ty which is in the market, compared with the demand. Thus the penny, which in the reign of Edward I. (the time when the ftandard of fineness is fuppofed to have been eftablished) was reduced to 22 grains, was afterwards diminished in weight, at various periods, until, in the 43d of Elizabeth, it weighed only 74 grains, at which it has remained fixed to the prefent

time.

It feems a fingular circumftance, that the weight fhould have invariably and progretively funk for 300 years, and yet have remained flationary for the two fucceeding centuries. The regular fupplies of filver from South America will, I believe, account for this apparent fingularity to a certain period. But after that time, when the rate of filver bullion began to rife, from the quantities which various luxuries confumed, and to exceed the price allowed by the Mint, fo that equal portions of bullion and of coin became of unequal value, I am at a lofs to explain why the money fhould be continued at its antient weight. The queftion of the propriety of fuch continuance was warmly debated previous to the great recoinage in 1696; when the mighty name of Locke, rather I think than his arguments, prevailed. But the confequences proved his reafoning to have been ill-founded, for, in lefs than twenty years after this coinage (in which nearly fix millions and an half of filver were firuck), the coins had difappeared, and fresh iflies from the Mint, to a large amount, became neceffary. This fact, ftriking as it may appear, has not been fufficient to clear away the prejudice againft diminifhing the ftandard of weight. It has defcended even unto our time, and has for many years prevented the coinage of filver. For, from the year 1718 to the prefent day, there has but one fhort period (in 1798) when filver could have been coined without an abfolute lofs; nor does it appear probable that it will ever again be fo low as to defray the expence of coinage. This, however, is not the proper time, nor place, for the difcuflion of this fo highly important queftion; and I have only thrown out this hint, in the hope that others, better qualified than myfelf to do juftice to the fubject, will turn their thoughts to its investigation.

Your prefent duty, Gentlemen, is to inquire whether the covenants in the

exifting indentures have been complied with; and to return a true verdict, according to the evidence which thall arife upon a due examination and trial. From that examination I fhall longer detain you.

Mr. URBAN,

July 30.

no

have witneffed an election advertifement in which it is fet forth, that the power of electing fheriffs was transferred from the people to the crown. And this is true; but it was done five centuries ago, by ftatute 9 Edward II. 1316, which enacted, that the fheriff's fhould from thenceforth be aligned by the chancellor, treafurer, and judges, as being perfons in whom the fame truft might with confidence be trufied. By ftatute 14 Edw. III. c. 7; 23 Hen. VI. c. 8; and 21 Hen. VIII. c. 20, the chancellor, treafurer, prefident of the king's council, chief juftices, and chief barons, are to make the elections, on the morrow of All Souls, in the Exchequer. The cuftom now is, and has been, at least ever fince the time of Fortefcue, chief-juftice and chancellor to Henry VI. that all the judges and other great officers fhould meet in the Exchequer-chamber that day (now altered to the morrow of St. Martin by the last act for abbreviating Michaelmas term), to propofe three perfons to the king, who afterwards appoints one of them theriff. This circumftance, of the twelve judges propofing three perfons, feems borrowed from the Gothic cuftom, where three judges of the county courts (which office is now ex

ercifed by the theriff) were elected by
the people, but confirmed by the king;
and the people choosing twelve electors,
who nominated three perfons, ex qui-
bus unum rex confirmabat. But the po-
pular elections in England growing tu-
multuous were put a flop to by the fia-
tute 9 Edw. II.-Blackfione, vol. I.
p. 340.
Q. Q.

Turkey, I cannot affent to his opi-
nious; and as I find he has read Greel-
man's book, I am the more furprized
he thould think as he does. If any
thing can demonftrate the origin of a
people, furely it is language; but
where we find identity of language
accompanied by fimilarity of feature
and complexion, every doubt muft
ceafe. Greelman tells us he ftudied
their language; and afterwards difco-
vering certain natives of India ftudents
at the university of Nuremberg, to
qualify themfelves as millionaries to
their countrymen, he found their lan-
guage to bear a ftrong refemblance to
that of the Gypfies, from which cir-
cumftance alone he concluded they
came from India, and by way of il-
luftration gives us a vocabulary of both,
in which more than two thirds of the
words are the fame; and in various
inftances where they do not in his opi-
nion agree, I can affirm from my
own knowledge, having refided many
years in that country, they are pure
Hindoftanny, as fpoken in the upper
parts of India, and fuch as I fhould
make use of were I holding converfe
with a native. Thefe ftudents proba-
bly came from the Guzerat country,
where it is not fpoken in fuch purity;
and it is known to vary in different
parts. First impreffions are often firong,
and not readily effaced. Soon after
landing in England, in palling over a
common in one of our Wefiern coun-
ties, I met a numerous body of thefe
people, men, women, and children;
and I was fo ftruck with their refem
blance to the natives of India, that I
almoft thought myfelf in that country,
and from that nioment conceived the
idea that they must be defcended from
them. At this time I had neither feen
or heard of Greelman's book, which
probably did not then exift, at leaft
not in an English drefs; nor any other
publication on the fubject. The firti
thing I met with was from Mr. Marf
den, in one of our periodical publica-
tions, whofe opinion concided with
mine; and when Greelman's book came
out, it farther confirmed me in it.
Nothing was now farther wanting for
my complete conviction but an oppor-
tunity of examining their dialect my
delf, but it was a confiderable time be-
fore I could effect this. I fucceeded, at
length, however, to my entire fatisfaction,
and I found their muinbers as far as ten,
deven only excepted (which they called

hââft, and which is the Perfian for
that number, whereas it is faât in the
language of India), precifely the fame,
as likewife the names of the most com-
mon things which were either Hindof-
tanny or Shanferit; and I have had
many opportunities fince of making
the experiment with equal fucceis;
and, I believe, upon fome of these oc-
cafions they have been imprefied with
an idea, that I muft at fome period of
my life have belonged to their frater-
nity, or had one of them as a pre-
ceptor.

Your correfpondent, finding their
language a ftumbling block in the way
of his hypothefis, in order to get over
it would perfuade us they enigrated
from the fhores of the Red Sea to the
plains of Hindoftan, where they forgot
their own, and acquired the dialect of
India. But is not this mere conjecture,
without probability to fupport it? As
Mahomedans, they would have found a
confiderable part of the population of
the country of their own religion, and
they would have infenfibly mixed and
blended with them, as the Perfians,
Patans, and Moguls, have invariably
done, and have ceafed to have re-
mained a distinct race fuch as we now
find them. And in what inftance has
it ever happened, that the Arabs have
renounced their language and religion?
I know of none; but we fee, on the
contrary, that, whether we take them
in the deferts of Africa, or on the banks
of the Euphrates, the Nile, or the
Niger, they retain their language and
religion. It is, I believe, an injunc-
tion of the Shafter, that the Hindoos
fhould not pafs the Seind (Indus); but
they certainly have a mode of recon-
ciling a breach of that command to their
confciences; and perhaps it may be
only conditional, for, that they do fre-
quently leave their own country is moft
certain, and that from motives both of
gain and religion. Whole families of
Hindoos are fettled for the purposes of
commerce at Mutket, Mocha, Judda,
and other fea por:s of Arabia; and, in
all probability, the fpices and other
rich merchandize of the East, in which
the Ishmaelites traded to Gilead and
Egypt, in the days of Jacob and the
patriarchs, were brought to Arabia by
thefe people; for it is now well known
and afcertained that Arabia produces
no fpices. There are certain cafts of
the Hindoos, who perform pilgrimages
to very diftant regions. Bell tells you

he

he met with a Hindoo performing his
worship on the banks of the Baycaal
lake in Siberia; and it appears from a
narrative of the Grand Lama's journey
to Pekin on the invitation of the late
Emperor of China, written by a Bra-
min in his faite, that the very firfi caft
of Hindoos do not fcruple to pats into
foreign countries. It is well known
that all the trade between Hindoftan
and Tibat is mostly carried on by Gofeins
and Senaffees, and other vagrant cafts
of Hindoos, and that they are led by
religious fanaticifim conftantly to
fpot near the city of Baakû, on the
Wettern thores of the Cafpian, where
fire flues from the ground; which
place is the celebrated Tait, a place of
worship with the Hindoos under the
name of Jewalee Mookee. And, if your
correfpondent will take the trouble to
perule the proceedings of the Afiatic
Society eftablished in Calcutta under
the auspices of the late Sir William
Jones, he will not only find a full con-
firmation of my affertions, but that

a

confiderable focieties of Hindoos are actually fixed and fettled in various parts of Perfia, and even at Aftracaan on the banks of the Wolga, which is confidered in their Pooraans as a facred river. If, therefore, there be fuch a command in their facred books, forbid ding them to cross the Scind, the above inftances are fufficient to fhew how little it is regarded; befides, the provinces of Cabal, Candaha, and fome others to the Weft of the Scind, are mostly cultivated and inhabited by the Hindoo race. (See Forter's Travels.) A gentleman of my acquaintance, who caine to Bengal by the way of Aleppo ⚫and Bufforah, afsured me, that he faw and converfed with a fet of Indian tumblers, who were exhibiting their feats in the former city for the amufement of the Turks, as is feen daily in our towns in India.

I am by no means perfectly fatisfied with Greelman's conjectures as to the caufe of their firft appearance in Europe, though far more probable than the one advanced' by your correfpon

dent. It is agreed, I believe, on all fides, that they came out of Turkey where they are fill very numerous. But what could have induced them to quit India is, I believe, equally unknown to us as to their defcendants, and can only be furmifed at. I can imagine it poffible they may have been driven from fome of the Western provinces of Hindoftan by perfecution, by oppreffion, or the tempeft of war, but long before they made their appearance in Europe; for I think their emigration mult have been progreffive; but, as their diale&t bears fo ftrong an an dogy to the Hindolian tongue, and as the latter is known to have been formed fince the first Mahomedan invation, I fhould be inclined to think it took place fome time between that event and the invafion by Tamerlane. And as their Pooraans, or legendary hiftories, make mention of various facred rivers and fhrines of their gods faid to have been frequented by their ancefiors in the early ages of the world, fituated in remote parts of the globe, I can eafily imagine, from my knowledge of the character of the people, that, under fome enthufiaftic leader who pretended to more fanctity and fagacity than the reft, they may, under fuch guidance,have attempted to explore thofe holy places believed to have been the fcenes of the actions of their gods, bewildered themfelves in the diftant refearch, and been unable to return home. We know that the Senaffees and Byragees pafs the greater part of their lives in wandering from one facred fhrine or place of worship to another, from the fource to the mouth of the Ganges and Berhampooter, the days for which have been fixed from time immemorial, and are generally regulated by the moon, and noted by the Bramins in their almanacks; and that the fame men fhall be found at different periods at Hardoovarali, Gungufawgîn, Suggunant, and Ramiffin, oppofite to Ceylon. Upon thefe occafions they affenible in thoufands, and put themfelyes under the command of a leader, who poffefles by

*Such as the Padmamcuden on the banks of the Coomudvât, that is, the tower of Babel, a temple of Belus on the Euphrates, the Axfhû, a river Oxus, the Neela in Cantaca deffa, the Nile and Egypt, fo called a land of thorns from the fpiny Acacia with which it abounds, the marthes of Padmavan and mountains of Attala, a Ptolomean marsh, in which the Niger is never known to lofe itself, and Mount Atlas, Nubia, Abyffinia in Africa, and Bentistaan, and the facred ifles of the West, in Vaahalduip, or Europe, perhaps the British islands and Mona, held fo facred among the Druids. See Mr. Wilford's differtation on the state of the antient world, in the fourth volume of the Afiatic Society, from the Pooraans, or legendary hiftories of the Hindous.

general