wild an enterprize. Accordingly we find, that, however it may have answered in the earlier ages of the republic, the Trierarchy was the cause of great embarrassments, when all the energies and resources of the State were called for to resist the ambitious encroachments of Philip. It was, however, one of the most ancient institutions of Athens, and many methods, both of coercion and encouragement, had been adopted to make its efficiency adequate to the exigencies of war, carried on as war was wont to be among the Greeks. Officers were specially charged with the duty of seeing the fleets equipped in due time-the zeal, activity, or magnificence of the Trierarchs was rewarded with an appropriate crown-they who performed this liturgy were exempted from all others—the term of service was limited to one year, and an interval of two more must have elapsed before a repetition of it could be required of the same person. If any one appointed to undertake this burthen thought that some other individual in the State-not legally exempted-was better able to bear it, he had his remedy in the Antidosis, or Exchange of fortunes, and after the 3d year of the 105th Olmpiad, Symmoria were resorted to from necessity in this Liturgy, as they had been before in the property tax. We subjoin an extract with a view of illustrating that singular institution, the Antidosis-one of the most odious and intolerable, it appears to us, that have ever been submitted to by a free people. "Solon was the author of this regulation, which, though obviously subject to many difficulties, was neither unjust nor absurd, and it provided a ready means of redress against arbitrary oppression. To assist every man in obtaining his right, and to afford protection to the poor, were the predominant objects of the legislation of Solon, which he pursued without paying any regard to the inconveniences which might arise from the means employed in attaining them. The Exchange most frequently occurred in the case of the Trierarchy, and not uncommonly in that of the Choregia; it existed however in the other Liturgies, and could also be had recourse to as a relief from the property-taxes, if, for example, any one complained that his means were not greater than those of some other person who was rated to a lower class, or, as was frequently the case, that persons could prove themselves unfairly included in the class of the three hundred. This proceeding was allowed every year to the persons nominated for the Liturgies by the regular authorities, which in the case of the Trierarchy and property-taxes were the generals, to the great delay of military affairs. The offerer immediately laid a sequestration upon the property of his opponent, and sealed up his house, if he refused to accept the Liturgy; the house was however free to the 'first party. The next step was that both the parties undertook upon oath to give an account of their property, and were bound within the space of three days to deliver in an inventary (ópavog to each other. Then the cause was decided by the court. If the verdict was unfavourable to the party who made the offer, the proposed exchange did not take place; and it was in this manner that Isocrates gained his cause by means of his son Apharcus, against Megacleides, who had demanded to exchange property with him. If however the decision was in favour of the offerer, the opponent was free either to accept the exchange, or to perform the Liturgy. On that account Isocrates undertook the third of the three Trierarchies performed by himself and his son, when Lysimachas had claimed to exchange with him; and it is to this the oration concerning the Exchange refers, a speech of great length, but barren of information. Lastly, the party to whom the offer was made, could not bring the cause into court, after the seal had been once imposed; but he was then obliged to take the Liturgy; as was the case with Demosthenes." vol. ii. pp. 368–370. We close this paper with the following account of the iron money of Sparta. "The employment of the base kinds of money derives its origin either from fraud, a scarcity of the precious metals, or from the notion that the precious metals are a source of corruption, and that therefore their home-circulation must be prohibited. From this latter cause, Plato in his second State imagines, according to the Doric model, a money circulating in the country, and devoid of value abroad (vóóμa xgov, deriving its currency from the countenance of the State; and together with this another coinage, not in circulation, but kept in the public coffers, of universal currency (xovov Eλλnuxòv vóμíoμa,) for the uses of persons travelling in foreign parts, and the carrying on of war. This is not mere theory, but was actually put into practice in Sparta. Even in the time of the Trojan war, the precious metals were well known in the Peloponnese, and the Achaic Spartan Menelaus is particularly mentioned to have possessed both gold and silver; but the former remained scarce for a long time; whereas silver in the Grecian, as well as in all other nations, must have been the most general medium of exchange, as there were few places in which it could not be procured; in the more early times however it was not coined, but circulated in bars of a certain weight. But the Dorians, a people inhabiting a mountainous district, and carrying on no trade, were doubtless scantily supplied with the precious metals; and since it was a national principle, which existed both by usage and institution, and was afterwards confirmed by what is called the legislation of Lycurgus, to prevent as much as possible all intercourse with other tribes, they strictly prohibited, at a time long previous to the coining of money, the use of silver and gold as a medium of exchange, and thus effectually prevented their introduction into the country. If this regulation had not been made in early times, the interdiction of silver and and gold could not have been ascribed to Lycurgus; no modern institution would have been at tributed to so ancient a name. The Spartans therefore were driven to the use of some other metal as the common medium of exchange, and iron being abundantly obtained in the country, they made use of bars of that metal (3.Sexo Benítxoi,) which was stamped with some mark in the iron furnaces of Laconia; while in the other countries bars of cop per or silver were current; whence the obolus or spit, and the drachma or handful, received their names. When afterwards Pheidon abolished the use of metallic bars, and introduced coined mouey, the Spartans also began to stamp their iron in large and rude pieces; for which purpose they either used, as the author of the Eryxias asserts, lumps of this metal, which were useless for other purposes, such perhaps as are now used for making cannon balls, or, according to other accounts, they softened the best iron, so as to render it unfit for working, by cooling it when hot in vinegar. But when Sparta began to aim at ioreign dominion, it had need of a comage that should be current abroad, for which purpose it imposed tributes upon the inhabitants of the islands, and demanded a contribution of a tenth from all the Greeks: a large quantity of the precious metals were also brought into the country by Lysander; and, as we learn from the first Alcibiades of Plato, the wealthy possessed much gold and silver, for when once imported it was never suffered to leave the country. But at this very time the prohibition of all the private use of the precious metals was re-enacted, and the possession of gold or silver made a capital crime, the government remaining by law the exclusive possessor, as in the ideal State of Plato; a sufficient proof that this was an extremely ancient custom of the Spartans; although it again fell into disuse in the times which immediately succeeded, it being found impossible to maintain so unnatural a prohibition after the advantages of gold had been once made known to the people. In this instance therefore the iron-money was founded upon ancient usage and moral views." vol. ii. pp. 385-387. Such was the Public Economy of Athens-a system, in many respects, rude and inartificial, in many, oppressive and vexatious-in all, widely different from any thing we see in our happy forms of government-and such, upon the whole, as no American citizen could bear to live under. Yet Athens, like the little democracies of Italy in the 12th and 18th century, for some time flourished, even amid the storms that so often shook and desolated her. The spirit of republican equality, bold, energetic, vivifying, aspiring, acting upon minds constituted as no others seem ever to have been, before or since, produced many illustrious examples of the heroic in conduct-many more of the sublime in thought and sentiment. Herodotus, who saw her in her palmy state, and recorded her most glorious past, ascribes all her fortunes to this equality,* and, in a much later age, she is mentioned as a singular instance of a democracy that had risen to grandeur and power. Before the well bal * Lib. v. cc. 77, 78. + Strabo, lib. iv. c. 35, § 3. anced constitution of Solon was subverted by the demagogues of a later age, she had made such progress that she could live through a long period of misrule and adversity, not only without any apparent decay, but even, in some respects, with seemingly increased splendour, and the elegant compliment of Isocrates was well earned, that she had made the Greek name a designation, not of a race of men, but of a particular state of civilization, so that they were Greeks, whom, not a common origin, but her refined discipline identified as one people. ART. II.-Remains of the Rev. Edmund D. Griffin, compiled by FRANCIS GRIFFIN, with a Biographical Memoir of the deceased. By the Rev. JOHN MCVICKAR, D. D. &c. 2 vols. 8vo. THESE two volumes, which, perhaps, might better have been abridged into one, exhibit manifest proof of the enviable talents, extraordinary application, and most amiable character of a young man, who, if he had been permitted to remain longer among us, would, no doubt, have done honour to the country of his birth. They are made up of copious extracts from the posthumous manuscripts of the deceased, which, indeed, would have furnished, we are told, four additional volumes, equal in size to the two now presented to the public. Whether this includes such sermons as made part of the author's remains, does not distinctly appear; at any rate, we must admire the zeal, industry, and abilities of one who could effect so much in the comparatively short space that preceded his death, when he was only twenty-six years old: "Heu! quàm immaturé ademptus !" It is impossible to contemplate the virtues and very limited life of Mr. Griffin, without being reminded of Henry Kirke White and Elizabeth Smith, with whom our young countryman so well bears a comparison. They were all "lovely in their lives," and, in one sense at least, "in their deaths not divided;" for, they were equally the victims of premature disease, and alike favoured in having left friends who were both family and acquaintances by exhibiting, for the benefit of the rising generation, examples so bright of the most meritorious qualities. It is true that not all are equally gifted in point of talent with Mr. Griffin; but his industry, modesty, ingenuousness, docility, submission to his parents and instructors, and, last, but not least, his ardour in the cause of religion, may justly serve "to fill up (in the words of Dr. McVickar) a moral picture which cannot but be interesting, and which, we may reasonably hope, will be found to be useful." In short, we coneur heartily with his family and his biographer that such a young man as Mr. Griffin should not be suffered to descend into the grave— "Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." From the facility with which he learned whatever was assigned to him as a task, and from his unremitted application to study, voluntary as well as enjoined, we cannot be much surprised that he came off victorious in all the literary contests of his school and of his college; but the meekness with which he bore his faculties, his freedom from all ostentation, and a sort of unconsciousness of that merit which was so manifest to others, place his heart and temper in a most enviable point of view, and enabled him to carry off every honour awarded him, without exciting the correspondent jealousy and enmity that are so much more easily provoked than allayed. His disappointed rivals could not but feel for themselves, yet seemed willing to allow that, if superiority were awarded, it was justly due to Edmund Griffin. And here we cannot avoid giving place to the following very judicious reflections of Dr. McVickar, the truth of which we have so frequently seen illustrated in other instances. It appears that a young Italian, highly talented and older than Edmund, "bade fair to be Edmund's 'most formidable rival, if death had not withdrawn him from 'the course, before the race was well begun. Two other 'high-minded competitors, after a two year's struggle, volun'tarily withdrew their pretensions, and, through the remainder "of his college-life, Edmund's claim to general pre-eminence was 'undisputed. While we call this victory honourable, we cannot 'deny that it was painful, and dearly purchased by the mortifi'ed feelings and injured prospects of others; so that, indeed, 'it may well be doubted whether, in the education of youth, 'such highly-excited emulation be not productive of more evil 'than good. How often do we see the bold heart wear out the 'feeble body in the contest. And when that contest is over, willing and able to gratify their own feelings and those of their |