the stamp duty might be dispensed with. And if, with almost as many kinds of bank notes in circulation as there are patterns in a print shop, it be possible to go on using paper money at all, whilst the temptation to commit fraud, arising from poverty, is so great as it is at present; it will surely be allowed, that when the difficulty of imitating notes should be greatly increased, and the temptation to imitate them be greatly diminished, there would be much less objection to the use of paper money than there is now, so far as the fear of forgery is concerned.

The progressive number should be retained as a final security against a forged note ever finding its way undetected into the Bank. The numbers of the notes should be entered in a book when given out of the Bank, and they should be checked off when received back again by the Bank. Thus, if two notes of the same number should be offered to the Bank, one of them must prove to be forged, and the publication of its existence would cause people to look at notes whenever they should receive them. From the opposite course, that is, from not numbering the notes progressively, carelessness might result, for a forged note might be presented at the Bank,

K

with only the same risk of detection as elsewhere.

I was some time ago informed by a gentleman, connected with a banking establishment here, that Messrs Perkins and Heath had either engraved, or proposed to bankers to engrave, notes containing several faces exactly alike. But this plan is far inferior to the foregoing, because the one would depend upon comparison, the other upon knowledge. Thirty-five faces, all exquisitely engraved, but totally dissimilar, would be infinitely greater security than the same number of faces alike, provided that, in every note in existence, face should correspond with face. The former plan involves a secret, namely the selected face, the other has no secret ; and it must be infinitely easier to imitate perfectly thirty-five faces alike, than thirty-five faces entirely different, for the same reason that a man can always perform some one operation, to which his attention is entirely devoted, much more easily and perfectly than he can perform several.

CHAPTER VIII.

Professions-Distinction between Professional and Commercial Members of Society — Modes of remunerating Professional Men – Demi-professional Trades-Transfers of Private Property-Patents.

PROFESSIONAL men, however nearly allied, and apparently belonging to a Commercial Society, are supported in a very different manner, and, under the Social System, they would be, much more than they are at present, a distinct class of society.

The income of every member of the national commercial association would form a part of the price of exchangeable commodities, as has been fully described in former chapters, but the income of professional men would generally be derived from a totally different source. The annual issues of the Bank would be appropriated entirely to the payment of claims from the various members of the associated community; and professional

men would continue to obtain their incomes, as they do at present, by making direct exchanges of their professional assistance for money, to be paid to them by their customers or clients, excepting, however, when they should be employed by members of the associated community in their official capacity.

For example, a physician, a surgeon, or an artist, when employed by a private member of society, would obtain from his customer, in the shape of money, his right and title to such a portion of the national stock of wealth, as he should agree to give in exchange for the professional benefit conferred upon him, the giving of the money by the one party, and the receiving of it by the other, being the evidence, or proof, that A, an associated member, who had received money for contributing to the national stock of wealth, had assigned his right to withdraw his contribution out of the national stores to B, a professional man, as a remuneration for some service, or benefit, real or supposed, conferred by the latter upon the former.

But, in other cases, wherein a professional man should be employed by a member of the association, in his official capacity, professional skill or talent, that of an architect, for example,

being required in the production of some tangible and exchangeable commodity, to be brought for sale into the national market, then the professor would receive the reward of his services from the hand of an accredited agent, and the cost of his advice, or assistance, would form a part of the price of the thing produced, as in the case of common labour.

Another mode of remunerating professional men would be, as at present, by fixed salaries, particularly in cases where their whole time and attention would be required. Such persons, for example, as teachers, surgeons to establishments, and some others, should be thus remunerated, and their salaries should form a part of the cost of commodities, falling under some of the items entitled "national charges," in the national balance sheet.

But it is evident, that professional men could never be justly dealt with by consenting, as in the case of mechanics, labourers, and managers of trades, to receive a remuneration to be fixed by any persons but themselves. Every commercial member of the Social Society would be employed upon the principle of prescribed duty and prescribed reward. The hours of attendance would be fixed; the work to be performed, in cases of productive labour, would be of a defined