een the par and the rate of exchange should in
ordinary circumstances not exceed the cost of transmission of the
precious metals from one country to the other. Now, by an act of the
States of the 21st of December, 1725, we learn that they were indebted
to a merchant at St. Malo for the proceeds of the sale of a cargo of
wheat, which had been taken possession of and sold to the people by the
States, at a time of great scarcity in the Island. They had remitted a
portion of the amount; but there remained a balance due of 3,332 livres
tournois, which Mr. Patriarche had engaged to remit to St. Malo. The
States ordered that this amount should be paid to Mr. Patriarche by the
deputy viscount in liards, thus incidentally proving that there was in
reality no other coin in circulation; but as Mr. Patriarche had to pay
the amount to the merchant at St. Malo in gold and silver, and as these
bore a premium compared to liards, the loss, or rather the amount of the
premium, had of course to be made good by the States; and they
accordingly ordered that that difference, amounting to 416 livres ten
sous, should be raised by rate on the parishes, and placed in the hands
of the deputy viscount, for payment to Mr. Patriarche. We are thus
enabled satisfactorily to ascertain the real comparative difference
between the value of the liard and other metallic currency, or, in other
words, the premium which the latter bore compared with the copper
currency, at the rate of four liards to the sol. By a calculation on the
data thus furnished, we find the difference to be precisely twelve per
cent. in favour of gold and silver; and we are also to bear in mind that
the great scarcity of gold and silver would of course add to the
premium. By the Order in Council the difference was to be established at
fifty per cent.

"The States soon perceived that they had either committed a great
mistake or that they must yield to public opinion, which was strongly
and decidedly opposed to the change ordered. They accordingly, on the
20th of December, 1729, petitioned his Majesty in Council for the recall
of the Order in Council, being apprehensive that the said regulations
would not answer the ends they at first expected from them. The States,
on the 24th of April, 1730, named a deputy in support of their petition.
Counsel were heard by the committee of the Privy Council for the States,
and also for several members of the States and others who opposed the
petition o