the creation of paper money, you will agree with me in the impracticability of so confined a system. I should here conclude, having already trespassed too far on your inciulgence, were it possible to overlook the implication of dishonour and deception on the bank, which follows, "that to hide the increase of their issues, they diminish their discounts in the proportion of 1 to 4, previous to laying their annual accounts before Parliament, and immediately extend their issues when the account is made up." I shall only reply to this by saying, were the directors of the bank, in defiance of every feeling of honour or interest, to stoop to such a shallow artifice, they would by such conduct counteract the implied object of silencing the outcry on the high price of guineas, or, as you please to term it, the depreciation of their paper; nay, they would increase this evil, taking your position that the premium on guineas is the index by which we ascertain the state of bank note depreciation, as they would inevitably rise in valué rather than decrease, in as much as they would be of greater importance, from the diminution of the circulating medium, to the amount of the contraction of discounts you have stated. I shall not trespass further than as a "friend to fair discussion," and confiding in the "omnipotence of truth over error," I shall not do you the in. justice to doubt your willingness to admit these observations into your pages. I am, Gentlemen, Your constant reader, CHARLES WILLIAMS. Coleraine. THE HE foregoing letter, dated the 21st ulto, did not reach the Reporter till the 24th, when it was too late, without materially deranging the plan of the magazine, to give insertion to it in the last number. Previously to entering on the subject of this letter, the Commercial Reporter wishes to explain, what, to some may appear an inconsistency, in these reports. In the early nubers he advocated the simplifying of money troncos by having all payments in dium, and as guineas could procured in sufficient quant more general adoption of bank-notes was recommende evil of less magnitude, than plicated manner of dealing guineas, and partly in notes, the skilful computer had ti tage over those less knowin never attempted to deny depreciation of bank notes, are not payable in guineas: out the entire discusion, impliedly and expressly ad fact, which appeared to and now incontrovertible. not changed his former p the latter considerations on ject of depreciation. Th a question of domestic policy, whether it were to submit, as in this quarte not alter the general cur the question is taken up n ly, as affecting the genera cial interests of the empi The following remarks a ed to the public, in the notes on C. W's. letter. "Is then this depreciati paper, a consequence of subsidy, or any way res an increase of speculative or what has this twenty-f history to do with bank p The state of exchange tinent being unfavourable proves the depreciation o currency, because if we in circulation, as at the the war, exchange could a loss of 25 per cent for guineas would be I the exchange would nev against England, than pr tle more than the cost guineas to the Continent not guineas to send; du not pass on the Contine drawn at Hamburgh on be paid in notes, 25 per cent. Au Englis a bank-note for that s such a course of exchan Hamburgh be really wo not as money. "Merchants had but are reco as h 41. 13s. per oz. but when coined into guineas, it only brings 3l. 17s. 10d. The consequence is, the deficiency is countervailed now in England, as it has long been in Ireland, by a discount, varying according to the demand for guineas; and on the Continent by a higher value bearing a relative proportion to the more or less favourable state of exchange. Is not this a real depreciation in both instances? The Jews and others, did not buy guineas at a low rate, as bad shillings, and old plate to sell again, but they gave in bank notes the increased amount of discount added to the nominal value of the guineas.Their real value then is 1. 18. in England, and 1. 2s. 9d. in Ireland, with the addition of the discount, at which they are bought. "Of what use are guineas or any species of coin, but for the purposes of internal trade?" The great superiority of guineas over bank-notes is, that in any part of the commercial world, they still retain their value, while out of Great Britain and Ireland, the notes of their national banks, will not pass current, at the value marked on them. The merchants on the exchange at Hamburgh, the British generals and soldiers in Spain, Portugal, and Holland, can answer this question. "In consequence of the demand for the butter trade of Belfast, guineas bore a higher premium at one time of the month; do you mean to say, that bank-notes were depreciated in value more, &c. ?" Guineas bear a relative proportion to the demand, and if they are required in larger quantities at one period than another, they will bear a higher premium, whether they are used for the purposes of buying butter, or any other article. The writer's wit on" the slippery foundation of butter, and the retrogressive motion," is misplaced. If guineas were more generally used for buying linens, as formerly, an increased demand, would increase the premium, and they rise and fall exactly in the proportion of the demand, which fluctuates according to the circumstances of the market. Wheat is no more intrinsically valuable as an article of usefulness, when it sells at 24s. per Cwt. than BELFAST MAG. NO. XVI. of the greater or less demand, and the quantity at market, which fixes the price. C. W's. flashes afford no steady light to guide us through thegloom that attends what some sider the decline of the highly vaunted prosperity of Great Britain. con Is the almost total silence among commercial men a proof that this depreciation is forcing itself on the public ?" In Ireland there may be a silence on this subject. We have long been familiar to bank notes, bearing a discount; in England, the case is different. The public attention has lately been considerably aroused there, and the unfavourable rate of exchange on the Continent, has caused a considerable alarm, and awakened some considerations, which had hitherto been overlooked. As a proof of the interest the subject has lately excit ed, reference may be made to the sundry articles, which have latterly appeared on both sides of the question, in the Morning Chronicle, the Times, and Cobbett's Weekly Register. "What would be the situation of this mercantile nation, if a considerable part of these guineas came to be exported?" Guineas would not be exported, if they were not more valuable abroad, than when forced to circulate at home, in company with a depreciated paper currency. The fact of attempting to export them, proves their increased value. If this were not the case, bills would answer the purposes of trade, or bank notes would be exported. There is a great and obvious distinction to be made, between bank notes circulating instead of guineas, and not convertible into specie at the option of the holder, and the mass of negotiable paper in circulation in the form of biils of exchange, and promissory notes; bank notes form only a part of the system of paper credit. The evils of the present bank note system are all solvable into the effects of the restriction art, which liberated the banks of England and Ireland from paying their notes in specie. As to the implication of dishonour and deception in the bank, it remains for them or their advocates to adduce sufficient proof to exonerate them from the vu charge. They were lately accused in the Morning Chronicle of diminishing their discounts in the proportion of one to four, previous to laying their annual accounts before parliament, for the purpose of hiding the increase of their issues," which was done at a time, when no avowed premium on gold existed, and the bank directors had no motives to induce them to conceal the depreciation of the circulating medium, although now for the reasons assigned in the letter, they may be more cautious. The assertion pub licly made, remains as yet, as far as I have seen, without an attempt to refute it. Many of the bank directors may be fairly presumed to be readers of a paper so generally in circulation in London, as the Morning Chronicle, and if they could, I have no doubt they would repel the charge. It is a serious and alarming fact, that the bank of England is, by the extravagant leans forced from it by Pitt, and his successors, almost entirely identified with the government; and reflecting men cannot but feel in a state of extreme apprehension, when government set their partners, the bank, free from an obligation to pay their own notes. To what catastrophe such a state of things may lead, is a problem which must be solved sooner or later, according to the more or less favourable circumstances of political and commercial events, and where so much is at stake, precaution and apprehension are more allowable than unsuspecting and unjustifiable con fidence. For the Belfast Monthly Magazine. ON A TOUR TO MOURNE. N the fourth of September, in the company of two friends, I visited Slieve Donard, the most eastern elevation of Mourne mountains. We left the utmost pinnacle of its arduous top at half past seven at night, and through a dense mist, in Egyptian darkness under some rain, descended for the space of four hours in a literally crawling attitude, over precipices and cataracts, in the hearing of much and loud thunder, apparently rolling below us, accompanied by the most vivid flashes of lightening we had ever be held. Drenched in every stitch of our dress, and dyed by the juices of the long and dripping heather of the mountain, mudded and bedaubed by the mossy and spongy parts of its surface; slightly bruised, and much jaded by falling into, and wading through the sloughs and pits towards its bottom; faint and almost exhausted with laborious and aukward exertion, having to travel alternately on our backs, knees, hands and feet, not daring to stand, much less walk erect; cordially grateful for a merciful deliverance, and electrified with joy, we arrived, as at a blissful asylum, at the long looked for village of Newcastle. 'This is a small hamlet of little trade, and without market or fair. The houses are neither very correct, regular, not elegant. It has no house set apart for any description of public worship. This circumstance subjects the inhabitants to the necessity of attending divine service at rather an inconvenient distance, and proves a temptation to live in the neglect of ostensible devotion. It possesses many of the requisites of salubrity, is well supplied with pure fresh water by the rivers that descend from the mountains, sits on a clean strand, is immediately connected with good arable land, of a dry and sandy kind, and enjoys excellent air, from an open shore, and a well cultivated country. Some people of delicate constitutions have established fixed residences here for the sake of the salt water. The inhabitants are partly supported by farming and fishing, but chiefly by accommodating strangers, who resort hither in the bathing season, for recreation and health. This is a pleasant spot, especially in the summer months, and certainly an eligible watering place, being fitly situated as to the shore, and under a sheltering wing of huge Donard. Here is no very public road, no great thoroughfare, and consequently an opportuny of enjoying more than the common retirement of many other villages. Here the friend of tranquillity may recline in the enjoyment of a nappy solitude, far removed from the bustle and confusion, the noise and intemperance of great towns. Here may the sickly frame regain that health and vigour which have been lost by the confinement, the smoke and stench of the city. The number and elevation of the mountains, their magnitude and wilds, contrasted with the extensive view of the shore and ocean; the planting, and cultivated appear ance of the adjacent level country, even close to the mountain's foot, heighten the beauty and romantic scenery of the place. fall, smooth all their ruggedness, and load with increasing altitude their towering tops; or whirling and drifted by the surly blast, fill their prodigious chasms, and construct new mountams on their lee and hollow sides. Here too, the prospect comprizes an ample extension of sea, curling ve low the gentle breeze, and glittering beneath the radiance of an unclouded sun; or, in the season of storms, roll The castle, the present residence of William Beers, esq. is an antique edifice, and in good order. On accounting in dark and whelming surges be of the strength of the currents and of the tides, and the nakedness of the coast, as well as to encourage the fishing and other trade of the place, government are building a quay very convenient to this village, on the eastern side of the mountain. This structure is getting forward, and on its completion, bids fair to be of singular utility on so dangerous a shore. On Donard's side, and at no inconvenient distance, is an excellent quarry, of ready access, and very easily wrought, from which good stones of an immense size, are, with little labour, conveyed down a gently sloping declivity to the quay. Though Newcastle is not itself conspicuous, being in a low situation, yet its little contiguous eminences command a delightful prospect of the costly improvements in building, and other ornaments both ancient and mo dern, of Earls Roden and Annesley; Having the highest mountain in Ireland in its immediate neighbourhood, in some directions of no very difficult ascent, there is always an opportunity, in mild and clear weather, of enjoying a large portion of the exalting plea sures of vision. Here, to enrapture the curious eye, is presented from Donard's transcendent top, in a motly group, his concomitant train of inferior mountains, in their difference of height, shape, and size. The mind is filled with awe and pleasure in contemplating their deep cavities and abrupt precipices; the fathomless glens that separate them, their solitude, barrenness, and dreary waste; the howing winds that in tempestuous weather bellow amongst them; the intense frosts, that arrest, bind, and chrystallize the waters of their torrents and cascades; the fleecy snows that, by an abundant fore the mighty blast, drifting the spray from the convex summit of its billows as they press forward in quick succession to be spent on the extensive sandy beach, or dashed to foam against the beetling cliffs. Independent of its beauty in the storin or the calm, this part of the channel exhibits, from day to day, a pleasing specimen of the naval world. Vessels of all dimensions, from the largest full-rigged ship that ploughs the main, to the lightest skiff that scuds over the shallows; Merchantmen, near and distant to view, of various nations, fraught with the necessaries and luxuries of the world, some cutward, and some homeward bound, some making more, and others less way, standing to different points of the compass, and presenting different attitudes and phases, as, with full canvas spread to court the propitious gale, they sedulously steer their wonted course through the trackless deep to their several destined ports. Donard likewise commands an enchanting view of a large share of two provinces of ireland. From the mountains of Wicklow to the extremity of the northern counties of Ulster, all around Slieve Gallan, and other inferior mounts, the country appears as without the distinction of valleys and one entire plain, a grand champaign, hills, and where minute objects are lost in distance. To a limited extent the eye is capable of taking up, in proportion to the nearness or distance of the objects, a beautiful variegation of bog and wood, pasturage and crops, of rivers and lakes, of distinguishing the eminences from the intervening nollows, and marking particular buildings and towns. Beyond this limit, the eye, fain to view still more than all this gratifying variety of rural scenery, roams in admiration to the utmost extent of the powers of vision over remote regions, which, through the dense atmosphere, exhibit a sameness of surface. This visual excursion is not limited to Ireland; it includes in its range the Isle of Man, and passing the channel, surveys a large tract of rising lands on the western coast of Great Britain. The greatness and novelty of this entire prospect naturally elevate the mind; a croud of thoughts rush upon it. If such are the mountains of Mourne, if such is Donard, what are the Alps! what are the Andes, extending thousands of miles in length, impervious to the foot, and partly beyond the prying researches of man, if not inaccessible to animal existence; of vastly superior altitude, covered with eternal snow, even in the torrid zone, and contiguous to the equator; the source of rich and exhaustless mines, and the origin of the largest rivers in the world; a perpetual monument of the wonders of creation, and of the inscrutable omnipotence of the Creator! If such is Donard's pros. pect, encircled far within the limits of two or three little islands, what would be that of the globe, which can be viewed but in idea!-what of the planets and satellites that roll in their respective orbits round the sun! and what of those countless suns and systems, which are deemed to occupy the immensity of space! and how overwhelming the contemplation of that Being whose omnipotence, by a simple LET BE, from nothing, formed them all! The fatigues of our painful descent from the mountain were relieved by a pleasant jaunt on the succeeding day to Castlewellan. On the way we visited Tullamore Park, the site of a country residence of Lord Roden This place is ornamented both by nature and art. The mansion house has more the appearance of a commodious, neat, and elegant cottage, than of a superb and lofty edifice. It has a lawn and front in three directions, besides an access in the rear to the kitchen and offices. It is not clouded by a too great nearness of plantings; nor is the view intercepted, except in a small degree on the western side. One of wall, should, for more safety ness, terminate in a graduall mound of earth. The princ looks to one elevation of mountains, over an interveni decorated with trees of vari and sizes, from the aged state the shooting twig. These ra the borders of a beautiful stand in clumps throughout lav sure grounds, and meadows. flourishing growth give a fin to the mountain's steep and face, as they ascend it, in rov gular distances from each towering eminence amongst wood and heath. The river by the overhanging timber, t various directions, falling o cipices, and beds of jutting pressing through deep cuts enormous stones, presents g miniature pictures of the tor the cascade; admits, ati through the shade, an enlive of the sun to beam upon it;: its channel affords an occasio of the mountains, of the tra it descends, and of the sea in it hastens to be disembogued. The eastern front overlook tle declivity of considerable to the sea, and commands a prospect of desert mountain at the bottom with a fertil The plantings, verdant pasti yellow crops, which clothe th the winding river by which tersected, present an entertai nery when viewed in contr the height, the bold promin dark countenance, and brow of the mountains. The fing that mark distances and dire various curiosities of the P artificial seats erected to suit views, display the good taste former noble owner, the late Clanbrassil, and silently int kindly welcome to the visitin er. A remarkable one of th is placed, as in a bower, shade of an aged, and widely ing thorn; it is a kind of chai ed out of a hard granite, fi commodate three persons, wh thereon, enjoy the view all in the following lines, which |
