Too late will Treafon all her projects own, Burt her thin veil, and claim the Scottish throne; Start from the bands that work thy country's fall; Too late, alas! my ruin'd cause defend, And curfe the hour that made thee Morton's friend. No. 28. X. "Mercatique folum, facti denomine Birfam, THE VIRG. HE extraordinary ingenuity of modern conveyancers is very far exceeded by that tranfaction, which is recorded by Virgil in the paffage from which I have taken the motto of this paper. A widow, called Dido, being defirous of investing what she could fecure from the wreck of her late husband's eftate to the beft advantage, bargained with a gentleman, called Jarbas, for fo much land as fhe could inclofe in a bull's hide; but by means of a little nicety in the wording of the releafe, and throwing in among other words of conveyance (as is ufual to this day) one which might have the force of furround,' the widow's attorney cut the faid hide into fmall flips, and fastening them to each other, took in a circuit of near four miles (according to Servins), and claimed the fee fimple of the whole of that tract by virtue of this deed. I have often reflected on this story with secret satisfaction. There is nothing in any of the ancient writers that leads one to think it was then confidered as a very unusual inftance of dexterity; therefore I am willing to flatter my. self that, even in those early ages, the mind of man was as fharp in matters of bufinefs as it is at this time: and that the science of over-reaching is not, like the art of making gunpowder, merely modern; but has been practifed from very remote antiquity, and may, in fact, be confidered as coeval with property itfelf-a conclufion, which is not only fatisfactory to those who, out of a princi. ple of pure philanthropy, like myfelf, rejoice in whatever tends to prove the native strength of the human underftanding, which is beft done by tracing all arts and fciences to an early origin; but must be exceeding confolatory to fuch of our profeffional dealers in words as are afflicted with a certain hypochondriac disorder, called qualms of confcience, by fhewing them great authority for their practices, and including them, it the worst come to the worst, in very good company. However, I have been led from confidering the fact above related in this manner, to view it in a wider point of view. From the circumftances of the contract it is evident, that, at the period when it took place, it was the vogue to prefer land to the public funds; otherwise Dido would never have loaded herself with real property, more efpecially, as it feems by this purchase fhe brought upon berfelf the additional trouble of building: and a very wide field of difcuffion from hence opens itself, in the contemplation of the long agitated question, How to lay out money to the best advantage? with reference to the ufages of antiquity. I would not have fuperficial perfons fneer at this notion: for a very learned body of men of this age have gone a great way towards making antiquity the ftandard of wisdom in all things, and have paffed their lives in bringing forward notices on many fubjects, either evident or allegorical, from the claffic writers, highly to the edification of all mankind, and vaftly to their. own individual honour and emolument. Certainly one cannot confider a fubject of higher importance. The attention of wife men is uniformly bent on making the most of their capital; and as the modern world is agreed in giving credit for a high degree of wifdom in its parent, the ancient world, notices from old writers can never be collected to more obvious benefit than on this subject. For, though I do not pretend that my researches (and. numerous they have been among the very dregs and offals of antiquity, in hopes of recommending myfelf to the Antiquarian Society) can eftablifh any thing conclufive (which is indeed feldom the cafe with any researches at all), yet I conceive it a matter of no common curiosity, to trace the different leanings of the public mind as to purchases of land, real fecurity, and the public funds, from the creation of the world down to the extinction of polite learning during the middle ages. In a differtation on this fubject too, an author, I mean a bona fide fcribbler, has a great advantage over the perfons from whom most of the treatifes on money matters come: for as a bystander fees more of the game than he does who is engaged in it, an author who has a prescriptive claim to the honourable distinction of poverty, must have a clearer infight into the mystery of communicating to property the power of propagating itself, than they can poffibly obtain, who are encumbered with the management of it. In this paper, therefore, I fhall lay before my readers what notices I have been enabled to collect in ancient writers concerning so important a point: and I am fo thoroughly convinced of the general deference now paid to antiquity, of the willingness with which we are all led to see allegorical meanings in mythological ftories, that I fubmit my difqui fition to the public, without the leaft apprehenfion of it being undervalued or misunderstood. Among the earlier nations, I am induced think the Phrygians were averfe to funding their capital, and dealt largely in mortgages. Cybele, the tutelary goddess of thefe people, is identified with Vesta, or the earth; whence we might fuppofe the genius of the Phrygians led them altogether to making purchases. But, for another light on the fubject, which is deducible from the fame goddess, Cybele was imaged in a car-an emblem that their inte reft in the land was tranfitory, or fubject to redemption: but Cybele was likewise crowned with a tower, having four, fix, or eight embrazures; therefore the deeds (or muni ments) of the land were made over, and four, fix, or eight per cent. paid according to the exigency of the bor rower; which method of regulating the rate of interest obtains among another Afiatic people, the Jews, and to a ftill a ftill greater latitude upwards, to this day. I am furprifed that Mr Bryant, in his wonderful analysis, has not hit upon this illustration of the mystery hid under the wor ship of Cybele: it is capable of being demonftrated yet more minutely, but the reader will think it fufficiently obvious already. During the war of the giants, I find the value of the land much depreciated. Tityus was a land-jobber, and laid out his all on a field of nine acres ( a circumftance greatly in favour of the antiquity of the Lancashire meafure); but it turned out so bad a purchase, that he repented it as long as he lived. This plain, fimple fact, the poets have told us in their way, reprefenting Tityus, as a giant, who was stretched for his prefumption over a field of the above dimentions, by Jupiter, with a vulture conftantly gnawing his entrails; but the real circumstances. appear very clearly through this allegory. So too in refpect to the other story of Briareus and his companions piling mountain upon mountain, in order to gain the af cendant over the Gods. Now the poets typified the landed intereft by the denomination of Sons of the Earth; by the Gods they meant the ftock-holders, whofe property was fubftantial: and the fact was, that Briareus and Co. engaged in a large fpeculation, buying landed eftate upon landed eftate, and engaging their credit very deep, in order to become greater men than the Gods, or flock-holders ; but these latter combining together, the company could not raise money to complete their purchases, became bankrupt, and the venders got their several estates again: all which Q 3 |