Further holograph draft of MINT00823 (Mint 19/3/407), also dated 20 July 1715

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To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of his Majestys Treasury

May it please your Lordships

The Mint is a place not subject to any military power but is directly under the King & Council & the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury & Officers of the Mint. And by ancient charges is of a distinct jurisdiction & the Indentures of the Mint no strangers may live or lodge in the Mint without the leave of the Officers of the Mint, & by an Order of King Charles the II all strangers were turned out of the Mint & prohibited to live there any more without the leave of the Lord Treasurer & Chancellour of the Exchequer. But notwithstanding this Constitution, General Compton the Lieutenant of the Tower has brought the Earle of Oxford into the House of the Comptroller of the Mint, & there put a guard upon him, as if that house & by consequence the whole Mint was under his jurisdiction.

My Lords, the safety of the Coynage & encouragement of the importation of Bullion depends upon keeping the Mint out of the hands of the Garison, And therefore I am humbly of opinion that something be done which may prevent the discouragement of the Merchants & the drawing of this invasion of the Mint into precedent

All which is most humbly submitted to your Lordships great wisdom

Is. Newton

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