СНАР. 29.

Vol. i. p. 448.

a Regency, in the beginning of the last century; the two others are of a later date: and each of these experiments has proved, in its results, dishonourable to the Government, and disastrous to the people. During the emission of this Paper currency, the Coins of that country were in a very great degree driven out of circulation; but they re-appeared in considerable quantities, as soon as this Paper currency was discredited and annihilated. It ought always to be kept in remembrance, that this Paper currency was issued to so great an excess, either by corporate bodies, under the authority and protection of Government, or directly by the Government itself, and not on the sole credit and responsibility of unauthorized individuals.

It is certain, that the principles, on which speculative writers would justify the emission of Paper currency in Your Majesty's dominions, would leave it almost without limitation. The ablest writer on this subject, Dr. Adam Smith, appears however sensible, that there must be some limitation. That adopted by him is, "that the "whole Paper currency of every kind, which can easily "circulate in any country, never can exceed the value "of the Gold and Silver, of which it supplies the place; "or which (the commerce being supposed the same) "would circulate there, if there was no Paper Money." From this passage it may be inferred, that even in this writer's opinion Paper currency may be issued to so great an extent, as to take the place of all the Gold and Silver Coins necessary for carrying on the commerce of the kingdom, though it cannot easily be carried to a

greater. But later writers pay no attention to the moderation, with which this master of political economy has supported his system: and as they are not satisfied with the opinion thus given, we may presume they mean, that Paper currency may be made to represent, according to the system of the well known Mr. Law, even immoveable property; that is, a portion at least of the lands and buildings of the kingdom, and as such sent into circulation. It seems to have been discovered of late years in this country, that, by a new sort of alchemy, Coins of Gold and Silver, and almost every other sort of property, may be converted into Paper; and that the precious metals had better be exported, to serve as capital, to foreign countries, where no such discovery has yet been made. But this new sort of fictitious capital, thus introduced within the kingdom, has contributed more than any other circumstance to what is called over-trading; that is, rash and inconsiderate speculations, and what is almost a necessary consequence, unworthy artifices to support the credit of adventurers already ruined, as well as other evils, which tend to corrupt the morals of the trading part of the community, and to shake the credit on which not only Paper currency, but the internal commerce of the kingdom is founded. In every commercial system, capital is certainly a necessary ingredient: but the prosperity of the British commerce depends not singly on capital; it depends still more on the good faith, honour, and punctuality of British merchants, for which they are so justly celebrated.

CHAP, 29.

CHAP. 29.

Impressed as I am with the idea, that no system of Coinage can be adopted with the prospect of permanent advantage, till some regulations have been made for remedying the evils resulting from the present state of Paper currency, I have thought it right thus to lay before Your Majesty some account of the excess to which it has of late been carried within Your kingdoms. I am unwilling to enter into further discussion on a question so important, and so much agitated, because it is not a fit subject for a Letter to Your Majesty: nor will I treat of the remedies, which ought to be applied, because these cannot be administered by the authority of Your Majesty, as in the case of Coins; but they require the authority of the Two Houses of Parliament, in conjunction with that of Your Majesty. Certain I am, that in a kingdom like Great Britain, the most commercial, and for its extent the richest perhaps that ever existed in the world, every branch of circulating medium, of whatever it may consist, should be founded on solid, wise, and honest principles; and Coins in particular, which are the only true measure of property and instrument of commerce, and by which every other circulating medium must be regulated, should be made and kept as perfect as the nature of the subject will admit.

CHAPTER XXX.

Conclusion..

I HAVE now completed all I proposed to write on the Coins of the realm, and I have treated shortly of Paper currency, so far as the Coins are affected by it. It is not improbable, that a treatise on a subject so abstruse and intricate, and consequently so difficult to be understood, may be thrown aside by many, and perhaps treated with levity: I remember that such was the case when the Recoinage of the Gold Coin was undertaken, in the year 1774. It is possible, that even those, who are not without a desire of information, may object, that I have consumed too much labour on points that are not worthy of it-In tenui labor. To these my answer is, that they are little aware of how much importance to the commerce of the country is a good monetary system, founded on principles of wisdom and justice; and how much Coins, particularly those of a lower denomination, contribute to the convenience of the inferior orders of society. I am not ashamed, therefore, in my present state of retirement, to have employed my leisure hours on this subject; a subject which occupied the attention and talents of men of no less character than Sir William Petty and Mr. Locke.

S

CHAP. 30.

To Your Majesty, if any apology is necessary, I may venture to offer other pleas in my justification. When I was in Your Majesty's service in the year 1774, I first turned my thoughts to this subject, in discharge of my public duty. It was in obedience to Your Majesty's commands that I resumed the consideration of it, after a long interval, when You appointed me in 1797 one of the members of the Committee of Privy Council for Coin and though a short time afterwards, by the pressure of disease, all thoughts of this nature were blotted from my recollection, I have experienced at length, by the favour of Providence, a partial recovery ; and awakened as it were from the sleep of death, I have been induced a third time to take up the consideration of this subject, by the representations that were made to me by Your Majesty's late ministers, of the distressed state of the southern parts of Ireland, where almost all Coins have disappeared, where a most degraded system of Paper currency has taken place even of the Silver Coins, and where this Paper currency, from the quantity that has been issued, has fallen in its value, and consequently into a state of discredit, very embarrassing to the poorer ranks of Your Majesty's subjects in those parts.

The subject of which I have treated is of such a nature, that it certainly has no charms to attract the attention of any man; it is therefore from a sense of duty alone, that I have been induced to complete, under all my infirmities, what I had before projected. Conscious of my own inability at all times to fathom