Her

At her side, and dividing her attention with wonderful skill among the various guests as they successively appeared or became stationary at her daughter's throne, sat the agreeable, worldly-minded Mrs. Beers. placid countenance, speaking eye, and clear unwrinkled brow, revealed nothing of the anxiety, the care, the suspense, that like fiends were tugging at her heart-strings. What painful mockery does the world sometimes demand of its votaries! How surely do the worshippers of this Dagon become his victims! Fascinating indeed is the glittering whirlpool that rolls unceasingly around his shrine; but, alas for those who, having ventured in, are carried down to the black deeps beneath, when the indiarubber bag of fortune suddenly collapses!

Altogether in contrast with the beautiful daughter and the worldlyminded mother, thus presented to the reader, are two individuals whom it is also incumbent on us to notice for a moment amidst the throng which now almost fills the saloon. On a sofa at the right sits a young lady, upon whose plain but not unpleasing features we discern intelligence, sweetness of disposition, and womanly gentleness. She is engaged in apparently earnest conversation with a gentleman whose appearance and manners are characterized by a modest and quiet dignity not common in one so young. There is a shade of care upon her brow, and her eye is troubled at times as she steals a glance at the curtained recess of the window. That young lady is the eldest daughter of Colonel Beers, and her companion is the only son of Mr. Ockham, a young lawyer of some eminence and much promise.

The eye of Emily Beers brightened as her father advanced from his position and approached the sofa which she occupied.

"I find these rooms oppressively warm, my dear," he observed as he took a seat by her side, and laid his hand upon hers.

"I feared you were ill, father," replied his daughter in a voice of peculiar sweetness, "and waited anxiously for your re-appearance."

"The heat overcame me," replied Colonel Beers, with a faint smile; "and, besides, I am far from feeling well."

The ingenuous and affectionate girl thought no more of the causes of the extreme paleness and former dejection of her father. There was yet an expression about his full, haughty eye which mere physical pain is not wont to bring on; but Emily either saw it not, or interpreted it as her father wished to have it interpreted. He arose, passed on, and was soon lost in the throng of his guests.

"I think you hardly do us justice, Mr. Ockham," said Emily, as if in reply to some previous remark of the young lawyer; "you must surely give our sex credit for some power of endurance for fortitude in suffering, if not for that active courage which we hardly need."

"Certainly," replied the lawyer; "my remark was a general one, and it is my own fault that you misunderstood me. I have recently become acquainted with instances that illustrate your remark most thoroughly and most nobly. Washington Irving's beautiful tale of The Wife,' can hardly be said to come up to your meaning, perhaps; but circumstances recently falling within my knowledge have convinced me how exquisitely true it is; indeed, Miss Beers, almost a portrait."

"One could almost wish, if it were not sinful," remarked the young lady, with a slight glow upon her cheek, "that such cases might occur oftener, for the sake of the example."

"Nay, Miss Beers," replied the other, "they are common enough, and some cases I assure you are very painful to such of our profession as have any heart left, who are brought in contact with them."

"To those whose sole trust, whose only happiness is placed in worldly fortune, such things must come very hard; but not so hard, Mr. Ockham, to those who have resources above the reach of fortune."

"But when the hour of trial comes"

"Nay, speak it out," she said, observing his hesitation; "you think that many who in their own fancied strength would not shrink, might be prostrated when the hour of trial comes. Doubtless it is so-but not, I think, not with those who have truly found the consolations of the gospel."

Charles Ockham was a religious man, and he knew the strength of the divine principle which the earnest and gentle being at his side so eloquently described. Yet her words left a heaviness upon his heart, for the shadows of coming events, to those nearest and dearest to him, darkened his spirit.

Having introduced to the reader these few of the many there assembled, we may retire and let the festival proceed according to its wont.

The hours wore away brightly and swiftly. At length, when the heavy chimes of midnight were heard, there was a movement among the guests, and one after another departed. The family speedily retired, and Colonel Beers was left alone.

With an agitated, uncertain step he walked up and down the empty saloon, and his countenance bore the same haggard, care-worn, and wild expression which had startled Hawkins as he passed the window hours ago. At times, when his eye rested for a moment on some splendid article of furniture, a shudder seemed to run through his noble frame, and once, twice, he groaned inwardly. At length large drops appeared upon his burning brow, and his step faltered upon the floor. He flung himself upon a sofa and shaded his eyes with his hands.

"It must come," he muttered at intervals-" and then, my God! the extravagance of this night, and of the thousand scenes like this; would I could hide my head in the earth, for I cannot even bear the bitterness of this hour-and this, this hour, what is it to what must be? No! I am resolved!"

He spake almost with the energy of desperation, and sprang to his feet. For a moment he did not notice the frail and trembling form which occupied the sofa near where he had last sat. The flickering light of the chandeliers fell dimly upon the pale upturned features of his daughter, who in her night-dress had stolen to the saloon, fearful for the health of her father. For the first time, over her young and loving heart there flashed the conviction that her parent was struggling with some great mental agony, and as she caught the fearful frown upon his brow, she screamed faintly, and, unknowing what she did, grasped his arm.

"Emily!" exclaimed her father, in the strong harsh tones in which he had last spoken

Oh, my father, forgive me," faltered out the agitated girl-"I feared you were unwell, for indeed you looked dreadfully pale this evening." "Pale did I seem agitated? Tell me, Emily, if that is what you meandreadfully pale. Nay, girl, your foolish fears must have alarmed you. I did not think," he added, fixing his dark, gleaming eye upon her counte

nance, in the expression of which suspicion and pride were blended, "I did not think you were so observant, Emily!"

"Dear father, forgive me if I have offended you. If you had not taught me to love you as I have loved you, I might be less anxious about your happiness.'

"Pshaw, my daughter, this is nonsense," he replied, while the gloom melted from his brow and a faint smile brightened his features. "If I was ill, it is over now that the heat and excitement of this business are past. These parties are a terrible infliction."

"They are, indeed," responded Emily-" aimless, fruitless, and without result, except in the extravagance and mental dissipation which they bring."

“Extravagance, indeed, my daughter, most ruinous extravagance; and you know in what trying times we are living. Should we fall, Emily, who would yield us respect and sympathy after such scenes?"

"All, I trust, whose sympathy is of any value, all whose respect is a gift worth possessing." The earnest, beautiful simplicity of her manner convinced Colonel Beers that the heart of his daughter prompted the senti. ment which her lips uttered.

"We may have occasion to test the truth of what you say, Emily," he replied quickly and almost unconsciously, while his glance strayed for a moment from her features.

"Nay, father, I trust not."

"Trust in nothing but in heaven," he added with emotion, yet with bitterness. "You, Emily, have some share of sense remaining, and it is well that at this time we have met and alone, for I feel that the revelation ought to be made; but to your mother or your sister I cannot bring my self to speak of it. My daughter, I am standing on the brink of an abyss, and I scarcely know how to avert the ruinous stroke that threatens to overthrow me." He ceased to speak, for his proud, strong heart was struggling with his feelings; it prevailed, and he preserved his calmness.

Never were the gentle sustaining influences of true womanly character exerted to better effect than in that midnight interview. For a moment, in the manner, the tone, the involuntary exclamation of his daughter, there was something that told how hard it is for even the purest and most unselfish Christian mind, to receive with composure tidings like these. The struggle while it lasted was exquisitely painful, but it was brief. Pride, fear, and the sudden dread of poverty, more appalling because unknown before, gave way before the Christian resolution, the high and glorious energy of the woman, who felt that for others' sake, even while she suffered, she must be strong.

We would not rudely lift the veil from the privacies of a scene alike trying and alike blessed to the father and his child. But there were knees then bent for prayer which had seldom bent before; and when Colonel Beers kissed his daughter's cheek, and blessed her, his heart was as the heart of a child within him.

ART. IX-A MANUAL OF GOLD AND SILVER COINS.

Of late years the subject of currency and coins has been of great interest to all classes of the community, arising mostly from the disastrous results, in a commercial point of view, that have attended the transition from a highly inflated paper currency to one approximating a specie basis. A consequence of the universal and almost exclusive use of bank emissions as a currency has been a means of preventing the community from becoming familiarized with the character, nature, and distinctive marks of coins, even those of our own country. Those of foreign countries, owing to their great distance, have not found our shores except in masses in the hands of large merchants. This state of affairs has of late undergone a change. The application of steam to ocean navigation has brought us more directly into communication with the markets of Europe, and the financial revolution which has rolled over the commercial world since 1837, has nearly crushed the banking system in this country, and is still in force. Many of the states are without banking institutions. With a population of 17,000,000, there is now less paper in circulation than in 1830, when the population was 12,000,000. The productive wealth of the country is now immensely greater than ever; but the paper system has received so severe a blow, that in all probability the future necessary increase in the circu lating medium must consist of coined money. The difficulty attending this is the want of experience on the part of the public in the use of coins. At this opportune moment a work has made its appearance calculated to impart the experience of ages, and the skill of the most eminent men, in the minutest details, to every individual. We allude to "The Manual of Gold and Silver Coins" of all nations, struck within the past century; showing their history and legal basis, and their actual weight, fineness, and value, chiefly from original and recent assays. This work is the result of the combined labors of Messrs. Jacob R. Eckfeldt and William E. Dubois, assayers of the Mint of the United States, and is invaluable to dealers in money as well as in money's worth. The introduction of the work will give the best idea of its character, as follows:

"A new book of coins seems to be required by the commercial world about once in twenty years. In 1806, the Traité des Monnaies' of M. Bonneville appeared, and perfected the science of real moneys to that date. When the second and improved edition of Dr. Kelley's 'Universal Cambist' was published (in 1821,) although based in part upon the great standard just referred to, it had numerous alterations to supply; new nations had sprung into existence, old ones had been blotted out, the whole retinue of Napoleonic sovereignties was transformed, and the world had another currency. So we, from this year of 1842, looking back upon the time which has elapsed since the Cambist appeared, perceive even greater changes in the constitution of nations, and the order of their coinage. This last monetary cycle has witnessed the origin of the kingdoms of Belgium and Greece in the old world, and in the new, the Empire of Brazil, and the whole catalogue of Spanish American republics, claiming a prominent place by the abundance of their gold and silver. Besides, there have been many and essential changes in the moneys of other countries; insomuch that of the money systems of the sixty nations treated of in our second chapter, only eighteen remain as they are found in Kelley's work, and

nine as in Bonneville's. Again, even if so great alterations had not ensued in the laws of coinage, experience proves that a watch must be kept upon the practice, and mint-assayers are continually testing the coins of foreign countries, choosing rather to trust to the cupel and balance, than to codes and allowances. From time to time, it devolves upon some of them to embody their results in a manual for public use. Since the opening of the nineteenth century, France has given the first standard of this sort, England has supplied the second, and a third is now offered from the United States.

"In this undertaking, singular facilities have been afforded us. We have operated on nearly all the kinds of coin current in the world for a hundred years past, and in the most important instances, upon considerable masses of them, and by frequent repetitions; so that a fair average has been attained. Out of 760 assays of coin stated in the second chapter, six-sevenths are original; the remainder, consisting chiefly of the older European and Oriental moneys, have been taken from Bonneville and Kelly, with a few from Becher. We have also had the advantage of an extensive correspondence, opened and conducted at our request by the present Director of the Mint, with foreign ministers and consuls of the United States. Nor would we forget the encouragement extended by the entire corps of our fellow-officers, to whose courtesy and worth it is a pleasure to bear testimony. Still, the labor of the enterprise has been such as to take from us, during three years past, most of the leisure which the daily and often urgent routine of official business allows.

"But we have aimed to do something more than to satisfy those who deal or take an interest in coins. The whole subject of Bullion demanded a methodical treatise; this has been attempted in the third chapter, and it is hoped will be found useful to those engaged in mining, or in trading with mining countries. In the fourth chapter, we have ventured to handle Counterfeit Coins. M. Chaudet, in his recent work, L'Art de l'Essayeur,' expresses his surprise that this subject has not found a place in the works of assayers, and makes a valuable contribution to it, in the chapter' De l'examen des fausses monnaies françaises.' We have taken advantage of some of his suggestions, but not without laying the ground anew, and submitting the whole matter to a practical asd patient investigation. Our fifth chapter contains an original and extensive series of results in the specific gravity of the precious metals, important alike o men of science and men of business. In the sixth chapter, we have sought to interest not only artists, but all who have a taste for engravings, by a brief history of the new process of machine engraving, and by numerous specimens of what it is able to achieve. The plates are fully described, and an attempt is made to acquaint ordinary readers with an easy method of distinguishing Oriental coins. In the appendix are statistics of various kinds relating to coinage, and tables of daily use to dealers in money, most of which are nowhere else accessible in print."

A very interesting and instructive description is then given of the principles of coinage, and the manufacture of coins. The subject is then taken up by countries, and each nation is treated of distinctly, in the order of governmental succession. The legal standards are then stated, in the national terms of the country and of our own. The annual product of precious metals, if any, and the amount of coinage, next receive some notice. Tables are then given of the gold and silver coins, serving the