pass current under the same names, there were the groat, value fourpence, and pieces value threepence, twopence, and a penny.

In 1613, came forth the first copper coin, called farthings, or the one fourth of a penny; these were to supersede the private tokens of lead and copper, issued by about 3000 retailers in London, and as many issuers in proportion in country towns, which, after this period, were abolished.

The ducats were foreign coins, and they were of several values, according to the ducal states which issue them.

During all these reigns people carried about them pocket money scales.

"Wrought gold has two legal standards, one is twenty carats the same as coin, the other is eighteen carats; the latter commenced in 1798, and is now chiefly the metal in watch cases and rings. Wrought silver is also of two qualities, one is the same as the old coinage, and the other is eight dwts. better, that is eleven ounces ten dwts.

The different standards on wrought plate are thus distinguished; all articles, whether gold or silver, of the money standard, are marked with a lion, the new gold standard is marked with the number 18, and the new sterling is marked with the figure of Britannia and a lion's head.

Articles of all standards, capable of receiving a stamp, are marked likewise with the initials of the maker's name, the arms or marks of the assay office, and a letter for the date.

The letter used by the London Goldsmiths' Company, shew the date by the beginning of the alphabet, in 1796, and reckoning to twenty letters progressively; thus 1816 is U, and 1820 by D, &c.

The mark of the goldsmiths' office is a leopard, that of the assay office of Dublin is a harp, that of Edinburgh is a thistle, that of Newcastle is three castles, of Sheffield a crown, of Birmingham an anchor.

All articles, except watch cases, are subject to a certain duty, and are marked with the king's head when the duty is paid." Kelly's Cambist.

All the old silver coinage was called in and exchanged piece for piece, whether light or full weight, in two days, in the year 1816, simultaneously in every town in the kingdom; this excellent arrangement was a great advantage, for the coinage was in a wretched condition.

It was the opinion of Adam Smith, that "the quantity of the precious metals used in the arts, never altered its marketable value;" but in his day, about 1776, there was not consumed in only one description of manufactories, viz.: earthenware, £650 worth weekly. The quantity used in family plate, and

trinkets, was not entirely lost by wear and tear; some part, and that the most considerable, would remain for working up again, the gilding on glass and picture frames may all be collected, but I apprehend none is ever collected from broken crockery.

INTEREST.-The legal rate of interest in money had continued to be ten per cent., as fixed by the act of 1571; it was reduced to eight, in 1624, and continued at this rate till 1651, when it was reduced to six; at this time it is only five.

From a pamphlet, "The Mystery of the new fashioned Goldsmiths or Bankers discovered," 1675, it states: "For some time, the usual place in which the London merchants kept their cash, has been the royal mint, in the Tower. But the despotic act of Charles I., in seizing £200,000, in 1640, a few months before the meeting of the long parliament, which was lodged there under the name of a loan, having destroyed the security of that deposit; it then became customary (strange to relate) for merchants to intrust their cash to the keeping of their clerks and apprentices, until the breaking out of the civil wars, when the said clerks and apprentices fell into the habit of running away and going into the army; so that at last, about 1645, commercial men first began to place their cash in the hands of the goldsmiths; until which time, it is stated, the business of the London goldsmiths consisted in buying and selling plate and foreign coins, in gold and silver, in melting and culling these articles, in coining some at the mint, and in supplying, with the rest the refiners, plate makers, and merchants, according to the variation in prices. This new banking business soon grew very considerable. It happened in those times of civil commotion, that the parliament-out of the plate and from the old coin brought into the mint-coined 7 millions into half crowns, and there being no mills then in use at the mint, this new money was of very unequal weight, sometimes 2d or 3d difference in value in an ounce, and most of it was heavier than it ought to have been, in proportion to the value in foreign parts. Of this the goldsmiths made great advantages by culling out (both gold and silver ones,) the heaviest, melting or exporting them. Moreover, such merchants' servants as were still permitted to keep their master's running cash, had fallen into a way of clandestinely lending the same to the goldsmiths at 4 per cent per diem, (about 6 per annum,) who by these and such like means, were enabled to lend out great quantities to necessitous merchants, and others, weekly or monthly, at high interest; and also began to discount merchants' bills. About the same time they began to receive gentlemen's rents remitted to town, and allow them, and others, who would lodge cash in

their hands, some interest for it, if it remained but for a single month. This was a great allurement for those with spare money to allow it to remain till the day it was wanted, when they could again command it, and with more certainty, than if it had been lent out on any other real or personal security. Hence the goldsmiths soon had great quantities of cash in their hands, and they could supply Oliver Cromwell with money in advance on the revenues, as his occasions might require, with great advantages to themselves."

D'Avenant, in his "Discourses on Trade," first published 1698,"shows an increase in the value of landed property, from twelve years' purchase in ancient times, to fourteen, sixteen, and in the best counties to eighteen and twenty, about 1666. He calculates, that about 1600, the rental of England for lands, houses, and mines, did not exceed 6 millions; whereas, in 1688, he takes it at 14 millions, or at from twelve to eighteen years' purchase." The tampering with the coinage, as the tables shows to have been the case, would create a rise in land, as well as in its products and wages, and indeed in everything else.

He also says, "the whole stock of England, viz: the coined silver and bullion, wrought plate, rings, &c.; jewels, furniture, apparel, &c.; stocks of trade, consumption, &c; live stock of cattle, &c., apparently everything, but what the lawyers call real property, in 1600, was about 17 millions; in thirty years it nearly doubled; and in 1630, was about 28 millions; in 1660, it was about 56 millions; and from that time to 1688, it was calculated at 88 millions." If a cart load had not been added to the general stock during the 88 years, the reader will readily conclude, from the depreciation of the coinage, its value would be higher.

MOUNT OF PIETY." The establishments called Monti di Pieta, were institutions for lending money, at a moderate interest, to necessitous persons, on pledges. They had their rise in the fifteenth century, and were a remedy for the usurious exactions of the Jews and Lombards. The first known, was established at Padua, 1491. In 1577, there was one at Avignon. In 1618, the Archduke Albert established others at Ghent, Antwerp, and Brussels; and between 1615 and 1633, they came into use in various towns of French Flanders. Charles I.'s reign, in imitation of them, one for London was proposed. Joseph I. established one at Vienna, in 1707.

In

The object of the English one, was "to lend money to the poor on small pledges, and to persons of better rank on security, adequate to the amount advanced. Their capital was at first

£30,000, which afterwards increased to £600,000, by royal licenses. In the year 1731, George Robinson, M. P. for Marlow, the cashier, and John Thomson, the warehouse keeper, disappeared in one day. Inquiry was instituted for the proprietors, and for a capital of £500,000 and upwards: effects for only £30,000 were found, the remainder being all embezzled; Robinson and Thomson, in concert with some of the directors, had combined in this iniquitous plan. Many persons of quality were implicated; the house of commons took up the affair; and two of its members, Sir Robert Sutton, and Sir Archibald Grant, were expelled for their share in the nefarious transaction. The committee of the house of commons received a letter from Belloni, an eminent banker at Rome, giving them to understand, that Thomson was secured in that city, and would be given up on certain conditions to that government. The house treated the offer as a scheme to procure public favour for the pretender, (one of the family of the Stuarts,) as showing him to be anxious for the welfare of the English nation, and they rejected the proposal. Such was the end of the English Mount of Piety, known as 'the Charitable Corporation,' for want of salutary cheeks to protect its resources from the machinations of scoundrels." From a letter of Sir Henry Ellis, Archæologia.

EXCHEQUER BILLS.-In the years 1696 and 7, the silver currency of the kingdom by clipping, washing, filing, and other tricks, as well as the usual wear and tear incident thereto, was reduced to half its regular value; acts of parliament were passed for its being called in, to be recoined; but while this recoinage was going on, bills from the exchequer were first issued, some as low as ten and £5, to supply the usual demands of trade. The quantity of silver recoined on the authority of D'Avenant, from the old hammered money, amounted to £5,725,933. It is worthy of remark, that through the difficulties experienced by the bank of England, (which had been established but three years,) during the recoinage, they having taken the clipped silver at its nominal value, and guineas at an advanced price, bank notes were, in 1697, at a discount of from 15 to 19 per cent. "During the recoinage," says D'Avenant, "all great dealings were transacted by tallies, bank-bills, and goldsmiths' notes. Paper credit did not only supply the place of running cash, but greatly multiplied the kingdom's stock; for tallies and bank-bills did for many uses serve as well, and to some, better than gold and silver; and this artificial wealth, which necessity had introduced, did make us less feel the want of that real treasure, which the war and our losses at sea had drawn out of the nation."

LOTTERIES.-This gambling system had for full half a century been occasionally resorted to by the government for raising money. The earliest on record was in the year 1569, to raise the sum of £20,000, for the repair of certain harbours, by the sale of 40,000 tickets, the prizes being articles of plate. There was also another lottery, under the sanction of the crown, during the reign of James I., to defray the expenses attending the early settlements on this continent. One of the patents granted by Charles I., in 1630, was for the conveyance of certain springs of water into London; it was a scheme of a Michael Parker, but never took effect; it only deserves notice from the circumstance, that one item of its charges were to be £4000 per annum, to be paid into the king's exchequer.

In the early stages of the national debt, it was usual to pay the prizes in state tickets, in the form of terminable annuities. This nefarious system was continued through all the reigns to 1823.

So strong was this infatuation, that numbers laid out all they were worth, and a trifling prize made them more reckless; they would then, not only lay out that amount, but would pawn their clothes, or part of their furniture: I heard the following rare instance of a person, who won two prizes in one lottery, when being pressed to lay them both out, for as his birth seemed to be under so happy a planet, he would be sure to get the grand prize which was still in the wheel. He cooly and sagely replied, "he thought he should not venture again, for he never knew lightning strike thrice in one place." The working part of society were so excited, they used to dream about lotteries, and if they dreamt of a particular number, that they conceived would be sure to gain a prize; these dreams they used to relate with much ecstasy.

"Mine was a dream of strange delight,

And did not vanish with the night." ANSTER.

Of course the attendants would expound it to their advantage, causing great misery, and many serious immoral evils; however, one advantage did attend them: the show bills, and posting bills, were unusually elegant and attractive; hence have they been of use in greatly improving the art of typography.

A specimen of early typography, may be seen in the engraving of the diurnal, page 286.