Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3OF ASSAYING GENERALLY. When we speak of assaying the precious metals it may be safely affirmed that we refer to a subject which in point of magnitude and general utility yields to no other that can be named; whether we contemplate it in its bearing upon the interests of individuals, or of nations, we are brought to the same conclusion, viz. that it is a subject of vast, of universal importance. Gold and silver being the most precious ofmetals, and forming, as they do, the standard of value all over the globe, it is obvious how great the necessity is that some unerring principles should be established whereby to detect the frauds which mankind unhappily practise upon each other. Such a check and protection, both to individuals and to nations, does the office of the Assayer afford by suggesting to the individual members of a community the impolicy of practising any deceit in the mixture of their metals, when such deceit can be easily detected; whilst on a more extended scale, and where the fatal effects of deceit and fraud would be coextensive with the mercantile and social transactions of the world, it presents an effectual barrier against one nation imposing upon another in the all-important article of its bullion. In the absence of any such check it is obvious that all confidence would be at an end, nothing could be bought or sold, and universal suspicion would ensue. The respect which we now feel for the coin of the realm would be changed for disgust; whilst the confidence we are able to repose in the bullion of Foreign Countries would speedily wither and decay; and thus mankind would lose the immense advantage of a metallic currency. The importance which the Legislature of our own highly favoured country attaches, and has for ages attached, to this subject may be seen from the safeguards b…
