h I know how to be silent; I have not yet learned to pay active
obedience against my conscience, and the public safety.

I desire to put a case, which I think the Drapier, in some of his books,
hath put before me; although not so fully as it requires.

You know the copper halfpence in England are coined by the public; and
every piece worth pretty tolerably near the value of the copper. Now
suppose, that, instead of the public coinage, a patent had been granted
to some private, obscure person, for coining a proportionable quantity
of copper in that kingdom, to what Mr. Wood is preparing in this; and
all of it at least five times below the intrinsic value: The current
money of England is reckoned to be twenty millions; and ours under five
hundred thousand pounds: By this computation, as Mr. Wood hath power to
give us 108,000 pound; so the patentee in England, by the same
proportion, might circulate four millions three hundred and twenty
thousand pounds; besides as much more by stealth and counterfeits: I
desire to know from you, whether the Parliament might not have addressed
upon such an occasion; what success they probably would have had; and
how many Drapiers would have risen to pester the world with pamphlets:
Yet that kingdom would not be so great a sufferer as ours in the like
case; because their cash would not be conveyed into foreign countries,
but lie hid in the chests of cautious, thrifty men, until better times.
Then I desire, for the satisfaction of the public, that you will please
to inform me why this country is treated in so very different a manner,
in a point of such high importance; whether it be on account of
Poining's act; of subordination; dependence; or any other term of art;
which I shall not contest, but am too dull to understand.

I am very sensible, that the good or ill success of Mr. Wood, will
affect you less than any person of consequence in the kingdom; because I
hear you are so prudent as to make all your purchases in England; and
truly so would I, if I had money, although I were to pay a hundred
years' purchase; because I should be glad to possess a freehold that
could not be taken from me by any law to which I did not give my own
consent; and where I should never be in danger of receiving my rents in
mixed copper, at the loss of sixteen shillings in the pound. You can
live in ease and plenty at Pepper-harrow, in Surrey; and therefore I
thought it extremely generous and public-spirited in y