y from his mind, till, in the twelfth year of his
humiliation, his unhappy life was terminated by an unhappy death. [626]

The result of the general election proved that William had chosen a
fortunate moment for dissolving. The number of new members was about a
hundred and sixty; and most of these were known to be thoroughly well
affected to the government. [627]

It was of the highest importance that the House of Commons should, at
that moment, be disposed to cooperate cordially with the King. For it
was absolutely necessary to apply a remedy to an internal evil which had
by slow degrees grown to a fearful magnitude. The silver coin, which was
then the standard coin of the realm, was in a state at which the boldest
and most enlightened statesmen stood aghast. [628]

Till the reign of Charles the Second our coin had been struck by a
process as old as the thirteenth century. Edward the First had invited
hither skilful artists from Florence, which, in his time, was to London
what London, in the time of William the Third, was to Moscow. During
many generations, the instruments which were then introduced into our
mint continued to be employed with little alteration. The metal was
divided with shears, and afterwards shaped and stamped by the hammer.
In these operations much was left to the hand and eye of the workman. It
necessarily happened that some pieces contained a little more and some
a little less than the just quantity of silver; few pieces were exactly
round; and the rims were not marked. It was therefore in the course of
years discovered that to clip the coin was one of the easiest and most
profitable kinds of fraud. In the reign of Elizabeth it had been thought
necessary to enact that the clipper should be, as the coiner had long
been, liable to the penalties of high treason. [629] The practice of
paring down money, however, was far too lucrative to be so checked; and,
about the time of the Restoration, people began to observe that a large
proportion of the crowns, halfcrowns and shillings which were passing
from hand to hand had undergone some slight mutilation.

That was a time fruitful of experiments and inventions in all the
departments of science. A great improvement in the mode of shaping
and striking the coin was suggested. A mill, which to a great extent
superseded the human hand, was set up in the Tower of London. This
mill was worked by horses, and would doubtless be considered by modern
engineers as