A correspondent of the Times shows, in his own case,
how oppressive a grievance is that arrangement by which the gold coinage is allowed to become greatly depreciated, and then disrated from its rank as coin to its mere value as metal, at the cost of the holders for the time being. The writer has suffered the extremest poverty, and on Thursday after- noon a friend gave him half a sovereign- " I proceeded towards my home overjoyed at my good fortune, and deter- mined to hoard my little money with great care ; not knowing bow long it might be before I got more, and having a wife looking to me for support. 1 had not tasted food during the day, excepting one slice of bread, and but twice before of the same article since Monday noon ; and I now went into a grocer's to pur- chase a trifling quantity of tea and sugar; to pay for which I proffered my half- sovereign. Great was my astonishment on being informed that it was light, and consequently could not be taken for its full value. It was weighed before sty eyes, and it appeared to be the case; and that, if I wished to pass it, I must allow ald. to be deducted for its deficiency. Having no more money, and in- quiring elsewhere to see if such was really the truth, that I could not pass the Coin for 103., I consented to the deduction; hurt beyond measure to think I should lose the price of what, in my present circumstances, I may some time or other want—viz. a loaf of bread."
He mentions another poor person who had Is. 6d. deducted from change for a light sovereign. The Times, however, recently published, in its City article, some tables showing that the loss on a sovereign could seldom exceed 4d. There is reason to fear that the poor suffer too much from extortion ; which they can least bear, yet to which they are most exposed, by their ignorance, their want of counsel, and even the poverty that places them at the mercy of every shopkeeper who can press "his little bill." Any process of regulating the coinage that entails these contingencies on the poor must be bad ; and it is to be hoped that in future some juster and more intelligent method will be adopted.
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