people would but submit to the little loss that would
fall upon them at first, by which they would lessen the weight of it as
they go on, as it would never increase to such a formidable height as it
was at before, nor would it fall so much upon the poor as it did then.

First, I must lay it down as a stated rule or maxim, in the moral part
of the question--that to put off counterfeit base money for good money,
knowing it to be counterfeit, is dishonest and knavish.

Nor will it take off from the crime of it, or lessen the dishonesty, to
say, 'I took it for good and current money, and it goes as it comes;'
for, as before, my having been cheated does not authorise me to cheat
any other person, so neither was it a just or honest thing in that
person who put the bad money upon me, if they knew it to be bad; and if
it were not honest in them, how can it be so in me? If, then, it came by
knavery, it should not go by knavery--that would be, indeed, to say, it
goes as it comes, in a literal sense; that is to say, it came by
injustice, and I shall make it go so: but that will not do in matters of
right and wrong.

The laws of our country, also, are directly against the practice; the
law condemns the coin as illegal--that is to say, it is not current
money, or, as the lawyers style it, it is not lawful money of England.
Now, every bargain or agreement in trade, is in the common and just
acceptation, and the language of trade, made for such a price or rate,
in the current money of England; and though you may not express it in
words at length, it is so understood, as much as if it were set down in
writing. If I cheapen any thing at a shop, suppose it the least toy or
trifle, I ask them, 'What must you have for it?' The shopkeeper
answers--so much; suppose it were a shilling, what is the English but
this--one shilling of lawful money of England? And I agree to give that
shilling; but instead of it give them a counterfeit piece of lead or
tin, washed over, to make it look like a shilling. Do I pay them what I
bargained for? Do I give them one shilling of lawful money of England?
Do I not put a cheat upon them, and act against justice and mutual
agreement?

To say I took this for the lawful money of England, will not add at all,
except it be to the fraud; for my being deceived does not at all make it
be lawful money: so that, in a word, there can be nothing in that part
but increasing the criminal part, and adding one knave more t