TREASURE TROVE

During the middle ages, treasure trove, or money dug from the ground, formed an important branch of the revenue of this and of most other European states. The security of property which we have enjoyed since the Revolution has, however, put, long ago, a complete stop to the practice of burying treasure in Great Britain. But down to a late period the practice was common in Ireland, and is, perhaps, not yet altogether abandoned in that country; and it is also common in some of the Continental states. Neckar mentions that in France, under the ancien regime, the va als of many of the nobles, afraid of subjecting themselves to the violence of their masters, buried all the money they could scrape together; and during the anarchy and brigandage of the Revolution, vast sums were thrown into the earth. The well-informed Ru ian economist, M. Storch, mentions that the practice of burying treasure is still extremely prevalent in Germany, Italy, and Ru ia; and it must nece arily be more or le prevalent in every country exposed to the ravages of war, and where the rights of property are imperfectly protected. But it is chiefly in the despotical states ot Asia, and in Turkey in Europe, that the burying of money is carried to the greatest extent. There every rich individual estimates his wealth, not by the stock or capital he has lent to others, or has employed in the great work of production, but principally by the amount of the treasure he has been able to conceal; and every poor man deposits in the earth whatever he can contrive to withdraw from the grasp of his avaricious masters. " The rajahs," says Mr. Luke Scrafton, in his valuable tract on Hindostan, " never let their subjects rise above mediocrity; and the Mohammedan governors look on the growing riches of a subject as a boy does'on a bird's nest: he eyes their progre with impatience, then comes with a spoiler's hand and ravishes the fruit of their labour. To counteract this, the Hindoos bury their money under ground, often with such secrecy as not to trust even their own children with the knowledge of it; and it is amazing what they will suffer rather than betray it. When their tyrants have tried all manner of corporeal punishments on them, they threaten to defile them: but eve a that often fails; for resentment prevailing over the love of life, they frequently rip up their bowels, or poison themselves, and carry the secret to the grave." Mr. Scrafton considers that the universality of this practice, and the quantity of the precious metals which must in consequence have been lost, has been a principal cause of the long-continued drain of specie to the East. From the discovery of the American mines down to a very late period, the greatest portion of their produce has been directly or indirectly exported to Turkey, Hindostan, and other eastern countries; and yet it is said that the precious metals do not seem to have become more abundant in those countries, or the prices of commodities to be materially increased. But, without attempting to investigate the precise degree of credit that ought to be attached to this statement, it is abundantly 1255 TREFOIL. certain that the want of security which has caused this locking up of so large a quantity of capital must be one of the main causes of the poverty and wretchedne in which the people of India, Persia, Turkey, . are involved. TREASURY, [s. 1268]