1823.] The Danish Loan. 



plate! Green youth, not that strong 

 growth which grapples with manhood, 

 and presumes on strength and prime ; 

 but early, careless, confiding, youtli, 

 how does every day that distances us 

 from tiiee fix deeper and dearer on the 

 memory traces of thy liappiness! Then 

 we neither looked forward or back- 

 ward, wished or wanted change ; fear 

 was a moment's phantom, a nightmare 

 in a dream ; and doubt a fairy, curious 

 in its starts. When the present is 

 happiest, not because it is better than 

 the past, or so good as to give no rea- 

 son the future may not be more joy- 

 ous ; but the present is best, because 

 it is the present. 



To conclude this paper without an 

 acknowledgment for the open civility 

 and hospitable kindness with which 

 the visitor is received and entertained 

 at Stonyhurst, were indeed an unge- 

 nerous omission. These priests are 

 very little known, and greatly misre- 

 preseuted : reserve and equivocation, 

 — to the .shame of the couutry and the 

 age, — have by some been identified 

 with the order to which they arc sup- 

 posed to be attached ; yet no one can 

 nee them, and retain so scandalous an 

 impression. Their frank politeness 

 sets aside a wing of the house exclu- 

 sively for the entertainment of stran- 

 gers ; and it is common enough for a 

 curious gentleman, travelling the road, 

 to ring the bell, beg to see the esta- 

 blishment, and meet with their best 

 treatment and the amplest satisfaction. 

 It is their pleasure to show and ex- 

 plain every thing: they seem conscious 

 that they undeceive, and they are justly 

 proud of it. The boys in school, and 

 the boys at play, — the boys at dinner, 

 and the boys in chapel, — he is invited 

 to judge every part and occupation. 

 To me the visit was an agreeable one. 

 The refectory is a noble hall ; the 

 study, and the room for philosophical 

 experiments, are large, and the hitter 

 very well furnished. The library is 

 rather small and new, and the cabinet 

 of natural curiosities is not rich ; but 

 the extensive dormitory, with its dis- 

 tinctly partitioned bed for each boy, 

 and its whole arrangement, is a pattern 

 of cleanliness and convenience. 



S. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



IT is sufficiently known by the well- 

 informed, that the Danish finances 

 are always under the special proleo- 



455 



tion of the children of Israel. Thus 

 have these disinterestfd descendants of 

 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, taken care 

 that the inhabitants of Denmark, for 

 the next forty years, shall follow the 

 injunction of Holy Writ, "In the 

 sweat of thy brow shall thou eat thy 

 bread." For if those states, whose 

 only resource is agriculture, with corn- 

 prices yearly falling, have an increased 

 yearly expenditure of two millions 

 mark banco for interest, and 800,000 

 m. b. annual reduction of the debt, du- 

 ring twenty-five years, it is more than 

 the famous Danish financier, Schmidt 

 Phiseldeck, would be able to conceive 

 possible ; and, at all events, will cost 

 tlie sweat of the cultivator of the soil. 

 The facility with which the finan- 

 ciers of the present day negociate 

 national loans is a serious mislbrtuue 

 for the present generation, but a still 

 greater for the succeeding: lor on the 

 latter the greater burden is accumu- 

 lated, however great the former ieel 

 the pressure. From the complete re- 

 volution in the disposition and slate 

 of the commerce of the world, Europe 

 will year after year draw a smaller 

 quantity of the precious metals from 

 South America; because increasing 

 industry, the result of independence, 

 will require them for infernal circula- 

 tion ; and those countries will strive 

 at buying our manufactures with their 

 own productions improved by art. 

 The natural consequence will be, that 

 the value of the metals will rise yearly, 

 and at length obtain the proportion to 

 things which they had before the dis- 

 covery of America. Consequently an 

 European nation, without other re- 

 sources than its agricultural produce, 

 and no other riches than the value of 

 this produce in the precious metals, 

 pledging itself for the payment of a 

 fixed quantity of these melals, will 

 each year find it more burdensome ; 

 and many nations will, at length, be 

 entirely unable to discharge such 

 obligations. 



It would, therefore, never be possi- 

 ble, with such inevitable results, to 

 obtaii. a loan, were it not that the im- 

 mediate profits attending it mislead 

 the wisest, or tempt them to fry the 

 desperate risk. The first adventurers 

 draw themselves regularly out of the 

 scrape, and then repose on their lau- 

 rels; having disposed of the shares to 

 the public, who seldom examine, but 

 let themselves bo deceived l.ythe liigh- 

 souiiding names of the coiitrarturs, 



'J his 



