Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/74

64 without any previous reference or advice to the king's officers here, may soon be accounted for. Before this kingdom was entirely reduced, by the submission of Tyrone in the last year of queen Elizabeth's reign, there was a period of four hundred years, which was a various scene of war and peace between the English pale, and the Irish natives; and the government of that part of this island, which lay in the English hands, was, in many things, under the immediate administration of the king: silver and copper were often coined here among us; and once at last upon great necessity, a mixed or base metal was sent from England. The reign of king James I was employed in settling the kingdom after Tyrone's rebellion; and this nation flourished extremely till the time of the massacre, 1641. In that difficult juncture of affairs, the nobility and gentry coined their own plate here in Dublin.

By all that I can discover, the copper coin of Ireland, for three hundred years past, consisted of small pence and halfpence; which particular men had license to coin, and were current only within certain towns and districts, according to the personal credit of the owner, who uttered them, and was bound to receive them again, whereof I have seen many sorts; neither have I heard, of any patent granted for coining copper for Ireland, till the reign of king Charles the second, which was in the year 1680, to George Leg, lord Dartmouth; and renewed by king James the second, in the first year of his reign (1685) to John Knox. Both patents were passed in Ireland; and in both, the patentees were bound to receive their coin again, from