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 scene of pecuniary negotiation, and the clamour is fometimes fo exceflive, that the beadle or porter of the bank is obliged to obtain filence in the following manner. Dreffed in his robe of office, a fearlet 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. Beide 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.

COIN. Connected with the fubject of revenue in generat 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 ascertained; 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 measure, 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 ascribed. "These 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 anfwer the purpose 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 perf. Aly 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, Afia, 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 these refpects they ferve better than "any other material, as an equivalent. And, laftly, they are "lefs confumable or subject to decay, than most other com❝modities. Certain portions of thefe metals, with an impref"fion ftruck upon them, by order of the fovereign, as "guarantee of their purity and weight, ferve as coin."

a

THE KING'S PREROGATIVE. The coins of every kingdom or state are the measure 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 measure of property and commerce; because the authority of fovereigns cannot extend to regulate payments made in foreign countries, where they have no power or jurifdiction. There is no doubt, that the fovereigns of moit of 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 respective dominions, fhall pafs and become, in that refpect, lawful coins, or legal tender. In this kingdom,

the

the fovereigns have always enjoyed and exercifed this right. Sir Mathew Hale reckons it inter Jura Majeftatis, and fays, it is an unquestionable prerogative of the crown. This prerogative was fometimes invaded by powerful barons, who ftamped monies of their own; but this practice was fuppreffed in the days of Henry II. 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 ufually iffued 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 exercifed either by a claufe inferted in the mint indentures, or by proclamation; and it feems 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 ftandard of fterling. He may also raise 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 pafs 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 exercife of it, whenever any great change is intended to be made, the king fhould avail him elf of the wifdom and fupport of his parliament.

DEBASEMENT OF COIN. There are three ways of debafing the current coin; first, 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 raifing the nominal value of coins of a given weight, and made of a metal of a certain andard; 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 oins 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 debafement 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 used 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 fandard 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 short period, when Henry VIII. reduced it, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, to ten ounces fine and two ounces alloy; a mischief 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 standard was introduced of twenty-two carats fine to two alloy; both standards 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 instituted 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. Thefe 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 course 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 reason, the crowns and half crowns, fhillings, 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 standard, gave to fhillings and fix-pences nearly their prefent value; for in her time the coin retaining old denominations had been so much reduced in weight, that a pound of filver was reprefented by three pounds in money, of sterling fineness. In this reign various pieces were coined befides fhillings and fix-pences, which all had reference to nearly the fame proportionate value between a pound weight, and a nominal pound in money; these 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 pieces, 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 used as coins. During fcarcities of filver, 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.

GOLD COIN. It was generally believed till the year 1732, that Edward III. was the firit of the English kings who iflued from their mints any gold coins: but, by a manufcript preferved in the archieves of the city of London, it was then discovered, that Henry III., in the latter part of his reign, that is, in his forty-first 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 these 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 first 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