164

HISTOEY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

xxir.

1696 .

Efforts torestorethe cur-rency.

ministers had, immediately after the meeting, purchased stockmerely in order to give a pledge of their attachment to the bodywhich had rendered so great a service to the State.*

Meanwhile strenuous exertions were making to hasten therecoinage. Since the Restoration the Mint had, like every otherpublic establishment in the kingdom, been a nest of idlers andjobbers. The important office of Warden, worth between sixand seven hundred a year, had become a mere sinecure, andhad been filled by a succession of fine gentlemen, who were wellknown at the hazard table of Whitehall, but who never con-descended to come near the Tower. This office had just becomevacant, and Montague had obtained it for Newton.** Theability, the industry and the strict uprightness of the great phi-losopher speedily produced a complete revolution throughoutthe department which was under his direction.*** He devoted

* L’Hermitage, Aug. 169G. Among the records of the Bank is aresolution of the Directors prescribing the very words which Sir JohnIloublon was to use. William’s sense of the service done by the Bank on

this occasion is expressed in his letter to Shrewsbury, of 3 ~ One

of the Directors, in a letter concerning the Bank, printed in 1607, says:“The Directors could not have answered it to their members, had it beenfor any less occasion than the preservation of the kingdom.”

** Haynes’s Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801. Montague’sfriendly letter to Newton, announcing the appointment, has been repeatedlyprinted. It bears date March 19. lG9jj.

*** I have very great pleasure in quoting the words of Ilaynes, an able,experienced and practical man, who had been in the habit of transactingbusiness with Newton. They have never, I believe, been printed. “Mr.Isaac Newton, public Professor of the Mathematicks in Cambridge, thegreatest philosopher, and one of the best men of thi3 age, was, by a greatand wise statesman, recommended to the favour of the late King forWarden of the King’s Mint and Exchanges, for which he was peculiarlyqualified, because of his extraordinary skill in numbers, and his greatintegrity, by the first of which he could judge correctly of the Mint ac-counts and transactions as soon as he entered upon his office; and by thelatter — I mean his integrity — he sett a standard to the conduct and be-haviour of every officer and clerk in the Mint. Well had it been for thepublick, had he acted a few years sooner in that situation." It is interest-ing to compare this testimony, borne by a man who thoroughly understood