ftock brokers, and other perfons, meet for the purposes of tranfacting bufinefs in the public funds. Branching out of the rotunda are the various offices appropriated to the management of each particular stock; in all thefe offices, under the feveral letters of the alphabet, are arranged the books in which the amount of every individual's intereft in fuch a fund is registered. The rotunda is a great fcene of pecuniary negotiation, and the clamour is fometimes fo exceffive, that the beadle or porter of the bank is obliged to obtain filence in the following manner. Dreffed in his robe of office, a fcarlet gown and gold laced hat, he mounts a kind of pulpit, holding in one hand a filver headed ftaff; in the other he has a common watchman's rattle, which he exercifes over the heads of the crowd, with a clattering noise that overpowers the ftouteft lungs, and he does not defift from enforcing this ftreporous kind of admonition till it produces the defired effect. The rotunda has a large dome, which admits light through the cupola, and has in the centre a wind dial. Befide the rotunda, and the various flock offices, there are other apartments of the bank deferving of notice. The hall in which bank notes are iffued and exchanged, is a noble room, feventy nine feet by forty, and contains a marble ftatue of William III. the founder of the bank an admired piece of fculpture, the production of Cheere. The vaft and increafing bufinefs carried on in this edifice requires the perpetual aid of the architect in making additions and al

terations.

OFFICERS. The bank is under the management of a governor, and twenty-four directors, none of whom must be directors of the East India Company. They are chofen by the owners of bank stock, annually, the firft whole week in April. Formerly no court of directors could be held unless the governor or deputy governor was prefent, but this inconvenient regulation has been fuperfeded; their qualifications in stock have already been specified. It were needlefs to detail the other perfons employed, as their occupations are expreffed by the names of their offices; they are estimated at feven hundred, befides beadles, porters, and menial fervants.

46

COIN. Connected with the fubject of revenue in general that of the national coinage claims attention in this place. "The money or coin of a country," Lord Liverpool obferves, "is the standard measure, by which the value of things, bought and fold, is regulated and afcertained; and is itself, at the fame time, the value or equivalent for which goods "are exchanged, and in which contracts are generally made "payable. In this laft refpect, money, as a meafure, differs " from all others; and to the combination of the two qualities' "before

M 4

"before defined, which conftitute the effence of money, the "principal difficulties,' that attend it, in fpeculation and prac"tice, both as a measure and an equivalent, are to be afcribed. "Thefe two qualities can never be brought perfectly to unite " and agree; for if money were a measure alone, and made "like all other measures of a material of little or no value, it "would not answer the purpose of an equivalent. And if it " is made, in order to answer the purpofe of an equivalent, of "a material value, fubject to frequent variations, according to "the price at which fuch material fells at the market, it fails "on that account in the quality, or ftandard, or measure, and "will not continue to be perfectly uniform and at all times "the fame. In all civilized nations money has been made "either of gold, or filver, or copper, frequently of all three, "and fometimes of a metal compofed of filver and copper in "certain proportions, commonly called billon. It has been "found by long experience, and by the concurrent opinion of "civilized nations in all ages, that thefe metals, and particu"larly gold and filver, are the fittest materials of which money " can be made. Gold and filver are perfectly homogeneous "in themselves, for no phyfical difference can be found in any "pound of pure gold, or of pure filver, whether the production

of Europe, Asia, Africa, or America. They are divifible with "the greatest accuracy into exact proportions or parts. From their value they are not too bulky for the common purposes "of exchange, and in all thefe refpects they ferve better than any other material, as an equivalent. And, lastly, they are "lefs confumable or fubject to decay, than most other commodities. Certain portions of thefe metals, with an impref"fion ftruck upon them, by order of the fovereign, as a "guarantee of their purity and weight, ferve as coin."

THE KING'S PREROGATIVE. The coins of every kingdom or ftate are the meafure of property, and commerce within every fuch kingdom or ftate, according to the nominal value declared and authorized by the fovereign. So far as they are made legal tender in exchanges with foreign countries, and in payments made to them, the intrinfic value of the metal of which the coin is made, is the only mcafure of property and commerce; because the authority of fovereigns cannot extend to regulate payments made in foreign countries, where they have no power or juridiction. There is no doubt, that the fovereigns of moit

the kingdoms and ftates of Europe have enjoyed and exercifed, from time immemorial, the right of declaring at what' rate or value the coins of every denomination, permitted to be current in their refpective dominions, fhall pafs and become, in that refpect, lawful coins, or legal tender. In this kingdom,

the fovereigns have always enjoyed and exercised this right. Sir Mathew Hale reckons it inter Jura Majeftatis, and fays, This preit is an unquestionable prerogative of the crown. rogative was fometimes invaded by powerful barons, who ftamped monies of their own; but this practice was fuppreffed in the days of Henry 11. In times lefs ancient, kings have occafionally conferred the right of making money on ecclefiaftical corporations, but they did not grant the power of inftituting either the alloy, the denomination, or the ftamp; the dies were usually issued by the treasurer and barons of the exchequer, by the king's command under his great feal; and the mafters or chief officers employed in thefe mints, were fworn to the king for the juft execution of their trufts. The prerogative of fetting a rate or nominal value on current coins is exercised either by a cfaufe inferted in the mint indentures, or by proclamation; and it seems to be the better, though not the uncontroverted opinion, that the king may, by virtue of his prerogative, legitimate or make current bafe coin, or fuch as is below the standard of fterling. He may also raife any coin already in currency to a higher denomination or extrinfic' value; decry any money already current, that is, either reject it wholly out of circulation, or make it pass at a lefs rate or value, than that at which it has hitherto been received, and make foreign coin current at a determined rate or value, and this by a proclamation alone; but, fays Lord Liverpool, although this high prerogative is unquestionable, it is certainly advisable, that in the exercise of it, whenever any great change is intended to be made, the king fhould avail him felf of the wifdom and fupport of his parliament.

DEBASEMENT OF COIN. There are three ways of debafing the current coin; firit, by diminishing the quantity or weight of the metal of a certain ftandard, of which any coin of a given denomination is made. Secondly, by railing the nominal value of coins of a given weight, and made of a metal of a certain standard; that is, by making them current, or legal tender, at a higher rate than that at which they paffed before. Thirdly, by lowering the ftandard or fineness of the metal, of which coins of a given weight and denomination are made; that is, by diminishing the quantity of pure metal, and proportionally increafing that of alloy. Each of thefe modes has been practifed at different times by the monarchs of this country before the revolution, and debatement of coin has already been mentioned as one of the extraordinary fources from which they endeavoured to draw emolument; the hiftory of each specific act would be too long for this work.

STANDARD. The weight by which gold and filver are esti

mated

mated in this realm is the pound troy; in ancient times, there was a weight ufed at the mint faid' to be derived from the Saxons, called the Tower pound, or moneyer's pound; lighter than the pound troy, by three quarters of an ounce; but this weight has been difcontinued fince the eighteenth year of Henry VIII. The ftandard of filver was anciently eleven ounces two penny-weights fine, and eighteen penny-weights alloy; and this is now, and fince the reign of Edward I. always has been, the ftandard of English filver coin, except during a fhort period, when Henry VIII. reduced it, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, to ten ounces fine and two ounces alloy; a mifchief which was remedied in the fecond year of Queen Elizabeth. Gold was anciently twenty carats three grains and a half fine, to half a grain of alloy, till the eighteenth of Henry VIII., when a new ftandard was introduced of twenty-two carats fine to two alloy; both ftandards were used till the fifteenth Charles II., but fince that time, the new one alone has prevailed, and by a proclamation in 1732, coins of the old ftandard were forbidden. to be any longer current.

SILVER COIN. Silver money has, in point of antiquity, precedence over every other. The coins made in this realm before the conqueft are little known, except to antiquaries, and even among them, fubjects of much difpute; but William certainly inftituted a coinage of filver, in which the denomination pound was used to exprefs fo much in actual weight, and the coin, called a penny, weighed twenty four grains, or the twentieth part of an ounce. Henry I. introduced half-pennies and farthings, both of filver, and having their juft relative proportion to the penny and the pound. These continued to be the fole denominations of coin, till Edward I. introduced groats, which had the inconvenience of being uncertain in value; for groat, though now ordinarily taken to fignify four-pence, has, in fact, no precife meaning, and thofe made by Edward I. weighed from ninety-four, to one hundred and thirty-nine grains, which as the weight of the penny was then reduced to twenty three grains and a half, equalled four-pence, in the fmaller, or almoft fixpence in the greater fize. Henry VIII., in the courfe of his reign coined all the before-mentioned pieces, befides crowns, and teftons, which are called fhillings, but as he adulterated the metal, fometimes by introducing one half, fometimes two thirds of alloy, the value of thefe pieces is uncertain. For the fame reafon, the crowns and half crowns, fillings, fix-pences, three-pences, and rofe-pennies in the next two reigns cannot be relied on, fince the example of Henry VIII., continued to prevail, until adulteration was carried to the extent of three fourths alloy. Queen Elizabeth, reftoring

the

the ancient ftandard, gave to fhillings and fix-pences nearly their prefent value; for in her time the coin retaining old denominations had been fo much reduced in weight, that a pound of filver was reprefented by three pounds in money, of fterling fineness. In this reign various pieces were coined befides fhillings and fix-pefices, which all had reference to nearly the fame proportionate value between a pound weight, and a nominal pound in money; thefe were groats, half groats, threepences, three-half-penny pieces, three-farthing pieces, crowns and half-crowns; portcullis crowns or dollars, which weighed feventeen penny weights eleven grains; half dollars, quarter dollars and rials or tefters; fome of these pieces fell into disuse; and in the reign of James I. two-pences, pence, and half-pence were coined in filver; to which Charles I. added ten-fhilling and twenty-fhilling picces, and many obfidional monies coined in different places, and at various periods of the civil war. Of all these pieces there now remain in circulation only crowns, half-crowns, fhillings, and fix-pences; four-penny, three-penny, and penny pieces in filver being occafionally produced, but rarely ufed as coins. During fearcities of filyer, Spanish dollars have twice been brought into circulation, but, although marked with the king's head, they cannot properly be confidered as coins, but as tokens.

A

GOLD COIN. It was generally believed till the year 1732, that Edward III. was the firit of the English kings who ifiued from their mints any gold coins: but, by a manutcript preferved in the archieves of the city of London, it was then difcovered, that Henry II, in the latter part of his reign, that is, in his forty-firit year, made what was called a penny of fine gold, weighing two fterlings, or the one hundred and twentieth part of the Tower pound; which gold penny was to pafs for twenty fterlings or filver pennies in tale. This information has been indifputably confirmed, but it is probable that thefe coins were not in general circulation. Foreign gold coins must have been introduced before that time, and received in payment according to their value in proportion to filver; frequent mention is made of byzants of gold,, fo called from thofe ftruck by the Greek emperors at Conftantinople; and of florins, fo denominated from their being firft coined at Florence. Thefe florins furnished the models on which Edward III. in the eighteenth year of his reign made coin of the fame denomination, weighing four penny weights nineteen grains, or the fiftieth part of a Tower pound of gold; they pafled for fix fhillings, and were intrinfically worth about nineteen fhillings of our prefent money; he alfo coined half and quarter florins; nobles at fix fhillings and eight-pence each, and half and quarter nobles. The 6

florins