The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-09-07 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Attired yerterdav the Ansa Dorothea, ream Batavia, oat
bre mouth, and IS air ; Cosmopolite, Holland, from !.in-
firm for letliorn; Memory, Allen, from the South Ras;
Fanny trinvport, from the Sledderraireau; mud Diadem
transport, from Halifax ; the latter sailed on the Nth Amy.;
left there the Nivrraole, Rear-Admiral Griffith, and Active,
Sir James Gordon ; she loss hioneld humr drtachmeats of
the Royal sappers and •ro, reci.
nientr, and the Womb& of she loco of oar ; 'CA/. 9nrt of she
rtorrs of she naval yard at Ralik'', whirl, is rrdr rril. Also
arrivrd the Phar.uti, from l'lladrva and Ittligal—left St. lie-
lima 131:. An ell Pt .
&Sited the (Arne, for the Mcilitivrvisenn ; au 1 Marianna,
lierris, for Malaga.

1.1.V‘:OV111, SVPTIIIINFR 4.
arrived the Heron from a criii4e, and Hype from
Porifinsouth ; 11.1, the 113111111111 V. FaiCl.llllelg, float Alicnbt,
leaky; and Vision, Perry, (coon Genoa.
rat-mourn, arrremnrn 3.
Arrived the Diana packet, with made trout the Me4iirr-
raisean; sailed from Col fit July Itt, Nlalla July 31, and Gib-
raltar Ativnit 13; on the IA apoke the Swiftlitre
packet. hoositl to Mrlta. Also arrivird Coe Harria,
from St. Domino', in 45 awl Trojan, Brien, fouls
Pet•r.brirch (A!, in h 5
S tiled the Duke of Alarllroroligh packet, with a mail for

SFPTE3IIIIIt S.
Art ive.l and .0111 M for the River yeaterell v. the littchnoler,
MOST, from Nese Provo]. nee ; Coorest. Campbell, r St.
V:IICCIteq ; A:Aral 11•. Byere. from Anti; nn ; Zoroaster.
Rie., Iron Broca' ; Thetis, 4iid.iL4on, fro• 0 Jamaica ; and
ort,m. Atom, t, from the South Seas.--Arrtved to-day the
David Soot, !looter, Is tint ; :nand. n, Johenton, from
Manilla ; Fanse,Treekley, from Li.ban ; Ann. Dayhorouils,
from Oporto ; Ceres, Penn', from Africa ; and Snfrolk, Al-
Ikon, from St. Thome+, tool Aniled for t!..nind ; Liebe,
Sogdro, from Calcutta ; tome, Small, from St. Vincest's ;
and Jaur, Milt intore, ia 27 dna from Vii;;;inia.

• ON THE VALUE OF
MONEY A7' DIFFERENT* PERIODS.

[From The New Monthly iformine.)

The Timidity of money expressed by any par-
ticular t•um in former times, and its value in the
command of labour. or in the pnrchese of the
necessaries of life. ■re often but ill understood
even by men eminent for their talents, and for
the extent of their general information. Of this
Dr. Johnson affords a very remarkatsto instance.
when speaking, in his " Tour to the Hebrides,"
of the salary bestowed by Bishop Ephirirtone.
founder of the King's College of Aberdeen.
on the learned Boethius. as an inducement to draw
him from Paris, to take upon him the superin-
tendence of the nerdy-erected university. " Doe-
thius, us President of the University," says the
Doctor. "enjoyed a revenue of forty Scottish marks,
about two pounds four shillings and sixpence of
sterling money. In the present age of trade and
taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination so to
raise the value of money. or so to diminish the de.
minds of life, as to suppose four-and-fnrty shil-
lings an honourable stipend ; yet it. was probably
equal not only to the Heeds, but to the rook of Brie-
thius. The wealth of England was, undoubtedly.
to that of Scotland. more than five to nue ; and it
is known that Henry VIII., amongst whose faults
avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger As-
chant, as a reward of his learning, a pension of lu!.

a year."
In these remarks the Doctor manifests • want
of consideration, awl the origin of his error is in
converting forty marks into only 21. 44. Gel. The
English and Scottish pound originally were the same.
and each of them war a pound weight troy coined
into twenty shillings, awl accordingly, the con-
traction of libra (lb.) which is now exclusively em-
pkyed to drill/ft s pound in weight. was employ.:
ed indifferently, either for a pound in weight or a
ponied in money, both in maisuscripts and printed
books, at least as late as the middle rif the seven-
teenth century, in the time of the wars of
Charles 1. The penny was the 240th part of the
pound, and a penny-weight is accordingly still the
term employed for that pert of the pouted weight.
troy. Front time to time different Sovereigns,
that they might the more easily pay their debts,
coined a greater ',umber of shillings from the
pound, noel in Queen Elizabeth's time the number
of shillings coined from a pouted was sixty-
two ; after which no alteration was made till the
late coinage, when sixty-six were made front the
pound. The same system of diminishing the
quantity of silver in the coin was carried on more
rapidly in France, until at last the !tyre or pound
contained so little silver as to be worth only about
ten-pence, or about one seventy-fourth of ►ts origi-
nal value. The Scottish soveteigies for a long pe-
iiiid, until the middle of the fifteenth century, kept
the coin of the country equal in value in that of
England ; when its 1451 Jatnrs Meowed 31. 46.6 d.
to be made from the pound, after which the system
proceeded with an accelerated velocity: and about
fifty years after, when lioetleius beileme prin-
cipal of the King's College, 7/, were coined from
the pound• ; and there hue fort• inier4s, the
amount of hit salary, independent of his house, &c.
(Nonpareil with the money in 'use after the time of
ElizAcilt, would contain exactly as fliDell silver as
111. Ili.. 2.1. and, compared with our present coils-
age, as 12/. I Is. 511. The list of these two, and
not V. 4s. G.I. is what Dr. Johnson ought to have
stated, and the wonder which he expresses, and the
labour to which he proposes to subject the imaging-
two, are about fire /bats as great as they ought to
hove been.
It may be ■ matter of curiosity to some of your
renders, to know by what nn.•aus the principal of a
iiiiiversity could live on forty marks, or 261. 13s. 4d.
Scots, of the coiousge of that period. It ap-
pears, from the lists of ecclesiastical lands in
Scotland, and the rents at which they were let,
and the commutation prices of grain, sheep, oxen,
poultry, &c. previous to the Reformation in the I lar-
Irian MS. No. 4,613, that a dozen of poultry were
commuted for 4s. Scot.; a mart or fully-fattened
ox, fon 24r. Scot.; a boll of grain for 4s. ; a ►heep
for 45.; it barrel of pickled salmon. of four cwt. for
41. lu the lipids of the priory of Monymusk, ill
Abeideenshire, we find the pasturage of six horses
at Ga. and the pastrage of filly sheep at 45. per
annum. The extent of uncultivated land, at that
time must hare been very considerable. Perilous
some of your correspuodentes will favour us with
information respecting the value of English money
at that time in the command of labour, or Mt the
purchase of the necessaries of life.
JAMES MITCHZLII..
• yule Ruthlimateg Preface to Andersou'a Diplonests.