however, leads them to speculation and rashness by extending their circulation, and thus deriving a profit from its amount. But in another direction their interest leads them to check the tendencies to excessive credit; since, if they loan to those who cannot pay them, they must be the sufferers. But the bank-directors cannot foresee the events of next year; they can only conjecture, like others, what is to happen; and, in the ordinary course of business in giving credits for sixty and ninety days, they cannot be supposed, and do not affect to go into very profound anticipations of the future. Both borrowers and lenders make their calculations upon the existing state of prices and trade. Accordingly, when some tremendously destructive power is accumulating in the dark, which may begin to develope itself and shake the whole system within those sixty or ninety days, both borrowers and lenders are at fault; and, before they are aware of it, every part of the system begins by little and little to be disordered, and if the cause is deep and lasting, it at length totters and crumbles. The borrower at Boston has his draft returned from New Orleans, because the acceptor at New Orleans has not received remittances from his debtor at Cincinnati, and so on, round the circle of credits. The borrower's paper must, therefore, be renewed at the bank; and so it continues from one period of credit to another, until the borrower, by immense sacrifices of property in a fallen market, works his way through the difficulty, or succumbs. Now, if the currency is based partly or wholly upon credit, that is, upon the solvency of the debtors to the banks, as is the case in this country, (and always will be, and, as it seems to us, always ought to be, if experience is any guide upon the subject,) the dividends of the stockholders will be affected, if the shock is slight; if a little more severe, their capital is diminished; and lastly, in a tremendous shock, the currency is shaken. Where a bank is, in general, managed with a view to the interest of the stockholders, and with a reasonable prudence, and without suffering any great fraud or calamity out of the course of business, such as a fire, robbery, or embezzlement, the probability of its insolvency is so remote as hardly to be appreciable. In the explosions of some of the banks in Boston, only a very small frac tion of the whole amount of the currency will finally be lost by bad bills. And when these losses happen, they arise from the fact, that banks have been managed in some instances through the influence of their debtors, and not for the benefit of their stockholders generally. The operation of this sinister influence on the administration of the banks, has no doubt had a powerful agency in aggravating the existing pecuniary derangements; and this influence has been increased immensely by the public deposits, which opened a door to its tenfold activity. This cause of our present embarrassments, Mr. Adams does not lay stress upon, whereas we cannot but think it deserves a prominent place. He dwells particularly upon the excessive issues of paper, which, in his last pamphlet, he calls rags, a rhetorical denomination of paper not practically at the moment redeemable in the precious metals, which has run through the newspapers and declamations, but which is not, we think, entitled to a place in a grave pamphlet; for, though the paper is not exchangeable for dollars in specie, on presentment at the bank, still it does give a valid lien on the lands, houses, and goods of the bank and its debtors; a lien which will be available, though there should not be a dollar in specie in the country. This is a vital efficacy which does not belong to rags. In connexion with this subject of excessive issues of paper, Mr. Adams lays down one proposition fortified by the authority of David Hume, who has been followed by sundry writers, and which is made the foundation of a broad theory by Adam Smith; viz. that the value (in exchangeable commodities) of the whole mass of currency will depend upon its proportion to the whole mass of property in the community, and accordingly that the value of a given quantity of currency, a specie dollar for instance, will be inversely in that proportion. This is precisely one of the propositions to build theories of and upon; but, as we apprehend, of very little weight in practical discussions. Like many other doctrines in theoretical political economy, it is specious, and has a remote, partial, qualified verity; that is, it is true in one degree or two degrees, more or less, out of ten, so that if you undertake to apply it practically, the chance is five or ten to one, that you may have got it in one of its false degrees; or, in other words, applied it to a wrong case. This theorem leads Mr. Adams to attribute too great an effect to "expanding the circulation beyond the wants of the community." That credit has been too much expanded, almost immeasurably too much, there is no doubt; and this everybody understands; and it is as well understood by everybody also, that the banks have gone hand in hand with the community in expanding credit. This has brought on embarrassments, that cost arduous, long, desperate struggling for disentanglement. But as to the mere fact of excess of either paper or metallic currency, independently of excessive facility and extension of credits, it is, as it appears to us, an evil not weighty or difficult of remedy. It seems to us, therefore, that Mr. Adams underrates and does great injustice to Mr. Webster's remark, that, before the explosion, and while prices still maintained themselves, and demand was rife, the great cause of embarrassment was the disturbance of exchanges. This was at the time the main disorder of the system, that had become actually developed. The seeds of other disorders were germinating, and must have shot forth, even though the exchanges had not been deranged. But what would have been the result had the previously existing complete system of exchanges been maintained throughout the storm, it is difficult to conjecture. That the force of the shock would have been broken, we can hardly doubt. But we agree with Mr. Adams, that a reverse must have happened, though the system of exchanges had been maintained. His speculations upon the causes operating towards a collapse are able and just, as far as they relate to the credit system. And in this excess, the banks, as we have said, went hand in hand with the rest of the community. And to his remarks on this subject we will add, that they probably went greater lengths with the rest of the community in swelling this tide of credit, than a central institution would have done; for through such an institution, all parts of the country being in quick communication, earlier notice of the coming catastrophe would thus have been obtained. On this question, however, different opinions are entertained, and we will not go into a subject that may lead us towards the vortex of party dis cussions. The second pamphlet, on the remedy to be resorted to, urges very strongly a return of the banks to specie payments, whatever pressure it may cost. This we understand to be the actual present policy of the banks. As to the permanent guaranty against disorders of the currency, Mr. Adams considers the most effectual one to be, a resumption of the regulation of the currency by the national government, by means of a national bank. These pamphlets are well worthy of the attention of those who take an interest in the vitally important subjects of which they treat. 9. The Lyrist; consisting of a Selection of New Songs, MUSIC has been compared to a picture, or rather to a colored drawing, expressing by sounds, what the artist portrays by shades and color. The graces are the finishing touches, which, if not freely and naturally employed, are the greatest blots on the picture. So too has it been justly observed, that, in the best performers, there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. Where a great degree of excellence cannot be attained, correctness is to be aimed at; the correctness of time, if no other. But how often has one to endure the miserable attempts of half formed and vain performers, to give even correctly the mere notes placed before them. The great fault is not always in the teacher, though it is still too often that pupils are intrusted to the training of those, of whom there is no lack, who have discovered that more money can be made by teaching music than by beating the base drum or jingling the triangle in the orchestra. If the multiplication of musical publications in our vicinity is to be taken as evidence of the increasing attention which is given to the divine art, then are we fast becoming a musical people. But we are not sure that it is not an evidence of the contrary; that it does not arise from the injudicious manner in which music is allowed to be generally taught, and the feverish impatience for display and novelty. We are wanting in that patience and perseverance, which can alone insure success in music. The noble simplicity of the great masters is too often despised and neglected for the fantastic, wild, and frothy novelties, that have nothing to recommend them but their difficulties. True, indeed, the number of our performers is large, and the manufacture of Piano Fortes is carried to great perfection with us. There are probably few manufactories which can produce better instruments than those from the hands of Chickering. The manufacturers of instruments and of performers are alike hard pushed; while the instrument is building, the pupil must be taught. Woe to the reputation and pocket of the teacher, if the pupil be not ready to astonish the friends assembled to pass judgment on both instrument and performer, as soon as the former has received its last coat of varnish. We cannot condemn teachers, composers, or compilers for suiting their labors to the knowledge, taste, and judgment of their employers, and to the capacities of their pupils. As long as the first are compelled to resort to rapid, imperfect teaching, our most accomplished instructers will aim at imparting little more than mechanical dexterity of voice and finger. Until parents can be made to understand, that music does not consist in execution alone, and that a Catalani or a Beethoven cannot be manufactured in a quarter," we fear we shall have little cause to boast of our progress in musical taste. 66 Music seems to be the only science or art, in which we are contented with even less than mediocrity. The ability of performing a tune or a waltz, at the end of six weeks, can alone satisfy too many parents that the child is getting their money's worth; and at the end of another six weeks, Miss is sufficiently accomplished to be exhibited to admiring friends and inflict torture upon others. The master is dismissed; he is no longer needed; and the pupil devotes her morning hour to "practice," begins soon to babble of Rossini and Herz, and at the expiration of six months is a musical prodigy. With unwearied industry, mechanical skill is acquired; and she rises in the estimation of her (so styled) musical admirers, just in proportion to the facility obtained of performing in half an hour, what would have required from the composer just double the time. This excellent music, too, is, nine times out of ten, elicited from an instrument of such uncommon perfection, that it is always quoted as not having been tuned for some six or eight months. We have been often struck with the delicacy of the compliment bestowed on some really good and tasteful performer, who has been called to join or lead in a trio or quartette, at one of these uncommon instruments. The more it is out of tune, the greater the compliment, no doubt; thus affording greater opportunity to the artist to display his own talent, and remedy all mechanical imperfections. One of the pleasant occurrences, at what are styled sometimes musical parties, we are indebted for to the prevailing system of teaching and learning; we allude to the attempt of accomplished performers to comply with a request to join in a duett on one of these rare instruments, and with one of these rare musicians. It is not for such prodigies to be cramped and cribbed by the tyranny of time or tune; off they go, and gone too is the reputation of their companion, who is trammelled by certain awkward hieroglyphics often arrayed at the very commencement of his or her task. We do not believe that, of all the piano fortes in this our musical commonwealth, aye, even in the head-quarters of musical taste, as we have heard a certain city termed, more than one in every hundred is kept in decent condition; and yet both vocal and instrumental performers, of real science and skill, are continually urged to sit down to them. We much fear, that noise is often mistaken for music; that Auber is becoming more popular than Bellini; that drums and trumpets are a richer regale to the Yankee ear, than the most delicate and touching melodies. In regard to vocal music, we have to contend with other obstacles to improvement. We rarely have an opportunity of listening to a really first-rate singer. The study of all the musical |