Jan. 6. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



LONDON. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1855. 



OUB EI-EVENTH VOLUME. 



On the commencement of our Eleventh Volume our 

 thanks are particularly due to our kind Friends, Contri- 

 butors, and Headers. Their continued and increasing 

 support excites our warmest gratitude. May 1855 be a 

 happy and prosperous New Year to them — one and all! 



The Volumes of "Notes and Queries" published 

 during the past year have contributed in many ways, 

 and in no unimportant manner, to the illustration of our 

 Language, Literature, and History. No effort shall be 

 wanting to make the volume now commenced equally 

 interesting to the Reader of the present day, and not 

 less likely to be profitable to those who may hereafter 

 refer to it. 



Need We promise more ? And does not the Number 

 to which We now invite the Reader's attention, justify 

 our saying thus much ? 



UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF JOHN LOCKE. 



The three letters I now send you seem to de- 

 serve attention on several grounds. All of them 

 are, I believe, unpublished, and two are letters of 

 our great metaphysician John Locke. They all 

 illustrate, although slightly, an important subject 

 not yet properly treated in our literature, the his- 

 tory of the origin and progress of true principles 

 in reference to commerce ; and, finally, those of 

 Locke tend to strengthen and render clear our 

 notions of the real character of that great and 

 good man. 



Of Locke's correspondent Gary, it will be suffi- 

 cient to say, that he was a well-known merchant 

 of Bristol ; and published, besides other works, a 

 valuable Essay on the State of Trade in England 

 (1695, 8vo. Bristol). At that time the important 

 question of a new coinage was under consider- 

 ation, and the propriety of preserving the old 

 standard was in contest between Locke and Mr. 

 Lowndes. On the publication of Locke's reply 

 to Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the 

 Silver Coin, Gary sent Locke a copy of his Essay 

 on Trade, with the following letter, in which be 

 pointed out some mistakes in Locke's answer to 

 Lowndes : 



Bristol!, Janu. 11«>'95. 

 Worthy Sir, 



I have read yo*^ answer to Mr. Lowndes his 

 Essay for the amendm* of the silver coins, and I 

 think the nation obliged by the service you have 

 done in handling a subject of that weight so fully. 

 I know my private opinion will not add a mite to 

 its value ; however, I must give it this character, 

 that you have done it (as all other things you 



write) w"* such clearness and strength of argum*, 

 as if it had been the only thing whereto you had 

 bent yo"" studys. When men undertake subjects 

 whereof they have no clear notions, their books 

 rather perplex the reader then guide him to a 

 right understanding of what they would seem to 

 unriddle. He that designs to propose methods to 

 keep our money at home, must first consider what 

 it is that causes it to be carried abroad. In this 

 I think you have hit y^ mark. 'Tis the balance of 

 our trade w*** foreign countrys, not altering the 

 standard of our coine, w*^"" encreases or lessens our 

 bullion at home ; and then the next thing is, to 

 consider how this ballance may be brought to 

 our side. When other nations are brought into 

 our debt, no room is left for fetching away our 

 bullion ; but, on the contrary, they must send us 

 theirs ; and this I judge cannot better be done then 

 by incouradging our manufacturers, w*^"^ will imploy 

 our people. The wealth of England arises chiefly 

 from the labour of its inhabitants, w'^'' being added 

 to our own product, and also to the foreign ma- 

 terials we import, encreases their value in those 

 markets whither we export them ; and by how 

 much we lessen the emportation of things already 

 manufactured, and encrease that of the primums 

 whereof they are made, soe much will the ballance 

 of our trade alter everywhere in our favour. 



When the publick good of a nation is the design 

 of a writer, it arms him with some assurance, w"*^ 

 hath emboldened me to present you w*'' this little 

 Tract or Essay on Trade, — the work of some 

 leisure hours. All I say concerning it is, that 

 'twas wrote without p'tiall respect to any one 

 trade more then another ; if you shall think it 

 worth your reading, 'twill oblige me. 



Please to give me leave to offer at something in 

 yo'' book, w'^'' I suppose to be an oversight ; pa. 86., 

 you propose the half-crowns, half-scepters, or 

 half-unites, should go for two shillings and seven- 

 pence half-penny each. I apprehend 'twas en- 

 tended three shillings one penny half-penny, else 

 'twill not agree with the exact half of the crown, 

 scepter, or unite ; whether I take this right, 1 am 

 uncertaine, but the following table, pa. 86, must 

 be erroneous, where you put the 



This table seems to be perplext : for if you design 

 the half-crown (w'^'' is imperfectly printed) at 



2s. 7 id. 



then 3 ditto must be 7 10^ 

 5 ditto 13 1^ 

 7 ditto 18 41- 



Nor will it agree with 3s. 1^,^. for the half-crown, 

 w*^** is according to 6s. 3d. the crown. I have no 



