dog and deer, lark and sparrow, have all airs and countenances marvellously insipid, and of a most flat similitude. A flock of dandies would not have a more unintellectual likeness to each other, a more deplorable proximity of negation. They are not only all like each other, but not one of them like anything worth looking at. A collection of family portraits, all "tenth transmitters of foolish faces." This is no joke. You may buy dear books or cheap books, but if you want to know what a bird or quadruped is, to Bewick you must go at last. Study Bewick, and you know a British bird as you know a man, by his physiognomy. You become acquainted with him as you do with Mr Tims, to whom you were introduced last Wednesday. You can make him out even at a distance, as sailors say, by "the cut of his jib." There is no need, as in other cases, of counting primaries and secondaries, or taking an inventory of his tail before you can identify him. You may admire him, as a novel heroine sometimes admires the hero, altogether for his je ne sçais quoi—and this is the very quintessence of refinement in bird-fancying.

It needs only to glance at the works of Bewick, to convince ourselves with what wonderful felicity the very countenance and air of his animals are marked and distinguished. There is the grave owl; the silly wavering lapwing; the pert jay; the impudent over-fed sparrow; the airy lark; the sleepy-headed gourmand duck; the restless titmouse; the insignificant wren; the clean harmless gull; the keen rapacious kite—every one has character. There are no "muffin faces." This is far beyond the mere pencilling of fur or feathers. It is the seizure and transfusion of countenance. In this, Bewick's skill seems unapproached and unapproachable by any other artist who has ever attempted this line. Were he to take the portraits of our friend James Hogg's present flock of sheep, we, Christopher North, would bet a thousand guineas that the shepherd should point out every individual bleater by his "visnomy," and this is something. Sir Thomas Lawrence could do no more for the Royal Yacht Club, and the Congress of Verona.

Bewick's vignettes are just as


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1825.]. Take his British Birds, and in the tail-pieces to these two volumes you shall find the most touching presentations of nature in all her forms, animate and inanimate. There are the poachers tracking a hare in the snow; and the urchins who have accomplished the creation of a "snow man." In the humorous, there are the disappointed beggar leaving the gate open for the pigs and poultry to march over the good dame's linen which she is laying out to dry—or, what a methodist would call profane, the cat stealing the blind man's dinner whilst he is devoutly saying grace—or the thief who sees devils in every bush and stump of a tree—a sketch that Hogarth himself might envy. Then, in another strain, there is the strayed infant standing at the horses' heels, and pulling its tail, the mother in an agony flying over the stile—the sportsman who has slipped into the torrent; and the blind man and boy unconscious of "Keep on this side." In the satiric there is that best of burlesques upon military pomp, the four urchins astride of gravestones for horses, the first blowing a glass trumpet, and the others bedizened in tatters, with rush-caps and wooden swords.

Nor must we pass over his sea-side sketches—all inimitable. The cutter chasing the smuggler—is it not evident they are going at least ten knots an hour? The tired gulls sitting on the waves, every curled head of which seems big with mischief. What pruning of plumage, what stalkings and flappings and scratchings of the sand, are not depicted in that collection of sea-birds on the shore! What desolation is there in that sketch of coast after a storm, with the solitary rock, the ebb tide, the crab just venturing out, and the mast of the sunken vessel standing up through the treacherous waters! What truth and minute nature is in that tide coming in, each wave rolling higher than his predecessor, like a line of conquerors, and pouring in amidst the rocks with increasing aggression! And last and best,—there are his fishing scenes. What angler's heart but beats when he sees the pool-fisher deep in the water, his rod bending almost double with the rush of some tremendous trout or heavy salmon? Who does not recognize his boyish days in the fellow with the "set rods," sheltering himself from the soaking rain behind an old tree? What fisher has not seen yon "old codger" sitting by the river side, peering over his tackle, and putting on a brandling? It is needless to recapitulate. Bewick's landscapes, in short, are upon the same principle with his animals. They are, for the most part, portraits. They are the result of the keenest and most accurate observation. You perceive every stone and bunch of grass has had actual existence. His moors are north-country moors, neither Scotch nor English. They are the progeny of Cheviot, of Rumpside, of Simondside, and of the Carter. The tail-piece of the old man, pointing out to his boy an ancient monumental stone, reminds one of the Milfield Plain and Flodden Field. Having only delineated that in which he himself has taken delight, we may deduce his character from his pictures. His hearted love of his native county, its scenery, its manners, its airs, its men and women; his propensity
 * "by himself to wander
 * Adown some trotting burn's meander,
 * An' no think lang ;"

his intense observation of nature and human life; his satirical and somewhat coarse humour; his fondness for maxims and old saws; his vein of worldly prudence now and then "cropping out," as miners call it, into daylight; his passion for the sea-side, and his delight in the angler's "solitary trade." All this, and more, the admirer of Bewick may deduce from his sketches.

We have sometimes almost wished that Bewick had been a painter. This is perhaps selfish—perhaps silly; yet we own we have often felt the wish. He would, undoubtedly, have made an admirable landscape-painter. We may be told, it is true, that tail-pieces do not require the filling up of larger pictures. But what landscape-painter of them all has materials for filling up better than Bewick? Had Bewick been a painter, one thing is certain—that he would not have been of the modern school; he would have been shy of the new-fangled academies; he would have painted, as one may say, by experiment rather than syllogism, and attempted to pourtray things as they are, not as they ought to be; he would have been content with actual Nature, and not tried to dress her up or refine her in some impossible metaphysical crucible. "Not to speak it profanely," Bewick is no man to attempt to improve upon God Almighty,


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Man and Evolution; The Advance in Scientific Knowledge Since Darwin's Day - Prof. Ernst Haeckel's Recent Books

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Written for by

It is close on fifty years since Charles Darwin turned the thought of the world toward the problems of life in the stricter sense of the term. His "Origin of Species" was, as he called it, merely a sketch of the very complicated problem, which he, following his grandfather's example, set out to solve. The successive chapters dealt with the different aspects of the problem of biological evolution, and so closely knit was his reasoning, so wide the basis on which his inductions were based, that each of them might have by itself formed the subject of a special treatise. As a matter of face, several of these treatises were afterward written, one notably by Darwin himself, "Animals and Plants Under Domestication," which really expands the reasoning of his second chapter, and Dr. A. R. Wallace's "Geographical Distribution of Animals," which on an equally formidable scale deals with the topic which Darwin touched upon in his seventh chapter.

So, too, Lyell dealt with the imperfections of the geological record which Darwin utilized to account for the non-appearance of missing links, whereas nowadays Prof. De Vries has shown that nature itself makes jumps in forming species. One of the most suggestive hints thrown out by Darwin in his general treatment of the problem was the light that comparative embryology would throw upon the development of species, the underlying assumption being that the embryo passes successively through all the stages of development which the race to which it belongs had traversed. The idea was to a certain extent carried out in the work of F.M. Balfour, whose "Comparative Embryology" is perhaps the most important contribution to biology made by any Englishman, and was conscientiously adopted as the matrix idea in Prof. Haeckel's "Anthropogenie," an English version of which has just appeared in two volumes, the first dealing with human embryology, the second with human "stem-history," as the translator calls it, or what is generally known as phylogeny. The earlier English version translated the second: this is a version of the fifth and much enlarged edition of the original.

The subject is rather gruesome, and is not best adapted for public discussion, but its importance and significance for the theory of evolution can scarcely be overrated. Almost all the speculative work of the last twenty years has clustered around it, in particular the researches of Weismann, whose ingenious views are almost entirely concerned with the distinction between that part of the human body which subserves the individual interests, and that which goes toward continuing the race. As is well known, he contends that there is no means by which the germplasm or reproductive element can be influenced by the experience of the individual, so that we get the paradoxical result that the race must always remain the same, since no means is provided for passing on any change. It is not surprising to find Prof Haeckel somewhat superciliously disregarding the possibilities of such an unevolutional view of evolution. He sturdily declares himself on the side of Lamarck and Darwin in regarding the possibility of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, but is seemingly ignorant that it was rather Erasmus Darwin that held this view. The innovation that Charles Darwin made on his grandfather's theories was rather to give emphasis to the influence of casual advantages than to allow for that of acquired characteristics. In the view of many, Erasmus Darwin was more in the right than his grandson, and certainly recent investigation has trended more in the direction of his thought than that of Charles Darwin. Yet it must always be allowed that it was the latter that convinced the world, whereas Erasmus Darwin only made it laugh at him with his "Loves of the Plants."

Prof. Haeckel is concerned throughout his two massive volumes to prove what he terms the biogenetic law that ontogeny is a brief and condensed recapitulation of phylogeny. By these somewhat repellant technical terms he means to say that the development of the ovum to maturity is a short epitome of the development of the race. In other words, if this contention were exactly true, a life history of one of the higher vertebrates should repeat the whole biological history of the organic world since life began upon the globe. This is obviously a large order. In the first place, marvelous as has been the progress of microscopy during the nineteenth century, even the minutest of organisms evades any complete analysis owing to its very minuteness. Then, if the whole life history of the branch of the race to which an animal belongs could be traced in its embryology, it would only be one branch of the wide-spreading tree of life that would thus be elucidated. But beyond this lies the fact that the biogenetic law only claims that embryology gives merely an "epitome" of the racial development, and it is easy for the evolutional biologist to get over the missing links in the way by dragging in the principle of condensation. If a certain linkage is not there, it is easy to say that they have been skipped in the process of condensation. When to all these difficulties is added the very rapid processes by which the ovum is segmented into very definite organs, it should not be wondered at that the science of comparative embryology is still in a very embryological condition, and that these volumes of Prof. Haeckel are filled with hypotheses which may or may not be verified as further knowledge comes to the student of biology.

PROF. HAECKEL is probably aware of the very hypothetical basis on which his science is at present founded, but he scarcely leaves the impression of doubt as to fundamentals in the minds of his readers. In particular he has a large number of illustrations which at first seem to base his theories on the widest form of induction, but more carefully examined, a good many of these are rather diagramatic than photographic. The discriminations made by the injection of coloring matter into semi-liquid objects are a very precarious basis on which to found such a large and wide-varying induction.

It is only by means of such simplification through diagram and hypothesis that Prof. Haeckel succeeds in putting before his reader a very plausible, and in many ways very clear account of the development of all organic life from a single cell. By their aid he shows how the impregnated ovum divides up into an outer and an inner skin, ectoderm and entoderm, which in their turn give rise to an outer and inner and middle layer, ectoblast, entoblast, and mesoblast. From the former is derived the sense organs, from the second the mucous membrane, and from the last the muscles and the vascular system. From these comparatively simple elements he traces the whole complex of the animal organism, and having thus clear the way by an account of human ontogeny, he proceeds in the second volume to give an account of human phylogeny, or what Darwin called "the Descent of Man." Here he traces the line of development from the Amphioxus and the Ascidia up to man dealing in successive chapters with "our protist ancestors," "our wormlike ancestors," "our fishlike ancestors," and "our ape ancestors." In all this Prof Haeckel is plunging into lines of investigation which simple bristle with difficulties in comparative anatomy but he has the courage of his convictions, and settles the most complex problems off-hand and with the utmost confidence. While there can be no doubt as to the general validity of the scheme of development thus laid down Prof Haeckel would probably be the first to own the probability of envisioning in detail throughout the line of development. In particular, the position of the montremes is very doubtful, the duck-bill platypus being quite off the main line of ascent. The work concludes with a series of chapters on the evolution of the nervous system, sense organs, the motor organs, the elementary organs, the vascular system, & all treated from the standpoint of embryological development.

Taken with this warning, the book may be recommended as giving a very clear - in fact, a too clear account of our present knowledge book of the development of the individual and that of the race. Much is guess work, a good deal is scarcely to be qualified even by that name, but the bro fact of development and the main details of the process are undeniably given by Prof. Haeckel with a wealth of illustration and a positiveness of statement which aids both understanding and memory, even if it somewhat obscures the complexity of the problem and the insecurity of the conclusions to which one is led.

The final chapter connects this rather specialist book with the more general philosophic position which Prof. Haeckel has expounded as being the root idea of the problem of evolution. He is a monist - that is, he regards the whole universe as the expression of one substance or unifying principles which finds its expression either in matter or in thought, each of which is the aspect of the other. This was the point of view which he took in his lecture on "Monism" some twenty-five years ago, and in his book on "The Riddle of the Universe," which has had an extraordinary success in Germany, for 150,000 copies have been sold, and of the English version of which no less than 100,000 have been distributed. he now follows this up with "The Wonders of Life," which he regards as supplementary to the "The Riddle of the Universe." It is scarcely likely that it will be so popular. Curiously enough when dealing with general physics and psychology, on which he is not an expert, Prof. Haeckel was clear, if somewhat superficial, but in dealing with purely biological problems, on which he is one of the greatest living masters, he is not superficial, but he is also not clear. The puzzle of life remains a puzzle, even after his elaborate explanation of it.

This obscurity is no doubt due to Prof. Haeckel's continual endeavor to make out that he has anticipated all the most important of the theories on the nature of life which have been put forth during the last thirty years. he is perpetually reminding the reader that this is what he said in his "Generelle Morphologie" or in his "Plastitude Seele," or in one of the many works on the philosophy of biology with which he has instructed the world during the last third of a century. As he is naturally concerned to point out the differences between his view and that of the person who has gained credit for it, a considerable amount of space and time is wasted over details that to the readers of the book are somewhat minute, and, to tell the truth, wearisome. One would have preferred to have had a view discussed without the exact amount of credit being apportioned between Prof. Haeckel and his successors. Still, the tendency is a natural one. We all feel inclined to curse those who, as the Irishman said, "break two of the Commandments upon us; first steal our theories, and then adulterate them."

The result is, therefore, that the new book is by no means so easy reading as "The Riddle of the Universe." Here we come at close grips with specific details of a special science, rather than with vague generalities about the universe in general, and Haeckel's own scientific instinct causes him to go into fuller details than the ordinary layman can follow. His chapter on the forms of life, for example, is practically a short summary of his work on morphology. For instance, the following quotation is not altogether to be "understanded of the vulgar" with out an amount of technical knowledge which cannot be usual:

 * The distinction between protists and histons is much more important than the familiar division of organisms into plants and animals, in respect of the fundamental forms and their configuration. For the protists, the unicellular organisms (without tissue) exhibit a much greater freedom and variety than the development of their fundamental forms that the histons, the multicellular tissue-forming organisms.  In the protists (both protophyta and protozoa the constructive force of the elemental organism, the individual cell, determines the symmetry of the typical form and the special form of its supplementation; but in the histons (both metaphyta and metazoa) it is the plasticity of the tissue, made up of a number of social combined cells, that determines this.  On the ground of this techtological distinction we may divide the whole organic world into four kingdoms, (or sub-kingdoms,) as the morphological system in the seventh table shows.

The point is well taken, but not well put. This same chapter, by the way deals partly with one of the most remarkable of Haeckel's productions. In "Kunst-Formen der Natur," in which he gives illustrations of the lower order of animals as instances of pattern in artistic form in nature. So, too, in the chapter on reproduction, he summarizes much that is given in his greater work on anthrogeny, but the summary is so condensed that it is by no means easy to follow his argument.

NOTWITHSTANDING this obscurity in parts, the whole book is fairly clear as to its tendency, which, as is well known, is opposed to the claims of any recognition of any supernatural element in the universe. Haeckel is for the moment a representative of the opposition of science to religion. But when one examines into the philosophical basis of his anti-religious attitude, it is somewhat curious to find antiquated views and methods of science made the basis of its opposition to religion. Thus, the essence of his contention about the mental life, as based on the parallelism between the body and the mind, was originally started by Spinoza and adopted by most psychologists until within the last fifteen years or so. As a matter of fact, the two most eminent psychologists of the English-speaking world, James Ward and William James, reject this parallelism and regard the possible influence of body on mind and mind on body as being by no means disproved, and indeed as being the most probably hypothesis to explain various psycho-physical phenomena. Similarly Prof. Haeckel's contention that science deals with causes and is indeed the only source from which we can get any explanation of the causes of things has been somewhat rudely disturbed by the views of Mach and Ostwald, Kirchhoff and Pearson, all eminent physicists, who are one in declaring that science can only give changes of configuration, rather than explain the causes of such changes. It is rather the modern view that science can only describe, but cannot explain.

Certainly the explanations which Prof. Haeckel gives of the wonders of answer more to descriptions than explanations. When he is asked the blunt question: "What is life?" he described the typical organism, but does not for a moment profess to explain what is the real difference between that organism while alive and when it has suffered somatic death. Similarly, when he comes to the next wonder of life, sensation or the elements of mentality, he has a most ingenious scale of development from the sensation which he assumes that an atom has up to the highest flights of imagination of the poet and thinker. Further on Prof. Haeckel entirely fails to substantiate any claim that he can treat from his scientific standpoint what he calls the value of life. Science, which deals only with the facts, has to accept all facts - good, bad, or indifferent. For instance, the criminal and the sage are each facts in the mental order, and science has no criterion for determining why one should be reprobated and the other admired. The world of values is outside the sphere of science. Here again Prof. Haeckel, the foremost exponent of modern science, is somewhat out of date in not recognizing a distinction which has been since Lotze a commonplace in modern philosophy. In fact, his incursions into the philosophic field strike one as being as amateurish as the excursions philosophers sometimes make into the world of biological science.

THE fact is that biological science is not old enough or advanced enough to give certain data that science of sciences which men call philosophy. After all, in its modern form, biology is only fifty years old, and its fundamental principles have not yet been established so thoroughly as to form a firm basis for philosophical discussion. As we have seen, the work on which Haeckel's reputation is mainly founded is full of hypothesis and guesswork, and yet it is upon this foundation that he professes to instruct us as to the real meaning of the wonders of life. Theology in the past has been presumptuous enough to found a whole pseudo-science on its guesswork as to the relations of this and the other life. Science as represented by Prof. Haeckel is equally presumptuous in its claims to a solution of the wonders of this life.

JOSEPH JACOBS


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4 as some seem to do. It is not his way to chop logic with Nature, being modest enough to attend to what she says, in preference to lecturing himself. Our geniuses now-a-days appear to be proud to have, as they call it, "made a picture." Bewick probably would have been proud to have made you forget that his was a picture. If you took it for plain reality, he would not have been offended. Such humble ideas some people have.

All this, however, to own the truth, would have been no objection to us. Far from it. We are quite serious, Messieurs Academicians. Let us not, however, be misunderstood. We do not say that highly- wrought pictures are not to be painted; we only say we are apt to distrust those who paint them. When we hear the jargon of "contrast," "warmth," "keeping," and "repose," and all the other technical slang of what is called virtu, we confess we have an instinctive dread of mischief.—We cannot help it. Dr Johnson used to insist, that "he who would make a pun, would pick a pocket."Now, we don't go so far. But when we see a man perpetually insist upon displaying Nature in such lights as never were before, and never will be again—who must always have her in full-dress—and that a new suit—"always at the top of her bent," one way or other—ever in extremes—we say we shrewdly suspect such a man can have no very violent objection to—what shall we call it—colour a little—or, as the editor of the Wonderful Magazine hath it, "indulge a falsity." "Magnas est verity," we exclaim with thee, wonderful soul. Thy Latin may be bad, but thy sentiment is sound, in painting as well as morals.

The overstrained taste for what may be called the extreme of the picturesque, whether in design or colouring, has always appeared to us a most dangerous one. It is a sort of dram-drinking at the eye. How often are we told, "True, sir, the place is very beautiful; but it won't make a picture!" Won't it? and why? Why should that which is confessedly beautiful in itself, become not so if faithfully transferred to canvass? "Your most exquisite reason," Monsieur. This is unintelligible refinement; and is not the exclusive cultivation of this taste the readiest way to open a way for all manner of exaggeration? We repeat, we have seen pictures, and heard them praised too, that imitated humanity as abominably as Hamlet's ranting actor ever did. A picture may strut as well as a player, whatever some people may think to the contrary. There is no doubt that Nature sometimes produces combinations the most singularly beautiful, and mingles her tints with a gorgeous profusion that seems akin to the preternatural; but are we to stick exclusively to this? Are we to make the exception the rule? and deduce canons of art, not from the common law of appearances, but from occasional deviations? Probably a natural rock that is perfectly square may be found: are we, therefore, to paint nothing but square rocks? The grand evil of this system is, that it teaches us to think that nature, in her everyday and common guise, is not beautiful. This is a sad mistake. The flattest landscape that Salisbury Plain ever produced, if painted by a master-hand, would be worth looking at. We admire Dutch and Flemish pictures of pots of beer, tobacco-pipes, cabbages, Frows, and Boors. Is not this inconsistent? Is not the most common life-piece of scenery always better than a Dutch cheese? We recollect—we shall not easily forget it—a water-colour drawing—we have forgotten by whom, perhaps it might be by Fielding, no matter—it represented the encampment of a gang of gipsies about nightfall, or, as Burns would say, "the gloaming." The fire was just lighted, and the tent up. The place was a plain, flat, unpretending, dark, grass-green field. The hedge ran in a straight line along the top of it, parallel with the horizon, a few ill-grown, scrubby-looking trees growing out of it at intervals. The sky was in the dull gray of twilight, merely gloomy, with a few dingy, mean-looking clouds, the advanced guard of night, passing over it. Nothing could be more common; and yet so true to nature was the whole, that nothing could be more admirable. That picture of all the rest won our heart; being common, it was rare—in "the Exhibition." And what would any man have gained by improving this sketch, as he would call it? by planting trees where trees were not, or raising hills where all was level? He would only please at last;—and is there no risk in thus tampering with reality? Nature is the best of gardeners. When we find


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1825.] certain things absent or present, we may be sure there is a reason for it. How are we to know what egregious incompatibilities we may sometimes ignorantly produce by capriciously tampering with natural arrangement? Everybody would see the absurdity of painting a Norwegian pine amidst the sands of Africa, or of putting an iceberg under the line. But who can say how far this principle may be carried? who has ascertained where it stops? We must, however, conclude, and conclude with Bewick.

Arrived at that period of life when many men become averse to new undertakings, Bewick is busy with aprojected History of Fishes. This might be expected from the strong and knotty character of his mind. A full-bodied vintage will improve in raciness for forty years. The oak grows for three centuries. We have been favoured with a sight of some of the cuts for this work, and can answer for their partaking, to the full extent, of the marked characteristics of his earlier works. We noticed, especially, two or three angling scenes, which might make the heart of a fisher leap at the recollection. Never were the mountain streams of Northumberland given as Bewick gives them. The Cockneys, to be sure, will not understand them, but that is of little import.

Mr Bewick is said to have noted down, from time to time, memoranda of his own life. We hope it is true. If we are not mistaken, it will prove one of the best presents to the art that artist ever made. Let him put down his beginnings and progress, his feelings, his conceptions, his conclusions, his difficulties, his success; in short, the mental formation and growth of his skill, and the record is invaluable. Above all, we conjure him to write from himself. Let him jot down his ideas as they rise, without clipping or straining them to suit any set of conceited rules of composition. Let the book be of Thomas Bewick altogether, and only. Let him shun, as he would the plague, all contact with the race who commonly style themselves grammarians and critics; and if he does not publish in his lifetime, we think he may as well, unless he has a particular reason to the contrary, not make Thomas Moore, Esq. his executor. There may be little danger in this case; but one really would not wish any Christian book, much more that of a man of genius, like Bewick, to run even the remotest risk of being put into the parlour fire to please "The Ladies."

the towers of Leon deep midnight lay; Heavy clouds had blotted the stars away; By fits 'twas rain, and by fits the gale Swept through heaven like a funeral wail.

Hear ye that dismal—that distant hum? Now the dirge of trumpet, the roll of drum, Now the clash of cymbal; and now, again, The sweep of the night-breeze, the rush of rain!

Hearken ye, now, 'tis more near, more loud— Like the opening burst of the thunder-cloud; Now sadder and softer,—like the shock Of flood overleaping its barrier rock.

List ye not, now, on the echoing street, The trampling of horses, the tread of feet, And clashing of armour?—a host of might Rushing unseen through the starless night!

St Isidro! to thy monastic gate, Who crowding throng? who knocking wait? The Frere from his midnight vigil there Upstarts, and scales the turret-stair;


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6  Then, aghast, he trembles—that knocking loud Might awake the dead man in his shroud: Thickens the blood in his veins through fear, As unearthly voices smite his ear.—

"Ho! brethren, wake!—ho! dead, arise!— Haste, gird the falchions on your thighs; Hauberk and helm from red rust free; And rush to battle for Spain with me!

"Hither—hither—and join our hosts, A mighty legion of stalwart ghosts; Cid Ruydiez is marching there, and here Gonzalez couches in rest his spear!

"Pelayo is here—and who despairs When his Oaken Cross in front he bears?— And sure ye will list to my voice once more, 'Tis I, your Cid, the Campeador!

"Ho! hither, hither—through our land, in arms, The host of the Miramamolin swarms; Shall our Cross before their Crescent wane? Shall Moormen breathe in the vales of Spain?

"Ho! burst your cerements—here we wait For thee, Ferrando, once the Great; Knock on your gaoler Death, and he Will withdraw the bolts, and turn the key!

"Prone to the earth their might must yield, When we the Dead Host sweep the field; Our vultures, to gorge upon the slain, Shall forsake the rocks, and seek the plain.

"Ho! hurry with us away—away,— Night passes onwards, 'twill soon be day: Ho! sound the trumpet; haste! strike the drum, And tell the Moormen, we come, we come!"—

The Frere into the dark gazed forth— The sounds went forwards towards the North; The murmur of tongues, the tramp and tread Of a mighty army to battle led.

At midnight slumbering Leon through, To battle field throng'd that spectral crew; By the morrow noon, red Tolosa show'd, That more than men had fought for God!

Δ

This slight ballad is founded on a striking passage in the Chronicle of the Cid. The idea is certainly a beautiful one, of the patriotic retaining a regard for their country after death, and a zeal for its rescue from danger and oppression. At all events, it is sufficiently imaginative and romantic.

Ferrando the Great was buried in the Royal Monastery of St Isidro at Leon. The time of the occurrence is during the reign of King Alphonso, on the evening before the great battle of the Navas de Tolosa, wherein it is reported sixty thousand of the Mahometans were slain.

Cid Ruy Diaz is a name consecrated in Spanish chivalrous song.—Pelayo is said to have carried an Oaken Cross in the van of his army, when he led them on to battle.—The Gonzalez mentioned, is the Count Fernan Gonzalez, so renowned in the ancient Spanish Chronicles, and one of the many ballads concerning whom is given in the splendid Translations of Mr Lockhart.—On St Pelayo and the Campeador, see the admirable remarks of Dr Southey, passim.


text: Address of the Hon. L.J. Papineau to the electors of the West Ward of Montreal


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Note 258. coragio, i.e. 'courage!' F. misprints the second 'coragio' as 'Corafio.’ See here. --Zyephyrus (talk) 09:01, 15 January 2011 (UTC)


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text:
Author:Kuno Francke

Works

 * Social Forces in German Literature: A Study in the History of Civilization (1896) external source
 * Glimpses of Modern German Culture (1898)
 * History of German Literature (1901)
 * Address at The Dedication of Germanic Museum of Harvard University (November 10, 1903)
 * A History of German Literature as Determined by Social Forces (1907) external source
 * Handbook of the Germanic Museum (1906)
 * German Ideals of To-day (1907) external source
 * An ethnological study of the American people: The Americans (1909)
 * "The Faust Legend" in The Harvard Classics, Vol. 51 (1914)
 * About World War I: A German-American's Confession of Faith (1915)
 * Personality in German Literature before Luther (1916) external source
 * The German Spirit (1916) external source
 * German After-War Problems (1927) external source

Edited Works

 * The German Classics
 * Editor-in-chief: The German classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: masterpieces of German literature transcription indexes for vol 1 – 20

title: Author:Kuno Francke


text:
Author:Roland Burrage Dixon

Works

 * "Voyages and Travel: General Introduction" in The Harvard Classics, Vol. 51 (1914)

title: Author:Roland Burrage Dixon


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User talk:Kychot

— billinghurst  sDrewth  13:18, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

title: User talk:Kychot


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Author:George Henry Chase

Works

 * "Herodotus on Egypt" in The Harvard Classics, Vol. 51 (1914)

title: Author:George Henry Chase


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The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland

 * The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (London 1577)
 * The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (London 1587)