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THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of October, 1767.

ARTICLE I.

The Connexion of the Roman, Saxon, and English Coins, deduced from Obfervations on the Saxon Weights and Money. By William Clarke, M. A. Rector of Buxted, and Refidentiary of Chichester. 4to. Pr. 15 s. Bowyer.

TH

HIS is a copious, rather than a redundant performance. The fubject chofen by the author has led him into fome difquifitions, which at firft feem foreign to his principal design ; but upon a close inspection, they prove to be so intimately connected with it, that they are neceffary for elucidating the propofitions he lays down. If he appears fometimes diffufe, his work resembles the rich man's entertainment; for the keenest appetite after knowledge, may be fed with the crumbs which fall under the table.

The discovery made by the late Martin Folkes, Efq; of the old Saxon pound, gave rife to this publication, because it served as a standard to have recourse to in forming the neceffary calculations, and as an opening for throwing more light upon that obfcure fubject, the Saxon money. The reverend author had also another end in view, which was his vindicating the authority of archbishop Aelfric's * account of the Saxon coins, who diftributes them into three claffes, the mancus, the fhilling, and the

* We wish that Mr. Clarke had given his readers fome in. formation relating to this prelate. The fituations and chaVOL. XXIV. Od. 1767.

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the penny. The connexion which the Saxon had with the Roman money induced Mr. Clarke to compare the weight and value of both, and to state the usual Saxon methods of payment upon that plan. This gave him an opportunity, (as he fays) of discovering, what, perhaps, was not much expected, the incredible poverty of the greatest empire in the world, even when it was in full power, long before its divifion, and much more its final diffolution in the Weft.' He then proceeds to an intricate, but uavoidable tafk, that of discovering the weight and origin of the Saxon gold coins, by paffing through that moft perplexed and confused labyrinth, the accounts given of

racters of authors resemble not a little the value and denomination of coins, to ascertain the degree of eftimation in which they ought to be held; and we think, in point of gratitude, that somewhat more was due to the memory of this luminary in Saxon learning, than the bare mention of his name: we fhall, however, endeavour to fupply our author's filence.

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An archbishop Aelfric, or, as he is called by others, Elfric, is fuppofed by Sir Henry Spelman to have prefided over the fee of York, and to have drawn up a fett of canons, partly taken from the Capitularies of Charles the Great; but the precife time of his birth is not known. We are, however, uncertain whether this is the archbishop here mentioned. This uncertainty is the less furprizing, as the industrious Leland labours under the like doubts. He mentions three Aelfrics; the first of whom, though he does not call him an archbishop, is undoubtedly the writer here quoted; for he expressly fays, that, in order to perpetuate his memory by fome literary monument, he wrote a learned and excellent Latin Saxon grammar,' which we fuppofe is the fame printed at the end of Somner's Saxon Dictionary, and referred to by Mr. Clarke; but (continues Leland) his hopes of preferving his memory are fo far from being answered, that even in our days his work remains mouldering in the corners of libraries. Sed quod fperavit ille apud feros nepotes de nominis fui fama, tantum abeft, ut hac noftra ætate fit confecutus, ut ejus opufculum pulvere obfitum in aliquot deliteat bibliothecis,'

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We are, notwithstanding, inclined to believe, that this Aelfric was the archbishop of Canterbury of that name, who died in 1006. He fays, in the preface to this grammar, that he ftudied under Ethelwold, bishop of Winchefter, in the reign of king Edgar. This paffage in Leland, by the bye, is a proof that that industrious antiquary had feen Aelfric's grammar. Leland, upon the whole, countenances our opinion.

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the Aurei in the middle ages, from the Roman to the Norman times.

It must be acknowledged, that the refult of our author's labours has an intimate relation to the most interesting and amufing parts of history, modern as well as antient. Let a reader fit down, for inftance, to the English history, (and it is the fame with that of every other nation) and peruse the accounts of taxes impofed, contributions levied, ranfoms paid, and a thousand other money matters which occur in our antient annals; what fatisfaction will arife from what he reads, unless he can, upon a certain ftandard, form fome idea of the relation between the value of money in those days and the prefent. • Having gone (fays our author) through the neceffary parts of this enquiry, the dry detail and eftimates of the Aurei in those barbarous ages, I was willing to indulge myself in making a few more agreeable excurfions; perfuaded that the prefent age, which has made fuch a progrefs in illustrating our own antiquities, would not be displeased with any rational researches upon that fubject, and especially any modeft attempts towards fetting the origin of our own nation, our parliaments, and other national cuftoms, in a jufter light. Befides thefe, fuch incidental points, as have fallen within the compass of these difquifitions, may, to the friends of politer learning, furnish a more agreeable amusement. In opening the connexion of the Roman customs with our own, I have, as occafion offered, corrected and explained several paffages in their antient writers, or restored them again, from the hands of critics, to their true reading.

• The analogy between our old Saxon weights, and those of a more remote antiquity, led me into a very particular enquiry upon that fubject; and convinced me, that a more concife and fatisfactory account of the antient nummulary and commercial pounds might be easily drawn up. For who is not loft in that variety of antient pounds, which the very learned Dr. Edward Bernard has given us with fuch an elaborate precifion? Or, who is fatisfied with the Libræ, Minæ, antiquæ, mediæ, imminutæ, of other celebrated authors, without knowing when they altered, or what was the difference? The great and obvious agreement in the divifions, ufes, and proportions of thefe antient weights, is a ftrong prefumption that they were originally formed upon the fame plan in imitation of one another; and that we should not fall into any very confiderable mistakes, if we fuppofe that the antient accounts of money, whether of Jews, Greeks, or Romans, might be taken at a common eftimate. In this view, I have ventured to give a new valuation of all the Jewish money in the Old Teftament, from the moft antient

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and refpectable authorities; which has the appearance of removing all those difficulties and objections, with which this fubject has been attended.

Hence it appeared alfo, that Mr. Sheringham, in his Origines Anglicana, by bringing our ancestors only from Sweden and the fides of the Baltic, had ftopt fhort of their true original : by going a little more Eastward, he would have found them in a better fituation, much nearer to their first settlements; and this account fupported by more authentic evidence, with all the marks of probability and truth.

I have advanced nothing of any moment without proper vouchers, and often given my authorities in full length at the bottom of the page, that fuch readers, as have curiosity enough to examine them, might do it with as little trouble as poffible. I never much approved of that fashionable way of quoting books, by giving the readers a fhort reference to fuch authors as perhaps they had never feen, or could have no opportunity of confulting. In all obfcure and doubtful points it is right to produce your credentials. An honeft man, who would fcorn to mislead his reader, might be deceived himself; might miftake the sense of the authorities he appeals to, though he is not capable of perverting them. Befides, in matters of antiquity, these larger quotations are fomething more in tafte; they appear, like buttreffes upon the outfide of our Gothic buildings, not beautiful, but useful; though they look heavy, and throw a fhade within, the whole could not be fo well fupported without them. From the ruins of these antient ftructures, mixed here and there with a few Roman remains, Iam fenfible there is no making a very agreeable edifice: if these fragments are properly separated, placed in their natural order, so as to fhew whence they were taken, and what was their use, it is all that can be reasonably expected.'

The first chapter of this curious work contains the different accounts of the Saxon money. The author thinks that the knowledge of it lies in a kind of intermediate state between the time of the Romans leaving this island, and that of its conquefts by the Normans. He fays, that in the conclusion of the Saxon government, the Saxon and Norman money is almost the fame, as to weight and fineness of the metal, and the rudenefs of the execution. We know not, however, whether fome of our readers will admit of the like correfpondence between the Roman and Saxon coins, at the commencement of the Saxon period in England, of which this writer entertains not the leaft doubt, though it is not fo easily discovered, for want of better evidence. 'Who (continues he) would think, that the current money of his prefent Majesty had any sort of rela

tion to that of Edward the Confeffor, if all the intermediate evidence was destroyed? But as it is not, we find that the mintmafters and moneyers, though they introduced many occafional, gradual, and neceflary alterations, as the public exigencies or opulence required, went upon the fame plan. There is still the fame number of pence in the English pound, that there was in the Confeffor's time: our divifions of the pound are not in the leaft different from his, though the pound itself, from being a real, is become a nominal valuation; almost two thirds of it are vanished. The number of fhillings is reduced from fixty to twenty; and yet the prefent fhilling is within a few grains of the fame weight and value, as the fhilling of the later Saxon kings.'

Mr. Clarke thinks, that the cafe of the Roman and Saxon coins was not very different; and that the Germans were as good judges of the value of the Roman money as the Romans themselves, on account of the fubfidies which the emperors paid their princes. With all due deférence to this author's learning, he may, perhaps, find fome difficulty in proving that the Northern Germans, who poffeffed the boundary of Ditmarsh and Holstein in Jutland, and who were called Saxons, were the descendants of those Germans who are mentioned by Tacitus as being fo well acquainted with the value of Roman money. Nothing is more certain than that the names of Saxons, Francs, and Allemans, though now so respectable in history, were unknown to Tacitus. The fame may be faid of the Jutes and Angles, who undoubtedly attended the firft Saxon invafion of England. Mr. Clarke proceeds in his system (a word we use on this occafion with great reluctance), and supposes the Saxon coins to be of Roman extraction. He then presents us with Dr. Hickes's account of the Saxon money, which he thinks is the beft.

• The Saxon pound contained 15 ounces, 60 fhillings, and · 240 pence.

The mancus, or mark, was 6 fhillings, or 30 pence.

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