The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-05-07
LORD MACAULAY on FREE COINAGE
STATESMEN.

incidents OF the ai'ah 'fo'
volume of Macauay's History OF bns-
land The evil arose thus: Dhtil Tue
,e,en OF Charles H.. the coined money OF
tho realm had been struck by process
that dated back 20 the reign Oh buHdi"
The metal was divided with shears
and afterward shaped and stamped Dy
tho hammer. leaving much In the way Oh
rounding and equalizing the COINS 10
tho hand and eye OF the workman liav-
,.r m nroteetion to the edges, they
oo,,,d Ia easily trimmed, and the practice
Of shearing of some Of the metal grew
IN. called clipping" and by degrees
brought about serious Inconvenience.
AS early as the reign Of Elizabeth an act
~ Parliament made clipper Of the
coin guilty Of high treason
In Charles IFS time. which was a time
fruitful of experiments and inventions,
a process for stamping coin In a mill
was invented. and a mill was set up In
the tower. worked by n horse, which
turned out perfect coins, Inscribed around
the edges with a legend which ended
the work OF the clipper, so far as they
we're concerned. and melted coins became
all the new coins put out. our expression
melted dollars" had its origin here.
But the bulk OF the money Of the King
dom was the old hammered coins, on
which the clipper continued to ply his
act. As he made the coinage worse, the
penalties denounced against him became
more and more severe Macaulay says:
at was TO no purpose that the rigorous
laws against coming and clipping were
vigorously executed. At every session OF
the old Bailey terrible examples were
made Hurdles. with four. five. six
wretches convicted Of CONTRIBUTING or
mutilating the money OF the realm, were
dragged up Holborn Hill. On one morn
ing seven were hanged and a woman
burned for clipping. But all was In vain.
The gains were such as to laWless
spirits seemed more than proporuoned 10
the risks"
The new money put out by the mill
that could not be clipped went out
amongst the people in competition Win
the money that was debased by the clip
ping, Just as our debased silver dollars and
sound gold dollars compete with each
other. The politicians Of that day were
exactly like the politicians OF this day.
AS our politicians scorn the idea that our
gold will retire before their debased silver
dollars, the old English politicians con-
verseiy, but just as foolishly, expected
the new and good melted pieces to drive
out Of circulation the old and clipped
coin. Macaulay says:
1.-THE fnanciers Of that age seem to
have expected that the new money. which
was excellent, would soon displace the
old money, which was much impaired
Yet any man OF plain understanding
might have known that when the State
treats perfect coin and light coin as Of
equal value, the perfect coin will not
drive the light coin out of circulation, but
will itself be driven out. A clipped crown
on English ground went as far in the
payment Of tax or debt as a milled
crown. But the milled crown, as soon
as II had been flung into the crucible.
or coined across the channel, became
much more valuable that he clipped
crown. 1t might, therefore have been
predicted as confidently as anything can
be predicted which depends on the hu-
man will, that the inferior pieces would
remain in the only market in which
they could fetch the same price as the
superior pieces. and that he superior
pieces would take some form or fly 10
some place in which some advantage
| could be derived from their superiority"
This fine passage might have been writ
| ten to apply to our debased silver dollars
competing equally with our perfect gold
| dollars. 1t is a pity every voter in
| America cannot be made to read and I'M
| derstand 1t.
| But we can get an idea Of what our de-
based silver dollar is going TO bring us to
| by attending TO what Macaulay tells Us
the debased English silver coin brought
the people Of England to. Hear him:
THE evils produced by this state OF
| the currency were not such as have been
| generally thought worthy to occupy a
| prominent place in history. Yet it may
| well be doubted whether all the misery
| which had been inflicted on the English
| nation in a quarter Of a century by bad
| Kings, bad Ministers, bad parliamenis
and bad Judges, was equal to the misery
caused in a single year by bad crowns
and bad shillings.
when the great instrument Of exchange
became thoroughly deranged, all trade.
| all industry, were smitten as with a
| palsy. The evil was felt daily and hourly
in almost every place ard by almost
| every class. in the dairy and on the
threshing floor. by the anvil and by the
loom, on the pillows Of the ocean and I'm
the depths of the mine. Nothing could
be purchased without a dispute. oven
every counter there was wrangling from
morning 10 night The workman and his
empoye had a quarrel as regularly as
the Saturday came round. on a fair day
or a market day the clamors, the re-
proaches, the taunts, the curses, were
incessant, and 1t was well If no booth was
overturned and no head broken. No mer
chant would contract TO deliver good.
without making some stipulation abou
the quality Of the coin in which he was
to be paid. Even men Of business wer,
often bewildered by the confusion into
which all pecuniary transactions were
| thrown. The simple and the careless
were pillaged without mercy by extor
TONERS, whose demands grew even more
rapidly than the money shrank. The
price Of the necessaries Of life. of shoes
Of ale. Of oatmeal. rose fast The labofe
found that the bit Of metal which, wher
he received It, was called q shilling
would hardly when he wanted to pur
chase a a pot OF beer or a loaf OF ~,
bread, go as far as sixpence. Where ar
tisans of more than usual intelligence
were collected together in great numbers
as in the dock-yard at Chatham, thel
were able 10 make their complaints hear,
and obtain some redress. But the igno
rant and helpless peasant was cruell,
ground between one class which wOul,
give money only by tale and anothe
which would take 1t only by weight"