in urgent cases, to the extremity of arms.
Of the Baltic a very full, and, we are inclined to believe, a very correct account is given, under the different heads of general description, extent, depth, level, of its waters with those of the ocean, tides, superior and inferior currents, saltness, temperature, winds, fisheries, coasts, canals, and commerce. The plan of the article is faulty, in embracing too much information, and, of course, occupying a space out of all due proportion with the rest of the work. Under the head of coasts, in particular, the author enters into a detailed account of towns which he should have merely enumerated, leaving a fuller description of them to be given either under their respective names, or under the names of the countries in which they are situated. The same observation will apply to his account of the rivers which fall into the Baltic, and the canals which communicate with it. With these exceptions, we think the article very satisfactory.
The next article which claims our attention is Banking. After explaining, in a very satisfactory manner, the purpose for which banks were originally established, and their general utility, the author proceeds to notice some of the recent transactions of the Bank of England, and to describe the effects produced by so powerful an engine on the circulation and commerce of the country. Most of our readers, perhaps, know, that this bank, the most important in the world, whether we consider its wealth, or the amazing extent of its transactions, was established, by a charter of William and Mary, in July 1694. It was projected by William Paterson, a native of Dumfriesshire, who is said to have taken the bank of St George, in Genoa, for his model; and who was assisted in arranging his plan by Michael Godfrey, a gentleman of great consideration in London. The charter was granted for the term of twelve years; and the corporation was determinable on a year's notice. The original capital, lodged by the proprietors in the Exchequer, was £1,200,000, for which they received 8 per cent. interest, and were allowed, by government, £4000 additional in name of house expenses. The detail of the transactions of the bank, to the year 1810, are given with more precision in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia; but the author of this article has the advantage of having written six years later, and can therefore state, that the loan of £3,000,000, with which, in consideration of the renewal of its charter, the bank agreed to accommodate government for six years without interest, and which was afterwards continued during the war at an interest of 3 per cent., was discharged in the year 1814; that the additional £3,000,000, which, in 1808, the directors, in consideration of the immense profit accruing from the use of the public money, agreed to lend to government without interest, until six months after the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace, was continued to the public till the 5th of April 1816; that, according to an arrangement then made, the bank was allowed to add to its capital £2,910,600; and, in return, the loan of £3,000,000 was continued, at an interest of 3 per cent. In 1746, the advances to government, which form the undivided capital of the bank, amounted to £11,686,800; they now amount to £20,686,800. The increase of its circulation has been amazingly rapid. By the report laid before Parliament lately, it appears, that in 1718 the total amount of Bank of England notes in circulation was £1,829,930; in April 1816 it was £26,594,360. Never at any former period have the affairs of this bank been in so flourishing a state as at present. A principal cause of that prosperity is the immense amount of the national debt £830,000,000; for the management of which the bank receives £340 per million for the first £600,000,000, and £300 per million on the excess above £600,000,000. It has likewise an allowance of £800 per million on the whole amount of every loan of which it receives the payment; on every lottery contract it is allowed £1000; and it has the use of all the public money committed to its charge, besides several other allowances of less importance. But for the other sources of its wealth, and the general detail of its business, we must refer our readers to the article itself, which will be found equally clear in its statements and accurate in its information. The topics which it embraces, besides those to which we have already adverted, are the "advantages resulting from the use of
