result of this meeting
was such, that the Lord Lieutenant could not reap the least advantage or
assistance from it, every one being so guarded with caution, against
giving any advice or opinion in this matter of state, apprehending great
danger to themselves from meddling in it."

The Lords of the Committee think it very strange, that there should be
such great difficulty in prevailing with persons, who had already given
their evidence before the Parliament of Ireland, to come over and give
the same evidence here, and especially, that the chief difficulty should
arise, from a general apprehension of a miscarriage, in an enquiry
before your Majesty, or in a proceeding by due course of law, in a case,
where both Houses of Parliament had declared themselves so fully
convinced, and satisfied upon evidence, and examinations taken in the
most solemn manner.

At the same time that your Majesty sent your orders to the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, to send over such evidences as were thought
material to support the charge against the patent, that your Majesty
might, without any further loss of time than was absolutely necessary,
be as fully informed as was possible, and that the abuses and frauds
alleged to be committed by the patentee, in executing the powers granted
to him, might be fully and strictly enquired into, and examined, your
Majesty was pleased to order that an assay should be made of the
fineness, value, and weight of this copper money, and the goodness
thereof, compared with the former coinages of copper money for Ireland,
and the copper money coined in your Majesty's Mint in England; and it
was accordingly referred to Sir Isaac Newton, Edward Southwell, and
Thomas Scroope, Esqs. to make the said assay and trial.

By the reports made of this assay, which are hereunto annexed, it
appears,[2] "That the pix of the copper moneys coined at Bristol by Mr.
Wood for Ireland, containing the trial pieces, which was sealed and
locked up at the time of coining, was opened at your Majesty's mint at
the Tower; that the comptroller's account of the quantities of halfpence
and farthings coined, agreed with Mr. Wood's account, amounting to 59
tons, 3 hundred, 1 quarter, 11 pounds, and 4 ounces; That by the
specimens of this coinage, which had from time to time been taken from
the several parcels coined, and sealed up in papers, and put into the
pix, 60 halfpence weighed 14 ounces troy, and 18 penny-weight, which is
about a quarte