the dean and chapter were composed of persons who either had no particular love of music, or were indifferent to its charms; and the precentor under whose management the choir is principally placed, was seldom in residence: surely in that case the organist might with propriety be his substitufe. From the recommendation of a professional gentleman in London to pass as much time at Wells as I could on account of the talents of the organist, I attended the cathedral two Sundays, fully expecting to be gratified by hearing some of the fine anthems of the old school, and was vexed and astonished beyond measure, to find substituted for them the Evening Hymn, and similar compositions, which I believe are seldom, if ever, sung but in dissenting meeting houses, and the voluntaries were entirely omitted, much to the surprise of the congregation. On enquiry I found this was by the order of the dean, a circumstance I should not have credited, but that my information was too respectable to be doubted, and before I left the town I was thoroughly convinced that this was a fact. Music not only "attunes the soul to harmony," but renders (if appropriate to cathedral service) the mind particularly susceptible of religious impressions. If such music as I have been describing were generally used in our cathedrals, what would become of our fine ancient music, which sets all modern compositions at defiance? But I am happy to be enabled to point out one or two places where every attention is paid to that department of the service, viz. Exeter, Salisbury, and Bristol. The latter place has perhaps the smallest cathedral in the kingdom, or principality, and I believe the smallest fund for a choir, and yet the musical service, both vocal and instrumental, is performed there in a manner that would be honourable to the metropolis, and reflects the greatest credit on the taste of the dean and chapter, as also on the precentor, who is particularly alive to his duty. I trust these observations will meet the eye of those who have authority over our cathedrals, and that better regulations will take place; if not, those foreigners whom the peace may induce to visit England, will have a poor opinion of the established religion of the country, if they judge by the musical department; and, indeed, there is a more cogent reason why we should be more attentive to it, which is, that the Dissenters of all denominations (Quakers excepted) have 323 lately introduced organs in their places of worship, and where those are want→ ing, great pains are taken to have an efficient set of singers, as they are well aware that these form a great source of attraction. I remain, Sir, &c. T. Q. Southampton, Oct. 6, 1814. For the New Monthly Magazine. RECOLLECTIONS of the UNPUBLISHED LECTURES of an EMINENT PROFESSOR. VALUE OF MONEY. of the Adjustment of Money to the Value of Commodities. THIS is a subject of great delicacy and difficulty. The opinions of Montesquieu, in 22d Book, Chap. 7, have misled enquirers on this head. Sir J. Stewart says the same opinions had been before stated in a number of the Spectator, and more particularly in the work of Mr. Locke already quoted. To Montesquieu and Hume, however, is to be ascribed the influence of these opinious in commerce. Mr. Hume maintains that the prices of all things depend on the proportions that subsist between the quantities of commodities and of money; that if the commodities increase, the prices fall, and if money becomes of less value, then the prices rise. opinions are opposed by Dr. Wallis, of These Edinburgh, in his "Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind." Mr. Young adopts the general conclusions of Mr. Hume and Montesquieu. From the principles above stated Mr. Hume deduces two important conclusions-first, that a government should adopt the practice of hoarding in granaries, in order to bring to market grain when prices are getting high-and secondly, that banks, paper credit, and funds of all kinds are injurious; that they render paper money of equal value, and like to money, and thereby advance the price of labour, and either banish money or prevent its natural increase. These conclusions of Mr. Hume are logically deduced from his premises. The most elaborate refutation of Mr. Hume is to be found in Sir J. Stewart's work, and in the celebrated essay of Mr. Pinto; and Mr. Smith has ably established principles in opposition to the principles now stated. plexed by the loose and indistinct use This subject has been still more perof words. Corn, for example, is sometimes called a representative of the value of commodities, or of labour; but are 324 Adjustment of Money to the Value of Commodities. [Nov. 1, not other equivalents equally representations of them? If all the coin was withdrawn from use, would not exchanges take place, though certainly with much greater inconvenience? and does not this happen in many cases even now, where food and clothing are given in exchange for labour? The considering of coin as the only equivalent is not the single error of this system. Mr. Pinto has given a remarkable instance of the way in which a quick circulation will supply the inconveniences of the scarcity of coin. An army besieged in the garrison of Tournay became distressed for money, when the general directed the citizens to bring him all the money they could, which amounted to 7,000 florins, and this passing weekly from the soldiers to the citizens, answered the purpose fully, and supplied the place of 49,000 florins. Bishop Berkely and Dr. Reid were both apprized of the advantages of quick circulation in circumstances similar to these. The following view of the prices of commodities in ancient states may be adduced also in opposition to the principles of Montesquieu. During the greatest luxuries of the Roman conquerors and emperors, the necessaries of life, according both to Wallis and Arbuthnot, kept a steady price. While Vitellus was expending 7 millions a-year, and the prices of many luxuries of life were extravagantly high, so that Lucullus sold a fish pond for 32,000l. it appears from the oration of Cicero against Verres, that an English peck of corn was then valued at 54d. and a Scotch peck at 7d. These facts are further proofs of the difference between the circumstances of ancient and modern times. Fortunes were then made by fraud and violence, not by labour; and hence there was no proportion between the value of money and the necessaries of life. The grain was principally raised by slaves who were fed on the soil, and it was the surplus produce only that was sold. In like manner, when grain in this country was very low some centuries ago, the inhabi tants were mostly fed from the soil: hence the demand in the market was small, and the prices consequently low. Money, says Mr. Smith, may increase in a country from the acquisition of mines or by the produce of labour. Till the discovery of the mines by the Spaniards, silver bore a much greater value to corn than afterwards, and its depreciation in value was universally at * tributed to this discovery. It is upon these facts that Mr. Smith combats the opinions of Hume. That the quantities of money do not vary proportionally with the prices of commodities is certain; but we cannot, however, say that the relative proportions of money do not influence these prices. It is the adaptation of silver to traffic from its convenient divisibility, and the other properties we before enumerated, and not intrinsic value derived from its splendour and use in the arts, that renders it of such incalculable benefit in commerce. In the theory of money, strictly speaking, its intrinsic value is of no more consequence than the value of a scrap of paper on which a bank note is drawn, is to the sum it represents. But for its general necessity in trading with other nations, and the shock it would give in a political view, the precious me tals might be altogether withdrawn from circulation. The subject of paper-money, the most refined species of a circulating medium must unavoidably be passed over, and the works of Mr. Smith and Mr. Thornton will supply the deficiency.—Such a currency can exist only in a free state, and under a stable government. From an analysis of the different prices of commodities, Mr. Smith thinks that all prices of labour, of rent, and of stock and wages; and that the quanti * The following table exhibits a view of the depreciation of money during the last century. It is formed on the ratio of Sir G. metical proportion to the value of the pound Shuckburgh's table. By applying his arithsterling, through every 10 years of the preceding century, the following will be the result: 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1 Or 2381, in the year 1700 equal 5621. m 1800. By this alteration in the standard of money, the public have been exonerated from of the revenue then existing; and the public creditor deprived of 4 of the prin cipal and interest of the stock at that time placed to his credit in the national debt. 1814.] Edipus Judaicus-Illuminations of the Ancients. ties of commodities brought to market are in proportion, and naturally suited to the demand that exists for them. This must, however, be subject to much variation, for the return of commodities, as of corn, is not always proportioned to the labour; and particular accidents, local advantages, and circumstances connected with police, may often influence the quantity of commodities. All commodities rise or fall in proportion to the demand. The variations in the prices of corn arising from wages are treated of by Mr. Smith and Sir James Stewart, the latter of whom says that the price of bread never can rise beyond a certain pitch without absolute famine, because the great body of consumers would be unable to purchase at such prices. The same author has shewn in his second book, and Mr. S. in the 11th Chap. Book 1, that the prices of articles of neeessity depend much less on the quantities of specie than Mr. Hume had imagined. On SIR WILLIAM DRUMMOND'S CDIPUS JUDAICUS. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine, SINCE you last heard from me, I have 325 I must, before I conclude, notice a paragraph in your number for August, (which is one of those I allude to above,) signed Aristides. As that writer accuses a respectable Review of giving a caricatured account of the Edipus, I put the question fairly to every unprejudiced person, whether he is not in duty bound to make good his charges, or whether much respect can be due to his authority until he has done so? JACQUES WREDA. St. James's-street, Aug. 24, 1814. ** I think I have some claims on Oxoniensis for the redemption of a promise made by him in the first number of the New Monthly Magazine. tit I will thank your readers to correct the following errors in your number for July in my paper:-" malediction," should be read benediction; and "coeval," co-equal. PUBLIC ILLUMINATIONS of the ANCIENTS. YOUR correspondent G. B. in your magazine for August, (p. 10,) may "not recollect any ancient usage that even remotely bears upon the custom of what are called illuminations, so generally adopted as expressions of public joy, excepting the practice used among the Jews in their marriages and other civil and religious festivals;" but he adds, "their illuminations were within their houses, and those rejoicings being celebrated in the night, they could not do without lights: this practice is therefore not analogous." Very true; it cannot he analogous, if the fact is as stated by him; I am, therefore, surprised he should ever have thought of making an exception of it. I hope the following lines will correct several of his mistakes on this subject. The custom in question is, no doubt, of great antiquity; how long it has been adopted in this country I know not, yet I conclude that the practice came to us from the eastern parts of the world, Persia or Judea. The following festivals are of very great antiquity, and derive their names from the remarkable fact of their being observed by night, and with illumina tions, as essential parts of the festival. The Feast of Lanterns among the Chinese. The Feast of Torches among the The Feast of Lights among the Jews. 326 Public Illuminations of the Persians and Jews. [Nov. 1, Mr. Richardson, in his observations tions that the whole city of Jerusalem upon the old Persian era in section 4 of was illuminated with them." the Dissertation prefixed to his Persian Dictionary, says that, in this era, which was supposed to be established 800 years before Christ," the festivities of the Persians were numerous, and many of them uncommonly splendid. In December, on the shortest night of the year, was the anniversary of the great Festival of Fire, called Sheb sezé; when their temples were illuminated, and large piles of fire blazed all over the kingdom. Amongst other ceremonies common on this occasion, there was one which, whether it originated in superstition or caprice, seems to have been singularly cruel. The kings and the great men used to set fire to large bunches of dry combustibles fastened round wild beasts and birds; which being then let loose, the air and earth appeared one great illumination, and as those terrified creatures naturally fled to the woods for shelter, conflagrations would often happen which were peculiarly destructive.' Dr. Lightfoot, in giving an account of the ancient celebration of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, (quoting from Succah and Maimonides in Succah Velulabb,) says, "that at the close of the first day they went down into the court of women, and there prepared a great stage, (i. e. balconies round about the court where the women are placed, and the men stood on the ground;) four golden candlesticks (or rather beacons I might call them) were there fixed to the walls, (they were of an exceeding great bigness, and mounted of an exceeding great height, overtopping and overlooking the walls of the court and of the mountain of the house at a great elevation;) over these were golden cups, to which were four ladders set, by which four of the priests went up, having bottles (of oil) in their hands that contained 120 logs, which they emptied into every cup. Of the rags (ravelled) of the garments and girdles of the priests they made wicks to light those lamps. And there was not a street in Jerusalem that did not shine with that light. The religious and devout danced before them, having lighted torches in their ban is." -De Beausobie and L'Enfant, in their Introduction to the New Testament, say, “Wenust not forget to observe, that, during the whele solemnity, the Jews (at the Feast of Tabernacles) used ali imaginable expressions of an universal joy, and such vast illumina The Jewish Feast of the Dedication of the Altar was observed in consequence of the appointment of Judas the Maccabee, (see 1 Macc. iv. 59;) and the Jews seem to have celebrated this feast with such a profusion of lamps, that from thence it should seem to have derived its distinguishing appellation, beng called para, or the Feast of Lights. Josephus tells us it was called pora in his time; and from the Talmud we are informed that through the eight days of this solemnity many lights were set up in and about their houses. And Maimonides informs us" that the wise men of that generation (when the festival was instituted) set eight days apart for rejoicing, and that they should light up candles at the door of every house; and that he that does most honour to the feast lights up one candle for every person in the house on the first night, and doubles it the second night, and so on. For example, if there be ten persons in the house, the first night there are ten candles lighted, the second night twenty, the third night thirty, so that on the eighth night it comes to eighty each house." Maimonides lived in Egypt, and he speaks according to the practice of that country certainly, and most probably truly represents the Jewish way of illuminating. However, this 'estival of theirs was distinguished by them from others by the name of the Feast of Lights, and therefore it may be presumed to have been by much the most remarkable for its illuminations. From one of the Satires of Persins, who lived in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, resided in and about Rome, and died about the age of twenty-eight years, we have reason to conclude that in his time the illuminations in Judea, and particu larly at Jerusalem, were of the most splendid kind. His words are as follow: - Nostra ut Floralia possint Aprici meminisse senes: quid pulchrius? at cum Herodis venêre dies, unctaque fenestra cernæ, Portantes violas, rubrumque amplexa catinum palles."-Sat 5, ver. 179-184. The first remark I make on these lines is, that I observe from Dion, lib. 58, that at the Roman festival of Flora referred to by Persius, after the sports and feasts of the day, at night, when the company was to depart, Sejanas (the pretor in the 1814.] Public Illuminations of the Jews and Eastern Nations. reign of Tiberius Cæsar) caused 5,000 boys to carry links and torches to light them away. It is possible that this (if it was an annual custom at the Floralia) might have led Persius to mention it on this occasion. "Herodis dies," the "days of Herod," on the nights of which the illumination took place, must, I conclude, have been some days rendered memorable by or in reference to Herod and as the plural word "dies" seems to shew, it was not merely the anniversary festival of Herod's inauguration as king of Judea, but the rejoicing on that account, which might be blended with the Feast of Lights, that lasted eight days; er, what I am inclined to think probable, that he dedicated the Jewish temple (which he built) on the festival day of his own inauguration, and might appoint more than one day to be observed, and each festival being a great one, the blending them together might give a greater degree of pomp and splendour to the season. The word "disposita" supposes that the Jews were curious in placing their lamps. "Violas." Violets were mingled with the lamps, and Juvenal supposes the violets were used as an additional ornament; so also in the Turkish feast of Tulips, lamps and flowers are mixed together. The late Rev. Mr. Harmer has made the following observation on this passage in Persius. "Herod affected, it is well known, great pomp, and engaged in great expenses, to make the nations round conceive a high notion of his magnificence: accordingly, he obtained the surname of Great. In this view it can be no wonder that Persius supposes that many old Romans who sat sunning themselves and talking over the sights they had seen in their younger years should mention with rapture the Jewish illuminations at which they had been present when travelling in Judea or serving in the army there, for such seems to me to be the spirit of the passage. While one of these old gentlemen the poet speaks of was admiring the Feasts of Flora, and saying, what could be more beautiful, another reminded him of Herod's illuminations, when your lips, said he, moved with silent admiration, and you were pale with astonishment at those festivals of the circumcised." Since writing the above, I turned to the word Dedication in Calmet's Dictionary, when, with surprise and plea 327 sure, I read, "The temple rebuilt by Herod was dedicated with great solemnity, and in order to make this festival more august, Herod appointed it on the anniversary of his accession to the crown, four years before the true birth of Jesus Christ." And under the word Herodians he says, "Persius speaks of King Herod's festival as celebrated at Rome among the Jew's with great illuminations." In one of the ancient sacred games of the Romans, Kennett says, "they marked out a space upon the banks of the Tiber which served for a theatre, being illuminated by an innumerable multitude of flambeaux and fires, &c. &c." In one of the Grecian festivals, Potter informs us that it "was usual for persons richly apparelled to take lighted torches out of the fire, and to run about singing bymus in praise of Vulcan, who first taught the use of that element. At two other Grecian festivals there was a similar illumination. Much of the illumination of the eastern nations, particularly that of the Jews, was ambulatory, or processional, and could not be contined within their houses, as G. B. has affirmed. Neither does it appear that they carried lights merely because it was night, as if no extra portion of light was intended on account of the festival. As he has mentioned the marriages of the Jews, he must rememher the Parable of the ten Virgins, it was an essential qualification for the procession and the festival that every eirgin should have her lamp, and keep its flame alive. So, on the marriage of the Egyptians, Savary observes, "that a long file of flambeaux illumine the procession." The Governor of Surat married his daughter when Thevenot was there in 1664. "About eight o'clock in the evening," says Thevenot," the procession began; several hundreds of men carried torches. Among these torchlights were two hundred men, women, little boys, and girls, who had each of them upon their heads a little hurdle of ozier twigs, on which were five little earthen cruses, which served for candlesticks to so many wax candles, some carrying baskets, rolls of cloth, and oil to supply the flambeaux, and others carrying candles." Dr. Russell and his brother, when at Aleppo, or its neighbourhood, were present at a Manonite wedding, (the Manonites reside on Mount Lebanon,) of which he gives a large account. "There being nothing very material," says he, "in the ceremonies |