The large, full face of the great man was turned calmly and slowly upon
the speaker. His deep and serene eye apparently saw not so much the man
before him as the problem which lay on that man's mind.

"Sir," said Sir Isaac, "as John Locke hath said, this is after all much
a matter of clear reasoning. There come into this problem two chief
questions: First, who shall pay the expense of the recoinage? Shall the
Government pay the expense, or shall the owner of the coin, who is to
obtain good coin for evil?

"Again, this matter applieth not to one man but to many men. Now if one
half the tradesmen of England rush to us with their coin for reminting,
surely the trade of the country will have left not sufficient medium
with which to prosper. This I take to be the second part of this
problem.

"There be certain persons of the realm who claim that we may keep our
present money as it is, but mark from its face a certain amount of
value. Look you, now, this were a small thing; yet, in my mind, it
clearly seemeth dishonesty. For, if I owe my neighbor a debt, let us say
for an hundred sovereigns, shall I not be committing injustice upon my
neighbor if I pay him an hundred sovereigns less that deduction which
the realm may see fit thus to impose upon the face of my sovereign?
This, in justice, sirs, I hold it to be not the part of science, nor the
part of honesty, neither of statesmanship, to endorse."

"Sir Isaac," cried Montague, striking his nervous hands upon the table,
"recoin we must. But how, and, as you say, at whose expense? We are as
far now from a plan as when we started. We but multiply difficulties.