Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/63

Rh this unhappy kingdom lies at present. This one circumstance, in the coinage of three hundred and sixty tons of copper, makes a difference of twenty-seven thousand seven hundred and twenty pounds, between English and Irish halfpence, even allowing those of Wood to be all of the heaviest sort.

It is likewise to be considered, that for every halfpenny in a pound weight, exceeding the number directed by the patent, Wood will be a gainer in the coinage of three hundred and sixty tons of copper, sixteen hundred and eighty pounds profit more than the patent allows him; out of which he may afford to make his comptrollers easy upon that article.

As to what is alleged, that these halfpence far exceed the like coinage for Ireland in the reigns of his majesty's predecessors; there cannot well be a more exceptionable way of arguing, although the fact were true; which, however, is altogether mistaken; not by any fault in the committee, but by the fraud and imposition of Wood, who certainly produced the worst patterns he could find; such as were coined in small numbers by permissions to private men, as butchers halfpence, black-dogs, and others the like; or perhaps the small St. Patrick's coin, which passes now for a farthing, or at best some of the smallest raps of the latest kind. For I have now by me halfpence coined in the year 1680 by virtue of the patent granted to my lord Dartmouth, which was renewed to Knox, and they are heavier by a ninth part than those of Wood, and of much better metal; and the great St. Patrick's halfpence are yet larger than either. Rh