By the Rev. Edward Peacock. 



325 



— Pill — Home Tooke — "Washington — Lord Howe, and the glorious 

 first of June — Lord Cornwallis, and a .numerous host of worthies 

 of local fame. These copper coins were payable in various ways 

 — some only at the shop or place where they were issued ; others 

 had a more extended circulation ; for on some are the words "Pay- 

 able in Anglesey, London and Liverpool :" on others, " Payable 

 at Liverpool or Bristol " — at " Cambridge, Bedford and Hunting- 

 don " — others more ambitious still, state that they are " current 

 everywhere." Some of these old coppers are political — some patri- 

 otic — some church and state — some republican. An amusing one 

 may be thus described; on the one side is a stout Englishman, 

 seated at a table, his wig, for greater ease, hung negligently on 

 the back of his chair : he is helping himself from a magnificent 

 sirloin of beef, with a foaming tankard of ale at his side, and a 

 large plum-pudding in the back ground, and over his head are the 

 words " English slavery ;" on the reverse of the token is a lean 

 Frenchman, seated on the bare floor before an empty grate, trying 

 to make a meal from a plate containing two or three frogs — and 

 with nothing to cheer him in the way of liquor : over his head is 

 the legend " French liberty : " the whole probably intended sarcas- 

 tically to convey the notion that English slavery was a better thing 

 after all than the liberty which the French nation at that moment 

 was so proud of. Another of these tokens, issued no doubt by a 

 very loyal subject, has on the obverse the head of George, Prince 

 of Wales ; on the reverse are the words " British Constitution," 

 enclosed in an inverted triangle, which triangle is supposed to be 

 securely balanced by the weight of the crown pressing on its top, 

 and hindered from the possibilit} 7 of falling sideways, by the firm 

 support of Lords and Commons, one on either side. Another, 

 announced as payable in London, Bristol and Lancaster, is em- 

 bellished with a Map of France, (date, 1794), in which honour is 

 trodden under foot — glory obscured — religion unsettled — France 

 itself disunited, and fire in every corner : and on the reverse is a 

 magnificent star, with the words " May Great Britain ever remain 

 the reverse." Another has on one side a man hanging from the 

 gallows, a church with a flag in the distance, and the words " End 



