| Description | (Directed to 14 Cannon Street.)
Birmingham, May 25, 1773.
Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 21st, which I did not receive till last night late, was a cordial to my family, as you may be most assured I should have attended you if you had thought it absolutely necessary.
I most sincerely congratulate you not only upon obtaining the law, but upon the gentlemanly point of view you have appeared in during the whole struggle and the masterly mannerin which you have gain'd it. I flatter myself an opportunity will happen in two or three years to make important advantage of your plan of acquiring the nobility and gentry to be Guardians of our manufactures. Guns and nailes certainly want such protectors. When you have opportunity I don't doubt you will endeavour to propagate the propriety of having such a standard for silver wares as is most suitable for buckles and many other articles for exportation; I suppose silver of 10 oz. fine would, at a price in proportion, please as well in buckles as 11 oz. 2 dw. And it would be allowing us a proper means of defending ourselves against foreigners who manufacture silver below our standard. In such case we might be allowed to stamp the initial letters of the maker's name and an X and an anchor; indeed, we ought to get distinct information of the standards used in all considerable manufacturing towns in Europe.
The villanys practiced at Goldsmiths' Hall ought to be exposed as an act of justice to the publick, as well as to ourselves. The ignorance and inattention of the present Guardians of the Standard of Plate should at least be known to the Company at large; and also that there is no proper checks upon their servants to prevent abuses arising either from their villany or ignorance; and when the loose manner in which business is conducted by the deputy warden, drawers, and assayers, and their selling of silver and refining their diet before it is assayed, is duly considered, it behoves men of honour to take better care to prevent abuses. There cannot be the least doubt but that plate is generaly 4 dw. worse than standard-viz. 2 dw. connived at by the Guardians, and 2 dw. by the assayer-and that, by melting their diet before the annual assay is made, they refine it at least 2½ dw. before trial.
Under such circumstances as the conductors of the Assay Office have been detected, the Guardians have no means of acquitting themselves as men of honour than by endeavouring immediately to form sagacious checks upon their drawers and assayers as will prevent future abuses.
I sincerely wish you may receive as much benefit from the Assay Office as your great perseverance and publick spirit deserves, and that you may long enjoy the eminent rank you bear as a man.
Believe me, I am most affectionately yours,
S. Garbett
[Edited transcript.] |