of Turkey) because the Prince, who is invested with the two first powers, leaves the third to his subjects.
“In Turkey, where these three powers are united in the Sultan’s person the subjects groan under the weight of a most frightful oppression.
“In the republics of Italy, where the three powers are united, there is less liberty than in our monarchies (in which the French is included). Hence their government is obliged to have recourse to as violent methods for its support, as even that of the Turks. Witness the State Inquisitors, and the Lion’s Mouth, into which every (rascally) informer, may at all hours throw his written accusations.
“What a situation must the poor subject be in, under those Republics! The same body of magistrates are possessed, as executors of the laws, of the whole power they have given themselves, as legislators. They may plunder and plague the state by their general (ignorant, vague, random and arbitrary) determinations; and as they have likewise the judiciary power in their hands, every private citizen may be ruined by their particular decisions. The whole power is here united in one body; and tho’ there is no external pomp that indicates an arbitrary sway, yet people (unless they are more stupid than stocks and stones) feel the effects of it every moment.
“Hence it is that many princes in Europe, whose (sole) aim has been levelled at arbitrary power, have constantly set out, with uniting in their own persons, all the (material) branches of magistracy, and all the great offices of state.” Spirit of Laws, V. I. B. X. C. vi.
O Secondat! thou wast surely inspired, or you could never have so exactly described the state of provinces, perhaps unpeopled, and of people unborn, when you first felt their miseries. Had France have had many Montesquieus, Canada might never have been conquered: Should Great Britain play it away, when another Pitt appears, she may conquer it again.
JAMES OTIS, Junr.
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Messieurs EDES and GILL,
WHEN a rich (great and powerful) Man speaketh, every Man holdeth his Tongue. And look, what he saith, they extol it to the Clouds; but if the poor Man speak, they say, what Fellow is this? and if he stumble, they will help to overthrow him. —Wisdom of the Son of Syrach.
Great Men and Judges, and Potentates, shall be honoured; yet there is none of them greater than he that feareth the Lord. —Id.
What Agreement is there between the Hyena and a Dog? and what Peace between the Rich and the Poor. —Id.
SINCE I published my first thoughts in your paper; I have often very carefully revolved them in my own mind, and have also closely attended to all that has been published on the other side, and the result is, that, instead of being convinc’d of any material error, I am much confirmed in my first opinion, viz. That the rates of gold stand very well as they are, and that ’tis absolutely necessary it should be made expressly a tender at those rates.
I find the principal difficulty in the minds of my honest opposers (for as to those who are swayed by interest or party, it is in vain to reason with them) rises from their not carefully distinguishing between money and bullion.
Money is the coin of any certain weight and fineness, stamp & name fixed & established by the law of a country, be the metal what it may either silver, gold, copper, lead, or iron. The silver and gold are undoubtedly the best, when they can be come at, and silver, as Mr. Locke observes, is the properest computative Money, or money of accompt which no body ever contradicted as I know of. Bullion, strictly speaking, is silver and gold unwrought, tho’ the term is now applied to all silver and gold, that is not the coin or money of the state. Hence, in England, all foreign coins that are not made money of England, by the King’s proclamation are considered as bullion, and so is the English coin in foreign states. I believe there has been no proclamation since the arbitrary reigns establishing any foreign coin as money of Great Britain, so that silver and gold of the King’s mint are the only money of Great Britain, and it is undoubtedly best it should be so; hence Johannes and Dollars are in England commodities, and upon the same footing with gold and silver in bars or ingots. The English having followed most other nations in what is by very judicious writers deemed false policy. The acts of Parliament prohibit the exportation of the King’s coin
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under the pains of death. Strange that the Prince’s money should not be allowed a free currency thro’ his own dominions; but this being the wisdom of the Parliament, we must submit. Hence it is necessary in the colonies to have recourse to foreign coin for a medium, it being one of the Jura Regalia7 to set up a mint, it would be a forfeiture of our charter to establish one here, and high treason in the operators, if the rigor of the law was insisted upon; tho’ it seems it was winked at in the days of Yore for a little while, but was doubtless made a pretence for vacating our old charter, tho’ it was but a pretence, if, what his Honor intimates be fact, viz. that the government in the Interregnum made an ally of us: this certainly furnished a good excuse, for this province then could not be expected to determine the difference between the power de jure & de facto.8
Nobody will pretend that the province has a right to be considered as an ally; nor does Great Britain consider this, or any other of her colonies, as in that absolute dependent state as conquered countries.
These Northern colonies subsisted for near a century, not only without the smiles, but in spite of the frowns of the great men in power, in the arbitrary reigns. But, since the glorious revolution, thank God, the scene has been changed, not only the rights of Great Britain, but our rights have been settled, and strictly adhered to by every Prince since that memorable event. We are intitled, by birth-right & inheritance, to all the essential privileges of the best Briton, and we never had nor shall have, while the present British constitution remains, any oppressors among us; but those who are made so here, whether natives or foreigners.
So long as people will submit to arbitrary measures, so long will they find masters, and whenever Tib kicks, master must cease whipping and spurring, or he will run a risque of his neck.
But, to return from what may be called a digression, let us examine the cause of the price of bullion being higher than sterling money. The first is this, if I have occasion to send fifty ounces of silver to Holland, I should do as most men would, give a penny or two pence an ounce more for bullion, rather than run the risque of a halter in melting down the King’s coin.
The Jews and other sagacious jobbers, have rendered the trading in bullion so advantageous, that it is become not only a considerable branch of business, but no contemptible science in change alley. All this tends to raise bullion above the price of coin: Add to this, the frequent demands for the East Indies, where great quantities of silver are carried, never to return.
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The demand for silver is further increased by the plenty of gold in the East, which yields a fine profit in return for silver, which is scarce there; with all these and some other causes gold is rendered plentier in Europe, than it was formerly. With all this silver, bullion is about 5s an ounce more than it was in William’s time. The proportion between English crowns and English guineas, or Sterling gold and silver, is as 15 1/5 to one; i.e. 15 & 1/5 English crowns or ounce of silver, is equal to 1 ounce of gold; and so is 15 1/5 of an ounce of silver money here, to an ounce of gold, by our present province laws. Now tho’ it has been said, that it is not of a farthing’s consequence whether you call an ounce of silver 5s or 6s 8d this must be understood in this restricted sense, viz. provided silver is your only medium or standard. But if gold as it ought and is here, and in England, and every where else but in the East-Indies, is money, it is of consequence to keep as exact a proportion between them as possible; a perfect proportion is well known to be impossible.
To make this matter clearer, if I owe £105 sterl. in England, and remit an hundred Guineas, it fully