mitted upon a poor oppreffed, though mot undeferving †, family; and have forborne to specify the names of thofe, who were inftruments of this evil, left I should be thought to have an inclimation to fcandalife particular, and perchance noble families. Upon the confideration of all which, I humbly fubmit myself to the Commons of England, now reprefented in Parliament; defiring, according to their great wisdom and juftice, that they will right me and my pofterity, according to their own beft liking; having, in my own perfon (though bred at court) never oppofed any of their juft rights and privileges, and, for the future, being refolved to range myself under the banner of the Commons of England; and, fo far forth as education and fatherly inftruction can prevail, promife the fame for two fons whom God hath fent me. ↑ Sir Walter Raleigh discovered Virginia at his own charge, which coft him forty-thousand pounds. He was the firft, of all the English, that discovered Guiana in the Weft-Indies. He zook the islands of Fayall from the Spaniard, and did moft fignal and eminent fervice at the making of Cadiz. He took from the Spaniard the greatest and richest carick, that ever cameinto England: Another ship likewise laden with nothing but gold, pearls, and cochineal. OCCASIONAL LETTERS. DE LETTER XVII. From a dying LIBERTINE to his Friend. Eath already feizes my extremities; but, as my heart ftill furvives, and checks me for the many follies you have been witness to in my former life, and the bad advice which I have fo often given you in regard to a future ftate, I think it my duty, by way of reftitution, to fend you my prefent thoughts, which can't be fuppofed to be any ways byaffed, when I am waiting the diffolution of my mortal frame.-For, while you are reading thefe lines, I fhall, in all probability, be either groaning, under the agonies of abfolute despair, or triumphing in fulness of joy. It is impoffible for me to exprefs the prefent difpofition of my foul, the vaft uncertainty I am ftruggling with; no words can paint the force and vivacity of my apprehenfions; every doubt wears the face of horror, and would prefently overwhelm me, but for fome faint beams of hope, which dart across the tremendous gloom. What tongue can utter the anguish of a foul fufpended between extremes of infinite joy or eternal mifery? I am throwing my last stake for eternity, and tremble and fhadder for the important event.-Good God! how have I employed myfelf! How have I con- Where all my fecret guilt had been reveal'd, - Monarch. It is not giving up my breath; it is not being for ever infenfible, that makes me fhrink:-It is the terrible bereafter, the fomething beyond the grave, at which I recoil. Thofe great realities, which, you know, I, in the hours of mirth and vanity, treated as phantoms, and as the idle dreams of fuperftitious brains, ftart forth and dare me now in their most terrible demonftrations. O Philo! my awakened conscience feels fomething of that eternal vengeance I have fo often ftupidly defied. - To what heights of madness is it poffible for human nature to reach What extravagance is it to jeft with death! to laugh at damnation! as we have done in the greatnefs of our folly. Every thing in nature feems to reproach this levity in human creatures. The whole creation, but man, is ferious; man, who has the higheft reafon to be fo, while he has affairs of infinite confequence depending on his fhort uncertain duration. A condemn. ed wretch may with as good a grace go dancing to his execution, as the greateft part of mankind go on with fuch a thoughtlefs gaiety to their graves. Oh, Philo! with what horror do I recal those hours of vanity we have wafted together! Return, ye loft neglected moments! How should I prize you above the caftern treasures! *Oh, could I be permitted to live; to dwell with hermits; to reft on the cold earth; to converfe in cottages; and once more ftand a candidate for an immortal crown, and have my probation for celeftial happinefs! What worth is there in the vain grandeurs of a court! In founding titles! in perifhable riches! What confolation! what relief can they afford me! I have had a fplendid paffage to the grave; I die in ftate, and languish under a gilded canopy; I am expiring on foft and downy pillows, and am refpectfully attended by my fervants and phyficians: My dependents figh, my fifters weep, my feather-bed beareth a load of years and grief; my endearing wife, pale and filent, conceals her inward anguish: My friend Euphormio, who was as my own foul, fuppreffes his fighs, and withdraws from me to hide his burting grief. But, alas! who can anfwer my fummons at the high tribunal? Who can bail me from the arrefts of death? Who will defcend into the dark prifon of the grave to relieve me there, or defend me from corruption? ing Here they all leave me, after hav paid a few idle ceremonies to the breathlefs carcass, that lump of clay, which perhaps may lie repofed in ftate, while my foul, my only fenfible part, may ftand trembling before my Judge. The love and gratitude of my friends may perchance honour my remains with a ftately monument, infcribed with, Here lies the great. But, could the pale corpfe fpeak, it would foon' reply, Falfe marble, where? While fome flattering panegyric is pronounced at my interment, I may perhaps be hearing my juft condemna tion at a fuperior tribunal, where an unerring verdict may fentence me to everlafting infamy. But I find com fort in the promifes of God, and hope for mercy through Chrift. Therefore repent, and farewel, till we meet in the world of fpirits, REUS. The ART of COINING, · With a neat Copper-plate, exhibiting the Manner of making the Impreflion, and of Milling the Edges of the current Coin of the Kingdom. TH HE place, in which money is coined, is called the Mint. In France, we are told, there are as many Mints as there are letters in the alphabet; and it is known by the letter, placed in the exergue of the French I z coin; coin, where the piece has been ftruck. In England, we had formerly many places favoured with the privilege of Having a Mint; and no longer fince than the reign of King William III, it was found convenient for quicker difpatch, and to prevent any interruption in trade, &c. at the calling in of the light and bafe money to be recoined, to erect Mints at London, York, Bristol, Exeter, Chefter, and Norwich, which diftinguished the coins ftruck at each of thofe places, with the initial letter of each under the head on eve y piece of money; as L for London, Y for York, B for Briflol, E for Exeter, C for Chefer, and N for Norwich. Befides thefe Mint marks, we have fome others in our English money, to perpetuate the memory of fome difcovery or fignal fervice done in fuch a reign to our country. Thus we find guineas coined in the 22d of King Charles II, and again under King James II, and William and Mary, with an Elephant under the bufto, to inform pofterity of our difcovery of the gold coaft in Africa, and to affert our exclufive right to that trade, as the Spa riards do to the mines of Peru and Mexico, and the Portuguese to Brafil and Angola. In the 13th of William III. were coined fhillings and fixpences, with the feathers betwixt the shields, to indicate them to be filver dug out of the mines of Sir Carbery Price and Sir Humphrey Mackworth, in Wales. And, in 1699, the rofe in the quarters of the fixpences fhewed, that they were coined of filver from the mines in the west of England. The filver money with rofe and feathers, interchangeably in the quarters, is called the Quakers-money, because coined of filver dug out of mines in Wales, at the expence of a fociety of that people : And where any of this coin is found with E under the head, it is known to be coined at Edinburgh, under King George I. In Queen Anne's reign, we had VIGO ftamped under the head of fome of our filver money coined out of the filver taken out of a Spanish galleon in that port, in memory of that fignal fervice; and now both our gold and filver carry LIMA in the fame pofition, being coined out of the immenfe treafure taken on that coaft from the Spaniards by Lord Anfon. The prefent current coins in England are guineas and half-guineas of gold Crowns, half-crowns, fhillings, and fixpences of filver; and half-pennies and farthings, of copper: All which are efteemed counterband goods, and not to be exported. And formerly our Sovereigns were intitled to the feigniorage and brassage, a certain rate or åffefliment to be paid into the Exchequer out of all monies coined in their Mints, as it is ftill practifed in otherstates: But, in the 18th of Charles II, the Parliament enacted, That all money thenceforward fhould be ftruck at the public expence, without any deduction for the King, or for expences in coining: So that weight is now returned for weight to all perfons who carry their gold or filver to the King's Mint in the Tower of LONDON, which is the only one in England. This Mint was made a corporation by charter from King Edward III, to confift of a Warden, or Keeper of the Exchange or Mint, whofe office is to receive the bullion brought in by merchants, &c. to pay them for it, and to oversee all the other officers: A Majter-worker, who receives the bullion from the Warden, causes it to be melted, delivers it to the moneyers, and receives it from them again by weight, when coined: A Comptroller, who fees that |