Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/83

Rh I am only in pain how the commissioners of the revenue will proceed in this juncture; because, I am told, they are obliged by an act of parliament to take nothing but gold and silver in payment for his majesty's customs: and I think they cannot justly offer this coinage of Mr. Wood to others, unless they will be content to receive it themselves.

The sum of the whole is this: the committee advises the king to send immediate orders to all his officers here, that Wood's coin be suffered and permitted without any let, suit, trouble, etc. to pass, and be received as current money by such as shall be willing to receive the same. It is probable, that the first willing receivers may be those, who must receive it whether they will or not, at least under the penalty of losing an office. But the landed undepending men, the merchants, the shopkeepers, and bulk of the people, I hope, and am almost confident, will never receive it. What must the consequence be? The owners will sell it for as much as they can get. Wood's halfpence will come to be offered for six a penny (yet then he will be a sufficient gainer) and the necessary receivers will be losers of two thirds in their salaries or pay.

This puts me in mind of a passage I was told many years ago in England. At a quarter-session in Leicester, the justices had wisely decreed to take off a halfpenny in a quart from the price of ale. One of them, who came in after the thing was determined, being informed of what had passed, said thus: Gentlemen, you have made an order, that ale should be sold in our County for three halfpence a quart;