Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/61

Rh by the high court of parliament here, yet these objections stand good, notwithstanding the answers made by Mr. Wood and his counsel.

The report says, that upon an essay made of the fineness, weight, and value of this copper, it exceeded in every article. This is possible enough in the pieces upon which the essay was made; but Wood must have failed very much in point of dexterity, if he had not taken care to provide a sufficient quantity of such halfpence, as would bear the trial; which he was able to do, although they were taken out of several parcels; since it is now plain, that the bias of favour has been wholly on his side.

But what need is there of disputing, when we have a positive demonstration of Wood's fraudulent practices in this point? I have seen a large quantity of these halfpence weighed by a very skilful person, which were of four different kinds, three of them considerably under weight. I have now before me an exact computation of the difference of weight between these four sorts; by which it appears, that the fourth sort, or the lightest, differs from the first to a degree, that in the coinage of three hundred and sixty tons of copper, the patentee will be a gainer, only by that difference, of twenty-four thousand four hundred and ninety-four pounds; and in the whole, the publick will be a loser of eighty-two thousand one hundred and sixty-eight pounds sixteen shillings, even supposing the metal in point of goodness to answer Wood's contract, and the essay that has been made, which it infallibly does not. For, this point has likewise been inquired into by very experienced Rh