PAP 
£iow far it is liable to depreciation from other caufes, is a 
queftion on which there is much difference of opinion. 
If, as we have endeavoured to fliow, there may be an 
©ver-ifl'ue, i. e. fuch an ilfue as will raife the price of com¬ 
modities, the price of gold and filver bullion mull rife as 
well as all other commodities; but, when the bullion- 
price of the metals rifes above the mint-price, the coin 
will foon be regarded only as a commodity, and will, in 
fpite of all laws and penalties, be bought and fold as 
fuch. When a difference in theeftimated value of paper- 
currency takes place, from whatever caufes it may arife, 
one of two effects mud follow : either the paper-currency 
and the metallic-currency will be equally current, each 
at its refpeflive value ; or the metallic-currency, being 
regarded folely as a commodity, will di(appear. Where 
depreciation has occurred from want of confidence, it has 
generally happened, that the paper and metallic-cur¬ 
rency have circulated together, each at its own vaiue; 
but where depreciation has taken place, from an increafe 
in the quantity of paper, from a diminution in the quan¬ 
tity of the precious metals, or from an increafed demand 
for them, it has generally happened, that the metallic- 
currency, being regarded folely as a commodity, has dis¬ 
appeared. 
Thefe two different effefls may eafily be accounted for. 
A rjfe in the price of bullion, occafioned by an over-iffue 
of paper, by a diminifhed fupply of bullion, or by an in¬ 
creafed demand for it, is only known to, and adled upon 
by, comparatively a few people. The great ntafs of the 
nation, as has been already obferved, in receiving or 
paying money, do not advert in the flighteft degree to 
the character or value of the money as bullion, but folely 
to its character and value as a means of interchanging 
commodities; the variations in its bullion-value, there¬ 
fore, are unheeded both in their payments and receipts; 
they are, however, conllantly and carefully watched by all 
whofe bufinefs confifls in dealing in bullion ; and, as foon 
as the bullion-value of coin exceeds its mint-value, it 
disappears from circulation by their means. The cafe is 
widely different, when there is any alarm refpefting the 
credit of the paper-currency; in this all are immediately 
and deeply concerned ; all are eager to exchange it for 
the precious metals; and under thefe circumftances, as 
the precious metals, in their chara&er of coin, can thus 
be exchanged for as much paper as they could command 
as bullion, there is no temptation to withdraw' them from 
circulation. 
It is not juft, therefore, to infer, that the paper-cur¬ 
rency of a country is not depreciated, becaifle two prices 
do not exift, if the other effeft of depreciation, viz. the 
difappearance of the precious metals, has taken place ; 
each circumftance marks depreciation, but of a different 
kind, and arifing from different caufes. On the other 
hand, is it not fair to infer, that the credit of the paper- 
currency, or in other words, a difference of value between 
the paper-currency and the coin it promifes to pay, may 
arife, like a difference of value between any other two 
commodities, from the quantity of the one being in¬ 
creafed, or the demand for it being diminifhed, or from 
the quantity of the other being diminifhed, or the demand 
for it being increafed? See Smith’s Wealth of Nations ; 
Thornton on Paper Credit; and our article Bank, vol. ii. 
p. 674-8. 
PATER-OFFICE, (in the palace of Whitehall,) is an 
ancient office, where all the public writings, matters of 
ftate and council, proclamations, letters, intelligences, 
negociations of the king’s minifters abroad, and generally 
all the papers and difpatcnes that pafs through the offices 
of the Secretaries of ftate, are lodged, and difpofed in the 
way of library. It was chiefly-from this noble repofitory 
that bifliop Burnet had materials for his Hiftoryofthe 
Reformation. 
Paper-office, Sometimes called Paper-mill; an office, 
or room, in the Court of King’s Bench, where the records 
belonging to that court are depoiited. 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1251. 
PAP 385 
PAPES'CENT, aclj. Containing pap ; inclinable to pap. 
—Demulce.nt, and of eafy digeftion, moiftening and re- 
folventof the bile, are vegetable fopes ; as honey, and the 
juices of ripe fruits ; Some of the cooling, laftefcent, papef- 
ceut, plants ; as cichory and lettuce. Arbuthnot on Ali¬ 
ments. 
PA'PESS, f. [from pope, Fr.] A female pope.—The 
man, as ill as he loves marriage, wflll needs make a match 
betwixt his Gratian’s pope Stephen, and his pope Joan. 
16 Hymen ! Was ever man fo mad to make himfelf paf- 
time with his own flume ? Was the hillory of that their 
monflrous pape/'s of our making? Up. Hall's Honour of 
the Mart'. Clergy. 
PA'PHIA, one of the names of Venus. 
PA'PHIAN, adj. Belonging to Paphos; applied to 
Venus. See Paphos. 
PAPHLAGO'NIA, in ancient geography, a province 
of Alia Minor, Situated on the Euxine Sea, between Bi- 
thynia to the weft, and the gulf Amifenus towards the 
ealt; to the South was Galatia. When other divifions 
u'ere introduced, fuch as the province of the Hellefpont, 
&c. the name of Paphlagonia disappeared. The river 
Parthenius Served for a considerable time as a boundary 
between Paphlagonia and Galatia. Towards the eaft the 
mouth of the Halys Served as a limit to Paphlagonia on 
that fide. In the interior of the country were the Heneti 
or Veneti, regarded as the progenitors of thofe who after¬ 
wards palled over into Italy; they occupied the parts 
towards the north. In the centre of Paphlagonia was a 
province called Domanitis, which included a considerable 
town under the name of Gennanicopolis, (Kaftamoni.) 
This country is called Pylccmenia by Some. Paphlagqnes, 
the people, are mentioned by Homer, and therefore of no 
fmall antiquity; he calls them a brave people; while 
Lucian ftigmatizes them as fuperftitious and lilly. Bo- 
chart derives their name from Phaleg. 
PA'PHOS, in ancient geography, two adjoining iflands 
on the w r ell fide of the i(land of Cyprus; the one called 
Halite Paphos (Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny); the other Nea 
Paphos; and, when mentioned without an adjundl, this 
latter is always underflood. Both dedicated to Venus, 
and left undiftinguifned by the poets (Virgil, Horace). 
Hence Venus is furnamed Paphia. 
Paufanias relates, that the Arcadians, in returning from 
the war of Troy, were caft by a tempeft on the ifle of 
Cyprus. Agapenor, their chief, founded a colony at Pa¬ 
phos, and there erefled a temple in honour of Venus, 
about 1184 B.C. In this temple was an oracle, which 
was confulted by Titus, in his way to compliment Galba 
upon his elevation to the empire. When Cato was fent 
to the ifle of Cyprus, he u'as allured by Ptolemy, that if he 
retired without oppofition he fhould want neither money 
nor honour, and that the Roman people would confer 
upon him the profitable and honourable poll of chief 
prieft of Venus. The firft town that bore the name of 
Paphos was in the interior of the country ; the fecond, 
Neo Paphos, was on the fea-coaft : here the goddels of 
beauty was particularly worftiipped ; and all male animals 
were offered on her altars, which, though a hundred in 
number, daily Smoked with a profufion of frankincenfe. 
The inhabitants were very effeminate and lafcivious, and 
the young virgins were permitted by the laws of the place 
to get a dowry by proftitution. 
The abbe Mariti, in his Travels through Cyprus, gives 
the following account of the ifland of Paphos. “ It is 
fituated (fays he) on the Southern fide of the ifie of Cy¬ 
prus. It contained the celebrated temple of Venus ; 
which, together with the city, was dellroyed by an earth¬ 
quake, fo that the leaft veflige of it is not now to be Seen. 
A lake in the neighbourhood, which even in fummer 
overflows with ftagnant and corrupted water, renders the 
air in Some degree unwholefome. On the weftern coaft is 
the New Paphos, called by Some of the modern geogra¬ 
phers Bafo; a name which is unknown in the ifland of 
Cyprus. That we may not pofitively afcribe to the lat- 
5 F ter 
