Money and Money ers. 419 



On Tuesday, March. 28th, 1848, the Royal Mint Commission 

 first met for the " despatch of business/'' and their sittings 

 continued at intervals up to January, 1849. Almost every 

 principal officer of the establishment was examined, together 

 with several belonging to the Bank of England, and others 

 connected with Goldsmiths' Hall. From these examinations a 

 mass of information was derived, and the indefatigable secretary 

 to the Commissioners engaged himself in adding to this by his 

 researches in the British. Museum, the State Paper Office, and 

 other quarters where information could be obtained. The Pro- 

 vost of the Corporation of Moneyers was the champion of that 

 body, and he as diligently sought out evidence in support of 

 their claims. Some of the documents handed in by this gentle- 

 man were of a curious character, and but that this paper has 

 already extended itself to so great a length, we should feel 

 disposed to quote from them. All the ingenuity and exertions 

 of the Company proved of little avail, however. They could 

 after all only demonstrate that they had enjoyed the privileges 

 and emoluments arising from their position by " prescriptive," 

 and not legal right. It was shown, on the other hand, that 

 inconvenience and expense arose from the system of " farming" 

 out, as it were, the fabrication of the coinage of the realm, and 

 that really the Crown possessed the power of terminating the 

 contract with the Company at a very short notice. 



Accordingly the Commission in 1849 reported to Her Majesty 

 the results of their inquiries and deliberations. Without 

 troubling the readers of the Intellectual Obseevee with the 

 whole of the reasons which induced the Commission to come 

 to a conclusion completely adverse to the Company of Moneyers, 

 and fatal to their further existence as a corporate and privileged 

 body, it may be well to extract from their report one of its 

 main clauses : — " We are convinced," say they, ' ' that the 

 Money ers J claim of exclusive right rests on no more substantial 

 ground than ancient usage, no charter or other written record 

 of its commission having been produced by them, or otherwise 

 discovered to exist ; that it cannot be shown that they existed 

 as a distinct united body earlier than the middle of the sixteenth 

 century; that their pretensions to be a separate corporation, 

 with legal rights, are supported neither by proof nor proba- 

 bility; and that if the abolition of their long-exercised privilege of 

 exclusive employment in the work of the coinage should ever 

 give them a title to pecuniary compensation for the loss of its 

 advantages, they have in no way established their right to its 

 perpetual continuance." 



It was impossible to misunderstand language so plainly 

 expressed as this, and it is certain that so acute a lawyer as 

 Mr. Sheil would not have appended his signature thereto unless 



