whatsoever, to pass and be received as current money by such as shall be willing to receive them.”  In this order there is no exception, and therefore, as far as I can judge, it includes all officers both civil and military, from the Lord High Chancellor to a justice of peace, and from the general to an ensign:  So that Wood’s project is not likely to fail for want of managers enough.  For my own part, as things stand, I have but little regret to find myself out of the number, and therefore I shall continue in all humility to exhort and warn my fellow-subjects never to receive or utter this coin, which will reduce the kingdom to beggary by much quicker and larger steps than have hitherto been taken.[19]

[Footnote 18:  Archbishop King’s letter, quoted by Monck Mason, explains why it was that the revenue officers refused to receive Wood’s coins.  It seems the officers had been advised by lawyers that, in the event of their taking the coins, it might be quite likely they would be compelled to make them good, should such a demand be made of them.  Precedents could easily be cited by those taking action, since all previous patents issued to private individuals for coining money, required of the patentee to take them back and pay for them with gold or silver. [T.  S.]]

[Footnote 19:  The suggestion thus made by the Lords of the Committee, although coupled with the reduction in the amount of money Wood was to be permitted to introduce, did not do any good.  Archbishop King argued rightly that this was treating the people of Ireland as if they were fools and children.  If Wood could coin L40,000, what was to prevent him coining L200,000?  The suggestion indeed irritated the people almost as much as did the patent itself. [T.S.]]

But it is needless to argue any longer.  The matter is come to an issue.  His Majesty pursuant to the law, hath left the field open between Wood and the kingdom of Ireland.  Wood hath liberty to offer his coin, and we have law, reason, liberty and necessity to refuse it.  A knavish jockey may ride an old foundered jade about the market, but none are obliged to buy it.  I hope the words “voluntary” and “willing to receive it” will be understood, and applied in their true natural meaning, as commonly understood by Protestants.  For if a fierce captain comes to my shop to buy six yards of scarlet cloth, followed by a porter laden with a sack of Wood’s coin upon his shoulders, if we are agreed about the price, and my scarlet lies ready cut upon the counter, if he then gives me the word of command, to receive my money in Wood’s coin, and calls me a “disaffected Jacobite dog” for refusing it (although I am as loyal a subject as himself, and without hire) and thereupon seizes my cloth, leaving me the price in his odious copper, and bids me take my remedy:  In this case, I shall hardly be brought to think that I am left to my own will.  I shall therefore on such occasions, first order the porter aforesaid to