Be Queries on forged BanksNotes:....Emendation in Ariftoile: 
government paper; and now the merchants 
Jend the government twenty-two millions: 
m. their paper!” Such, however, were 
the effects of this temporary relief, that 
the number of bankruptcies, which, in the 
month of May (the period of the greateft 
number) amounted to 228, fell in June 
to 165; and they ftill contigued to de- 
ereafe in July and Auguft; in September 
they diminifhed, and were nearly on a 
par with the numbers in September 17923 
they again, however, -greatly. increafed 
‘ut November, and have continued to in- 
ereafe, more or lefs, ever fince, as will 
be feen bythe lift.. Iam, indeed, afraid 
that this increafe will be progreflive, as 
fone as the prefent ju/? and zecefary war 
fhall continue. 
Although war, and other unforefeen 
accidents, indifpenfably {well the cata- ~ 
Jogue of bankruptcy, .and involve hun- 
dreds of our honeit citizens in ruin; yet 
if is to be lamented, that there are mex 
who add no inconfiderable number to the 
fit more trom motives of policy than from 
aecejity, and who flourifo among the 
aubereases, to the abfolute ruin of other 
honeft and induftrious tradefmen. “The 
French. made a judicious diftinétion be- 
tween baztkruptcy and failure; the Sirk 
they confidered as voluntary and fraudu- 
kent 5 and the latter. as conftrained and 
unavoidable, by means of unforefeen ac- 
cidents. . 
Between thefe two «characters there 
eught, certainly, to be fome diftinGion ; 
the honeft man, who breaks in. confe- 
quence of misfortunes, cannot, with juf- 
tice, be placed, as he now is,’ on a level 
with the fraudulent bankrupt. In fome 
eountries there is a law which condemns 
a bankrupt, according to the French de- 
finition of the word, to wear green and 
other coloured caps, (at Lucca they wear 
one of an orange colour) as a badge of 
difprace; perhaps, Mr. Editor, if fuch 
a law, under -proper regulations, exifted 
inthis country, it would, in fome degree, 
check the prefent rapid progreis of bauk- 
rupicy. Tremain your’s, &c. M. Jj. 
Te the-Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
“Yo Have feen feveral articles in your paft 
k numbers; refpe&ting forgeries on the 
Bank, one of which, in particular, fug- 
gefts the following queries, which I with 
fome of your law correfpandents to an- 
fwer, through the medium of your Ma- 
gazine. 
Mr. LanDseER, the engraver, ftates,- 
that a plan has been refufed, by the Bank 
Directors, which had been appréved by 
himfelf, and Mefirs. HEATH, SHARP, 
FITTLER, LowRy, and BaRrTOLOzzt, 
as well calculated to leffen, if not pre- 
vent forgeries. it oe 
¥ have, amorig many othefs, been 2 
fufferer by forgeries; in fuech cafes the 
Bank makes the perfon to whom they 
trace themote, pay the amount, without 
offering the fmalleft preof of its being a 
forged one. 1G is : 
Have the Bank a right todeclare, that 
a note which they trace back to me is 
a forged one, and yet to offer no proof 
that itis fo? : 
If it be a forged one, have they a 
right, and what right, TO KEEP IT; 
without paying the amount? 
If a perfon has lo& money in this way, 
has he a right to bring any action of da- 
mages againft the Bank, as having been 
the caufe of his lofs, by iffuing notes 
which any common engraver might copy, 
when they might have zfued fuch as could 
not be copied by any of the known arts of 
engraving. A SHOPKEEPER. 
Strand, February %3,.1798- 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
$18, : | 
I Hope you will permit me_ to infert, 
in your far-known Magazine, an 
emendation of a paflage in Ariftotle; a 
paflage which all the critics and com- 
mentators feem to have overlooked. It 
is in the xviiith chapter of the fecond 
book of his ** Art. Rhetor,”> where he is 
difcourfing concerning the manners of the 
rich: Ido not think the common accepta- 
tion of the fentence right; it runs thus: 
O yap WABTOG, Glow Town Tig Ere THs aksces 
ruv adrwy. The Stagyrite had faid in 
the preeeding fentence—‘* Rich men are 
difpofed to be proud and infolent, as they 
fuppofe they have all things that. are 
good, axavra tayaba;” in this mext 
then comes yap, which appears, to, have 
no conneftion with the former period. 
Inftead of yap then, I would fubfutute 
yey: Which two, in their abbreviated 
dtate, are-not very unlike ene another ; 
and inftead of aay, I would put avrey; 
which is furely no great violation of text. 
The fentence now will runthus: * rich 
men are difpofed to be proud and infolent, 
as they fuppofe they have all things 
that are good; wealth ‘then (in. their 
opinicn) is, as it. were, a certaiz glory, 
or boaft, avifing from the efiumation of thefe 
fame things that are gooa."” bod ate 
| -W.C. He 
for, 
