298 SILVER GOODS. 



CHAP. XXVI. 



sail and its neighbourhood, chiefly for the saddlers' 

 ironmongers, at about seven hundred and fifty 

 thousand ounces annually. That which is for 

 rolling in London, though of much better quality, 

 being far less in quantity, may be safely estimated 

 at one hundred and fifty thousand ounces. 



There is another application of silver to which 

 only conjecture can be applied. Many articles 

 are fabricated of that metal below the weight which 

 is amenable to the assay and the duty. Silver 

 thimbles are annually made by hundreds of thou- 

 sands, all below the accountable weight. Silver 

 chains, either for eye-glasses or for watches, or for 

 any part of the dress, are formed of links, each 

 of which as a single object is below the taxable 

 weight. Pencil cases, necks of smelling bottles, 

 locks to pocket books, to instrument cases, to port- 

 folios, and small portions to the handles of pen- 

 knives and razors, and other personal and domestic 

 ornaments, when added together must form a large 

 annual amount of silver consumed, but not liable 

 to the stamp tax. The gold-beaters use some 

 large portions of that metal for making leaf silver 

 for gilding. According to the best account we 

 have been able to collect, silver in leaf can scarcely 

 be made thinner than two and a half times the 

 substance of leaf gold ; as eight pennyweights of 

 gold will make a thousand books, whilst it requires 

 one ounce of silver to make that number. The 

 use of leaf silver is certainly much less extensive 



