" Such a worm was WiU Wood when he scratched at the door Of a governing Statesman or favourite W -"

2 Defence of the Conduct of the people of Ireland in their Unanimous Refusal of Mr. Wood's copper money.

3 View of the coins struck for the West India Colonies, 39.

4 Leake's Hist. Account of Eng. Money, 2 ed. 8vo., London, 1745, p. 419; Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain and its dependencies, by Rev. Rogers Ruding, 4to., 3d Ed., London, 1840, ii., 72.

5 Ruding, says " 1720," but this is a typographical error, as his paragraph is copied from Leake.

1184 MEDALS AND COINS.

This speculation and its fate are tlius alluded to in the third of the Drapier's letters, written by Swift in 1724: -- " He (Wood) has already tried his faculty in New England, and I hope he will meet at least with an equal reception here; What that was I leave to public intelligence."

The influence of government was brought to bear on New England in the hope that it would receive the coin; and the Duke of Newcastle, then at the head of the Board of Trade, wrote to Lt. Gov. Dummer in Oct. 1725, informing him of the authenticity of Woods patent for coining half pence, pence and two pences " for the use of his Majesty's dominions in America," and recommending the patentee, to the favour of the Massachusetts colony. ' But we presume that the scheme was a failure as well in New England as in Ireland, for the author of " the Defence," already quoted, says, " The money w^^s rejected in a manner not so decent as that of Ireland ;" whilst Marsland, the Cornhill hardwareman, had such quantities of it in his cellar that he was ruined by it, and died housekeeper of Gresham College. 2 It is probable, however, that tliough discarded in New England, it may have circulated in some other of the colonies, to a limited amount, as some specimens have been dug up as far south as Virginia, and even as Charleston, S.