dangerous way of arguing because if one Position happens to be false it vitiates all that follow But there is no finding out the Truth any other way 'T is an easie matter to frame Sentences and dance up and down with them and never be discovered whether they are true or false because the Notions are not digested into such a Method that either the Writer or Reader can judge of them But when the Assertions are positive and the Arguments to prove them follow immediately upon them the Writer and Reader can the better judge of them as they go along and if every individual be true by it self then the whole is true altogether or else not And upon review of what I have written it all seems to me to be true or else I would not publish it but yet my Arguments may be fantastical and fallacious tho' I don't know it therefore I offer them to be scanned by others Truth made manifest is the Foundation I have aimed at and tho' my Assertions seem bold I hope my Proofs do manifest them to be true and if in finding out the Truth I have spoken more plainly and freely of some things that have fallen into my Arguments than otherwise I should do I hope the Truth found out will excuse my manner of Enquiry after it And to clench the Nail I 'll venture to fling in a bolder Assertion than all the rest That there is no other Foundation to build and support the Credit of the Kingdom upon than the very thing hereby proposed But this being a Negative I 'll let it stand to be falsifyed by those who will prove the contrary by doing it Nor do I say that there is nothing else to be done but that this ought not to be left undone for tho' the present Supplies could be otherwise raised the growing Interest of Money will eat out the Kingdom unless something be laid to the Root of it to eat out that The Interest of Money hath such a Spell in it that were the whole Coin of the Kingdom but ten thousand Pounds the Rate of Interest for that Summ would set a price upon all the Lands in England which are computed at 15 Millions per Annum and the less principal Money there is the higher the Interest rises therefore there is no way to fall the Interest but to multiply the Principal In the time of the Late Revolutions upon reading a Bill in the House of Commons Entituled An Ordinance for suppressing the Horrible Sin of Adultery a Member there moved that the Title might be An Ordinance for the more secret committing the Horrible Sin of Adultery And considering how Usury and Extortion have thriven under all the Laws made against them the Titles of the Acts for that purpose might have been For the more Artificial taking Extortion and Usury Now in multiplying the Principal of Money perhaps other Securities may be so formed as to supply the use of Monies as well as the Securities on Lands But the Credit of them must depend upon their Alliance with Lands especially since the Owners of the Lands having Intimation of their Strength will be able to suppress any Credit that shall be set up in Prejudice to their Estates And after all this had I not a greater Authority to justifie my Assertions than all the Arguments I have used to prove them I durst not be so bold but that I may not seem immodest by taking so much upon me I own my self ignorant of many other Accomplishments that I might attain to this I have waved all Advantages in my Profession to study A more convenient Settlement for Lands and therefore I hope the more Learned and Successful in that Science will not envy me if I should be the Author of an Improvement in that point and thereby entail upon my self the Despicable Name of a Projector for doing it However as to that every Man is either a Projector by finding out New Forms or a Mechanick by copying after them And if they who give me the Character of the former will please to accept the Title of the latter I shall not think my self affronted Especially since the Sages of the Law themselves who have chosen that grave Sentence for their Motto Nolumus Leges Angliae mutare have been the Projectors of New Inventions in the Law which by time have grown into Customs The Titles of the greatest part of the Lands in England do depend upon an Invention of the Lawyers in the manner of passing Recoveries to bar Estates Tail notwithstanding the Statute of Westminster 2 nd For tho' the Writs on which these Recoveries are grounded were ancient yet the setting up a Common Vouchee the Appearance of all Parties without Proces Execution and Seisin and Returns of the Writs being all done together in an instant is a Project in the Law which by Custom hath gained the Name of A Common Recovery and is now become a Common Assurance of Lands And as the Titles of Lands do thus depend upon an Invention in the Law so the manner now used for trying these Titles by Possessory Actions termed Ejectments is an Invention in the Law by the introducing of which the antient way of Tryals by real Actions is become so obsolete That at a Call of Serjeants the Counts and Pleadings in Formedons being transcribed from Precedents are delivered to these Graduates only to be read over by them as Reliques of the Law amongst other Antiquated Ceremonies used at that Solemnity And if any thing be expected from me relating to the differences which have happened from passing the Act last Sessions I must say no more of it here than That all the Charges and Aspersions cast upon us from thence and the impeaching the Justice of the Parliament for establishing another Bank while THE Bank of England whose Name or Essence never extended beyond 1200000 l. limitted them by the Act is in being are so vain and ridiculous that to bind them up with the Names of God and the King whom I have dared to insert in this Essay would render me guilty of prophaneness and irreverence Lincolns-Inn Septemb. 1696. J. Asgill Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved Proved
SEVERAL ASSERTIONS PROVED In Order to Create another Species of MONEY THAN GOLD AND SILVER SEVERAL ASSERTIONS PROVED c. First Assertion That there seemeth a Necessity of creating another Species of Money than Gold and Silver BY Necessity I don't mean an absolute Necessity but such a Necessity that either this must be done or a worse thing will ensue for want of it The past Contracts now depending in the Kingdom for payment of Moneys in Specie do far surmount all the Species of Money in the Kingdom and because Money is become more valuable than Bills of Credit therefore they that have the demands of it do and will demand it and the more they demand it the higher the price rises so that the price multiplies the demands and the demands advance the price which renders the performance of these past Contracts to be impossible And thus the Kingdom stands Stock-jobbed by being obliged to deliver what they have not And yet these Contracts tho' they are impossible to be performed are lawful for by the Law where the Condition of a Bond is impossible the Bond it self is absolute and the Obligee may sue for the Penalty and have Judgment and if in this Case the Plaintiffs happen to be more than the Defendants they may have Execution too but if the Defendants come to be more than the Plaintiffs there 's an end of the Law And notwithstanding that the whole Moneys of the Kingdom stand anticipated by the past Contracts the present Exigencies and the growing Contracts call for as much more and 't is impossible to answer these Demands but by the Money due on the former Contracts taking it from whence 't is already due and lending it to the present Wants and thus the Publick have had the greatest part of their late Supplyes which I don't observe as a misapplication of the Moneys under our Necessities but as an Evidence of our Necessities Therefore for preserving the peace of the Kingdom in relation to the past Contracts and for raising the present and future Supplyes there doth seem a Necessity of creating another Species of Money than Gold and Silver Second Assertion That this Necessity is no Cause to discourage Proceedings in publick or private Affairs but rather to force us upon an Invention which otherwise we should not find out All the Improvements in the World have been produced from the Necessities of Men putting them upon Invention according to that saying Venter largitor Artium Shame invented our Cloathing Cold our Houses Hunger our Food Sickness our Physick and Rapine our Laws Laws necessitated Trade Trade necessitated Money and the multiplyed occasions for Money doth now put us upon a necessity of inventing another Species of it and therefore we must find it out What if the Spaniards Mines were exhausted or the Laws of their Countrey prohibiting the Exportation of them observed must the whole World stand still As Silver and Gold were invented for Money when they were to be had so when we cann't have that we must invent something else which may be had instead of it The whole World once lay open for Man and Beasts to be Tenants in common of it all but while it lay so it was incapable of improvement because no Man could preserve the benefit of his own Labour to himself and this forced men upon Agreements to inclose and that every Man should have a Property in his own Inclosure which was the first initiating of Laws and this Law forced Trade For the Earth consisting of divers Veins of different qualities distant from one another one man came to have occasion of something which lay in alieno solo another man's Inclosure and so they exchanged with one another but the things exchanged not being always equal in value nor to be delivered at the same time and place put men upon an Invention of Pledges or security for the things delivered until the value thereof should be returned in another Commodity and these at first were but particular Tokens between one man and another 'till by degrees Silver and Gold having acquired a certain value from the uses made of it for other things became the common pledge of the World and by further degrees the Values thereof came to be ascertained by Laws which hath advanced it to an extravagant price contrary to the original intention of it The sole use of Money as Money is but to keep an Account of other things by it is a Tool in Trade found out by the Policy of Man and that it might not grow into any other use the first Law of the World foreseeing the mischief forbid those that had it from taking Interest for the Loan of it from any but those whom they designed to impoverish by it But since this prohibited use of it hath advanced it above its original institution we must invent something else instead of it as they who had the first Occasions of Money did invent Gold and Silver And therefore this Necessity is no Cause to discourage us from proceeding in publick or private Affairs but rather to force us upon an Invention which otherwise we should not find out Third Assertion That all Proposals for making Bills of Credit current Money directly by Act of Parliament can be of no use in this Invention For 1. These Proposals are Unjust being more than the Law doth in relation to the Coyns of the Kingdom The Law never makes the Coyns of the Kingdom to be current in any Payments but where they are agreed to be paid but these Proposals would make these Bills current in Payments in which they were never agreed for therefore they are unjust 2. They are Illegal I mean they are an Inversion of Laws which the Legislative Power have no power to do their Name defines their power not to be absolute but only a power of making Laws and the intent of all Laws being for the preservation of Life and Property whatever violates this Intent is no Law Should an Act pass that every Man in the Kingdom should kill himself or give his Estate to any one else that would do it for him this would be no Law nor any Man's Life or Estate bound by it Now some Men have turned their Properties into Land and some into Money and all by Agreements with one another and should an Act pass that a Man who hath agreed for and purchased 500 l. per Annum in Land should convey that Estate to any Man who would pay him 10000 l. in Gold or Silver this would be no Law then by the same parity of Reason should an Act pass that any Man who hath contracted for 10000 l. to be paid him in Money should assign this Contract to any one who would convey to him 500 l. per Annum in Land this would be no Law for if such Acts should be admitted as Laws they put an end to all Laws Men cann't deal but by Agreements with one another and if the
him with his Female who being an Object suited to that Affection gave him the first feeling of it Love is an Affection contracted by the Eye and therefore 'till the Object was produced the Affection lay dormant as Fire doth in Stones 'till they are smitten If therefore the Fairest Aspect of the Creation was presented to Man after he had ended his Expectations of being entertained with any more Objects and consequently That highest pleasure of Life was added to him after he had ended his Expectations of any further happiness why should it seem strange that other Qualities in Nature should lye concealed 'till the Wisdom of Providence thinks fit to produce them How many things now common in the World were kept hid from Ages past as the virtue of the Load-stone and thereby the discovery of America the use of Guns Printing Glass c. The Earth is the great Staple of the World made by God to be manufactured and improved by Man and perhaps the things not yet seen are greater than the things already seen And tho' we can have no Notion of them till they are produced yet when they are made to appear the Concealment of them seems more miraculous than the Discovery for the making them to appear makes them plain and the plain appearance of them raises an admiration that they were never before observed Inventions are Mysteries found out and what is not plain is not found out but remains a Mystery still so that the Author of an Invention 〈◊〉 make it perfect must thereby loose the Honour of it and be despised as producing a common thing And that this may be my Fate is the top of my Ambition however this proves the Assertion That tho' this Improvement added to the present value of the Lands seem extravagant and be unexpected and surprising it is nevertheless plain and true and agreable to other Productions in Nature and Arts And tho' it is plain and true it is never the less valuable but rather the more admirable Fourteenth Assertion That therefore it can't be doubted but the Legislative Power will encourage this Invention by reviving the Clauses relating to Lands in the Act passed last Sessions for Establishing a Land-Bank When we address to our Superiours for any thing to be done by them it is Duty and Good Manners to consider 1st That the Notion and Intent of the thing we propose be useful and honest in case it can be effected 2dly That the practice of it be made visible and plain before we offer it 3dly That we prepare every thing ready for their Fiat which is to give the Sanction that they may have nothing to do but what can be done by none but themselves Now that the Notion and Intent of forming these Securities of Lands into the Qualities of Money and using them as Money will be esteemed by the Legislative Power to be useful and honest in case it can be effected cannot remain a Doubt Then the next Query is Whether the practice of this Notion can be made visible and plain The first part of the Notion is the forming these Securities into the Qualities of Money and this belongs to him that offers the Invention for 't is not the Business of the Legislative Power to draw Settlements and Forms those must be done by some one of that Science to which these Forms and Settlements relate And that I may not seem to amuse with implicite terms this Form is nothing but Division The forming the Securities of Lands into the Qualities of Money is no more than Dividing these Securities into smaller Summs Division is the first thing in Form In the Description of the Creation it 's said to be without Form and void 'till it was divided The Light from the Darkness and the Waters from the Dry Land and by these Lights Eternity was divided and sub-divided into Time of Years Days and Hours for Man to keep his Accounts by for Eternity undivided is of no use to Man Every thing is more or less valuable as 't is more or less capable of Division Now 'till these Securities were made divisible all the residue of the Invention was impossible for if the Securities themselves are not capable of being formed into the Qualities of Money it is not in the Power of the Parliament to make them so But this first Part of the Invention is actually done and hath shewed it self in all the parts of it The 26 th of October 1695. was the first day of issuing out Bills charged upon Lands which are the Securities thereof divided and these were the first Bills we hear of that have been charged upon Lands and issued out for Money And to give plain Instances that these Securities so divided into Bills are Money the Mortgagees who had these Securities before they were divided and were to receive the Monies due upon them brought their Securities to the Bank to be formed into Bills and received back those Bills for their Money They brought the Bullion into the Bank and took it back in Coin and for doing this the Owners of the Lands are content to pay a small Interest to the Bank for keeping a Cash of other Monies to answer these Bills as they are demanded and this by the way may silence all Enquiries into the profit of the Bank And in this manner there has been issued out forty five thousand Pounds in Bills all which have been paid and repaid as Money and the Bank had valued Estates for issuing out One hundred thousand pounds more but fore-seeing the impossibility of maintaining a Credit in their Infancy during the Regulation of the Coin they stopt their Hands and content themselves at present in paying their Bills already issued and giving an undeniable demonstration of the first part of the Invention by forming the Securities of Lands into the Qualities of Money and thereby standing ready for the Sanction and assistance of the Legislative Power towards the perfecting of this Invention What was passed by the Act of last Sessions relating to Lands and is now humbled represented to the Legislative Power is First That the Subscribers may be incorporated in order to stand seized of Lands to be conveyed to them to prevent the charge or Fraud of Trustees In the dividing the Securities of Lands the Legal Estates thereof must be conveyed to Trustees who are to stand seized in the first place for the Persons who have the Bills charged on the Lands and afterwards in trust for the Owners of the Lands who make the Conveyances and to prevent the Legal Estates from going to Heirs or Executors there must be several Trustees in every Conveyance which may occasion great Charge and Trouble in transferring the Securities especially if the Trustees prove corrupt which often happens in common Securities amongst private Men I have known a Mortgager forced to pay twenty Guineas to a parcel of Trustees for sealing an Assignment of his Mortgage Now this charge of Transferring
Securities entailed on Freehold Estates is as real Incumbrance upon them as Fines upon alienations are upon Copy-holds And if as hath been observed the transferring the Titles of Land to Money and making the assignment of every piece to be by Deed would depreciate it and incapacitate it from being Money by the same reason the transferring the Titles of Money to Lands and making the delivery only to be a Title would of it self render them much more valuable and tho' the equitable Interests only which are the Bills can be assigned by Delivery yet the less Charge is incident to transferring the Legal Estates the more valuable the Lands will be And this is the Intent of being Incorporated A great part of the Towns and Trades in England have been incorporated by Kings or Parliaments for the conveniency of doing their own Business The Worsted-Weavers in Yarmouth and Lynn were each of them incorporated by Parliament in 15 th Hen. 8. with a power to have a Seal for their own Cloths for no other reason than that it was before painful and costly for them to carry their Cloths to be sealed at Norwich which they were obliged to by a former Act. And the School of Norleech in Gloucester-shire was Incorporated by Parliament in 4. Jac. 1. upon the Opinion of three Lord Keepers and two Judges that they ought to be Incorporated in order to stand seized of their own Lands for that the surviving Feoffee of the School-Lands went about to defraud the School by making a long Lease to his own Son under a small Rent If therefore the Kings and Parliaments of England have incorporated so many Towns and Trades for the conveniency of doing their business and that the Parliament in the first of these Cases incorporated two Companies of Weavers for preventing their trouble and charge in going to distant places and in the last Case incorporated a Countrey-School to prevent frauds in their Trustees can it be doubted that the present Legislative Power will deny the like conveniency for the better settling and improving all the Lands in the Kingdom and in this they have signified their pleasure already by declaring in the Act passed last Sessions that the intent of the Incorporation was in order to lending Monies on Lands The Second Thing contained in the last Act and now humbly represented to the Parliament is The securing the Titles of the Lands after they are so settled And this is intended by the Settlement already executed and practised whereby it is declared that the Lands conveyed pursuant to that Settlement as long as they stand so conveyed shall not be subject to any other Incumbrances than what shall be charged thereon by the Owners thereof in the Register-Books of the Bank by which the Lawyers are of Opinion that the Lands will be protected against any other future Incumbrance But to put that out of all doubt it was inserted in the Act which can be no Unjustice to any as a Register with a Retrospect might be being only the initiating of a voluntary Register to be perfected by time The Third Clause relating to Lands in the last Act and now humbly represented is A power by publick sale to sell the Mortgaged Lands in case the Money lent thereon by the Bank be demanded and unpaid six years together and with the Money arising by sale to Discharge the Mortgage-Monies returning the Overplus to the Owner of the Lands And this will save Expences in Suits which must otherwise be charged on the Lands There are other Clauses for Transferring the Bills Searching of Judgments c. for the better Security and Conveniency of the Bank And that this Constitution may not be diverted from the end proposed and intended we shall think it no Penalty that the Bank may be restrained from issuing out any Bills but what shall be charged upon Lands conveyed unto them which is more restrictive than all the Clauses drawn for that purpose by the late Opposers of the Act. Now all these being Conveniencies only grantable by the Legislative Power without charging any Mans Property and the use of them seeming so necessary and advantagious It cannot be doubted but the Legislative Power will encourage this Invention by reviving these Clauses Fifteenth Assertion That it cannot be doubted but the Owners of the Lands will readily receive and use this Invention Silver and Gold are Forreign Commodities bought of those who are sometimes our Allies and sometimes our Enemies and we by virtue of our Agreements have made them Money to the depreciating the value of our own Lands and shall not we by the same Agreements make Money of our Lands which will cost nothing and double the value of the Lands by doing it Never was any thing more eagerly received than Proposals for lowering the Interest of Money insomuch that the Notions of it dispersed in common Pamphlets brought men out of all Countreys only to hear silly Men talk about it Perhaps some Ceremonies may be used in the Order and precedency of coming into this Invention When that Doctrine which we now profess to be our Religion was first vented in the World the Priests and Rulers stood off and would not meddle with it because they were safely posted at the head of the Church and State and had no occasion to expose their Reputation by turning Projectors and venturing upon a new thing before they knew whether it would take or not and therefore they set the Publicans and Harlots who thought themselves to have most need of it to go in first to try the Experiment but when they found that the thing would do they all fell in to it one after another 'till at last it came to be as scandalous to be out of it as it was at first to be in it I know the thing now proposed is New and therefore I expect that those who are a cold must first blow this Coal but when 't is once kindled it can never want Fuel to maintain the Fire We call them Fops who invent new Fashions and yet we all follow them one after another some will have them in a Week others in a Month some in a Year after they are in and some seven Years after they are out and so it is in the change of other Customs for if Men should be all of the same mind together the crowd would hinder the doing the business they come about Men fall into things one after another as their Occasions and Inducements lead them There is no Profit in the World made certain All Gain depends upon the contingent Occasions and Necessities of others a Lawyer is not sure of Clients nor a Physitian of Patients nor a Landlord of Tenants nor a Monied Man of any one to borrow of him but they all expect the Necessities of others to support themselves by and therefore the present Necessities requiring the use of this Invention it cannot be doubted but the Owners of the Lands will readily
Interest of the Government and People Private Subjects have all along supplied the Government with Money through the Bank of England as their Casheir who have taken upon them to dispose of it as their own and magnified themselves to the Publick for it which hath put a Disobligation upon their Creditors that those that have only the Receipt of the Money should be esteemed the Owners of it Now in this Bank here proposed the Bank lends the Subjects and enables them to execute the grateful office of lending the Money to the Publick with their own Hands and to receive the Profit of it and yet the Bank is as serviceable to the Crown as if they lent them the Money directly because it is incumbent on the Bank to pay the Bills which is the most difficult part in all Accounts And is not the Crown more secure in being supplied by a Bank whose Securities are charged on the Lands and their Credit supported by the Receipts of the Rents of the Kingdom than by a Bank to which the King himself is forced to give the chiefest Credit by receiving their Bills in the publick Revenues to his loss That therefore a Bank thus established will be greater Security to the Government for the future than a Bank set up for that purpose only Twentieth Assertion That an Vnanimous Consent in this Establishment would be a happy Event of the War By the Constitution of the Government of England the Execution of the Law is vested in the Body Politick of the King that he may stand seiz'd thereof to the use of the Subjects for preserving their Liberties and Estates and whenever that Trust is broken the Subjects having no Court of Equity to appeal to are driven to their Arms and the Descent of his present Majesty with his Forreign Troops into England was to head the Subjects against the Invasion of their Liberties begun upon them by him who then had the possession of the Crown which being translated to his present Majesty put him into the possession of the Law and thereby the Subjects into the use of their Liberties under him But to maintain this Possession it was absolutely necessary to begin the War against a Forreign Power who had made themselves formidable by unjust acquisitions from their Neighbours and this War hath and will cost us forty Millions of Money directly advanced to maintain it besides the Losses by Sea and yet 't is the best Money that ever the Subjects spent for by this they have preserved the whole which otherwise had been lost before now and therefore according to that Saying What is saved is got the Expence and Loss of the War hath purchased three Kingdoms with which we may rest well satisfied without the fond Conceipt of the Conquest of France which is to ask we know not what But as a Reward to the Subjects for their Zeal and Bravery in expending so large a part of their present Possessions to convey the Reversion of their Estates and Liberties to their Posterity here seems a fair Opportunity offer'd occasion'd by the Expence of the War for improving their own Estates with their Wives and Families at home which is better than transplanting themselves to Forreign Conquests Would but the Gentlemen of England for one Year spend as much time and pains in their several Countyes to promote this Invention as they do to manure two Acres of Land they would find the Improvements increasing upon them a sufficient Encouragement to proceed in it 'till they had made themselves rich and from their abundance the Necessities of the Poor would be supplyed I can say truly that the Miseries of the Poor do affect me and yet I never had thoughts of Proposing any thing directly for their Releif apprehending their chiefest dependance to be upon the Superfluities of the rich and this was the Provision made for them by the first Law of the World which forbid the rakeing of the Corn that the Poor might live upon the Gleanings and the leavings of the Poor is the Provision for the Fowls of the Air Whereas raising the Rates for the Poor without adding something to those that are taxed doth insensibly draw the Scot and Lot-men into the Poors-book the Rates mulitiplying the Poor as fast as the Poor multiply the Rates But let more be given to them who have the possession of much already and somewhat of it will naturally fall to them that have nothing As for the King himself whose Success is our Safety I can't conceive him capable of any greater or less Enjoyment than his own Complacency in that Choice which hath descended upon him from Providence to be the Deliverer of that People who have also chosen him for their Defender And tho' his Allyance by Blood be the initiating of his Title to the Crown yet his Election thereunto is his highest Personal Honour To be a King is a mean thing in comparison of being made one The Redeemer of the World was an Office of that state and dignity that his Harbinger is declared to be the highest post of Honour that ever Man stood possessed of and yet 't is said of this Redeemer He gloryed not that he was an High Priest but that he was made an High Priest He did not magnifie himself that he was the Redeemer of the World but that he was Chosen by God to be so And I am glad to find my Arguments terminate here for by this I know I have done because I have run it where I can go no further Nor did I know what I was going to do when I first put Pen to Paper or where I should begin or end but having seen and for some years felt the extravagant rate of Money I resolved to search the Pedigree of it as Men do of Upstarts preferred above their Merit and if I should find it of an Honourable Descent and absolutely necessary I resolved to conceal it but if I could trace its Original to be mean and inconsiderable I resolved to expose it thereby to vilifye it in Mens Thoughts as not so indispensably necessary as 't is generally apprehended Not but that Money is absolutely necessary but not the very Money of Gold and Silver And in pursuit of this Enquiry I found that tho' the common use of this as of other things be obvious unto all yet when we would dissect them to search out the manner of their Subsistence and Operations we find them all fastned down to the Root of Nature by certain Fibers which we must digg down to and trace from thence into all the Labyrinths of Succession feeling all our way by that thread There are no Fractions in Nature nor any things independant they are all linked to one another in a continued Chain which reaches from the Creation to Eternity And I have so far endeavoured to imitate Nature in what I have written as to argue from a Chain of Positions successively depending upon one another which is the most