The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-02-01 00:00:00

PARIS PAPERS.

1.4H15, JINVARY 27.

Their Excellencies the Ministers Plenipoten-
tiary and &ivory% Fectraordinary of Foreign Powers
kid tlw honour of being presented ye►terday to his
Majesty in diplomatic audience. Ills Majesty af-
terwards transacted business with the slaiquis
Demilles, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Religion his lost one of its motif worthy ministers
in the person of the Abbe O'Connor, who died in
Paris, aged 71 years. Descended from one of those
illustrious families who once gave Kings to Ireland,
be devoted to the church of France a holy life,
which Providence has crowned by a holy death, Ile
was formerly chaplain of the Irish brigade, and, with
it, was alike distinguished rot love to the Gnu of
lIIs fathers, and fidelity to the King of his adoption.
Yesterday, in the Chamber of Peers, the pro-
position mode by the Duke de Levis, tending to
the entire 14 bolition of the druit d'ultbaine was dive
cussed, and postponed to Saturday.
The Diet of Frankfort held it. first Sitting on
the 22d instant. It continued from ten o'clock in
the morning till two in the afternoon. The Ministers
of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony, voted
out military affairs.
JANUARY 29.

The King presided yeitterrloy at the Council of
Aliiiistero, winch continued front one till four
o'clock.

The Duke of Gloucester set off on the day be-
fore yesterday for Foutailiehlean. The Prince de
Ileyrand accompanied his Serene Highness, who
will raw ii to Paris on Friday, the .29th.
The Duke of Richelieu arrived on the 20th at
Aielo's, and left it on the 21st.
M. Gregoire Pierre Giarve, Maronite Bishop,
under the title of Archbishop of Jerusalem, has
had within a few dugs an audience of his Ma-
jesty, who received him with kindness. He con-
versed with him in Rehm This Prelate requests,
it is said, in the Elaine of the Maronite nation, that
the King would be pleased to have him furnished
with a Royal press and an assortment of Syriac cha-
racters, to establish a printing-office on Mount
Lebanon. This printing-office would serve to pro-
duce pod hooks of religion, of which the Catholics
of that country stand in need.
The number of ships which in 1818 passed the
Sound, amount to 12 588 ; among which were
5,052 English, 1,755 Swttlish, 884 Danes, 94G
Norwegians, and 594 flelviasi.
There are at present in Florence, a city of 75,000
inhabitants, eight public theatres, all, as we ate
assured by the Florence Gazelle, well attended.
A report hail, prevailed at Brussels that Madame
Catalina hail peiished in passing from Franca to
AVe are delighted to have it in our
power to declare the falsity of this assertion.
Nlothinte Catalemi is now at Lille, where an indis-
position diat confines her to her bed postpones the
concert she had announced for the 23d.
It is antiouncesl that the Keeper of the Seals will
to-morrow present to the Chamber of Deputies a
project of a law on the responsibility of Ministers.

FLANDERS MAIL,

BRUSSELS, JANUARY 28.

His Royal !Ugliness the Prince Regent of Eng-
land IMP soot to his Majesty the King of the Ne-
tlwrlaiirls Ilse Order of the Guelphs.

The illercury rf iintteerp states that the Editor
of the Constituasnel received the day before yes-
terday, on his return from Brussels, an order to
quit the kiiiv,dotti, and that passports for that pur-
pose were delivered to him by two gene-d'armes,
who have not bliieC left hint, and who are to ac-
company hint to the frontiers of the kingdom.

BRUCE*, JANUARY 25.

The price of grain continues to drcline iu all the
markets of Flanders. One of the causes of this fall
is stippused to br, dust the importation of Ibreign
corn into England %ill son,, be prohibited.—
IVlirat io lisrticsilar is little in demand. Oils are
aka, 1.411r0, though the seed keeps at the old prices :
nu line cls.rrr reed is row to be seen in the market,
the rale of it is io general hut inconsiderable.

FRANKrOILT, JANUARY 21.

The Special Coolant vet charged by the
Prussian Government with drawing up a plan of a
ConAtitutiosi has at length terminated its. labours,
and it is sffirineil that the whole plan is of the most
lilieial nature. Entire liberty of the press, reserv-
iog the re•ponsihnlity of the writers; the publitity
of judicial proceerliiige; unity of the national repre-
venial ton ; rraponsilaility of the Ministers, and dull
the await. of the Executive power; the determination
of the annual contributions by the Chamber of Re-
prtsristatires; the reduction of the military establish-
ments ; vtippresinti of the feudal and hereditary
nobility—such are the principal bases which are 141111
to have been unanimously adopted by the members
of the Committee. The men who have so coil-
' ragously expressed the general wish are, the Chan-
cellor Beyine, Counsellor Eichorn, and the cele-
bated lawyer Savigny. Their plan is referred to the
Council of State, to undergo a thorough examination,
and whatever be its fate, they will have deeerved well
of Prussia, for which they prepare a beurfii, and of
the rest of Gerin.iny, to which they offer at once a
model and a lesson.—(flairtlers Papirs, Jan. ‘29.)

THE BRITT. S 1-1 PRESS.

LONDON,

MONDAY, FEBRUARY I, 1e,19.

The country looks forward with extreme interest
to the result of ?Jr. TICII,N F.Y'S motion in the
!loose of Commons to-Morrow night, for the ap-
pointment of a Committee to inquire iota the state
of the Currency of the country, and to ascertain
the canes that seen' to render the resumption of
Cash Paymews by the Batik of England inexpe.
client at the stll of July rowing. It is universally
felt that the subject is of paramount importance,
and that the sense of Parliament should be clearly
understood with respect to it, before the attention
of the Legislature can be applied to any other
matter.

It sppears that, in consequence of the happy and
timely interference of the Bank Directors with the
administrators of his Majesty's Government, the
priociple is conceded respecting the necessity of a
Perliatnentary inquiry into the means hitherto
adopted by the Batik to fulfil its engagements with
the public, and into the funds it now postesses for
that purpose. The usual annual retorts to Pac-
liament of the overage amount of the Bank issues
have not as yet been presented to either
60 that we are unable to speak with confidence on
this part of the subject ; but, if we are rightly in-
formed, the Bank has very considerably di-
minished its issues within enure short period,
and it is also asserted that a very large
amount of bullion, exceeding ten millions, is col-
lected in the Book carers. We are willing to be- '
beer, front these circuinstances,and from the readi-
ness now evinced by the Batik Directors to submit
the state of their finances to Committees of both
Douses, that these Gentlemen had sincerely dis-
posed themselves to meet the wishes of Parliament
and of the country, in fulfilling the provisions of
the last Act. But from the circumstances that
seem to prove their sincerity, we may collect
how sensibly alive they are to the dangers of the
measure, as it may affect their own security—for to
suppose that they, or any one else capable of
forming an opinion on the subject, could for
an instant imagine that there existed any danger
of the country's being drained of 111 its specie
by the removal of the Bank Restriction Act,
is to suppose a degree of fatuity which in or-
dinary courtesy we should be unwilling to at-
tribute to them. The Rank Directors and the
Ministers being, however, completely puzzled, are
now constrained to acknowledge the difficulty, and
to come to Parliament for that assistance they bad
so frequently and so contemptuously refused. The
point on which they dater from Mr. TIeRNEY is
with respect to the stature of the inquiry, which
they require to he one of secresy. To men unac-
quainted with the secrets of certain Parliamentary
proceedings, this, no doubt, might seem a very
fair and natural request, originating in an unwil-
lingness to have the affairs of the Bank, as a com-
mercial company, laid open to public inspection ;
but possibly the sympathy that might be felt for
the Bank on this point will cease to exist when it is
remembered that in many of ourformer Parliaments
Secret Committees were not unlike packed Juries,
constituted for a special purpose, wherein either no
inquiry took place, or only such ap inquiry es was
supposed sufficient to give an air of authenticity to
a report previously prepared, where the few Oppo-

. . _
sition Members who, for the sake of public appear.
ances, were appointed to those mock tribunals,
were compelled to move in fetters, as little capable
of free action as one horse, however uilwilliiig to
act, is in company with a well-trained and straight-
going team. No wonder, then, that Mr. TIEauLY,
who has often experienced the ill•consequences of
such tactics, should doubt the sincerity that
prompted such a measure, and regard the proposal
more as a scheme to defeat the object of his motion,
titan as the honest means of devising a remedy fur
au existing
The principal difficulty that seems to beset the
question of a recurrence to a metallic circulation
is this—that 'iota ithstanding the diminution of its
issues by the Bank of Eugland (as it is said to some-
thing about •25,1100,000[.1, the foreign exchanges
continue unfavourable to this country, and the
market prices of gold and silver continue to increase.
It is, therefore, argued, that the issues of the Batik
of England have no effect upon the market prices
of bullion, and that these have been influenced
solely by the dernanda for specie in foreign coun-
tries. In this argument there appears to us one glar-
ing fallacy. Those who maintain it speak on the sup-
position that gold amid silver are touch mare valuable
in foreign countries than in Great Britain, and con-
sequently that they must bear a higher money price
there than here; whereas the fact iv, that if our cur-
rency were of equal illitllll.lC value with that of
Fiance, or Russia, or any other foreign country, hay-
iog a metallic circulating medium, s snuck higher
price would, according to the present stale of the
market, be given for gold and silver in &Amino, than
in Varies or St. Petersburgli, or any oilier city. Can
it lie supposed that a foreign government, wanting
go!il or silver for its currency, would give mote

Illrn tin ir actual saint for these las .t I
immediately on receiving them put tin sa
circulation as cum, at their alpsoltitte valuc, to
be again returned on then, as. bullion ? This
htllllloSitioll is rendered the more improbable,
Gone the circruntstaisce that gold and lith.l are
lint measured by other c [[[ FllollllicY the produce
of oilier (011111,11 es. but tile. Hinting every civi-
Li people measured earn 1, the other, and
be seine estimate and proportion tire res•o4iiized
by All countries that are united in commercial
relit; l ul4. The precious metals retain rise same
intrinsic value iii all countries, nod If tisey be
driven from one to another, it moat art-e from
the relative state of the curresscies of the two
countriev—the excess of one, by diminishing its
table, always having a. tendency to supply the de.
lieseitcy of the other. On this principle depends
the ra'e of foreign exchanges, and it thence might
happen, as in fact it frequently dots litipiwii, that
at the very 1710111e/A when a Country is carrying on
a most profitable trade with another, the rate of
exchange seenia to he unfavourable to the nation
most Allett ',Atli in the mutual traffic.

Here their the question arises—why it happens
that the market prices of the precious metals ruse
in this country, while the Bank of Eilgluiltl
de-
creases its issues ? To which we reply, that its tie
present unnatural state of onr currency, the issues
of the Bank of England do not lentil or conical
the issues of the numerous tanks throughout the
country, all of which inundate their respective
districts with their paper, at their own discretion.
They do not fear to have their coffers einiiiird
by the return of the occasional excesses of their
issuers beyond the necessities of the country, and
since the confidence of the public has been
lessened in the notes of the Bank of England.
this fear is less operative than it used to he. There
is no person twenty miles from London who would
not prefer the local note of his district to that of
the National Bank; it thence happens that to
whatever degree the prudence of the Bank of Eng-
land may have lowered the channel of general circu-
lation, in the same degree, or rather, as we believe,
in a much greater proportion has it been supplied
fsom the tributary streams of the country banks.
This, we believe, will be found to be the cause of
the present deterioration of our currency (as mani-
fested by the high prices of the metals of unvarying
intrinsic value), and the evil thence arising can
never be corrected except by the restoration
of a metallic currency. By this alone can the
issues of the several banks, whether national or pri-
yak, be restricted to supply the wants of the coun-
try. But should that remedy he still withheld,
should this country continue to be the only one in
Europe exposed to the mischiefs of a paper cur-
rency. the danger to be apprehended from the ter-
mination of the system will become more serious
and inveterate. The value of property will con-
tinue as it has done from the year 1797, to sustain
• gradual alteration, until at length it will proceed
to such a degree as to reader a recurrence to cash
payments air g iialred. The question is to be
decided by a choice of evils, but we have little hesi-
tation in affirinisig, that the difficulty will in-
crease by delay, and that the magnitude of the
evil will every day become more appalling.

A Flanders Mail arrived last night, with Papers
fron► Brussels to the 29th last. The Spocisl Con►-
mittce charged with preparing a new Const►tu►ion
fur Prussia has terminated its labours; but when
shall the people see this plan so favourable to liberty
carried into execution ? The German Papers, re-
ceived last week, state, that the King of PRUSSIA
and his Minister do not like sudden changes.

We are informed by a Gentleman just landed
from Calcutta, that in the late sickly season, in the
provinces iinmediately &Tem:ilia on Ileiigal, not
less than 220,004) persons died of cholera umbels.
Our informant (of the medical profession) recovered
from a severe attack, after taking GO grains of calo-
mel, 104) drops of laudanum, and a bottle of brandy,
within ten hours.—(Hampshire Telegraph.)

A change of wind, Donee Wednesday, from the
snit • 11-west (after nearly three weeks' emitintiamer)
to the south-east, has released several hundred sail
of outward-bound merchantmen, transports, and
crawlers, front a state of detention at Portsmonth,
and which have since proceeded toward their retipec-
tive destinations.

Friday passed by Portsmouth, for the River, the
Lydia, GELRTON, front Alexandria, last from
Halifax, in twerdy.one (laps. Mr. LOCKWOOD,
Naval Surveyor; alt. DESBARES,Artorriey-General
tor Nova Scotia ; Capt. BRETON ; Lieut. ODELL, 9801
regiment; and Ensign ALLEN. 15th regiment, were
among the passengers. She left Lord DALHOUSIE
Slid the province all well. The 15th, 62d, and Jd
battalion 60th regiment, were in garrison at Halifax.
The hods frigate, Sir JOHN LOUIS, Bart. wus the
only ehip of war lying at the port. Sir DAVID
MILNE, with the Leander, Bilkile„ Grasshopper,
&c. was at Bermuda. The +rattan hAtt vet its with
some severity, and there had been u great fall of
snow. The Lydia has brought no news trout Ca-
nada, the November mail not having arrived in due
course.

The Mcla, of Deptford, and Griper, et
ham, ❑re rrilet,il to be fitted out to explore the
Arctic region., In the ►prtug.

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LONDON FEBRUARY FillifONs,

!coin " Acherniaita's Repository of Arts, Prawns," 4,e,

WALKING DRF44.

A high dews composed of French grey Curcomsiati cloth
the lentibiro of the ,rt i. ornamented wilt, 1/311f14 of ....le
hitt:offing, edged with c.,rd the colour of the fires:, *14116
forms lozenges ; rftl'll lozenge is Ornamented st the lop sod
bottom with a *kite Intestritig rose, the heel I Of oli.cli is
very much sere, : it no formed of bard-twisted silk, and
gives the 11,,sver a rich and novel appeasoonee. The Innly is
made up to the throat, Lot Wiiilolll a collar ; it is onion', nod'
round the lop of the boat with • light milk to inomitog ; (Kw,
the back and front are full, but the Athenian bracer, whir's
ary worn with it. evisifine it to the shape. The dress has
plain lung sleeve, the bottom of whit h is to ly fim:d,. d
to correspond with the epaulette. The licad.,lrems is a
French walkiiig hat, in shape something similar to a V 1,.
tleman's: it is composed of plain straw-coloured silk plsr ir,
and lined with slate-colonred satin ; the clown to oval, a Id
of a moderate height ; the brim is ratior large, but is form e 4
into an oval shape by being trolled up in a Ron roll nu e
Aide. The tolge of the brim is richly ornamented will: of fr.
coloured satin, twist, 41 to form what the French call a
sadc. A long plume of mobile ostrich feathers, the edge iof
which are rutted, is placed on one side. French grey gl., res.
Haltbnots, the nprr rut French grey silk, the loner I rot
black leather. A large India scarf is ',flown over the
shoulders. This dress is worn in carriage costume as alt
Ili fur elegant promenade dress.