London . thefirst English sovereign who corrupted the sterling quality of his coin. His pre-decessors had often tried the effect of making a small piece of silver or gold passfor the value of larger ones ; but in some cases this may have arisen from erro-neous notions as to the laws which govern the value of mone\, and, at the worst,it was a sort of frank dishonesty : it was reserved for bluff King Hal to tryto cheat the nation ; to keep the coin of promise to the eye, but break it to thehope ; to place, in a word, the British Government on the level of the poorwretches who were being continua
London . thefirst English sovereign who corrupted the sterling quality of his coin. His pre-decessors had often tried the effect of making a small piece of silver or gold passfor the value of larger ones ; but in some cases this may have arisen from erro-neous notions as to the laws which govern the value of mone\, and, at the worst,it was a sort of frank dishonesty : it was reserved for bluff King Hal to tryto cheat the nation ; to keep the coin of promise to the eye, but break it to thehope ; to place, in a word, the British Government on the level of the poorwretches who were being continually strung up for the same crime, withouthaving the same excuse for its commission. Among the coins struck byHenry VHI. may be mentioned the George noble, so called from the repre-sentation of St. George and the Dragon stamped on the reverse. A specimen ofa silver ci-own-])iece was coined by Henry, but that coin was first issued forcurrency by his son Edward, with the half-crown, sixpence, and [Crown of Edward VI.) 44 LONDON. During this reign the corruption of the coin was carried even still had reduced the proportions of his silver from eleven ounces two penny-weights of the pure metal and eighteen pennyweights of alloy, to four ounces ofsilver and eight of alloy. Edwards government now left only three ounces ofsilver in the pound of mixed metal. Old Latimer, in one of his sermons (1548),complains bitterly of the interference of the ecclesiastics of liis day in the affairsof government: Some, he says, are ambassadors, some of the privy council,some to furnish the court, some are lords of the Parliament, some are presidents,sjiHi soma comptrollers of Mints. Well, well, is this their duty? Is (his theiroffice? Is this their calling? Should we have ministers of the church to becomptrollers of the Mint ? . . I would fain know who comptroUeth the devil athome at his parish while he comptroUeth the Mint? Tlie honest bishop wasalso very probably thinking a
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