136 
driven the cash out of circulation, be- 
cause it could be more profitably 
employed. There is a gain on’ the 
exportation. of gold to the continent; 
and- much, no duabt, has gone out of the 
kingdom: but let the small notes be 
called in, and gold enough will return to 
fill up the vacuum. It is, like avy other 
commodity that is permitted to cir- 
culate freely, certain to find its way to 
the best market; aud (unlike some 
commodities) it is almost impossible 
te prevent its circulating freely, so 
easily is it smuggled. Those, therefore, if 
euch there be, who think thatif the small 
notes were abolished, we should want a 
medium to carry on the daily commerce 
of life, may rest assured they are much 
mistaken. To annihilate the whole, 
understood to be above four millions 
in amount, would indeed produce a 
temporary inconvenience. But this 
is neither necessary, nor, dispersed as 
the notes are over the country, would 
it be practicable. Let them be gra- 
dually called in, and no inconvenience 
whatever to the public would result. 
Te prevent then the prevalence of 
these lamentable crimes, and _ their 
cruel. consequences, if nothing else will 
do, there can be no hesitation in saying 
that the smal! notes should be altogether 
done away. Severe metiods have been 
tried too long. The keeper of Lancaster 
castle, a goud and humauve man, is, I 
am told, grieved and shocked with the 
numerous executions that have taken 
place there of late. To pass sentence en 
the crimiuals must vo doubt have been 
very painful to the mild and venerable 
judge who usually presides in the court ; 
and a strong, though perhaps unfounded, 
opinion, that these awful examples are 
necessary to the support of public 
credit, can, I presume, be the only rea- 
son why the individuals have not been 
recommended to the royal mercy. 
It is scarcely necessary to ubserve, 
that the measure above recommended, 
would not interfere with the Bank-re- 
stricion law. The Bank might be pro- 
hibited from: issuing notes under 51. va- 
lue; and yet privileged not to pay is 
notes in cash, as long as parliament may 
think proper. Your’s, &c. 
Dea. 19, 1809. dW of 
: 
Te the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SiR, 
F_NHE rave for obtaining titles and 
hereditary distinctions, has of late 
yours increased astonishiigly. Daurmg 
oe) 
Ox the Increase of Titles... 
“convineing 
[March 1, 
his Majesty’s reign, the peers of England 
and Iveland have been doubied, and the 
baronets have never been so numerous 
as they at present are; those of ingland 
amount t» five hundred and sixty-one, 
those of Scotland one hundred and forty 
eight, and of Ireland one hundred and 
three: in all eight hundred and twelve. 
This statement, one wouid think, either 
argued ainazing magnanimity and talent. 
in our countrymen, (thus to be able to 
swell our list of worthies) or afforded a 
proof of their excessive 
vanity. When we look candidly into 
the cause, we shall indeed find it highly 
creditable to our country; for we shall 
observe that at least one-half of this ho- 
norable body is composed of men re- 
warded for their merits ; and that to the 
other half, the motive of vanity is falsely 
and invidiously ascribed. 
The people of this country, Sir, have 
of late been gradually refining; or, if I 
may so term, it, the lower orders have 
been trying to reduce to the same level 
with themselves the well-born, the well- 
educated, and the afiluent; and accord- 
iagly all kinds of fraud and corruption 
are exercised in, order to enable them to 
effect this by the aid of dress, and every 
species of imitation. Heace is it to be 
wondered at, that the man whose family 
has enjoyed for many generations here- 
ditary possessions, shvu.d feel himself 
somewhat mortified at the upstart pride 
T have alluded to? He seeks title therefore 
not from vanity, not from a wish of ha-~ 
ving additional superiority, but only from 
the honest desire of maintaining that 
which nature has allotted to him. Ilow 
is the wife of a man of fortune to’ be 
distinguished now? Are not those persons 
who are most decidedly her inferiors 
addressed by the same appellation? Who 
is there that is not now dubbed an esquire 
and a gentleman ? 
From the time of William the Con- 
queror to the days of James I. we find 
every man. possessing a certain tenure, a 
knight; and now that knighthood is 
rendered an inferior order by the intro- 
rluction of baronetage, it certainly should 
be the aim of every man to get himself 
enroiled in this respectable order, who 
possesses upwards of a thousand a-year 
in landed property. I am far from inelu- 
ding other men, even did their incomes 
amount to double or treble this sum; it | 
would be hard to say what sort of a 
mediey we might then haye! Landed 
property should alone be included; for, 
this devolving inalienably to the heirs 
through 
