The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1878-04-26
JOHN LOCKE AND DEBASED MONEY.

fuAoANNO Stale>LnduJ AnlnOny ASnley
Cooper-Dryden's "Achitophelr-their
common impulses bound them together
in lasting and memorable union. The
Earl of Shaftesbury, as he was afterward
known, was the leader of the House of
Commons; the apparent hvorite of the
king; fine orator; daring active; the
chief politician of his age; wealthy ,ofan-
cient descent but his feeble frame was
pierced by an incurable disease, and in
all the splendor of his political triumphs
Shaftesbury seemed only to hover over,
the grave. The merciless satirists of the
age scoffed at his infirmities. Even Dry
den pursued "Achitophel" with cruel
malevolence. He sang, when Shaftes-
bury was on trial for his life:
''Of these the false Achitophel was first
A name TO all succeeded ages cursed.
A fiery soul which, working out its way.
Fretted the pigmy body to decay"
The young physician has thrown a
softer renown oyer the memory of Shat
tesbury, and refutes the satirist. Their
famous friendship has aided all liberal
craftsmanship in later ages, and Locke
and Shaftesbury led the way to reform.
Locke became one Of the family at
Exeter House, and when Shaftesbury
was made Lord Chancellor, was his sec
retary and chief adviser. He even
selected wife for his son, who was of
weak mind when some matrimonial
difficulties arose, Locke took charge of
the children it was afterward the boast
of the eldest, the author of the Charac-
teriaics, that in his early youth he was
submitted to the care of the great author
and philosopher. But soon, in the rapid
change ofparties, Shaftesbury fell from
his high offices, was tried for his life, was
pierced By the bitter shafts Of Dryden's
satire, boldly resisted for moment the
tyranny of the king, and then fled to
Holland to die in miserable exile. Locke
hid for time at Oxford, watched by his
jealous foes, and at last he too escaped to
hospitable Holland, to learn the value of
freedom, and study that remarkable sys-
tenn of finance which had always made
the Netherlands model of unbIemish-
ed credit. The Dutch grew rich by the
follies of their neighbors. They coined
the best money when England and
France were covered with a debased cur
rency; they stole away the commerce of
London by their integrity and prudence,
until the English merchants clamored
for war, and hoped to destroy by force
their commercial rivals. The credit of
Holland was high, its silver was pure, its
debts were always paid, its markets we're
filled with money, when London was
overwhelmed with a clipped coinage,
when the credit of the English govern
ment was lost, when trade decayed. even
agricultureand the profits of English in
dustry served only to enrich the foreign
er. Lockels inquisitive intellect discoy-
cred in Holland the cause of this dis
parity. Holland fourished because it
practiced honesty; England persisted
because it had lost its honor. Holland
drew in the wealth of the world because
it always kept its word England sent
abroad the coin that should have made
its people prosperous, and was plunged
in bankruptcy and reign of inferior
money. Commercial honor was the
foundation Of national wealth, and hon.
est money the source Unpopular ease.
When the fair fleet of William of Or
ange set sail with favorable winds to find
shelter in the harbor of Torbay, when
the soft hills that encircle that tranquil
scene looked down upon the Dutch ar
mada,a revolution began in English
commercial affairs as sudden, as remark
able, as in the political. The debased
coinage was to disappear. Honesty was
to become the leading trait of the Eng
lish government; its credit was to be
forever undoubted Its bank, its stock,
were to stand unshaken. The false
coinage Of the Stuarts, with their shame
less dishonesty, was to pass away, and
England and America to feel new i'm
pulse. In the van of the Dutch feet
came back sickly, comsuptive scholar,
still known only to his familiar friends,
almost obscure, forgotten, but whose
busy mind began now TO pour out in
print its endless speculations. II is only
as financier that we have to do with
John Locke. On his return the ques-
ton of the currency arose; the clipped
coinage had driven away the good the
nation was poor, embarrassed, discon
tented and every one saw that no bus
iness could be transacted with profit, no
wealth accumulated, while the debased
coinage embarrassed every branch oi
trade. But two parties at once arose
divided upon this subject by an irrecon-
cilable difference. William Lowndes, a
person Of financial ability, was the cham
pion Of initiation. His plan was to
plunge the nation in still greater diff
culties by raising the nominal price ol
every coin. He shared the opinion oi
those who think that a government can
make an ounce Of silver worth an ounce
and half; that by merely stamping a
coin with its mark it can place upon il
what value it pleases that it could de-
lude or compel the foreigner into taking
its false money for good, and enrich its
own subjects by flooding the nation with
a debased currency. There will, no
doubt, always be persons who are Of
Lowndes's opinion. We hear every
where those who NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
the government mark and legal ten
der clause create the value of "a coinage.
The Emperor of China thought 80
stamped his mulberry bark, and made
legal tender. When he died it van
. ished into air. The advocates Of unlim-
tied and inconvertible paper money
think so. The nation pwes nearly all its
financial distress to the long reign of a
deprecated paper. The recent Silver
Bill is founded upon the same error. Its
only effect has been to efnbarrass bust
ness and destroy or weaken the credit
OF the nation.
\ Locke could see all the evils OF hlse
coinage. He began to enumerate them
at once. Of the mystery, of money he