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"Much of the last three months has been spent in recollection of my friends, and with more unmixed thankfulness than for any blessing of my life, except my marriage. The faces of the poor people at Herstmonceux have also recurred to me very often, especially of some whom I saw dying there. Though with so much less of outward comfort, their patience exceeded mine; yet on any ground I have little to complain of. This world lies even now clear and bright before me, and, being good in itself, is the prelusive image of a still better one. It will be a most blessed release when I am called away, for I cannot hope ever again to be of the smallest use in this world. Farewell!

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never know the fondness with which I recal the minutest portion of our intercourse. We shall meet again, be well assured. Christianity is a great comfort and blessing to me, although I am quite unable to believe all its original documents. I am thankful for all things, and hope much."

The character of the biographer will always, more or less, affect that of the object of his work, inasmuch as it will naturally direct his attention principally to those points in which he is most interested. Thus, if this Life had been entrusted to a person whose religious feelings were not so strong as Archdeacon Hare's, and whose attention leant to the literary side of Sterling's mind, it is probable that on the whole, a more complete notion of the man might have resulted. Sterling's temperament was not essentially religious-hardly philosophical; he was, above all things, a logical, practical man, to whom mysticism was nonsense, and even enthusiasm distasteful; we say this, even though his many-sided estimation of what is good and great enabled him to honour Santa Teresa and Huntingdon S. S. His bad health led him into his profession, and his profession gave his thoughts the prominently religious direction they would not naturally have assumed. The present life, with its struggles and its victories and its defeats, with its loves and animosities, with its affections and its interests, was ever dear to him, and he lost no sympathy on the brink of the chasm that may destroy all. He did not tell any one to look "How a Christian should die," but he showed that the spirit of reverence, though unsubstantiated in forms, and the sense of piety, though unsatisfied with doctrines, and the love of truth, though unratified by rapturous faith, can sustain the heart of man in the mo

ments of supreme conquest of mind over matter, and enable him to pass into the dark far future, with awe, but without fear. We give the close in Mr. Hare's simple and affecting narrative, and heartily recommend the book to the attention of all students of the heart of man, and especially to those who are interested in the great spiritual movements and contentions of our time.

“On the 16th of September there was a great and sudden increase of weakness, which convinced him, and those around him, that the end was at hand. In this conviction he said: 'I thank the All-wise One.' His sister remarked, the next day, that he was unusually cheerful. He lay on the sofa quietly telling her of little things that he wished her to do for him, and choosing out books to be sent to his friends. On the 18th he was again comforted by letters from Mr. Trench and Mr. Mill, to whom he took pleasure in scribbling some little verses of thanks. Then, writing a few lines in pencil, he gave them to his sister, saying, 'This is for you; you will care more for this!' The lines were

"Could we but hear all Nature's voice,
From Glowworm up to Sun,

'Twould speak with one concordant sound,
'Thy will, O God, be done!'

But hark! a sadder, mightier prayer,

From all men's hearts that live,

-Thy will be done in earth and heaven,
And Thou my sins forgive!'"

These were the last words he wrote. He murmured over the last two lines to himself. He had been very quiet all that day, little inclined to read or speak, until the evening, when he talked a little to his sister. As it grew dusk, he appeared to be seeking for something, and on her asking what he wanted, said, 'Only the the Old Bible, which I used so often at Herstmonceux in the cottages; and which always lay on the table by his side. A little later his brother arrived from London, with whom he conversed cheerfully for a few minutes, after which he was left to settle for the night. But soon he grew worse; and the servant summoned them to his room. He was no longer able to recognise them. The last struggle was short: and before eleven o'clock his spirit had departed.'

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THE

PROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

No. XV.

ART. I.-THE CURRENCY MONOPOLY.

1. Capital, Currency, and Banking; being a Collection of a Series of Articles published in the Economist in 1845, on the Principles of the Bank Charter Act of 1844, and in 1847, on the Recent Monetarial and Commercial Crisis, concluding with a Plan for a Secure and Economical Currency.

2. The Principles and Practical Operation of Sir R. Peel's Bill explained and defended against the Objections of Tooke, Fullarton and Wilson. By R. Torrens, F.R.S. 3. A History of Prices and of the State of the Circulation from 1839 to 1847 inclusive; with a general Review of the Currency Question, and Remarks on the Operation of the Act 7 and 8 Vict., c. 32. By Thomas Tooke, Esq., F.R.S.

Not only do the circumstances of the recent mercantile crisis naturally create an interest in the subject of currency, but there is also a deeper and a more permanent reason why it should occupy the minds of those who live in the present age. It cannot be denied that the success of the Free Trade agitation in England has now familiarised the majority of educated Englishmen with a scheme of political doctrine which at any previous time would have been deemed, to say the least, eccentric and paradoxical. Almost all in any other generation would have regarded even the characteristic truths of the laissez faire system as utterly strange and incredible; and even the most far-seeing CHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 41.

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would have thought its characteristic errors too futile to need a detailed refutation. In our time, however, it has been clearly and convincingly argued, that when no blinding passion prevents individuals from discerning what is their greatest pecuniary interest; when their pecuniary interest coincides with that of the nation at large; and when also the pecuniary interest of the nation is coincident with its highest interests and highest duties,—the welfare of the nation will be better promoted by leaving every man to the exercise of his own unfettered discretion, than by laying down a general legislative rule for the observance of all. We do not think that when the boundaries of the argument are thus guarded and defined, the proof of the laissez faire system can rightfully be gainsayed. To us it appears evident that a government cannot exercise that minute inspection of details, and will not devote to them that continuous attention, which are essential to the success of trading speculations: nor even if the whole detail of cases were laid before them, have the habits of rulers in general trained them for coming to a decision so correct as that of mercantile men: nor, what is more to the point than all, can any law drawn up in vague and general language supply a universally beneficial rule for the multifarious and ever-varying operations of commerce. From an habitual contemplation of these truths, a sentiment of dislike to the interference of government has grown up in the minds of money-making men: those of them especially who have most accurately studied the machinery by which capital and labour are transmitted to their most profitable employment are prone to speak contemptuously of government interference, as though it were proposed that those who were wholly ignorant of the construction of a nicely-adjusted machine should have the discretionary privilege of placing a clog upon its working. This sentiment is useful and healthy when confined to its legitimate function, viz. when watching that government does not assume to know what will bring a trader in money better than he knows it himself; but it is a sentiment very susceptible of hurtful exaggeration : in the minds of many at this day it stands opposed to the enforcement of a moral law throughout the whole sphere of human acts susceptible of attestation: to the legislative promotion of those industrial habits which conduce to the

attainment of national morality or national happiness at a sacrifice of national wealth: to efforts at a national education, or a compulsory sanatory reform: to all national aid from England towards the starving peasantry of Ireland: to every measure for improving the condition of that peasantry which would not be the spontaneous choice of the profit-hunting capitalist. Whoever speaks against these extreme opinions is sure to be sneered at as a "benevolent sentimentalist:" and economists are perpetually assuming that the notion of government interference is agreeable only to those whose hearts are more developed than their brains: who are too fond of poetic dreams to endure the stern realities of science. Under these circumstances, the opponents of the laissez faire system will be interested to inquire whether there be no exception to it within the limits of Political Economy itself; whether instances cannot be found where the pecuniary interest of individuals, though not guiding them to actions morally wrong, does nevertheless come into collision both with the pecuniary and with the real interest of the nation; where the sedulous attention of a government is needed to guard the elaborate machinery of national industry against the disturbing agency of individual selfishness. Such a subject, according to an immense preponderance of authority, according to the almost universal belief of the greatest nations, is the subject of currency. The vast majority of nations have vested in the hands of government the monopoly of what in the hands of individuals would be a lucrative branch of industry, viz., the trade of coining metallic money. The progress of opinion in this country has during the last few years sensibly tended towards following the example of several continental nations, and giving to government, of course with due respect to vested interests, the monopoly also of the issue of paper money. In the following essay it is proposed, after a brief preliminary notice of the books before us, to indicate the grounds upon which we believe that there is a great wisdom in acknowledging this exception to the principles of Free Trade: to defend the practice of confining to government both the coining of the precious metals, and, as far as possible, the utterance of money destitute of intrinsic value and also to notice some interesting points of currency theory which

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