WATCH AND PRAY.

BY REV. JOHN G. ADAMS.

In the morning's glowing light,
When the noontide sun is bright,
When the day-beams fade away,
Guard thy spirit, watch and pray.

When with duty's cares perplexed,
Be not overcome nor vexed;
Think not from thyself to stray
In thy labors - watch and pray.

When thy hopes are all fulfilled,
When each anxious thought is stilled,
Clouds of gloom all cleared away,
Then remember- watch and pray.

When in health thy pulses fly,
And the hours pass gaily by,
Then forget not, all the day,
That 't is best to watch and

pray.

When temptation lurks around,
Luring to forbidden ground,
Heed not what her voice may say:
Keep thy distance - watch and pray.

When in deep affliction cast,
Deem not all thy sunshine past:
Joy will yet thy spirit sway,
If thou wilt but watch and pray.

And when sickness comes, and pain,
Deem not that their work is vain:
They will make thy darkness day,
If, resigned, thou watch and pray.

When the angel, Death, shall come,
And thy spirit bid go home,
Gladly shall it pass away,

If thou still canst watch and pray.

MY GRANDMOTHER'S ELM.

BY MRS. MARY ANN SULLIVAN.

If ever you visit my native town,

Will you seek out the vale where the mill-stream comes down?
Even the villagers' children will point you the road,
And the very old house where my grandsire abode.

But the pride of the vale which I wish you to see,
Is my grandmother's elm, the old mammoth tree:
How widely its graceful and spherical crown
Flings over the valley a shadow of brown!

When the fierce south-easter* was raging by,
Filling with clamor the gentle blue sky;
Then a lofty branch like a forest oak,

From the noble old tree by its fury was broke.

Oft my grandmother told us, as pondering we stood,

How, three-score years since, from the neighboring wood,
She carried that elm in her little right hand,

And her father planted it firm in the land.

Her grave is grown smooth on the green-hill side,
But the elm lives still in its towering pride,

And the spring's gayest birds have a colony there,
And they gladden with carols the mid-summer air.

And gay as the wild-bird's melody,

Are the sports I have led beneath that tree;
The old elm tree - oh, would it were mine

In the shade of that tree even now to recline!

The September gale of 1815.

16*

MORALS OF THE CURRENCY.

BY NATHAN APPLETON.

SUSPENSION of specie payments, is the gentle name applied to the failure or refusal to perform the promise contained on the face of a bank note; generally accompanied with a declaration of the perfect ability to pay, and the intention to do so at some future time. Properly viewed, this refusal deprives the bank note of the only quality which gave it circulation, the power to command the metallic money which it purports to represent. It becomes simply a broken promise, and, like other broken promises, of no other value than the chance that legal coercion may compel eventual performance; or that the refusal may relax into a willingness to pay at some future time. It will be seen that its character has become totally changed; that instead of possessing the original principle which gave it currency, it becomes in the hand of each possessor subject to all the fluctuations which belong to doubtful and uncertain contingencies. It is true, that a single bank taking this ground will not be sustained it is a failure - the bank cannot choose but break. But let a part of the banks of one of our commercial cities proclaim this intention, all the others follow, and the public submit, not only without a murmur, but give it their commendation. The State Legislatures give it their sanction, almost as a matter of course. The example is considered so good, that it is followed by acclamation, and sustained by the general voice. Like every thing else in this free country, it is public opinion which establishes and continues this state of things, first without

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CURRENCY.

187

or against law afterward the law is made to bend to this opinion. It is true, all affect to consider a condition of broken promises, and a depreciated currency, as an evil, but it is acquiesced in at once, as a sort of dispensation of Providence. The real evil is in a depraved public opinion, which tolerates this state of things at all. The remedy is simple, but perhaps not very easy - the correction of this public opinion.

Money or currency is an instrument of the first necessity to a nation. No trade or commerce can be carried on without it. A nation using a currency wholly metallic may feel a scarcity of money, but cannot be drained of it, any more than a mechanic can be made to part with the tools necessary to carry on his daily business. Over-trade may take place in such a community — and excessive importation of foreign commodities may cause an exportation of the precious metals, to a degree of inconvenience. The scarcity of money resulting from such exportation reduces prices, the effect of which is to check importation, and promote the exportation of all commodities, and thus the evil soon cures itself, by the return of the coin necessary to its trade. No other considerable importation will take place until it has in this way recovered what is of all things most important to it, its tools of trade.

Precisely the same thing takes place under a well regulated bank currency. It seems to be the opinion of the best writers on the subject, that the most perfect bank circulation would be one which should be precisely equal in amount to what the circulation of the same country would be in the precious metals, were no other circulation permitted.

An expansion of the currency tends to an advance of prices excites commercial enterprise, and finally speculation and over-trade. High prices encourage importation and discourage exportation, a rise in the foreign exchanges follows, which causes an export of specie, which acts as a proper corrective by compelling the banks to call in a por

-

reduces

This is all

tion of their issues. This is done by lessening or suspending their usual discounts. Here is action and reaction, very beautiful, and all very agreeable to the public, except the last part of the process. A contraction of the currency causes a pressure on the money market, prices paralyzes trade- brings out failures. very disagreeable. It makes what is called hard times. But in fact it is always the return from a false position to a true one. It is never necessary to diminish a currency which has not been redundant. The violence of the pressure is in proportion to the extent of the over-trade; and generally the more violent the pressure the shorter the period.

A suspension of payment by the banks, is the alternative presented in order to avoid the pressure attending the contraction of the currency, to the degree necessary to stop the efflux of coin. But this pressure is working the cure of the body politic laboring under disease-the disease is an excess of bank circulation, producing over-trade, inflated and unnatural prices. The cure is contraction, producing a distress for money, a reduction of prices, perhaps failures. Suspension is no cure; it is merely postponement. It may be considered an opiate, which if justifiable at all, can only be justifiable where the paroxysms are so violent as to endanger life. There can be no wholesome action, until the purity of the circulation is restored. There is no escape from this necessity. It is after all a question of time. Is it better to be a long time ill with a lingering disease, or to submit to a painful remedy for immediate relief? Here lies the essential error in the case - the idea that suspension may be considered a remedy, a real reliefwhereas it is almost sure to complicate the mischief. A continued suspension is sure to end in violent convulsion.