It is possible to follow in judging whether he ought to discount them. To these arguments the following objections may be made:

1. Fictitious bills are not strictly legal. If my attorney does not deceive me, the holder of a bill cannot recover in law, without he can prove a valuable consideration given for it, either by discounting, or in a way of trade.

2. They carry falsehood upon the face of them, and the man who offers such a bill as real, which is, I presume, generally the case, attempts to impose on the person to whom he offers it. It is also a temptation to deliberate falsehood; for, if interrogated as to the nature of the bill, few tradesmen, I presume, would have the honesty to confess the truth. 3. They encourage immoderate speculation: by these means two or three petty tradesmen, with little or no property, may speculate to the amount of thousands; and as they have, in fact, nothing of their own to lose, may thus sport with the property of their creditors, and the credulity of their friends.

4. They are expensive. The very stamps, in many houses, amount to a considerable sum in the course of a year; and I have known some tradesmen pay a considerable proportion of their profits for discount at the banker's. Nor is this the worst. Bankers are often shy, and withdraw their discount. Friends tire, and perhaps reprove. Other means must be resorted to, and more expensive. A third part, or even half the bill, must be expended to obtain discount. The butcher, the baker, the linen-draper, the mercer, the upholsterer, the silversmith, the pawn-broker, and even the Jew billbroker, are applied to, and what are the consequences? The butcher charges high for his meat, the baker makes dead men, the linen-draper and mercer enrich the ladies' wardrobe, the upholsterer furnishes the house in an expensive stile, the silversmith covers the sideboard with plate, which is soon removed to the pawn-broker's, and the Jew bill

broker charges an enormous premium. At last the man fails; his spirits, his purse, and his credit alike exhausted. If these things are secreted, creditors wonder what is become of their property: if they are found, the parties are charged with an extravagant stile of living; whereas, perhaps, in five instances out of six, these luxuries would not have been purchased, but to procure discount for bills of accommodation.

Lastly, These bills generally plunge the unhappy tradesman deeper and deeper, till he finds his situation inextricable. A second bill must be discounted to provide for the first, and so on; and as the expences of discounting encrease, or money must be sunk to obtain it, the notes must be successively encreased either in number or amount, till the poor debtor is plunged into an abyss of disgrace and misery. In short, from what observations I have been able to make, I have seen few instances in which this unhappy traffic has not ended in bankruptcy, and few bankruptcies which have not been brought on by this dangerous and illicit practice.

PROOFS THAT THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTHERN CLIMES HAVE A MUCH STRONGER PROPENSITY TO HEATING AND INTOXICATING LIQUORS AND DRUGS THAN THOSE OF THE NORTHERN.

AMONG the prejudices which, though entirely void of foundation, are yet almost universally adopted as true, may be ranked the following: That the want and the desire of heating liquors increases and decreases with the heat and cold of the climate; and that the people of the south have in all ages been as much distinguished by their sobri ety, as the northern by their intemperance. This unauthenticaed common-place axiom arose probably in part from the experience that some southern nations of our quarter of the globe, particularly the Italians,

Spaniards, and Portuguese, are more seldom intoxicated than the northern inhabitants of Europe; and that some oriental nations, in obedience to the precepts of their religion, or the commands of their legislator, have abstained and still abstain from wine. From these few instances, not explained upon their true principles, a fallacious induction has been drawn, on which has been built the pretended universal experience, that the avidity for heating liquors solely depends on the heat or cold of the climate, and that it is abated by the one, and increased by the other.

But, if we consult the history of mankind, we shall obtain from that faithful instructress an answer directly the reverse. The comparison of the various nations of the earth incontestably shows, that the avidity for heating liquors and intoxicating drugs, as well as the want of hot spices, increases proportionately with the warmth of the climate, and, on the other hand, totally disappears in the frigid zones: but that the propensity to intoxication is determined not only by climate, but also by the higher or lower dignity, and the higher or lower refinement of nations. Accordingly, all the Mongolian nations, and among them especially the Americans and Negroes, have ever had a more irresistible propensity to heating liquors, than the Sclavonian; and these again a stronger propensity than the notSclavonian nations. Among the latter, the Italians, the French, the Portuguese, and the Spaniards, relinquished earlier in the middle ages the generally prevalent gluttony, than the northern nations, because they were earlier enlightened. For the history of all nations, and even the experience of the later generations, plainly prove, that gluttony declines as civilization advances, as it again rears its head with returning barbarism and corruption of manners. Among the Spaniards and Portuguese we must perhaps seek another co-operating cause of their sobriety in a mixture of the Moorish

disposition and manners, still remaining with them.

It is not my design at present to enter into circumstantial examinations of the foregoing results of careful inquiry. I confine myself here to the proof of the two propositions: that the use of strong liquors totally disappears in the coldest climates, and on the contrary is most immoderate in the torrid zones.

There are likewise several nations in cold climates, who have, in a manner, outwitted nature, by finding, among the poisons of their otherwise unfruitful soil, shocking means for intoxicating, or rather of stupefying themselves. The Kamtshadales and Koraiks, the Ostiacs and Samoiades, the Yakouts, Tunguses, and Burrets, devour, with more than brutal greediness, the poisonous mushroom, whereby, in half an hour after they have swallowed it, they become raving or senseless. The poor, who cannot procure this inebriating poison, drink the urine of those that are drunk with it, and experience the same effects as the taking of the mushroom itself produces. Steller affirms, that the urine exhibits its virtue to the fourth and fifth man ; and that even the flesh of rein-deer, who have eaten of the poisonous mushroom, stupefies quite to the privation of the senses, unless they previously let the drunken rein-deer sleep out the fit, The Kamtshadales first learnt of the Cossacs the art of preparing a brandy from an herb called kath, which the latter had fruitlessly attempted to make from all kinds of berries, herbs, nay even from putrid fish...... This brandy is so strong that it gives the blood a black colour, and dyes the face of the drunkard blue; nay, that iron will be corroded by it........ Whoever has taken only a dramglass or two of it will be plagued all night with the most unaccountable fancies, and feels the next day a dejection of mind, as if he had committed the most atrocious crime.......... Steller saw with his own eyes, persons who the day before had drunk

of this brandy, that were so inebriated afresh by a single draught of cold water, that they could not stand on their feet. Other Siberian tribes, the Tunguses, the Ostaics, and the Teleutan Tartars, use the tobacco which they get from the Russians and Cossacs as a powerful means of intoxication. They continue to swallow the tobacco-smoke with water, till they fall senseless to the earth, and begin to take these gulps afresh, immediately as they are recovered from the first inebriation.

But, as a contrast to these people, several others may be named, who, previously to their communication with the Europeans, were utterly unacquainted with intoxicating liquors or herbs; and who, on their first entering into connection with the Europeans, had as little liking for their strong liquors as for their kinds of food. To this class especially belong the Greenlanders, the Esquimaux, the savages on the north-western coasts of America, the New-Zealanders, and the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego; which latter even make wry faces at a glass of Madeira, but lick their lips at the sight of Cape wine. All these nations drink either plain water, or the blubber of whales and seals, as the Esquimaux; or goose grease, as the inhabitants of St. Kilda; or the warm blood of rein-deer and sea-dogs, as the Greenlanders, the natives of the eastern isles, who take it in such quantities, that it often runs out of their mouths, the Ostiacs, &c. This drink of warm blood, or animal fat, as well as the eating of raw or half-dressed flesh and fish, is so congenial to the nature of man in cold climates, that the Russians, who pass the winter at Nova Zembla on account of the chase, preserve their health upon them alone, and escape the scurvy if they entirely refrain from brandy, and from all salted and dried flesh, and only eat fresh rein-deer flesh, and drink the warm blood of that animal. Thus Steller and his fellow-travellers, during their abode on a desart island in the eastern

ocean, freed themselves from the scurvy only by constantly eating the flesh of the morsh or sea-cow and porpusses, and drinking the blood of the morsh. This fat was as fluid, and had as agreeable a taste as the oil of almonds, wherefore the Russians drank it in cups, without feeling disgust or any uneasiness from it. To the astonishment of the shipwrecked mariners, this oil kept sweet for two weeks in the hottest season, in the open air, and remained equally fresh and well-tasted, when the surface of it was covered with worms and insects.

Physicians, and all other readers that are versed in the study of nature, will readily perceive the causes why the apparently noxious manducation of so much animal fat, and of crude flesh, should be wholesome in the cold regions of the earth; and, on the other hand, the eating of salted and dried flesh, but especially the use of heating liquors, should be dangerous. I shall content myself with adding only this one circumstance to the accounts already mentioned: that all travellers agree in regarding the introduction and the immoderate use of spirituous liquors as the principal cause of the depopulation of the northern America, and the total extinction, or the alarming diminution, of the savage tribes in those parts. All the nations that are acquainted with the European firewater (so the Americans call brandy) not only waste away from year to year, but likewise show by their sloth, by their lean and shrivelled state of body, the dismal effects of spirituous liquors. Accordingly, it is no difficult matter to distinguish the tribes that are fond of brandy from those that either do not know it, or have absolutely prohibited the use of it, even by the state and condition of their body. The one sort are healthy, active, and large; the other little, lean, and lazy, and do not bring near so much peltry to market as the former.

It is from contrary physical causes, that the taking of spirituous liquors is always more necessary, more ge

neral and innoxious, the greater the heat of the climate, and the more brutal the people. We shall scarcely find, in the history of the Germans and the northern nations, such instances of inborn or acquired capacity for drinking, as the most authentic travellers relate concerning the most beautiful of all nations, the Mingrelians, the Georgians, and the other Caucasian tribes. Chardin himself was an eye witness of four Mingrelian nobles, who, from ten o'clock in the morning to five in the afternoon, drank a last and a half, or in weight, 450 pounds of wine. Not only men, but women likewise, drink pure unmingled wine in incredible quantities; and even a princess was not a little surprised, that Chardin mixed water with the wine she sent him, having never seen any thing of the kind before. Both nations make the essence of christianity to consist in eating pork and drinking wine; and a Capuchin friar heard the catholicos or patriarch of Georgia himself declare, that whoever did not get completely drunk on the great festivals was no true christian, and deserved to be anathematized. Nothing is more honourable among the Mingrelians, than to be able to drink a great deal without being drunk..... A hero of this sort acquired so great a fame for drinking, that the king sophi of Persia thought himself happy in obtaining leave for him, of the prince Dadjan, to come for a time to do honour to his court. Schedan Cilatze (this was the name of the hero) not only vanquished all the Persians of distinction that contended with him, but, according to report, the king being jealous of his glory, Schedan drank him to death; and, after all these drunken conquests, he returned, loaded with honour and riches, to his native country; for every victory brought the conqueror a stated prize of great value.

It would be a great mistake to suppose, that perhaps only the rudeness of the Caucausian tribes, and the cool air of the mountains which they breathe, is the cause of their prodigious excesses. The southern

nations, as well of Asia as of Africa, that profess the faith of Mohammed, indeed, in pursuance of a command of the author of their religion, abstain more or less from wine, and many of them even from all other heating liquors, but they are not therefore at all more sober than the inhabitants of Mount Caucausus...... They rather addict themselves with far greater fury to much more dange rous intoxications and stupefactions by opium and other similar means.

It is true, the Turks have not all without exception, an aversion to wine; but they drink it not so frequently and so copiously as the Persians, who for that very reason pronounce them to be damned heretics. But they abstain from wine, not so much because it is forbid them by a decree of Mohammed, as because it is too dear or too weak for them...... Accordingly the janizaries prefer brandy to the most costly wines, holding it to be pure, from its having passed through the fire in its preparation; and the people of distinction inebriate themselves with French and other liqueurs, of which the Turks, like all other Sclavonian nations in Asia, Africa, and Europe, can bear much larger quantities than the bravest and strongest European nations. Not only the emperor, or other principal personages, but also the women and eunuchs of the seraglio, are extremely greedy of distilled waters; and we are informed by Habeschi, that, on the death of the emperor Mustapha, among his other debts, they found one for six hundred chests of French liqueurs. The more conscientious Turks, and especially the dervises, avoid all strong liquors, but they make themselves amends for this abnegation by the use of opium...... Even at Constantinople, within the inclosure of their greatest mosque Solimanie, there is a row of booths in which sophas are placed for the accommodation of the takers of opium. The most immoderate of these wretched people can swallow down four balls of it, larger than olives, which, after three-quarters of an

hour, or an hour at most, produce their deleterious effects. Those that are drunk with opium expose themselves in a thousand ridiculous motions and tricks, in which they do not allow themselves to be disturbed by the clamours and derisions of the passengers. The Turks experience all the terrifying symptoms of this poison, which other travellers relate of the rest of the orientals. Hasselquist saw on board of a ship a young dervise, who in two days had taken no opium, and was thereby fallen into such a condition that gave him room to fear lest he might make the sea his grave. He was lean, emaciated, and dejected, trembled all over, and fell into frequent fits. As a palliative he took a strong dose of Venice treacle, but without the smallest effect, and the ship-master was obliged to set this wretched being ashore on the coast of the lesser Asia, where he might find the poison that was habitually become to him a necessary of life.

In Persia there have been times when wine has been more strictly forbidden than even in Turkey......... When Della Valle was on his travels through the east, at the beginning of the last century, king Abas, either from his having hurt himself by debauches in wine, or because of the stings of conscience he felt in a violent sickness, forbad all the Mohammedans to drink wine, under the severest penalties. The transgressors of this law were punished by having melted lead poured down their throats; and those who had sold or given wine to the Mohammedans had their bellies ripped up. This decree was the more grievous to the Persians, as, according to Della Valle, excesses in wine were as usual among all ranks and both sexes as gaming among the Italians. The most vigorous remonstrances against the law of Abas were made by the public dancing-girls, whose arts, in conjunction with the general propensity of the people, probably soon invalidated the decree of the pious monarch. In Chardin's time, the whole court, and all the rest of

VOL. II. NO. VII.

the nobles, drank wine, not only for their health, or for the raising of their spirits to mirth and laughter, but to the utter privation of sense.... The Persians therefore only valued the most intoxicating wine; and if they did not soon feel themselves giddy with it, they asked, contemptuously, What sort of wine is this? it does not make one merry. They drink the rarer sorts of wine with dislike, as they would take physic, in order to intoxicate themselves, and when they are once fuddled, every wine is too weak for them...... They then require spirituous liquors, and the strongest are ever the most acceptable.

Such of the Persians as are more seriously disposed, and are zealous adherents to their religion, drink, according to Chardin, neither wine nor brandy, but they drive away the cares of life by the use of opium. By Chardin's account, the Persians were in his time much more moderate in the practice of taking this drug than the modern Turks are. They began first with a pill, not larger than the head of a pin, and at last came to take a bolus of it as big as a pea. The delicious dreams produced by every repetition of the dose, and the languor of body, as well as the melancholy and dejection of mind that follow on these agreeable fancies, are described by Chardin and all other travellers. relates, what Hasselquist heard confirmed by an English factor at Aleppo, that the use of opium may become so indispensible a necessary of life, that he who only defers for a few hours to take the usual dose, will certainly pay for the neglect with his life. A Persian prince, on a journey, perceived too late that his slaves had forgot to take opium with them. He dispatched several of his people various ways to procure it; but the prince was already dead, when the first servant returned, after an absence of no more than two hours.

He

The common Turks intoxicate themselves by an infusion of green hemp-leaves; the Persians mix pop11