I. Let a committee of the Society be appointed, composed of members zealous and persevering, and qualified to judge of rare books respecting the early history and antiquities of the country, worthy of preservation.

II. Let them select, in the first instance, half a dozen to commence with.

III. Let an address be drawn up, and signed by a large number of the most respectable and influential members, stating the objects and advantages of this plan, and inviting public patronage. Much will depend on the standing and numbers of the signers. There ought to be at least fifteen.

IV. Let your booksellers, (M'Carty & Davis are well calculated for this purpose,) issue proposals, prefixed to the address -and make exertions to procure subscriptions, of which 'I am fully persuaded a sufficient number, say two hundred and fifty or three hundred, may be secured in a very few weeks. This number would warrant the commencement of the undertaking.

V. Let the works be printed in a handsome style, like the Memoirs, of from 350 to 450 pages each volume, as circumstances may dictate, and sold at about $2 per volume in boards.

VI. Let a volume be published every two months, that is, six volumes, amounting to about $12, per annum.

VII. One or two volumes each year, ought to be composed of the choicest ancient pamphlets, of which there is a superabundance in the City Library, of some whereof there are probably no duplicates in existence.

VIII. No subscriber to be regarded as bound beyond the first year.

Of the success of this plan, if seriously undertaken, I feel the most perfect confidence. It is well worth a trial, which may be made at the mere expense of a few dollars for subscription papers, and the trouble of writing an address. If it succeed, the advantages will be great and numerous. Numbers of invaluable works may, in this mode, in a few years, be disseminated throughout our country, and secured for posterity, single copies of which are now buried in libraries, many of them unknown even to the studious, and many which would in time be irrecoverably lost.

Unless I am greatly mistaken, after the first year, the publi cation would be so lucrative as to warrant the publishers to be

stow 50 or 100 copies of each work to the Society, in return for their patronage. Almost every public or social library in the Union would probably subscribe. Every legislature would, in all likelihood, patronize the undertaking, by a subscription for half a dozen or more copies. A sale of probably 40, 50, or 100 copies annually, might be secured in Europe, after the undertaking had been fully established.*

Philadelphia, Jan. 9, 1826.

P. S. I shall submit this plan to some literary gentlemen in New York, to the Boston Athenæum, and to the American Antiquarian Society. Should any or all of them adopt it, a proper understanding ought to take place, to prevent two editions of the same work.

(CIRCULAR.)

To the Presidents and Directors of the different Banks of the City of Philadelphia.

GENTLEMEN,-The importance of the subject of this communication renders apology unnecessary. Even should you reject my suggestions, you will, I hope, excuse this freedom.

The excitement of the public mind, and the alarm generally spread, has created, and will extend a desire to convert bank notes into specie, in order to guard against any contingency.

To meet such a crisis, two modes present themselves-A free curtailment of discounts-or a suspension of specie payments. Each requires most attentive consideration.

It is easy to see that the first measure cannot be carried much farther without producing the most serious and pernicious results.

The resources of our citizens are derived principally from the southward and westward. The balance has long been, and will probably continue, ruinously against us to the eastward.

* It is to be regretted, that this simple, unexpensive, and highly useful project was not adopted by the Society. The reason assigned, as I have been informed, was, that it would divert the attention of the Society from the publication of the valuable MSS. which it possesses!! It was offered to the consideration of the Society, as appears, in Jan. 1826, and there have since been published three livraisons, each about 240 pages, that is, about 180 pages per

annum.

The measure adopted by our banks (resulting from imperious necessity) of refusing deposits of southern and western notes, closes the principal channels whence supplies to meet engagements were calculated on. And even if southern notes were as current here as formerly, the recent events will oblige our creditor citizens to indulge their debtors in that quarter.

The curtailments at bank for some time past, and the total stoppage of business, have so far narrowed the resources of our citizens, as to incapacitate them from aiding each other on emergencies, in the usual manner in such cases. It requires not the spirit of prophecy to foresee the effect of any further pressure.

The other alternative now comes under consideration. It is one of those bold, decisive measures which nothing but an extraordinary crisis could either suggest or justify.

It, however, wears not the revolting features of novelty. It saved England from bankruptcy; and has been recently tried, and found adequate to its object, at New Orleans. I feel fully satisfied that within a month it will be no longer a matter of choice. Then it will not be one-half so efficacious as now. It will be, to use a homely proverb, shutting the door when the

steed is stolen.

The refusal of one or two banks, to unite in this measure, ought not to prevent the others from adopting it. The bank that longest refuses to accede, will suffer the most inconvenience.* A FRIEND TO PUBLIC CREDIT.

August 29, 1814.

P. S. I adopt this mode of communication to prevent increasing an alarm, already too great.

Preface to "Letters to the Directors of the Banks of Philadelphia, on the Pernicious Consequences of the Prevailing System of Reducing the Amount of Bills Discounted."

Philadelphia, March 27, 1886.. Impressed with a strong and irresistible conviction, that the banking operations of this city are at present predicated on a

* The payment of specie was suspended next day. Unless my memory greatly deceives me, the Bank of Pennsylvania had about a million of dollars in specie in January, 1814-and on the day when the payment of specie was suspended, there was not more than about $80,000—a sum not equal to what was withdrawn in three or four of the preceding days.

system and views radically erroneous, and eminently pernicious, I avail myself of the right every freeman possesses, of submitting the subject to public consideration. That it has already done irreparable injury to manufactures, trade and commerce, and that we are running rapidly in a course which leads to the destruction of the prospects and the hopes of great numbers of our citizens, I am fully satisfied. My objects, therefore, are, to prove the existence of error, and to persuade those who have the management of our banking concerns, to arrest their steps before it be too late.

I am not very sanguine in the expectation of success. There are occasionally moral epidemics which spread through communities, and bid defiance to all the attempts of reason and argument to cure them. They close the eyes-stop the ears-and obscure the understanding. And I confess such an epidemic appears to me to prevail at present. There is one proof, cogent and irresistible. It is, that the boards of directors of the banks, sober, grave, and many of them intelligent and estimable men, are tampering with, and trying a depletory system on, patients, already exhausted by phlebotomy, and who only require a liberal and generous treatment, to restore them to perfect sanity.

Previous to commencing this pamphlet, and during its progress in my hands, prudence and discretion have been constantly exerting themselves to repress my zeal, and to deter me from the undertaking. They have incessantly spread before my eyes the risque of offending those powerful bodies, the directors of banks, who have so many opportunities of making their indignation be felt, and some of whom may not be above the mean and malignant desire of availing themselves of those opportunities.

To the soundness of these suggestions, I most freely assent. It is plain and palpable. And were I to consult my own personal advantage or comfort, I should bow down in humble submission to their authority. I am well aware of the risque I run. I know that if there be at any of the boards of the banks arty portion of malice or resentment (and were there ever ten or twelve men assembled together without a portion of malice and resentment?) it will be roused into activity to persecute the man, who has dared to arraign their institutions at the bar of the public, and to accuse them of gross errors, which have produced a fertile crop of misfortunes and distress to our citizens.

With a perfect knowledge of this contingent result, I commit myself to the public.

Another consequence, equally clear, is present to my view. One bank director, actuated by malice and resentment, would do me more injury in a day, than one hundred of those whose cause I undertake to defend, would do me good in seven years. The malice of the one would be strong, lasting, insatiable, and as vigilant as Argus, with his hundred eyes, to gratify his spleen. The friendship or the gratitude of the others would be cold, torpid, and lifeless. This is nothing new. Such has been-such is-and such ever will be, the miserable biped,

man.

But as a compensation for what malice or malignity may attempt or effect-I indulge the fond, the cheering hope, that I may be instrumental in limiting the operations of a destructive system, which menaces so many with ruin; that I may be the humble means of snatching from impending fate some of the victims whom error and folly are prepared to immolate; of preserving comfortable homes for the numerous families of those who are menaced with bankruptcy by a perseverance in the present system. Should I be thus fortunate, I shall bless the day when I first took up the pen. But should I even fail, I cannot be deprived of the high gratification of having made the attempt. "We cannot command success; we will do more; we will endeavour to deserve it."

Government errs, or is supposed to err. It is arraigned before the bar of the public. Its every act is scanned unmercifully. The castigation of the press is dealt forth with rigour. And shall the banks commit grievous errors, deeply affecting the prosperity of the community-and persevere in them, long after the full experience of their consequences-and yet it be held dangerous or criminal to investigate those errors-to develop their consequences-and to point out the remedy for the evils they have inflicted?

This may be sound doctrine with others. It is to me heresy. I believe all public institutions are amenable to the public for the faithful discharge of their duties. I believe that their errors and misconduct are fair subjects of animadversion. They ought to be treated with decency and decorum, even while the censures which they merit, are freely bestowed on them. And I trust that I have not violated the rules of propriety in this discussion. There are many individuals among the boards of directors for whom I entertain the most profound respect, and