The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-01-20 00:00:00

and Mr. SIIEIL delivered one of such a length that tlk
Dublin Papers prudently postponed the publication of
three-fourths of it till the day followintv, when they can print
it correctly from the Learned Gentleman's own manuscript.
Among the other varieties of the day was the " under-
growl" of •• JAI A LAW LLSs." Mr. Bunt. in
vain raved about the " fiendlike spirit" which is at work
among the Catholics. LAwt.t.sv persisted in his intention
of bringing the conduct of Mt. O'Cotcww. again and
again before the Association, until he succeeded in bring-
ing " Mr. 0.C0NN1.1.! back to himself." it is easy to
perceive, from the display of Monday, that this Catholic
Association, composed as it is of such discordant parts,
will, like all the other efforts of the Catholics themselves,
only have the abet of removing all chance of success
further than ever from their reach.

We continue our remarks from the Brifidi Press of
yesterday upon Mr. CousLTT'c Register of the regent
week, containing his lecture on the sulject of paper
,•etereNea.

" says Mr. COBBETT, " is the Sitinderii, or
ineasureof mine ; it is the thing by which we tell what
degree of valre• there is in any thing. Of course this
standard, this measure of value ought always to remain
the same." He then affects to ridicule the idea that this
standard must be subject to variation. " This," he says,
" would be a pretty standard of value !" But Mr. Coe.
lIETT shows himself to be very superficially acquainted
e'ther with the subject of trolley or paper currency-
Money is in fact only the instrument which men have fixed
upon to facilitate the exchange of one commodity for
another, and it consequently becomes the measure not of
Cie intrinsic but of die ex:ha/wee/de value of all commodi-
ties, and for all she purposes of trade the phrase is there-
fore sufficiently understood when money h said to be the
stip.dard of value. But Mr. Conger r ignorautly con-
founds the one with the other, and hence exclaim against
money being a standard of vdlise, because it is liable
to vary. " he says, " would be a pretty standard
of value ! Yet this sort of standard must exist in every
country that is afflicted with the curse of paper-money'
But Mr. Culierl T must have his full share of that stupi-
dity which he charges upon every one else, if he does not
know that money would be precisely the same, as a stand-
ard cf value, in every country, whether paper-money
existed or nut. lle is even so very ill-informed upon the
subject as not to be aware of the distinction between the
value and the r;ee of a commodity, and when the latter
culler rises or falls he imagines the standard value of mo-
ney is clitrilKed. i'Ve would advise him to study these
mssters a little more accurately before he proceeds further
to enlighten the Mechanics, or his Lectures will be iery
unprofitable.
As a proof that all the concerns of commerce might
be conducted without any other circulating medium
than gold, he asks, " How is it that all nations went
on, for so many ages, without ever having thought
of such a thing as Jasper money? " Why, tile an-
swer is this—in the infancy of every State commercial
csvdit is unknown, and until governments are settled upon
such a basis as affords protection to private propetty and
security to public faith, paper credit, which expresses that
confidence, must of course be equally unknown ; verbal
engrigemerits there may be, and verbal contracts, but no-
thing beyond ; it is not until, in the progress of commerce,
these verbal contracts and engagements come to be verified
and confiiined by written securities, and that the growth
of mercantile confidence makes those securities easily trans-
ferable, that they become current in the commercial world;
it is easily seen, therefore, from the origin of paper money,
why it*Wa3 not introduced " fur 30 many ages;" because
many ages must necessarily. elapse before society would be
in a condition to benefit by it.
We have replied to this question merely to show hew
much Mr. Cotorerr relies upon the ignorance of his
' readers, and how much he depends for the reception of his
doctrines upon their being either too indolent or too
ill-in-
structed to refute them.

following up his interrogations, which always serve
with hint as a substitute for argument, he asks—
" How comes it that paper-money is not wanted in
France now? I believe, that there is DO doubt that the
trade and commerce of France have g-ottly increased
within the last ten years. New and extensive vaanufac-
kwiea have started up, and of various sort, too; great im-
provements have been made in the affairs of the land. Yet
France wants no paper-money. The bushel of wheat is at
much about the same price, effects of seasons excepted,
that it was ten years ago. It would, on account of the in-
crease in the dealings, be rather lower than it was ten pars
ago; but Fratize has now mote than a due proportion of
the gold and silver of the world, because, we having a
paper money, a large part of our share of the gold and
silver goes to France. flowerer, we all know Mat France
lies no paper-atone !, ; and if that great kingdom, which,
mind, has fleets, immense armies, many sea-ports, great
trade and commerce, and a debt besides. She has all these,
and yet she wants no rillonous paper-money."
We have here an admirable sample of that latitude of
assertion in which Mr. COOSET r indulges—and very al-
lowably—from the consciousness that he has no credit at
stake for veracity, and that his disregard of truth is so no-
torious that the detected violation of it- never lessens his
reputation. " Ire all know:. he says, " that FRA Nes has
so piper mow y."

What! is Mr. CORBETT 601 so ignorant as not to
know that France has paper-money, and that it is em-
ployed in the pecuniary conc;rns of commerce in the same
manner as in England ? he actually so uninformed as
not to know that the Bask-notes of France are as current
in Paris as the Bank of England notes are in Lot don?
fin he never seen a mi.le Atm.: bill? And is he yet to
learn that a Bill of Exchange, and a billet payable au
Porteur, form the pryer-mm.3/ of that country, and cir-
culates as readily and in the same manner as bills of ex•
change and promissory notes do in Ais?
After this specimen it is but fair to require that Mr.
COSILTT 0101141 give his readers something better to pin
their faith upon for the future than /.is sleeve, for be has
actually worn it threadbare in the service of error and de-
ception. He has promised in his mitt Its. inter to enlighten
the pulplic still Anther as to the Lecessity of extirpating our
" accursed paper-money." We shall take care to attend
him in the progress of his Iterealean labours.