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in possession of it. In default of this, the property goes to the state of Great Britain. According to these arrangements, it will be the son of the present Lord Rendlesham who will be called to these immense possessions. Lady Rendlesham has been pregnant. As may be supposed, this event gave e to the most auspicious hopes, but they were disappointed. Supposing that the wishes of her family will be realized within another year, and adding to that thirty years of minority, which the son must complete, it is calculated, that the income, together with the interest of his property, will amount to the enormous sum of 162 millions of francs (about seven English millions),

To the DIRECTORS of the BANK OF ENGLAND.

The following passage, which I concave is founded in a very erroneous View of our present circulating mediam, appeared in The Times of the 7th of February, in a letter under the signature of MERCATOR :-"The relative excess, therefore, of the Bank of England issues is infinitely greater than is indicated by the mere numerical increase, and seems of itself fully adequate to have produced the present depression in the exchange, and rise in the price of gold.”

given for an ounce of standard gold, constitute the price of that ounce.

We persist to call gold coin our standard of value, but we have none of that metal in circulation; this measure of the prices of commodities is, therefore, a dead letter on the contrary, silver, the universal measure of value among our neighbours, of France, Holland, and Hamburgh, has been lately coined and extensively circulated among us : as then silver coin does actually measure the value of property on the Continent, so also it can, and does, at this instant, no gold circulating with it, fix the prices of all things in this country.

A Bank of England promissory note for one pound, or the note of any individual for the same sum, does not, like coin, possess within itself intrinsic value; but the Bank note is worth exactly the value of the quantity of coin for which it will interchange, and it now exchanges for silver twenty shillings of the new coinage; it therefore commands 1,556 8-22 grains of pure silver.

Having thus reduced the Bank-note into the quantity of pure silver which it does undeniably command, I proceed to inquire into "the present deI take pression of the exchange." the quotations from Lloyd's List of the 20th of February, and the quantities of pure silver contained in the foreign coins from the assays published in Dr. Kelly's Cambist.

It is first necessary to define what is really the valuable consideration contained in each pound sterling of a bill of exchange, and in Bank-notes, which, Amsterdam, at sight, sch. 36. 4. for 20s. sterling. Schellings 36. 4. computed from 370 6 10. grs. to the

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In favour of London..

Amsterdam, at sight, guilders 11 3 for 20s. sterling.

..1615 grains.

...1556 8-22.

Galders 11. 3. at 145 1-10 of pure silver per guilder..1617 9-10 grains.

Pure silver in 20s. sterling ....

In favour of London.........

Hamburgh, 2 usance, sch. 34 for 20s. sterling.

58 14-22 grs. of silver,

..1556 S-22.

61 ́ grains of silver.

Schellings 34 are equal to 123 marcs banco (and 27 marcs banco, being the Cologne marc weight of

pure silver) contain

Pure silver in 20s. sterling..

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.16634 grains.

.1556 8-22.

107 grains of silver.

..1665 6-10.

.1556 8-22.

100 grains of silver.

So much for "the present depression in the exchange," upon which it is sufficient to observe, that as the balance of coin is from 3 to 7 per cent, in favour of London, the exchange does not require an export of bullion, consequently does not raise its price; and if an excessive issue of Bank-notes were the cause of the high price of gold, it would also, increase the price of silver; for, as the relative quantities of the metals are neither increased nor diminished by any issue of Bank-notes, however great, such an issue would act equally on both of them. Standard silver is now 5s. 34d. to 5s. 4d. and gold 41, 2s. 6d. the ounce; the Mint prices are 5s. 6d. and 31. 173. 1044. How then has it happened that the market-price of silver is below, and that of the gold above, the Mint price? Surely the poor Bank-note has not the property, at the same instant, to keep the price of silver below, and to raise that of gold above, the Mint price: the true cause of the present price of gold is to be sought and found in the absurdity of our existing Mint regulations.

If the nation persists to coin the two metals at fixed relative proportions, without permitting an agio on the gold coin, which, if permitted, would render the Mint and market prices synonimous terins, it must be contented to bid adieu to one of the two coinages, because that which is cheaper in the form of a coin than it is in bullion, will be inevitably withdrawn, and will become bullion.

The term price" is imparted to all other commodities by the metal in coin, which governs a national circulation; among us that metal is now silver, and silver only: the market proportions be tween the metals cannot be bound or controlled by legal enactments or Mint regulations; they spring from the relative influences of supply and demand; and whoever will take the trouble to divide 41. 2s. 6d by 5s. 4d. the present market prices of the standard ounces of gold and silver (no account being of course taken of the slight difference of the alloy in favour of silver), will find the proportions to be about 15 to 1. If we apply this undeniable fact to the existing silver coinage, and to the ounce of gold bullion, but substituting for 15 15 1-5th, the ancient Mint proportion of the metals in a state of purity, the present coinage of 66 shillings to the standard pound of silver, will bring out the standard ounce at 5s. 6d., the ounce of pure silver at 5s. 11d 13 37ths, the

ounce of pure gold at 41. 10s. 4d.... 20 37ths, and the ounce of standard gold at 41. 2s. 10d. 6-37ths. Thus is the present price of standard gold justified, and clearly proved to spring from, the Mint-rate of the existing silver coinage; and no human power can alter or materially abate that price, except by the alteration or the destruction of that silver coinage.

If it had been intended to secure gold. coined at the old Mint rate from destruc-/ tion, the value of the new silver coia ought rather to have been lowered than increased. Take the following example;-Issue 60 shillings from the stan dard pound of silver, which is 5s. the ounce; multiply that sum by 15 1-5th, the old Mint proportion, and nearly the present market proportion, and the ounce of standard gold would come out at 31. 165. or thereabouts, instead of 41. 28. 10d. reckoned through the same ounce circulating, as it now does, for 5s, 6d.

As we were but lately without a national metallic medium, we had the fairest opportunity to have raised a system upon sound principles; but it seems that, in defiance of our own market proportions, our ancient Mint regula tions, and the regulations of foreign mints, we have coined silver at an increased value, and gold at the ancient denomination of 31. 17s. 1044. per ounce, thereby decreasing the value of gold in coin in exactly the proportion that silver has been raised in coin; in short, the prescut Mint proportions do not exchange more than 13 77-100th parts of silver for one part in gold; therefore, as 15 1-5th, or 15% of silver (which is amply proved), can be obtained for this identical part or portion of gold in the bullion market, it is impossible that gold sovereigns can circulate in sufficient numbers, in the shape of coin, to become, as they are intended to be by law, the standard of value. By this utter contempt of the influence of market proportions upon Mint regulations, the Government offers a premium of 11 per cent. for the melting of the gold coin, and an exactly equivalent encouragement for the preservation of the existing silver coinage.

I suspect that, guided by the authority of the late Earl of Liverpool, the silver coinage has been issued and considered merely as counters possessing no influence; but these counters are now

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acting with dreadful energy upon every gold sovereign that comes abroad.

We are then fixed to both horns of the élemma: for, if the present circulation silver be withdrawn and re-issued at lower denominations, the preparations, the labour, the expense, and the inconveniences of the measure, are to be encountered afresh: but if we uphold this circalation in silver at its present rate, we cant coin and retain gold money in circulation at 31. 178. 10 the ounce.

If it were inquired, whether, under these circumstances, the Bank restriction ought not to be continued until bution can be purchased, coined, and retained in coin at 31. 17s. 104d. the ounce, I should answer, that if the restriction is not to cease until gold bullion can be obtained at that price, under the existing Mint rate of the new silver cornage, it wilt never cease.

A deprecation of all property, to a considerable extent, has been effected by the new silver coinage; and if that coinage should hereafter force upon us, as I suspect it will, a coinage in gold at 41 38. per ounce, or thereabouts, this depreciation will be perpetuated.

A WARNING VOICE.

March 10th, 1818.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

No. XL.

LIST OF PUBLIC GENERAL ACTS, PASSED

57 GEO. III.

AGENT General, repealing office

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Aunties, regulating the payment of

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Corn, importation of, for a limited time

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oranges....

Azores and Madeiras, exportation of

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Board of Trade, enabling Vice-President of, to send and receive letten free.....

28

Bounty Money, authorizing exccu-
Europ. Mag. Vol. LXXIII. Mar. 1818.

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in the Collieries, or in the working of Coals, prohibiting the payment of, in goods.... ...129 Land Revenue of the Crown, Act for the improvement of, altered and amended.. Land Tax, exonerating small livings and charitable donations from ..100 Life Annuities, rendering more effectual Acts, empowering Commissioners of National Debt to grant 26 Loans, Annuities, Exchequer Bills, &c. raising, issuing, and funding, 24,000,000l. Exchequer Bills... 18,000,000%. Exchequer Bills.... 9,000,000l. Exchequer Bills.... 80 3,000,0001. Treasury Bills

Lotteries

Lunatic Poor, establishment of asylums for

Malt, continuing annual duties on.. Malta, extending the privileges of the trade of, to the port of Gibral

tar.

Manslaughters, for more effectually punishing, in places of his Majesty's dominions Mary-le-bone (St.) ratifying purchase of rectory

Milbank Row, Westminster, making road from

Militia, suspending, training, and regulating

52

Friendly Societies, extending certain provisions

39

Fuller's Earth, &c. carrying Coastwise

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Funds, for transferring certain, in Great Britain, to certain stocks of funds in Irelaud Gage (Lord Viscount), ratifying agreement of...

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Game, preventing persons going armed by night for destroying.. 90 Gibraltar, extending the privileges of the trade of Malta to... Grand Juries, regulating presentments, for roads Hackney Coach or Chariot, autho rizing the driving or keeping of, under the same licence

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Serjeant Majors, allowances

Serjeants, Corporals, &c.

reducing number of, while dis embodied

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102

104

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