548 
In any defcription of aon, applied as 
a fimilitude, the principal pomt of com- 
parifon may be either taken from the 
thing aéting, or that ated upon: both, 
indeed, ought to have their parallels in 
the real fcene ; but, generally, one is the 
Jeading, and the other, the fubordinate 
‘figure in the piece. In moit of thofe de- 
rived from the aétion of the wind, which 
are quoted above, its power is the main 
circumftance, though expreffed by dif- 
ferent effects. There are others, here- 
after to be produced, in which the ¢fcés 
‘are meant to be brought to view, more 
than the caufe: fuch are efpecially thofe 
in which the various appearances of a 
ftorm at fea are minutely painted. 
[To be continued.) 
/ 
REMARKS ON Mr. Patwz’s PAm- 
PHLET ON THE ENGLISH SYSTEM 
OF FINANCE. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
fue pamphlet of Mr. Paine, entitled 
the Fall of the Englith Syftem of 
Finance, having attraéted general notice, 
a few remarks upen it. may deferve 
@ place in your admired Magazine. 
Through the whole courfe of this 
work, in which the author affures us, 
that the coin of the kingdom is rapidly 
diminifhing ; he feems to fpeak of the 
precious metais and of wealth as’ fyno- 
Nimous terms; to infer that a nation 
which poffeites but little. of the former, 
cannot have much of the latter; and, 
that receiving taxes in paper, and paying 
the interett of the funds in paper, 1s all 
2a bubble. 
There can be no doubt, that go!d and 
filver coin is wealth, but it is equally 
clear, that is but a very {mall parr of 
the wealth of any nation ; probably, not 
more than one fiftieth part of the wealth 
of England, which has lately been cal- 
culated to amount to between twelve and 
thirteen hundred millions, while the ctir- 
rent coin has been eftimated at between 
twenty and thirty millions; admitting 
the medium of thefe two calculations to 
be near the truth, the one will be exaétly 
one fiftieth part of the other. Now, fup- 
ofing an individual, or a nation, to 
Tote completely a fiftieth part of all the 
property cither of them poffeffed, let the 
lofs be either in coin or any other valu- 
able commodity (exclufive of the article 
ef food); the poverty or diftreiles they 
Enghfh Syftem of Finance. 
{ Aug. 4 
would feel, would not be very great; 1 
would, indeed, be fometemporary incon- 
venience, but no more; to which the in- 
dividual, or the nation, would {con ac- 
commodate their habits. 
Adam Smith has, with great propriety, 
compared the coin of a kingdom to the 
highways through it; neither of them, 
fays he, produce any thing ; on the con- 
trary, they are both to be kept in repair 
ata certain expence; but they greatly 
facilirate the»conveyance from one place 
to another, and from one perfon to an- 
other, of whatever the land has produced 
by agriculture, or what, aétive capital has 
produced by manufaétures and commerce. 
Paper money, continues he, has the 
fame. effect, that -a waggon-way, could 
it be formed through the air, would have 
on the highways, it would admit of their + 
being all changed into corn-fields, and 
producing food for man, inftead of trant- 
mitting what was produced by the neigh- 
bouring grounds from one place to an- 
‘other; in the fame manner, a well-fe- 
cured paper money has enabled a very 
confiderable part of the bullion which the 
“exchange of property formerly required, 
to be fent to foreign nations, and ex- 
changed for the raw materials of our 
manufaétures, whereby it is converted 
into a productive transfer of other pro- 
perty, from one hand to another. 
One of Mr. Paine’s objeétions to pa- 
per money is, that it pulls down, the 
value of gold and filver, in thofe coun- 
tries where it has obtained moft-cir- 
culation; and that in England thofe me- 
tals are not of fo much value, as where 
Paper money is not in ufe.—If this were 
the faét, T apprehend, that almoft all our 
gold and filver would long ago have been 
carried away by foreigners, in prefe- 
rence to our manufaétures; but we know 
to a certai that Spain and Portugal, 
the countries where paper money is but 
little ufed, are con{tantly taking our 
manufactures, and fending us their gold 
and filver, which of courie mutt be lower 
in value with them, as much as the 
amount of the freight and infurance 
from thence to this country. Some part 
of thefe metals are generally employed 
in our manufactures, and the furplus ex- 
ported to the Eaft Indies and China, 
where they are fill higher in value than 
they are here.—I do not mean to affert, 
that the precious metals flow in this 
courfe from South America to the Eatt 
Indies at prefent, but that a confiderable 
quantity of them do fo, in moft years of 
peace. Our Author does not apprehend 
wt, 
bal V 
j% 
