The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 4

T >> Thomas Babington Macaulay >> The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 4

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FN 572 L'Hermitage, March 19/29 1695.

FN 573 Birch's Life of Tillotson.

FN 574 Commons' Journals, March 12 13, 14 15, 16, 1694/5; Vernon
to Lexington, March 15.; L'Hermitage, March 15/25.

FN 575 On vit qu'il etoit impossible de le poursuivre en justice,
chacun toutefois demeurant convaincu que c'etoit un marche fait a
la main pour lui faire present de la somme de 10,000l et qu'il
avoit ete plus habile que les autres novices que n'avoient pas su
faire si finement leure affaires.-- L'Hermitage, March 29/April
8; Commons' Journals, March 12.; Vernon to Lexington, April 26.;
Burnet, ii. 145.

FN 576 In a poem called the Prophecy (1703), is the line

"when Seymour scorns saltpetre pence."

In another satire is the line

"Bribed Seymour bribes accuses."

FN 577 Commons' Journals from March 26. to April 8. 1695.

FN 578 L'Hermitage, April 10/20 1695.

FN 579 Exact Collection of Debates and Proceedings.

FN 580 L'Hermitage, April 30/May 10 1695; Portland to Lexington,
April 23/May 3

FN 581 L'Hermitage (April 30/May 10 1695) justly remarks, that
the way in which the money was sent back strengthened the case
against Leeds.

FN 582 There can, I think, be no doubt, that the member who is
called D in the Exact Collection was Wharton.

FN 583 As to the proceedings of this eventful day, April 27.
1695, see the Journals of the two Houses, and the Exact
Collection.

FN 584 Exact Collection; Lords' Journals, May 3. 1695; Commons'
Journals, May 2, 3.; L'Hermitage, May 3/13.; London Gazette, May
13.

FN 585 L'Hermitage, May 10/20. 1695; Vernon to Shrewsbury, June
22. 1697.

FN 586 London Gazette, May 6. 1695.

FN 587 Letter from Mrs. Burnet to the Duchess of Marlborough,
1704, quoted by Coxe; Shrewsbury to Russell, January 24. 1695;
Burnett, ii. 149.

FN 588 London Gazette April 8. 15. 29. 1695.

FN 589 Shrewsbury to Russell, January 24. 1695; Narcissus
Luttrell's Diary,

FN 590 De Thou, liii. xcvi.

FN 591 Life of James ii. 545., Orig. Mem. Of course James does
not use the word assassination. He talks of the seizing and
carrying away of the Prince of Orange.

FN 592 Every thing bad that was known or rumoured about Porter
came out on the State Trials of 1696.

FN 593 As to Goodman see the evidence on the trial of Peter Cook;
Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9 1696; L'Hermitage, April 10/20 1696;
and a pasquinade entitled the Duchess of Cleveland's Memorial.

FN 594 See the preamble to the Commission of 1695.

FN 595 The Commission will be found in the Minutes of the
Parliament.

FN 596 Act. Parl. Scot., May 21. 1695; London Gazette, May 30.

FN 597 Act. Parl. Scot. May 23. 1695.

FN 598 Ibid. June 14. 18. 20. 1695; London Gazette, June 27.

FN 599 Burnet, ii. 157.; Act. Parl., June 10 1695.

FN 600 Act. Parl., June 26. 1695; London Gazette, July 4.

FN 601 There is an excellent portrait of Villeroy in St. Simon's
Memoirs.

FN 602 Some curious traits of Trumball's character will be found
in Pepys's Tangier Diary.

FN 603 Postboy, June 13., July 9. 11., 1695; Intelligence
Domestic and Foreign, June 14.; Pacquet Boat from Holland and
Flanders, July 9.

FN 604 Vaudemont's Despatch and William's Answer are in the
Monthly Mercury for July 1695.

FN 605 See Saint Simon's Memoirs and his note upon Dangeau.

FN 606 London Gazette July 22. 1695; Monthly Mercury of August,
1695. Swift ten years later, wrote a lampoon on Cutts, so dull
and so nauseously scurrilous that Ward or Gildon would have been
ashamed of it, entitled the Description of a Salamander.

FN 607 London Gazette, July 29. 1695; Monthly Mercury for August
1695; Stepney to Lord Lexington, Aug. 16/26; Robert Fleming's
Character of King William, 1702. It was in the attack of July
17/27 that Captain Shandy received the memorable wound in his
groin.

FN 608 London Gazette, Aug. r. 5. 1695; Monthly Mercury of August
1695, containing the Letters of William and Dykvelt to the
States General.

FN 609 Monthly Mercury for August 1695; Stepney to Lord
Lexington, Aug. 16/26

FN 610 Monthly Mercury for August 1695; Letter from Paris, Aug
26/Sept 5 1695, among the Lexington Papers.

FN 611 L'Hermitage, Aug. 13/23 1695.

FN 612 London Gazette, Aug. 26. 1695; Monthly Mercury, Stepney to
Lexington, Aug. 20/30.

FN 613 Boyer's History of King William III, 1703; London Gazette,
Aug. 29. 1695; Stepney to Lexington, Aug. 20/30.; Blathwayt to
Lexington, Sept. 2.

FN 614 Postscript to the Monthly Mercury for August 1695; London
Gazette, Sept. 9.; Saint Simon; Dangeau.

FN 615 Boyer, History of King William III, 2703; Postscript to
the Monthly Mercury, Aug. 1695; London Gazette, Sept. 9. 12.;
Blathwayt to Lexington, Sept. 6.; Saint Simon; Dangeau.

FN 616 There is a noble, and I suppose, unique Collection of the
newspapers of William's reign in the British Museum. I have
turned over every page of that Collection. It is strange that
neither Luttrell nor Evelyn should have noticed the first
appearance of the new journals. The earliest mention of those
journals which I have found, is in a despatch of L'Hermitage,
dated July 12/22, 1695. I will transcribe his words:--"Depuis
quelque tems on imprime ici plusieurs feuilles volantes en forme
de gazette, qui sont remplies de toutes series de nouvelles.
Cette licence est venue de ce que le parlement n'a pas acheve le
bill ou projet d'acte qui avoit ete porte dans la Chambre des
Communes pour regler l'imprimerie et empecher que ces sortes de
choses n'arrivassent. Il n'y avoit ci-devant qu'un des commis des
Secretaires d'Etat qui eut le pouvoir de faire des gazettes: mais
aujourdhui il s'en fait plusieurs sons d'autres noms."
L'Hermitage mentions the paragraph reflecting on the Princess,
and the submission of the libeller.

FN 617 L'Hermitage, Oct. 15/25., Nov. 15/25. 1695.

FN 618 London Gazette, Oct. 24. 1695. See Evelyn's Account of
Newmarket in 1671, and Pepys, July 18. 1668. From Tallard's
despatches written after the Peace of Ryswick it appears that the
autumn meetings were not less numerous or splendid in the days of
William than in those of his uncles.

FN 619 I have taken this account of William's progress chiefly
from the London Gazettes, from the despatches of L'Hermitage,
from Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, and from the letters of Vernon,
Yard and Cartwright among the Lexington Papers.

FN 620 See the letter of Yard to Lexington, November 8. 1695, and
the note by the editor of the Lexington Papers.

FN 621 L'Hermitage, Nov. 15/25. 1695.

FN 622 L'Hermitage Oct 25/Nov 4 Oct 29/Nov 8 1695.

FN 623 Ibid. Nov. 5/15 1695.

FN 624 L'Hermitage, Nov. 15/25 1695; Sir James Forbes to Lady
Russell, Oct. 3. 1695; Lady Russell to Lord Edward Russell; The
Postman, Nov. 1695.

FN 625 There is a highly curious account of this contest in the
despatches of L'Hermitage.

FN 626 Postman, Dec. 15. 17. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 13.
15.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Burnet, i. 647.; Saint
Evremond's Verses to Hampden.

FN 627 L'Hermitage, Nov. 13/23. 1695.

FN 628 I have derived much valuable information on this subject
from a MS. in the British Museum, Lansdowne Collection, No. 801.
It is entitled Brief Memoires relating to the Silver and Gold
Coins of England, with an Account of the Corruption of the
Hammered Money, and of the Reform by the late Grand Coinage at
the Tower and the Country Mints, by Hopton Haynes, Assay Master
of the Mint.

FN 629 Stat. 5 Eliz. c. ii., and 18 Eliz. c. 1

FN 630 Pepys's Diary, November 23. 1663.

FN 631 The first writer who noticed the fact that, where good
money and bad money are thown into circulation together, the bad
money drives out the good money, was Aristophanes. He seems to
have thought that the preference which his fellow citizens gave
to light coins was to be attributed to a depraved taste such as
led them to entrust men like Cleon and Hyperbolus with the
conduct of great affairs. But, though his political economy will
not bear examination, his verses are
excellent:--

pollakis g' emin edoksen e polis peponthenai
tauton es te ton politon tous kalous te kagathous
es te tarkhaion nomisma Kai to kainon khrusion.
oute gar toutoisin ousin ou kekibdeleumenios
alla kallistois apanton, us dokei, nomismaton,
kai monois orthos kopeisi, kai kekodonismenois
en te tois Ellisim kai tois barbarioisi pantahkou
khrometh' ouden, alla toutois tois ponerois khalkiois,
khthes te kai proen kopeisi to kakistu kommati.
ton politon th' ous men ismen eugeneis kai sophronas
andras ontas, kai dikaious, kai kalous te kagathous,
kai traphentas en palaistrais, kai khorois kai mousiki
prouseloumen tois de khalkois, kai ksenois, kai purriais,
kai ponerois kak poneron eis apanta khrometha.

FN 632 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary is filled with accounts of
these executions. "Le metier de rogneur de monnoye," says
L'Hermitage, "est si lucratif et paroit si facile que, quelque
chose qu'on fasse pour les detruire, il s'en trouve toujours
d'autres pour prendre leur place. Oct 1/11. 1695."

FN 633 As to the sympathy of the public with the clippers, see
the very curious sermon which Fleetwood afterwards Bishop of Ely,
preached before the Lord Mayor in December 1694. Fleetwood says
that "a soft pernicious tenderness slackened the care of
magistrates, kept back the under officers, corrupted the juries,
and withheld the evidence." He mentions the difficulty of
convincing the criminals themselves that they had done wrong. See
also a Sermon preached at York Castle by George Halley, a
clergyman of the Cathedral, to some clippers who were to be
hanged the next day. He mentions the impenitent ends which
clippers generally made, and does his best to awaken the
consciences of his bearers. He dwells on one aggravation of their
crime which I should not have thought of. "If," says he, "the
same question were to be put in this age, as of old, 'Whose is
this image and superscription?' we could not answer the whole. We
may guess at the image; but we cannot tell whose it is by the
superscription; for that is all gone." The testimony of these two
divines is confirmed by that of Tom Brown, who tells a facetious
story, which I do not venture to quote, about a conversation
between the ordinary of Newgate and a clipper.

FN 634 Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins,
1695.

FN 635 L'Hermitage, Nov 29/Dec 9 1695.

FN 636 The Memoirs of this Lancashire Quaker were printed a few
years ago in a most respectable newspaper, the Manchester
Guardian.

FN 637 Lowndes's Essay.

FN 638 L'Hermitage, Dec 24/Jan 3 1695.

FN 639 It ought always to be remembered, to Adam Smith's honour,
that he was entirely converted by Bentham's Defence of Usury, and
acknowledged, with candour worthy of a true philosopher, that the
doctrine laid down in the Wealth of Nations was erroneous.

FN 640 Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins;
Locke's Further Considerations concerning raising the Value of
Money; Locke to Molyneux, Nov. 20. 1695; Molyneux to Locke, Dec.
24. 1695.

FN 641 Burnet, ii. 147.

FN 642 Commons' Journals, Nov. 22, 23. 26. 1695; L'Hermitage, Nov
26/Dec 6

FN 643 Commons' Journals, Nov. 26, 27, 28, 29. 1695; L'Hermitage,
Nov 26./Dec 6 Nov. 29/Dec 9 Dec 3/13

FN 644 Commons' Journals, Nov. 28, 29. 1695; L'Hermitage, Dec.
3/13

FN 645 L'Hermitage, Nov 22/Dec 2, Dec 6/16 1695; An Abstract of
the Consultations and Debates between the French King and his
Council concerning the new Coin that is intended to be made in
England, privately sent by a Friend of the Confederates from the
French Court to his Brother at Brussels, Dec. 12. 1695; A
Discourse of the General Notions of Money, Trade and Exchanges,
by Mr. Clement of Bristol; A Letter from an English Merchant at
Amsterdam to his Friend in London; A Fund for preserving and
supplying our Coin; An Essay for regulating the Coin, by A. V.; A
Proposal for supplying His Majesty with 1,200,000L, by mending
the Coin, and yet preserving the ancient Standard of the Kingdom.
These are a few of the tracts which were distributed among
members of Parliament at this conjuncture.

FN 646 Commons' Journals, Dec. 10. 1695; L'Hermitage, Dec. 3/13
6/16 10/20

FN 647 Commons' Journals, Dec. 13. 1695.

FN 648 Stat. 7 Gul. 3.c.1.; Lords' and Commons' Journals;
L'Hermitage, Dec 31/Jan 10 Jan 7/17 10/20 14/24 1696. L'Hermitage
describes in strong language the extreme inconvenience caused by
the dispute between the Houses:--"La longueur qu'il y a dans
cette affaire est d'autant plus desagreable qu'il n'y a point (le
sujet sur lequel le peuple en general puisse souffrir plus
d'incommodite, puisqu'il n'y a personne qui, a tous moments,
n'aye occasion de l'esprouver.

FN 649 That Locke was not a party to the attempt to make gold
cheaper by penal laws, I infer from a passage in which he notices
Lowndes's complaints about the high price of guineas. "The only
remedy," says Locke, "for that mischief, as well as a great many
others, is the putting an end to the passing of clipp'd money by
tale." Locke's Further Considerations. That the penalty proved,
as might have been expected, inefficacious, appears from several
passages in the despatches of L'Hermitage, and even from Haynes's
Brief Memoires, though Haynes was a devoted adherent of Montague.

FN 650 L'Hermitage, Jan 14/24 1696.

FN 651 Commons' Journals, Jan. 14. 17. 23. 1696; L'Hermitage,
Jan. 14/24; Gloria Cambriae, or Speech of a Bold Briton against a
Dutch Prince of Wales 1702; Life of the late Honourable Robert
Price, &c. 1734. Price was the bold Briton whose speech--never, I
believe,
spoken--was printed in 1702. He would have better deserved to be
called bold, if he had published his impertinence while William
was living. The Life of Price is a miserable performance, full of
blunders and anachronisms.

FN 652 L'Hermitage mentions the unfavourable change in the temper
of the Commons; and William alludes to it repeatedly in his
letters to Heinsius, Jan 21/31 1696, Jan 28/Feb 7.

FN 653 The gaiety of the Jacobites is said by Van Cleverskirke to
have been noticed during some time; Feb 25/March 6 1696.

FN 654 Harris's deposition, March 28. 1696.

FN 655 Hunt's deposition.

FN 656 Fisher's and Harris's depositions.

FN 657 Barclay's narrative, in the Life of James, ii. 548.; Paper
by Charnock among the MSS. in the Bodleian Library.

FN 658 Harris's deposition.

FN 659 Ibid. Bernardi's autobiography is not at all to be
trusted.

FN 660 See his trial.

FN 661 Fisher's deposition; Knightley's deposition; Cranburne's
trial; De la Rue's deposition.

FN 662 See the trials and depositions.

FN 663 L'Hermitage, March 3/13

FN 664 See Berwick's Memoirs.

FN 665 Van Cleverskirke, Feb 25/March 6 1696. I am confident that
no sensible and impartial person, after attentively reading
Berwick's narrative of these transactions and comparing it with
the narrative in the Life of James (ii. 544.) which is taken,
word for word, from the Original Memoirs, can doubt that James
was accessory to the design of assassination.

FN 666 L'Hermitage, March Feb 25/March 6

FN 667 My account of these events is taken chiefly from the
trials and depositions. See also Burnet, ii. 165, 166, 167, and
Blackmore's True and Impartial History, compiled under the
direction of Shrewsbury and Somers, and Boyer's History of King
William III., 1703.

FN 668 Portland to Lexington, March 3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke,
Feb 25/Mar 6 L'Hermitage, same date.

FN 669 Commons' Journals, Feb. 24 1695.

FN 670 England's Enemies Exposed, 1701.

FN 671 Commons' Journals, Feb. 24. 1695/6.

FN 672 Ibid. Feb. 25. 1695/6; Van Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9;
L'Hermitage, of the same date.

FN 673 According to L'Hermitage, Feb 27/Mar 8,there were two of
these fortunate hackney coachmen. A shrewd and vigilant hackney
coachman indeed was from the nature of his calling, very likely
to be successful in this sort of chase. The newspapers abound
with proofs of the general enthusiasm.

FN 674 Postman March 5. 1695/6

FN 675 Ibid. Feb. 29., March 2., March 12., March 14. 1695/6.

FN 676 Postman, March 12. 1696; Vernon to Lexington, March 13;
Van Cleverskirke, March 13/23 The proceedings are fully reported
in the Collection of State Trials.

FN 677 Burnet, ii. 171.; The Present Disposition of England
considered; The answer entitled England's Enemies Exposed, 1701;
L'Hermitage, March 17/27. 1696. L'Hermitage says, "Charnock a
fait des grandes instances pour avoir sa grace, et a offert de
tout declarer: mais elle lui a este refusee."

FN 678 L'Hermitage, March 17/27

FN 679 This most curious paper is among the Nairne MSS. in the
Bodleian Library. A short, and not perfectly ingenuous abstract
of it will be found in the Life of James, ii. 555. Why
Macpherson, who has printed many less interesting documents did
not choose to print this document, it is easy to guess. I will
transcribe two or three important sentences. "It may reasonably
be presumed that what, in one juncture His Majesty had rejected
he might in another accept, when his own and the public good
necessarily required it. For I could not understand it in such a
manner as if he had given a general prohibition that at no time
the Prince of Orange should be touched. . . Nobody that believes
His Majesty to be lawful King of England can doubt but that in
virtue of his commission to levy war against the Prince of Orange
and his adherents, the setting upon his person is justifiable, as
well by the laws of the land duly interpreted and explained as by
the law of God."

FN 680 The trials of Friend and Parkyns will be found,
excellently reported, among the State Trials.

FN 681 L'Hermitage, April 3/13 1696.

FN 682 Commons' Journals, April 1, 2. 1696; L'Hermitage, April
3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke, of the same date.

FN 683 L'Hermitage, April 7/17. 1696. The Declaration of the
Bishops, Collier's Defence, and Further Defence, and a long legal
argument for Cook and Snatt will be found in the Collection of
State Trials.

FN 684 See the Manhunter, 1690.

FN 685 State Trials.

FN 686 The best, indeed the only good, account of these debates
is given by L'Hermitage, Feb 28/March 9 1696. He says, very
truly; "La difference n'est qu'une dispute de mots, le droit
qu'on a a une chose selon les loix estant aussy bon qu'il puisse
estre."

FN 687 See the London Gazettes during several weeks; L'Hermitage,
March 24/April 3 April 14/24. 1696; Postman, April 9 25 30

FN 688 Journals of the Commons and Lords; L'Hermitage, April 7/17
10/20 1696.

FN 689 See the Freeholder's Plea against Stockjobbing Elections
of Parliament Men, and the Considerations upon Corrupt Elections
of Members to serve in Parliament. Both these pamphlets were
published in 1701.

FN 690 The history of this bill will be found in the Journals of
the Commons, and in a very interesting despatch of L'Hermitage,
April 14/24 1696.

FN 691 The Act is 7 & 8 Will. 3. c. 31. Its history maybe traced
in the Journals.

FN 692 London Gazette, May 4. 1696

FN 693 Ibid. March 12. 16. 1696; Monthly Mercury for March, 1696.

FN 694 The Act provided that the clipped money must be brought in
before the fourth of May. As the third was a Sunday, the second
was practically the last day.

FN 695 L'Hermitage, May 5/15 1696; London Newsletter, May 4., May
6. In the Newsletter the fourth of May is mentioned as "the day
so much taken notice of for the universal concern people had in
it."

FN 696 London Newsletter, May 21. 1696; Old Postmaster, June 25.;
L'Hermitage, May 19/29.

FN 697 Haynes's Brief Memoirs, Lansdowne MSS. 801.

FN 698 See the petition from Birmingham in the Commons' Journals,
Nov. 12. 1696; and the petition from Leicester, Nov. 21

FN 699 "Money exceeding scarce, so that none was paid or
received; but all was on trust."--Evelyn, May 13. And again, on
June 11.: "Want of current money to carry on the smallest
concerns, even for daily provisions in the markets."

FN 700 L'Hermitage, May 22/June 1; See a Letter of Dryden to
Tonson, which Malone, with great probability, supposes to have
been written at this time.

FN 701 L'Hermitage to the States General May 8/18.; Paris
Gazette, June 2/12.; Trial and Condemnation of the Land Bank at
Exeter Change for murdering the Bank of England at Grocers' Hall,
1696. The Will and the Epitaph will be found in the Trial.

FN 702 L'Hermitage, June 12/22. 1696.

FN 703 On this subject see the Short History of the Last
Parliament, 1699; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; the newspapers of
1696 passim, and the letters of L'Hermitage passim. See also the
petition of the Clothiers of Gloucester in the Commons' Journal,
Nov. 27. 1696. Oldmixon, who had been himself a sufferer, writes
on this subject with even more than his usual acrimony.

FN 704 See L'Hermitage, June 12/22, June 23/July, 3 June 30/July
10, Aug 1/11 Aug 28/Sept 7 1696. The Postman of August 15.
mentions the great benefit derived from the Exchequer Bills. The
Pegasus of Aug. 24. says: "The Exchequer Bills do more and more
obtain with the public; and 'tis no wonder." The Pegasus of Aug.
28. says: "They pass as money from hand to hand; 'tis observed
that such as cry them down are ill affected to the government."
"They are found by experience," says the Postman of the seventh
of May following, "to be of extraordinary use to the merchants
and traders of the City of London, and all other parts of the
kingdom." I will give one specimen of the unmetrical and almost
unintelligible doggrel which the Jacobite poets published on this
subject:--

"Pray, Sir, did you hear of the late proclamation,
Of sending paper for payment quite thro' the nation?
Yes, Sir, I have: they're your Montague's notes,
Tinctured and coloured by your Parliament votes.
But 'tis plain on the people to be but a toast,
They come by the carrier and go by the post."

FN 705 Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1696.

FN 706 L'Hermitage, June 2/12. 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov. 25.;
Post-man, May 5., June 4., July 2.

FN 707 L'Hermitage, July.3/13 10/20 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov.
25.; Paris Gazette, June 30., Aug. 25.; Old Postmaster, July 9.

FN 708 William to Heinsius, July 30. 1696; William to Shrewsbury,
July 23. 30. 31.

FN 709 Shrewsbury to William, July 28. 31., Aug. 4. 1696;
L'Hermitage, Aug. 1/11

FN 710 Shrewsbury to William, Aug 7. 1696; L'Hermitage, Aug
14/24.; London Gazette, Aug. 13.

FN 711 L'Hermitage, Aug.18/28. 1696. Among the records of the
Bank is a resolution of the Directors prescribing the very words
which Sir John Houblon was to use. William's sense of the service
done by the Bank on this occasion is expressed in his letter to
Shrewsbury, of Aug. 24/Sept 3. One of the Directors, in a letter
concerning the Bank, printed in 1697, says: "The Directors could
not have answered it to their members, had it been for any less
occasion than the preservation of the kingdom."

FN 712 Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801. Montague's
friendly letter to Newton, announcing the appointment, has been
repeatedly printed. It bears date March 19. 1695/6.

FN 713 I have very great pleasure in quoting the words of Haynes,
an able, experienced and practical man, who had been in the habit
of transacting business with Newton. They have never I believe,
been printed. "Mr. Isaac Newton, public Professor of the
Mathematicks in Cambridge, the greatest philosopher, and one of
the best men of this age, was, by a great and wise statesman,
recommended to the favour of the late King for Warden of the
King's Mint and Exchanges, for which he was peculiarly qualified,
because of his extraordinary skill in numbers, and his great
integrity, by the first of which he could judge correctly of the
Mint accounts and transactions as soon as he entered upon his
office; and by the latter--I mean his integrity--he set a
standard to the conduct and behaviour of every officer and clerk
in the Mint. Well had it been for the publick, had he acted a few
years sooner in that situation." It is interesting to compare
this testimony, borne by a man who thoroughly understood the
business of the Mint, with the childish talk of Pope. "Sir Isaac
Newton," said Pope, "though so deep in algebra and fluxions,
could not readily make up a common account; and, whilst he was
Master of the Mint, used to get somebody to make up the accounts
for him." Some of the statesmen with whom Pope lived might have
told him that it is not always from ignorance of arithmetic that
persons at the head of great departments leave to clerks the
business of casting up pounds, shillings and pence.

FN 714 "I do not love, he wrote to Flamsteed, "to be printed on
every occasion, much less to be dunned and teased by foreigners
about mathematical things, or to be thought by our own people to
be trifling away my time about them, when I am about the King's
business."

FN 715 Hopton Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801.; the
Old Postmaster, July 4. 1696; the Postman May 30., July 4 ,
September 12. 19., October 8,; L'Hermitage's despatches of this
summer and autumn, passim.

FN 716 Paris Gazette, Aug. 11. 1696.

FN 717 On the 7th of August L'Hermitage remarked for the first
time that money seemed to be more abundant.

FN 718 Compare Edmund Bohn's Letter to Carey of the 31st of July
1696 with the Paris Gazette of the same date. Bohn's description
of the state of Norfolk is coloured, no doubt, by his
constitutionally gloomy temper, and by the feeling with which he,
not unnaturally, regarded the House of Commons. His statistics
are not to be trusted; and his predictions were signally
falsified. But he may be believed as to plain facts which
happened in his immediate neighbourhood.