The remainder it was directed, should be lent on the mortgage of real estate and the deposit of plate. The bills were made on legal tender under heavy penalties for a refusal to take them, and to the period of the revolution about six hundred thousand pounds had been issued.- Hist. of the early settlement of Cumberland Co., N. J.; ch. 17 and 18; Bridgeton Chronicle of April 15 and 22, 1865. By Hon. Judge Elmer, of the Sup. Ct. of N. J. We are pleased to state that it is Judge Elmer's purpose to considerably enlarge these interesting sketches and to give them to the public in a more permanent form.

The first act authorizing the creation of bills of credit was passed by Pennsylvania in 1722, and was drawn with great care. The wisdom of its provisions, and the pains taken to guard against fraud placed the scheme upon a firm basis, and secured a confidence in the safety of the issue which for years was unimpaired.

Massachusetts preceded Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the adoption of the new system (An Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency. By Joseph B. Felt, Boston, 1839) having in 1690 authorized the creation of paper money. The necessity of the case suggested the only expedient to avert an inconvenience, and the experiment would doubtless have been originated on this side of the Atlantic, even had examples upon the other not already existed. The Pennsylvania act was entitled "An act for emitting and making current Fifteen Thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit," and the preamble sets forth these reasons: “Forasmuch as through the Extreme scarcity of money the trade of the Province is greatly lessened and the payment of the Public Debts of this Government rendered exceeding difficult and likely so to continue unless some medium in commerce be lawfully made current instead of money, be it," &c. The act is based upon 6th Anne for ascertaining the rates of foreign coin in the loan office, and declared to be intended for the "benefit of the Poor industrious sort of people of the Province at an easy rate of interest to relieve them from the present difficulty they labor under." The security required was of the best description. The trustees were authorized to accept the pledge of plate, and mortgages upon lands, houses, or ground rents free of incumbrance, the estate to be in fee, and in the case of lands or ground rents, to be in value double that of the amount mortgaged, but in the case of houses treble, and the guards against attempts at fraud were judicious.

Eleven thousand pounds were to be issued at five per cent, of which oneeighth of the principal was to be paid annually and no applicant was authorized to receive more than one hundred pounds. The bills were made a legal tender and the refusal to accept them in discharge of debts, &c., worked a forfeiture of the debt, and persons offering land or chattels

cheaper for bills than for silver subjected the offender to a penalty. As necessity required, fresh loans were from time to time created, and the province continued to prosper under them. Such was the result of the system in Pennsylvania, so admirably planned and executed that Governor Pownall in his work on the administration of the colonies bestows high praise on the paper system of Pennsylvania.-"I will venture to say," he declares, "that there never was a wiser or a better measure, never one calculated to serve the interests of an increasing country, that there never was a measure more steadily pursued or more faithfully executed for forty years together than the Loan office of Pennsylvania founded and administered by the assembly of that province"-Younge on Paper Money, p. 8.

The emission of Pennsylvania paper money was never excessive. In 1759 it reached 185,000, the largest amount in circulation at any one time. The contests which were of so frequent occurrence between the governor and the assemblies, and with the mother country, and the absence of a union of the colonies, rendered the system of bills of credit very unstable. Had it been possible to have devised a permanent and uniform medium of circulation the general progress of the country would have been much in advance of the condition in which it was found at the period of the revolution.

The finances were thrown into confusion by that event, and the expenditures which it involved. An attempt to avoid the misfortunes of the past, and initiate a currency of more general credit and circulation resulted, under the recommendation of Robert Morris, in the incorporation by congress, on the 31st of December, 1781, of the Bank of North America, at Philadelphia, which on the 1st April, 1782, also received a charter from Pennsylvania. Such, however, was the effect of the spirit of political faction, that the incorporation by the state was repealed, and pamphlets were written to show that congress, under the confederation, had no power to charter such an institution.

The credit which the loan office had established for itself, induced some to prefer that system to the operation of a bank. The latter, notwithstanding, from year to year gained strength, and the benefit derived was so considerable, that the charter which had been repealed by the Legislature was again conferred, and the Bank of North America, under its perpetual incorporation, derived from the congress of the confederation, exists to this day in undiminished vigor and usefulness, the parent institution of the country.

Note 17, Page 63.

The reader is referred to a valuable note on the subject of wampum by Mr. Gabriel Furman, at p. 42 of Denton's Description of New York. Vol. I of Gowans's Bibliotheca Americana.

Note 18, Page 64.

John Cripps was a person of prominence in the early history of West Jersey. In 1682 he was a justice of peace for the jurisdiction of Burlington and also a member of the assembly. Cripps arrived in 1677 in the ship Kent.

Note 19, Page 72.

We have never met with a copy of this paper.

THE END.

BIBLIOTHECA AMERICANA.

Consisting of a series of reprints of rare old books and pamphlets, relating to the early settlement of North America; namely, History, Biography, Topography, Narrative and Poetry. Each book or pamphlet, reprinted accurately and carefully from the original text, with an Historical Introduction and copious Notes, illustrative, biographical, historical, &c., &c. No. 1. DENTON, DANIEL.-A brief History of New York, formerly New Netherland (1670). A new edition with copious Notes, by the Hon. Gabriel Furman, New York, 1845, fine paper. $2.50. No. 2. WOOLEY, CHARLES.-A two years' Journal in New York and parts of its Territories in America (1679). A new edition, with copious Historical and Biographical Notes, by E. B. O'Callaghan, M.D. To match Denton's New Netherland. New York, 1860. $2.50. No. 3. MILLER, JOHN.-A Description of the Province and City of New York, with plans of the City and several Forts as they existed in the year 1695. New edition, with copious Historical and Biographical Notes, by John Gilmary Shea, LL.D. New York, 1862. $2.50. No. 4. BUDD, THOMAS.- Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in America, being a true account of the country; with its produce and commodities there made in the year 1685. A new edition with an introduction and copious Historical and Biographical Notes, by Edward Armstrong, Esq. New York, 1865. $2.50.

The above four books, touching the early history of the New-World, now New York, were all produced by residents at the time on the spot, and witnesses to what they relate. In consequence, like all fragments or large treatises, written by eye-witnesses, they possess an interest and authority not connected with the works of copyists or reproducers. These new editions are vastly enhanced in intrinsic value by the Historical and Biographical Notes, added by their respective editors, all well known as being amply capable of doing justice, as commentators on American subjects. Copies of the original editions of these books are worth $100.

The edition of the small paper copies was quite limited, and only fifty copies each of the large paper were produced. These volumes will hereafter possess a value far exceeding the originals, for this two-fold reason: First, there are but few produced, and second, they constitute as it were, landmarks in the early history of the North American Colonies, as well as divers other parts of the new found land of America.

GOWANS.

CATALOGUE

OF

SCARCE AMERICAN BOOKS,

FOR SALE AT THE AFFIXED PRICES.

STORE-115 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.

(Between Ann and Beekman Sts.)

"In the dim room upon the sofa lull'd

Wild books strew'd round as thick as wild flowers cull'd —
How oft has Spencer's vast and varied lay

Chang'd Pain's fierce imps to Paladin and Fay!

Or Falstaff's wit-or Milton's solemn strain,

Cheer'd this weak frame and flagging sense again.

O books! O blessings! - could the yellow ore
That countless sparkled in the Lydian's store,
Vie with the wealth ye lately flung round me-
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His own Armida in that Bower of Bliss

Shot to my heart a renovating kiss.

Till with Rinaldo 1 rush'd forth afar

Where loud on Zion burst the Red Cross War."

Manuscript Poem found in MILTON'S WORKS. "Visible and tangible products of the past, again, I reckon up to the extent of three: cities, with their cabinets ond arsenals; then tilled fields, to either or to both of which divisions roads with their bridges may belong; and thirdlybooks. In which third truly, the last invented, lies a worth far surpassing that of the two others. Wondrous indeed is the virtue of a true book Not like a dead city of stones, yearly crumbling, yearly needing repair; more like a tilled field, but then a spiritual field: like a spiritual tree, let me rather say, it stands from year to year, and from age to age (we have books that already number some hundred and fifty human ages); and yearly commes its new produce of leaves (commentaries, deductions, philosophical, political systems; or were it only sermons, pamphlets, journalistick essays), every one of which is talismanick and thaumaturgick, for it can persuade men. O thou who art able to write a book, which once in the two centuries or aftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name city-builder, and inexpressibly pity him whom they name cmquerour or city burner! Thou too art a conquerour and victor; but of the true sort, namely, over the devil: thou too hast built what will outlast all marble and metal, and be a wonder-bringing city of the mind, a temple, and seminary, and prophe ick mount, whereto all kindreds of the earth will pilgrim. Fool! why journeyest thou wear somely, in thy antiquarian fervour, to gate on the stone pyramids of Geeza, or the clay mes of Sacchara? These stand there, as I can tell thee, idle and inert. looking over the desert, foolishly enough, for the last three thousand years: but canst thou not open thy Hebrew Bible. then, or even Luther's version thereof?". THOMAS CARLYLE.'