19 DECEMBER 1868, Page 3

Mr. E. J. Watherston, jeweller, has addressed a letter to

the Times which is worth rich people's attention. A few years ago the Legislature, with a kind attention to the interest of swindlers, passed a law authorizing a Hall mark for 9-carat, 12-carat, 15- carat, and 18-carat gold. Buyers cannot distinguish them, and consequently dishonest dealers sell 9-carat chains as 18-carat, or have a single link stamped as standard, and attach it to an alloyed chain, or forge the mark themselves to avoid the bad stamping of the Goldsmiths' Hall. There is a single remedy for this form of thieving which cannot fail. Oblige every jeweller to mark all gold with its quality in carats, authorize three or four assayers, and whenever the mark is dishonest give damages in a -county court, say, for fifty times the price. People will not go through the worry of a criminal prosecution which will bring them nothing, but they will maintain a civil action to recover cash.