"If a sixpenny tax is to be raised, they cry by all means it ought to be
double. If the prince is offended with any man, they are directly for
hanging him. In other instances, they maintain the same character.
Above all things they advise their king to make himself terrible, as
they themselves are proud, fierce, and overbearing, in hopes to be
dreaded by that means, as if authority and place were their
inheritance."
I am,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most
obedient and most
humble servant.
N.N.
_Jan_. 4, 1724-5.
APPENDIX V
THE PRESENTMENT OF THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF THE CITY OF
DUBLIN.[1]
Whereas several great quantities of base metal coined, commonly called
_Wood's halfpence,_ have been brought into the port of Dublin, and
lodged in several houses of this city, with an intention to make them
pass clandestinely, among His Majesty's subjects of this kingdom;
notwithstanding the addresses of both houses of parliament and the
privy-council, and the declarations of most of the corporations of this
city against the said coin; And whereas His Majesty hath been graciously
pleased to leave his loyal subjects of this kingdom at liberty to take
or refuse the said halfpence.
[Footnote 1: Chief Justice Whitshed, after browbeating the Grand Jury
that threw out the Bill against Harding for printing the fourth
Drapier's letter, discharged it, and called another Grand Jury. The
second Grand Jury not only repeated the verdict of the first, but issued
the following expression of its opinion on the matter of Wood and his
patent. [T.S.]]
We the Grand Jury of the county of the city of Dublin, this Michaelmas
term, 1724, having entirely at heart His Majesty's interest and the
welfare of our country, and being thoroughly sensible of the great
discouragement which trade hath suffered by the apprehensions of the
said coin, whereof we have already felt the dismal effects, and that the
currency thereof will inevitably tend to the great diminution of His
Majesty's revenue, and the ruin of us and our posterity: do present all
such persons as have attempted, or shall endeavour by fraud or
otherwise, to impose the said halfpence upon us, contrary to His
Majesty's most gracious intentions, as enemies to His Majesty's
government, and to the safety, peace and welfare of all His Majesty's
subjects of this kingdom, whose affections have been so eminently
distinguished by their zeal to his illustrious family, before his happy
accession to the throne, and by their continued loyalty ever since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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