the property of his principal the most untiring prudence, and the most spotless honesty; and of a violation of the fundamental rules of society, in retaining to the amount of $800,000, profits which belonged to the bank alone. If they acted as private individuals, it follows that they made use of their official connexion with the bank, as a means by which money could be extracted from it without limit and without account; and that when it turned up that the whole concern was losing, they made endeavors - which were only unsuccessful from the fact that Mr. Biddle himself had lost his supremacy with his seat,to shift upon the institution, which they had already so deeply involved, the loss which had arisen in their private speculations.

2. It was remarked by the investigating committee of April, 1841, that an exaggerated proportion of the debts of the bank, both active and suspended, was held by brokers and by corporations in distinction from the mercantile community. The loans to seven incorporated or other companies alone amounted to $1,211,193 22. So far also, from the credit of the bank being spread generally over the community, it was found that it had been clotted in a great degree into detached masses, to assist the enterprises, or to nurture the credit of particular establishments. Thus it was reported that there were "six individuals and firms whose debts amounted to $2,314,000, two of whom are over $650,000 each, a large amount of which will be lost; and four others, who have loans amounting to $569,000," one firm in the city of Philadelphia, also, is stated to have received accommodations between August, 1835, and November, 1837, to the extent of $4,213,878 36, and on the first of January, 1837, twenty-one individuals, firms and companies, stand charged each with an amount of $100,000 and upwards. On the 6th of March, 1835, a resolution, which may be taken as the cause of a large portion of the losses which have since been sustained, was passed by the board, authorizing the appointment by the president of a committee of three, who should "make loans on the security of the stock of this bank, or other approved security, and if necessary, at a lower rate than six, but not less than five per cent. per annum. By the third of March, 1836, the loans on bank stock, and on other than personal security, had arisen to the sum of $20,446,367 88. The means of the institution became locked up in debts for which the personal secu

rity was bad, and the collateral security inadequate. To meet its notes which to the amount of twenty millions were pouring in, to meet the bonus due to the State of Pennsylvania, and to pay off the stock belonging to the general government, it became necessary to enter largely into the European market, and to borrow at whatever premium and under whatever conditions it might please the foreign capitalist to impose. The coffers of the bank were filled with depreciated stocks which were brought in in return for the money it had lent out. The vaults were rapidly exhausted of their specie. There was scarcely a worthless security which was not taken at par for the payment of debts for which no other satisfaction could be obtained; there was scarcely a security of respectable value that was not shipped to England in pledge for the debts there contracted; and in the course of four years from the passage of the resolution of 1835, the institution was virtually bankrupt.

The Bank of the United States is now the shell of what it was at the time of Mr. Cheves's resignation. The lofty banking rooms the capacious vaults remain, but like the old habitation of the South Sea Company, their benches deserted and their coffers empty. Those great enterprises, which were to connect the old world with the new by tendons as invisible as they were to be mighty, have crumbled away before their span was stretched. The bridge of credit, ere its abutments were laid on the sands of the opposite coasts, has melted away before the blasts by which in the first tempest it was assaulted. Had it been an erection of the fancy alone, had it been that as an adventure of a few wild speculators it had been raised, and that in its fall its designers alone were ruined, it would be a subject which would arouse our wonder rather than our condemnation, and whose history would be taken as a well drawn moral of the humiliation which awaits the founders of schemes so daring and so flagitious. But the architect of the Bank of the United States is the one who, alone among the many who were connected with it, has been undisturbed by its fall. There were multitudes who were led under its arches, women or minors, whose legal incapacity disqualified them for the superintendance of landed property; and the dependants on charitable endowments, which were so invested by the will of their founders, there were multitudes who were led within the arches of the bank who found, when their entire wealth was sucked within its portals, that its beams were yielding, and its

massive pillars breaking under the weight that was placed upon them. It is to such, to the helpless and the unprotected, that the bankruptcy of the institution comes most home; and in future generations, when the names of those who conducted it, will in the charity of the historian be dropped, the Bank of the United States will be placed with the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Scheme, at the head of those colossal engines of injustice, which are framed by the cunning of the few and are fed by the credulity of the many.

We have thus passed through a general examination of an institution that was chartered by the general government of the United States, and rechartered after its first limitation had expired by one of the sovereign members of the Union. It was rated at the time as the most complete exemplification of the system it was meant to bring into practice. It was founded on the experience of the old Bank of North America, of the banks of England, of Amsterdam, and of France; it was framed by statesmen the most enlightened and the most cautious; and it was launched into its corporate existence with a pomp that showed the confidence which its builders had in its success. We can now look over the course that was taken by the ship which was thus sent forth; and when a similar adventure is proposed, or a similar voyage advised, we can judge, from the chart which is stretched before us, how far an institution, organized on the same principles, can meet the storms and avoid the wreck which are there recorded. The fall of the Bank of the United States, is to be attributed much more to the defect of its construction, than the violence of the opposition it experienced. Commercial fluctuations will in all eras be experienced; they are as incidental to the great affairs of trade, as tide to the ocean; and there is no bank, whose charter extends to the usual period, that can expect to avoid their eddies. Negligence and fraud will always exist as long as human nature in its present form continues; and there is no bank, which is not placed under restraints the most severe and guards the most religious, that can escape the losses which they cause. The Bank of the United States was exempted not only from the necessary legislative restraints, but from the limitations which would have been incidental to a private concern. When so vast an establishment was chartered, there should have been no check too hampering and no watch too cautious, to have been imposed. But when the Bank of

the United States went into operation, not only did Congress refuse to require anything more than nominal restrictions, but its stockholders were freed from any liability beyond the stock they held, and its directors were made totally irresponsible. We beheld the spectacle of an institution of gigantic strength, thrusting itself into the ordinary affairs of trade; glutting the market at one time to the loss of the producer, holding back at another till the consumer was starving; creating a vast amount of fictitious capital by its discounts and its issues; forcing into circulation its promises without any limit of law or discretion; and finally, when the measure was full, and it was a debtor throughout the country to an amount nearly double of its capital, shutting its gates, and drawing itself behind the immunities on the faith of which its course had been shaped. We see directors and officers, who, if they had been directly responsible for the debts of the bank they governed, would long ago have checked it in its course, sitting in quiet enjoyment of property which is not even shaken by the shock. There is an example of faithlessness given by such an exhibition more forcible than that which arises from our bankruptcy itself; and it becomes our duty to take into solemn consideration the means by which our character, as a people, may be redeemed from the dishonor by which it is covered. We have learned, at the price of shattered credit and a dishonored name, a maxim which had we acted on before, would have saved us from our late humiliation. We have learned that there is no policy so safe as honesty, and that honesty to be certain should be ensured by the severest sanctions. To those through whom the pillars of this great republic are supported, we commend the lesson, in trust that through measures which by them alone can be effected our past dishonor may be effaced, and our future integrity established.

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ART. II. Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, including their Private Life, Government, Laws, Arts, Manufactures, Religion, and Early History; derived from a comparison of the Paintings, Sculptures, and Monuments still existing, with the Accounts of Ancient Authors. Illustrated by Drawings of those subjects. By

J. G. WILKINSON, F. R. S., M. R. S. L., &c., author of "A General View of Egypt, and Topography of Thebes," &c. In Three Volumes. London: John Murray. 1837. 8vo. pp. 406, 446, 404.

EVERYTHING that pertains to Egypt is interesting to the antiquarian and theologian. Its monuments and sculptures are the oldest in the world, and carry us back farther in the history of the world than any other remains of remote antiquity, if we except the sacred books of the Jews. The labors of no other people of so remote an age have come down to us. And it is through them alone, that we are to learn the attainments which were made in the arts and sciences, ages before Pericles "found Athens brick and made it marble." And we find, that not a few of those arts, which have been supposed to owe their origin to Grecian genius, were understood before Cecrops left Egypt to colonize in Attica.

But especially interesting is the history of ancient Egypt, as it throws light, strong and needed light, upon sacred history. There was a time in theological inquiries, when the authenticity of the Pentateuch was denied, because it was supposed that writing was not understood at as early a day, as that in which this document was supposed to be written. Later researches, however, have convinced such, that there are the best reasons for supposing, that it had been long understood at that time. And every year almost new discoveries are made, which strengthen the faith of those who believe, that Moses was the author of that portion of the Bible. We are not yet in possession of all the light, which will be thrown upon the early period of man's history; and he is wise, who stands ready to receive it, as it shines more and more purely. The nature of the evidence derived from the monuments of ancient Egypt, as far as it is confirmatory of the authenticity and genuineness of the Scriptures, is this. Moses declares, that the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt; that they were compelled to make brick; that they used straw in its manufacture; that they finally fled from Egypt with great abundance of gold and silver; that they were soon provided with arms for defence and attack; and that they were so well skilled in the arts, that they could work in gold, and copper, and linen interwoven, or inwrought with figures and gold. Now, in reference to the arts, we find in the tombs remains of ornaments, and utensils of the