and Greece. And, as if Providence had intended to reveal in the clearest manner the influence of this mighty agent on human affairs, the resurrection of mankind from the ruin which those causes had produced, was owing to a directly opposite set of agencies being put into operation. Columbus led the way in the career of renovation; when he spread his sails across the Atlantic he bore mankind and its fortunes in his barque. The annual supply of the precious metals for the use of the globe was tripled; before a century had expired the prices of every species of produce were quadrupled. The weight of debt and taxes insensibly wore off under the influence of that prodigious increase. In the renovation of industry the relations of society were changed, the weight of feudalism cast off, the rights of man established. Among the many concurring causes which conspired to bring about this mighty consummation, the most important, though hitherto least observed, was the discovery of Mexico and Peru. If the circulating medium of the globe had remained stationary or declining, as it was from 1815 to 1849, from the effects of the South American revolution and from English legislation, the inevitable result must have been that it would have become altogether inadequate to the wants of man; and not only would industry have been everywhere cramped, but the price of produce would have universally and constantly fallen. Money would have every day become more valuable, all other articles measured in money less so; debt and taxes would have been constantly increasing in weight and oppression. The fate which crushed Rome in ancient, and has all but crushed Great Britain in modern times, would have been that of the whole family of mankind. All these evils have been entirely obviated, and the opposite set of blessings introduced, by the opening of the great treasures of nature in California and Australia." The above weighty passage, which is deserving of the widest attention, expresses only too clearly what has occurred, and what might occur again, owing to man's neglect to study the workings of one of the mightiest inventions to which he has put his hand. The supplies of metallic money now being unearthed in South Africa and West Australia are for the moment in a small degree allaying the rapidity of the fall in prices that is keeping England back; but unless the irrational legislation which not only closes the door to a metal that can everywhere answer all the purposes of money, but which further entirely omits to consider either the influence or the functions of the Great Power, be speedily repealed, the outlook for British industry is far from satisfactory. APPENDIX A. 33 VICT. CHAP. 10. An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to A.D. 1870. the Coinage and Her Majesty's Mint. [4th April, 1870.] [NOTE. This Act is printed with the substitutions in the First Schedule required by the Coinage Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 72), as authorised by Section 2 of that Act. The standard weight of the double florin is not given, but see Section 3 of this Act.] WHER HEREAS it is expedient to consolidate and amend the law relating to the coinage and Her Majesty's Mint: Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as "The Coinage Act, Short title. 1870." 2. In this Act The term "Treasury" means the Lord High Treasurer for the time being, or the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury for the time being, or any two of them; Definitions of terms. Standard of coins. Legal tender. The term "the Mint" means, except as expressly provided, Her Majesty's Royal Mint in England; The term "British possession" means any colony, plantation, island, territory, or settlement within Her Majesty's dominions and not within the United Kingdom; and The term "person" includes a body corporate. 3. All coins made at the Mint of the denominations mentioned in the first schedule to this Act shall be of the weight and fineness specified in that schedule, and the standard trial plates shall be made accordingly. If any coin of gold, silver, or bronze, but of any other denomination than that of the coins mentioned in the first schedule to this Act, is hereafter coined at the Mint, such coin shall be of a weight and fineness bearing the same proportion to the weight and fineness specified in that schedule as the denomination of such coin bears to the denominations mentioned in that schedule. Provided that in the making of coins a remedy (or variation from the standard weight and fineness specified in the said first schedule) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding the amount specified in that schedule. 4. A tender of payment of money, if made in coins which have been issued by the Mint in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and have not been called in by any proclamation made in pursuance of this Act, and have not become diminished in weight, by wear or otherwise, so as to be of less weight than the current weight, that is to say, than the weight (if any) specified as the least current weight in the first schedule to this Act, |