No certain estimate can ever be formed of the quantity of money required to conduct the business of any country, this quantity being, in all cases, determined by the value of money itself, the services it has to perform, and the devices used for economizing its employment. Generally, however, it is very considerable; and when it consists wholly of gold and silver, it occasions a very heavy expense. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the wish to lessen this expense has been one of the chief causes that have led all civilized and commercial nations to fabricate a portion of their money of some less valuable material. Of the various substitutes resorted to for this purpose, paper is, in all respects, the most eligible. Its employment seems to have grown naturally out of the circumstances incident to an advancing society. When government becomes sufficiently powerful and intelligent to enforce the observance of contracts, individuals possessed of written promises from others, that they will pay certain sums at certain specified periods, begin to assign them to those to whom they are indebted; and when the subscribers are persons

of fortune, and of whose solvency no doubt can be entertained, their obligations are readily accepted in payment of debts. But when the circulation of promises or bills in this way has continued for a while, individuals begin to perceive that they may derive a profit by issuing them in such a form as to fit them for being readily used as a substitute for money in the ordinary transactions of life. Hence the origin of bank notes.

An individual in whose wealth and discretion the public have confidence, being applied to for a loan, say of $5000, grants the applicant his bill or note, payable on demand, for that sum. Now, as this note passes, in consequence of the confidence placed in the issuer, currently from hand to hand as cash, it is quite as useful to the borrower as if it had been gold; and supposing that the rate of interest is five per cent, it will yield, so long as it continues to circulate, a revenue of $250 a year to the issuer. A banker who issues notes, coins, as it were, his credit. He derives the same revenue from the loan of his written promise to pay a certain sum, that he could derive from the loan of the sum itself, or of an

equivalent amount of produce. And while he thus increases his own income, he at the same time contributes to increase the wealth of the public. Ever since the introduction of bills, almost all great commercial transactions have been carried on by means of paper only. Notes are also used to a very great extent in the ordinary business of society; and while they are readily exchangeable at the pleasure of the holder for coins, or for the precise quantities of gold or silver they profess to represent, their value is maintained on a par with the value of these metals; and all injurious fluctuations in the value of money are as effectually avoided as if it consisted wholly of the precious metals.

MOROCCO: a fine kind of leather, prepared of the skins of goats, imported from the Levant, Barbary, Spain, &c. It is of different colors, and is much used in the binding of books.

MORTGAGE signifies a pawn of land or tenement, or any thing immovable, laid or bound for money borrowed, to be the creditor's forever if the money is not paid at the day agreed upon. He who pledges this pawn, or gage, is called the

mortgagor, and he who takes it the mortgagee.

MOTHER-OF-PEARL: the shell of the pearl-bearing oyster, which dwells in the ocean of either Indies. It is used in inlaid work, and in the manufacture of various ornaments.

MUSK: a very strong-scented substance, obtained from a species of deer, inhabiting the Alpine mountains of the east of Asia.

MUSLIN is derived from the word mousale or mouseln, a name given to it in India, where large quantities are made. It is a fine thin sort of cotton cloth, with a downy nap on the surface. Formerly all muslins were imported from the East, but now they are manufactured in immense quantities in Europe.

MYROBALANS: dried fruits of the plum kind, brought from Bengal and other parts of India.

MYRRH: a resinous substance, the produce of an unknown tree, growing in Arabia and Abyssinia. It is imported in chests, and has a bitter, aromatic taste. Good myrrh is translucent, of a reddish yellow color, brittle, breaking with a resinous fracture, and easily pulverized.

N.

NANKEEN, or NANKIN: a species of cotton cloth, closely woven. It takes its name from Nankin in China, where the reddish thread of which the stuff is made was originally spun. This manufacture has been carried to great perfection in the East Indies, where vast quantities of white, pink, and yellow nankeens are made.

NAPTHA. A fine, thin, fragrant, colorless oil, which issues out of white, yellow, or black clays, in Persia or Media, is known by this name. Its smell is very different from that of vegetable oils; it dissolves resins and balsams, but neither gum resins nor caoutchouc. NAVIGATION: the art or act of sailing, or conducting a vessel from one place to another. A competent navigator should have a perfect knowledge of the figure and motion of the earth, and the various imaginary lines upon it, so as to be able to ascertain the distance and situation of places with respect to one another. He should also be acquainted with the several instruments employed in measuring the ship's way; such as the log, halfminute glass; quadrant, to take

the altitude of the sun and stars; compass, to represent the sensible horizon; and azimuth compass, to take the azimuth and amplitude of the sun, in order to know the variations of the magnetic needle. He should have an accurate knowledge of maps and charts of the lands and seas; together with the depth of water, the times and setting-in of the tides upon the coasts that he may have occasion to visit ; also the currents; of the mould and trim of the ship, and the sail she bears, that so a due allowance may be made for leeway. By the help of these, he may at all times know the place the ship is in, which way he must steer, and how far he has to run to gain his intended port. The names of the two great divisions of navigation are taken merely from the kind of chart made use of. Plane sailing is that

in which the plane chart is made use of; and Mercator's sailing, or globular sailing, is that in which Mercator's chart is used. The application of these to practical navigation being parts of the common education of a navigator, it is unnecessary to say more here.

NEEDLES: well-known small instruments, made of steel, pointed

at one end and pierced at the other, used in sewing, embroidery, tapestry, &c. Needles make a very considerable article in commerce, though there is scarcely any commodity cheaper, the consumption of them being almost incredible. The sizes are from No. 1, the largest, to No. 25, the smallest. In the manufacture of needles, German and Hungarian steel are of most repute. In making needles, the first thing is to pass the steel through a coal fire, and then under a hammer, to bring it out of its square figure into a cylindrical one. This done, it is drawn through a large hole of a wire-drawing iron, returned into the fire, and drawn through a second hole of the iron, smaller than the first, and thus successively from hole to hole, till it has acquired the degree of fineness required for that species of needles, observing every time it is to be drawn that it is greased over with lard, to render it more manageable. The steel, thus reduced to a fine wire, is cut in pieces of the length of the needle intended. These pieces are flattened at one end on the anvil, in order to form the head and eye; they are then put into the fire to soften them

farther, and thence taken out and pierced in the flat part on the anvil, by force of a puncheon of welltempered steel, and laid on a leaden block, to bring out, with another puncheon, the little piece of steel remaining in the eye. The corners are then filed off the square of the heads, and a little cavity filed on each side of the flat of the head; this done, the point is formed with a file, and the whole filed over; they are then laid to heat red hot on a long, flat, narrow iron, crooked at one end, in a charcoal fire, and when taken out are thrown into a basin of cold water to harden.

When they are thus hardened, they are laid in an iron shovel on a fire, more or less brisk in proportion to the thickness of the needles. This serves to temper them and take off their brittleness. They are then straightened one after another with a hammer; and finally being polished with emery-dust, they are put up into packets of two hundred and fifty each, and are ready for sale.

NEPHRITIC WOOD: a wood of a very dense and compact texture, brought to us from Mexico, in its natural state, and covered