صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

they should not be admitted into private ones. The Com• mander knew equally his power and the neceffity of the fervice: he ordered them in a fair and equal diftribution, to the " private as well as public houses. The Magiftracy insisted on their Rights and Privileges; to which Lord Loudon oppofed his authority, and the neceffity of the fervice. They were outrageous, and he was refolute. He always fpoke with great refpect of their natural and political Rights; but he would not facrifice to them the lives of the foldiers. His Lordship 'carried his point; and he then took orders for the good behaviour of the foldiers. In this he was as indefatigable as he ⚫ had been refolute in giving them quarters; and it will be owned at New-York for ever, in fpite even of prejudice itself, that the foldiers behaved with fo perfect regularity and decency, ⚫ that those who had been loudeft in the oppofition, owned afterwards, they suffered no hardship.'

Here it is obfervable, that this Advocate does not attempt to difpute the Rights and Privileges claimed by the people of NewYork and however his juftification may clear his Lordship as a Commander, it does not acquit him as a Citizen. They who fent the forces, fhould have provided for their accommoda tion; they fhould have known the Privileges of the people, and that those Privileges were not to be invaded. Notwithstanding their mild remonftrances, we know that armed men are arbitrary guests and though, as men, humanity teaches us to receive the meaneft of our fellow creatures with hofpitality, yet, as citizens, policy directs us not even to shelter a Monarch from the ftorm, who claims entrance with a General's staff in his hand, in violation of our Rights. All encroachments are made by degrees; our conceffions are recorded as precedents, and may at fome future time be produced as evidences against our Rights: therefore the example of a certain noble Aflembly fhould teach us, that we cannot be too jealous of our Privileges.

The Writer next proceeds to defcribe his Lordship's plan of operations, with the fchemes he employed to gain intelligence: and endeavours to fhew, that the fuccefs of his plan was fruftrated by delays in England; and other accidents, for which his Lordship was not accountable. Upon the whole, this piece, which evidently fpeaks its Author, is the moft confiftent performance which has for a long time iffued from his hafty pen. However, the facts ftill remain to be establifhed; and we mult not forget the adage-Audi alteram Partem.

[ocr errors]

An

An Efay on Coin. By Brian Robinson, M. D.

TH

Johnston.

8vo. 19.

HE Editor of this pofthumous performance informs us, in a note, that the copy from which this Effay is printed, was made by the Author in January 1747; and that it is the laft perfect one which he left. In November 1750, he began another copy; but proceeded no farther than the two first propofitions. Our Editor farther takes notice, that the variation between the two copies is not very confiderable, and modeftly apologizes for the part he has taken in the publication.

The method profeffed to be obferved by our Author is, ift. to fhew how to measure the value of a commodity; 2dly, how ⚫ to determine its price in filver and gold; 3dly, how to deter mine the value of any weight of fine gold, in proportion to the value of the fame weight of fine filver; 4thly, how to de⚫termine the fineness of allayed gold, or allayed filver, both from its fpecific gravity, and its affay; sthly, how to determine the English values of foreign gold and filver coins; and fixthly,' he concludes with a representation of Sir Ifaac Newton's, concerning coin *.'

We had a former occafion to celebrate our Author's mathematical talents; these he appears to have more aptly applied in the difcuffion of his prefent fubject; the Reader fond of analyti cal computations and refolutions, will, in this pamphlet, find ample matter to exercife his fkill and induftry; but as fuch difquifitions are not calculated for the majority, we shall thus briefly difmifs the deceased Dr. Robinson, in order to allow the more room for a living Writer, who has treated the fame subject, as ⚫ it appears to us, with at leaft equal knowlege, and in a manner more comprehenfible by, and more ufeful to the public.

An Appendix is added concerning Exchanges. + See Review, Vol. VII. p. 310.

L

An Efay upon Money and Coins. Part II. Wherein is fhewed, that the established standard of Money fhould not be violated or altered, on any pretence whatsoever. 8vo. 2s. Hawkins.

TH

HOUGH Authors are not generally fuppofed to have much familiarity with the fubjects here difcuffed, yet we ventured to fignify our approbation of the former part * of this

• See Review, Vol. XVII. p. 110.

Essay;

Effay; nor fhall we fcruple to affirm, that to whomsoever the Public is obliged for this performance, the Writer has proceeded, in the execution of his plan, in a masterly manner. The defign of this fecond part is,' as the Author obferves, a very ar<duous and important one: it is to defend and preferve every <man's right and property; to preferve unfullied the national ⚫ faith, honour, and credit; to preserve a reign hitherto distinguished by equal laws, and an equal administration of justice, from a blot that would remain to all pofterity: to vindicate • and defend all thefe-from an affaffination in the dark, by a • debasement of the long established standard of property.'

This fecond part confifts of two chapters: in the firft our Author gives, from Martin Folkes, Efq; the fubjoined fynoptical table of the feveral adulterations that have been made in the ftandard of our money from the Norman Conqueft to the present time.

[blocks in formation]

The reasonable complaints of, and manifeft injury to, the Public, from this frequent alteration and adulteration of the coin,

N. B. The Saxon or Tower Pound, which was then the com. mon weight, and continued to be the Money weight till the eighteenth year of Henry VIII. was but 11 oz. 5 dwt. Troy, fo that 20 fhillings in tale was then exactly a pound in weight. D

REVIEW, July, 1758.

are

:

are the next objects of our Author's elucidation: to this purpose he produces feveral extracts from thofe who had formerly confidered the fubject, particularly from the learned gentleman * of whom he has borrowed the prefixed table; from a fpeech made by Sir Thomas Rowe, at the council-table, in July, 1640; and from the opinion of a committee appointed at the fame time to examine into the bufinefs of debafing the standard.-For even this ruinous project did not escape the advocates for arbitrary power in that unhappy reign.

Having demonftrated the pernicious confequences of every fort of debasement or adulteration of the coin, our Author concludes this chapter with a recital of the feveral fpecious methods that have been propofed for carrying into effect this iniquitous scheme.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Among the extracts from Folkes's Table of English Silver Coins, are two paffages taken from two fermons, preached by Bishop Latimer before the King, in March 1549; which, as well for their fingu larity, as that they ferve to thew what probably were the current opinions concerning the debafement of the coin in thofe times, we fhall infert; and in conformity to our Author, have thrown into a note. In the firft, he [the Bishop] fays, "We have now a pretty little fhilling, indeed a very pretty one. I have but one, I think, in my purfe, and the laft day I had put it away almoft for an old groat, " and fo I truft fome will take them. The fineness of the filver I "cannot fee: but therein is printed a fine fentence, Timor Domini fons vitæ vel fapientiæ." In the next fermon, he fays, "thus they "burdened me ever with fedition. And wot ye what? I chanced "in my last fermon to fpeak a merry word of the new fhilling, to "refresh my auditory, how I was like to put away my new fhilling "for an old groat. I was therein noted to speak feditiously.—I have now gotten one fellowe more, a companion of fedition, and wot ye "who is my fellowe? Efay the Prophet. I fpake but of a little prettie fhilling, but he fpeaketh to Jerufalem after another fort, and was fo bold as to meddle with their coynes. Thou proud, thou haughty city of Jerufalem: Argentum tuum verfum eft in fcoriam, thy filver is turned into, what? into teftions? ftoriam, into "drofs. Ah, feditious wretch, what had he to do with the mint? Why fhould he not have left that matter to fome mafter of policy "to reprove? thy filver is drofs, it is not fine, it is counterfeit, thy filver is turned; thou hadit good filver. What pertained that unto "Efai? marry he efpied a piece of divinity in that policy, he threateneth them God's vengeance for it. He went to the root of the matter, which was covetoufrels; he efpied two points in it, that either "it came of covetoufnefs, which became him to reprove, or elle "that it tended to the hurt of poore people; for the naughtiness of "the filver was the occafion of dearth of all things in the realm. He "imputed it to them as a crime. He may be called a matter of fe. dition indeed. Was not this a feditious fellow; to tell them this "even to their faces ?"

66

[ocr errors]

66

Thefe

These are, ift. By altering the denominations of the coin, without making any alteration at the mint, or in the coins themfelves; as fuppofe nine-pence, or as much filver as there is now in nine-pence, fhould be called a fhilling, then a fhilling would be called fixteen-pence, and fo proportionably of all the other coins; and three crown pieces, or fifteen of our prefent fhillings, would be called a pound fterling, which is our money-integer. The fame lofs would defcend down to the penny, and by this reckoning, the real penny must be called penny.

<

• Or the alteration may be made at the Mint by either of the following methods.-2dly, By continuing the fame names and the fame weights to the coins, but making them bafer, or with lefs filver and more allay.- 3dly, By preferving the fame finenefs of the metal, but making the coins fmaller or lighter.Laftly, The two laft methods, or all the three methods might' be compounded together.'

Hitherto our Author contents himfelf with fupporting his own. fentiments by the authority of other Writers. In his fecond chapter, which employs full four-fifths of the pamphlet, he en-. ters into a more minute examination of his fubject. To this purpose he very clearly evinces the neceffity of cítablifhing certain determinate ftandards for all forts of meafures; which flandards he justly infifts, ought to be preferved inviolably, as every deviation from them would difturb the arithmetic of the country, confound fettled ideas, create perplexities in dealings, ' and subject the ignorant and unwary to fraud, and abuses.' 'But,' proceeds our Author, of all ftandard-measures in any country, that of money is the most important, and what should be moft facredly kept from any violation or alteration whatsoever. The yard, the bufhel, the pound, &c. are applied only 'to particular commodities; and fhould they be altered, the people would foon learn to accommodate them elves in their 'bargains to the new measures; and it is but rare, that thefe have any retrofpect to preceding contracts. But money is not only an univerfal meafure of the values of all things; but is alfo at the fame time the equivalent, as well as the meature, in all contracts, foreign as well as domeftic.

[ocr errors]

'The laws have ordained, that coins, having certain denomi'nations, well known to every body, fhould contain certain affigned quantities of pure or fine filver. This makes our ftandard of money; and the public faith is guaranty, that the Mint fhall faithfully and ftrictly adhere to this ftandard. It is according to this ftandard, and under this folemn guaranty,

D 2

that

« السابقةمتابعة »