here, and their visit has been bloody. But where is Antoine de Born? or, it is needless to conceal his name, the Count de Dammartin? His body is not among these." "The Count de Dammartin," exclaimed the peasants, was never in this glen: it was tenanted only by a company of minstrels." "Minstrels or not," replied d'Albreth, "the Count de Dammartin was one of them. He assumed that disguise, to escape the rage of his enemies: but come, he may have escaped, or he may have retired, wounded, to some neighbouring solitude. Endeavour, if possible, to find him, and inform him that your Lord, his friend, laments his condition, and is ready to assist him." All immediately dispersed themselves. Hill and dale were scoured and searched. Voyault Dimonville was everywhere in the height of despair. But all was fruitless: and, as each peasant returned in the evening unsuccessful, the Lord d'Albreth was more and more convinced, that the Count was doomed to a more cruel death, in the prisons of the King. songs. But the road has been long, and the storm is dreadful." "We have reached it," answered Hely for he was the minstrel-" we have reached it, and we must now ascend the mountain." They arrived at the place of their destination, and aroused the minstrels, whilst they denounced them as rebels, and called upon them to surrender. Antoine de Born soon guessed who the visitants were. They are the minions of the tyrant: prepare, my friends, to defend yourselves." And they did defend themselves; but though the combat was desperate, it was unequal. One by one, these minstrels fell under the weapons of the Scottish archers; and Antoine de Born alone surviving, was taken prisoner, and conveyed away by the murderers of his associates. That conflict was heard amid the pauses of the storm by many of the peasants of the valley; and those unconscious of the symptoms of tumult without, had yet dreams and visions convincing them that a horrible calamity was impending, or had already descended, upon some of the inhabitants of Germigny. On the morning which succeeded that tem- Time, that discloses all things, pestuous night, all nature smiled, in soon informed them of the fate of the contrast to the terrors in which it Count de Dammartin, and the cause had so lately been enveloped. It It of it. The treachery of Hely was smiled, too, upon the glen where the discovered; and it was known that minstrels dwelt, though there was a the Count was enclosed in the Basscene of carnage and bloodshed. tille, there to await the King's deterEverywhere havoc was visible-in mination regarding him. But Hely the dwelling of the minstrels, and obtained not, there is reason to bethe bower where they had sung. lieve, his expected reward from While the peasants were examining Louis: and, while the hill of the every part of the glen, or were valley of Germigny was denominated gathered in deep sorrow and as- by the inhabitants the Hill of the tonishment around the bodies of the Minstrels, to signify their regret for minstrels, a gay cavalcade approach- the melancholy catastrophe, Hely, ed. It was the Lord d' Albreth, the instead of being the minstrel they Lord of that valley, accompanied by most honoured, became the one they Voyault and twenty lances. He saw most despised. Never afterwards did the desolation-looked at one of the he dare to appear amongst them; and slain archers-and at once knew it has been suspected, with some whence that desolation had come. probability, that his death was vio"My friends," he said, "the Scot-lent and premature. tish archers of King Louis have been GUY D'UISEL. THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES, AND SERIOUS REMONSTRANCES, OF A GUINEA NOTE; CONTAINING A REPLY TO THE LATE LETTERS IN THE COURIER FROM E. BRADWARDINE WAVERLEY: BY THE AUTHOR OF THE LETTERS OF A PLAIN MAN. HONOURED SIR, LETTER I. IT has been a frequent custom among the members of our family to write their Adventures, as witness the very interesting ones of my elder brother, the Golden Guinea; and I am about to follow their examplebeing myself a paper one: If I add, also, a severe complaint of the man ner in which I am threatened at this time to be treated, I know that I shall be addressing my generous countrymen, who I trust will come boldly forward to prevent the grievances of one to whom I shall speedily show they owe a great deal. Sir, I am now nae chicken, for I was born a good many years ago in the Parliament Close of Edinburgh, within the house of Sir William Forbes & Company, on the south side of King Charles, and his bellmetal horse. Though it was there I first drew breath, my rank was only that of a servant-but, withal, it was more like that of a Russian than of a British subject. In Russia, if a man is by birth the serf, or bondsman, of another, he is obliged all his days, in whatever line, or in whose service soever he may be, to labour for his original lord, and communicate to him no small share of his gains. So it was with me. I found I must set out to push my fortune; and Sir William having kindly shaken hands with me; with my staff and my scrip, like Bunyan's pilgrim, I walked forth into the wilderness of this world, to work for his benefit. My debût in life was by entering into the service of a worthy customer of the house, who drew me out in part of an order on his cash-account for £.10; and the lad who was sent was bidden" bring a' sma' notes, for (it was added) the mistress wants siller for her marketings." I was then given to the wife, who, with her "lass" and her basket, took me down into the "laigh market," where I was soon exchanged for meat, and then I came to serve a butcher. He gave me for tea and sugar, and a grocer became my master. This man gave me in exchange for a £.5 note to a builder, and from him I was transferred in payment of wages to a working mason. He bought clothes with me. I then served an opulent clothier, but was soon paid by him to a writer to the signet, his agent, who put me into the hands of an advocate, with one or two more as a fee, "to revise condescendence and answers, and make a note of pleas in law," according to the new form of process. Some one of this counsel's family was taken ill, and a doctor was sent for: there is no rest for the wicked, and I was again obliged to change my quarters, by being slipped into his hand on his leaving the sick-room: and here, Sir, on my first acquaintance with these gentlemen of the learned professions, I could not but be astonished at their apparent indifference about me; for, on getting me, they generally squeezed me into their breeches pocket, without so much as looking me in the face. But this I soon found to be all fudge, and done in a kind of pretended modesty before their employers; for no sooner were their backs about, than I was drawn out, when they deigned to peep at me fu' cordially. But I could not but notice how differently my new masters seemed to feel, when I came alone to them, from what were their apparent sensations when a few of us came together. In the first case they were dull and gloomyand in the last, joy mantled in their faces. Such is the difference between solitude and society; and this of itself accounts for the difference of their manner. Be that, however, as it might, I was quite satisfied with the real regard of those persons for me, and comforted myself, with singing the old ditty, "Believe me 'tis true, that the Guinea's : But to proceed the doctor paid me away for corn to his horses, and I then took a jaunt to the country. I was carried to St. James's fair : From thence I went to the Falkirk Tryst; then to Glesterlaw market; after which a shopkeeper in Montrose got me; and a bag-man, one day coming in to him scraping and bowing, and begging "for money and orders," I found my way in his pocket to Glasgow, where I again led a town life. I was handed from master to man there, and became the medium of no small comfort to warpers and weavers, and very many of the "numerous people" of the west; and during all my track I was most ident in the service of my liege lords; bringing them by my labour every year more than one shilling sterling. All our family, Sir, have both excellent eyes and ears; and my brother of gold, you may remember, told in his adventures many things which he both saw and heard, though he was close tied up in a purse, For through the steeks The yellow letter'd Geordie keeks. It is the same with me: though enveloped in the leaves of a pocketbook, I hear and see all that my masters and mistresses do; and many a queer story I could tell you about them; but servants should not be tale-bearers; and though both my brother the Golden Guinea, and our cousin the Rupee, in their written voyages and travels, transgressed in that respect, I shall not do so; for all people are most kind to me, ever receiving me with gladness; and some are so attached to me, that not all the mechanical powers of the law, (sometimes not even that powerful Scottish iron crow, the squalor carceris,) can wrench us asunder and separate us. I write not my life to be a vehicle of scandal, but to shew how innocent and industrious I am; and to all I have said I shall just add, that you will further perceive, that whatever such fellows as my relations, the hundred and the fifty pound. ers, may have been about, I have been but very little connected with great speculations; as when thousands and thousands are to be paid, there would be little thrift of either time or trouble in fyking with such insignificant beings as us sma' notes. And this leads me to advert to all THE LATE MISCHIEF AND BANKRUPTCY; and I remark, that even the greater notes have had but a small share of the evil that has been going on; for it has been bottomed in more general causes. Sir, the human mind, as well as the body, is subject to occasional epidemics; and these are sometimes fanatical, occasionally political, and now and then commercial. The ferment in France, when our countryman, Law of Lawrieston, made such a splore there in the days of the Mis sissippi; that in England, at the time of the South-Sea-Scheme; and that of our own country of old Scotland in the days of the Darien, were all instances of the latter of those kinds of fever; and severe sufferings ensued, at periods when it cannot be said that paper-currency was to blame.Now, Sir, we have had, at this time, an attack of the very same species of disorder; and though paper perhaps a little aggravated the complaint, as foggy weather is said to do an ague, yet the disease existed independent of it; and would have probably afflicted the country, though there had not been such a thing as a bank-note in existence. The symptoms of the disorder have, at this time, been different with different patients; for among some it led them to throw their money into the mines of South America, and after other wild-goose schemes; and it induced others (the tamer geese) to employ their's in the jog-trot line of ordinary trade, but to overdo it be yond all measure. Too much wealth often affects the brain, as too much On this occablood does the head. sion, the inflaminatory disease was brought on by too superabundant a store of money, after the Peace had thrown idle a great deal of capital which the War had employed; and by the accumulation of interest, which could not, as before, be applied conveniently, in new Government loans: the foolish overtrading of all kinds produced entanglements; and it is easy to see that those bankers, who had been incautiously aiding such doings by their over-issues of paper, would also fall in the general tumble. All this was, in England, a very natural consequence of the situation of bankers and banking in that country. Lord Liverpool, in a late speech in the House of Peers, said, that bankers there are not unfrequently formed out of Petty Trades men and Cheesemongers. Those are men often as deficient in knowledge as in capital; and while paper-mills would manufacture notes for them, which their ambition, and its bastard brother, their avarice, would, prompt them to send out profusely, they had no good means of perceiving and preventing over-issues, so dangerous to themselves and all concerned. While such is the situation of England, in this respect, it is agreeable to contrast it with that of Scotland, which I am well enabled to do, belonging, as I do, to the shop, and versant in the practical part of its business. Our Scotch bankers are men of capital; and in this our narrow country their condition is well known. Were they not considered to be such, their brother bankers would refuse their notes, and they might then shut up their bankinghouses: besides, they are neither petty dealers nor cheesemongers, but well-educated gentlemen, regularly brought up in the line. But our private bank-machinery here is, moreover, quite different from that of England. As steam-boats have now always "safety valves," so our Scotch banking-system has what I would call a complete safety apparatus, for the protection of all the customers; and that consists in the regular exchange of notes made weekly, or twice a-week, in Edinburgh; wherein every bank and banker is obliged to buy back all his own notes in the hands of the others, either by giving them correspondent notes of their's, or specie, or bills on London at very short dates; and almost all of us are thus regularly sent packing to our own homes. It is quite clear, that this must prevent the evil of over-issues, and it has always done it; so that now, when the cheesemonger-bankers of England have been tossed before the wind, like chaff, or like their own cheese-parings, our regular Scotch bankers have stood firm, to the safety and prosperity of the country. Considering that the circulation of Scotch notes is almost entirely limited to Scotland, and that they never form part of large transactions out of it, I cannot conceive that the use of them can have any other effect than saving the wear and tear of gold in Scotland. But, Sir, what is THE REMEDY which our Ministers are proposing for those disasters in England? for none such have happened in Scot land. It is to prohibit the issue of all small notes whatever over the empire. Now, some regulation of the kind may be right in England, where the privilege has been abused, to the severe injury of the country; but there having been no such abuse in Scotland, extending such prohibition to this country, as is intended, would be most unjust: It would even be foolish; for it would be just like bleeding John, because James, in his cups, had got a fall, and required phlebotomy: It would resemble the harsh policy of our Government at one time, who proscribed the whole persons of a name, because some, who bore it, had offended. But we are in Edinburgh; and I must give another illustration, from the Old Hee Schuil discipline. A worthy master there was an ultra disciplinarian, so that, out of mere zeal, he often chastised without crime. He had a most ludicrous custom of beating some of the scholars every Monday morning, to make, what Malthus would call, a preventive check for all the week. One fine boy (I remember, his name was Bob Millar) remonstrated strongly, one day, against this, saying he had done no harm whatever. The pedagogue's answer, however, was, "No matter→ no matter, Rubie, lad; but ye maun ha'e your weekly dues, so haud out your luif," and poor Bob was palmied. One illustration still, and no more, and it is a sublime one: A baron bailie had issued a severe order against the inhabitants' swine destroying their neighbours' gardens; and many people were summoned on the occasion. One old woman pleaded, relevantly enough, that her sow, de facto, had never so much as seen any of their gardens, and so could not be to blame. "That may be a' very true, good woman, (said the magistrate,) but if your sou didna transgress, she might ha’e trangress ed, and ye maun just dossie down your twa shillings like the lave." This I can testify, as I was snug in the bailie's pocket at the time, and heard distinctly all that was said. The application of all those cases is so obvious, that I shall not trouble you with any illustration from them. But if this evil is to arrive, what is to become of me, and all my brethren, and our worthy overlords the bankers, and all the nation? Shakespeare says, of mercy, that it is twice blessed; but such operation would be to Scotland twice-nay thrice cursed; for not only would the bankers and their customers suffer severely, as I shall clearly shew in my next letter, but we, the poor afflicted, innocent, and meritorious sma'-note servants, would be first imprisoned in some dungeon of a strong-box, and then led out to an auto da fe, worse than any in Spain or Portugal, and committed to the flames; such cruelty being more barbarous than any thing that could have occurred to Dionysius, and its consequences more extensive than Sylla's proscriptions or Nero's persecutions. Sir, all this will be found to be downright iniquity, when the matter is well sifted in the Committee, and our case fairly stated to our rulers. It is indeed quite impossible to sup SIR, pose they will admit of such a return for all our services; for our influence in Scotland has been most benign and beneficial; facilitating, as we have done all along, the discharging of rents the implement of contractsthe payment of taxes, stipends, and school-salaries, and thus benefiting both Church and State. Sir, the plan of prohibiting us small notes is the ideal benefit of the poor; but as all trade, manufacturers, and other business, would certainly fall off by it, the poor would in Scotland be the greatest sufferers, instead of gainers, on the occasion. But, Sir, the day is far spent, the shadows are lengthening, and I must bend homeward and draw my address to a close. I cannot, however, do so, without strongly pressing on my countrymen of all descriptions, from "Maiden-kirk to Johnny Groats," the necessity of arousing themselves on this great occasion, and letting our complaints be heard by the Senators of St. Stephen's Chapel, and the Peers of the Realm, at the deafest sides of their heads; and when they do so, there will be no fear of success. I am, in the mean time, Honoured Sir, Your obedient Servant until death, A GUINEA NOTE. LETTER II. TO THE EDITOR. IN my last letter, I promised to address you again soon, and I now perform my promise. Since my last writing you, a paper civil-war has arisen in the Waverley family regarding us, in which old Malachi Malagrowther, honest man, took the field nobly for us; and he has been met by his kinsman, E. Bradwardine Waverley, who has fired some shots at our friend from England; for he durst not for the soul of him have crossed the Tweed to have done so. Now, Sir, I mean this epistle to include a reply to his attack on us, and our defender; and I mistake the matter if I do not demonstrate in the sequel, that his views are quite erroneous and unfounded. Sir, our old-fashioned ministers were great dividers of their heads of discourse; and well do I remember the numerous divisions of those of the learned and Reverend Mr Kettledrummel, which were fifteen in number. Their error was in having too many compartments; but the partition of a treatise of any kind, into a few leading parts, aids arrangement, and produces perspicuity. Know, therefore, that, with a blessing, I propose:-1st, To advert to the nature and principles of Banking:-2d, To give a slight sketch of the history of it, as it has existed, and still exists, in Scotland :-3d, To attend generally to the abuses of it and the evils thence arising; as these ills have affected and may affect, the commercial world, the Bankers, and the poor: 4th, To draw your attention, also, in a general manner, to the proposed remedy of |