The Mound.] THE EQUIVALENT MONEY. 85
houses for the French weavers, who, in memory of
their native land, named the colony Little Picardy,
.and thereon now stands Picardy Place. This was
in 1729. The men taught weaving, their wives
and daughters the art of spinning cambric yarn ;
and by the trustees a man well skilled in all the
branches of the linen trade was at the same time
brought from Ireland, and appointed to travel the
country and instruct the weavers and others in the
best modes of making cloth.
'' Secondly, to indemnify for any losses they
might sustain by reducing the coin of Scotland to
the standard and value of England ; and thirdly, in
bribing a majority of the Scottish Parliament when
matters came to the Zasf push.
" Of the whole equivalent, therefore, ono
~40,000 was left for national purposes ; and so lost
to public spirit and to all sense of honour were the
representatives of Scotland, three gr four noblemen
alone excepted, that this balance was supposed to
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.
Before proceeding further, we shall here quote the
comprehensive statement concerning the Board ot
Trustees which appears in Knox's "View of the
British Empire," London, 17Sg :-
" By the Treaty of Union it was stipulated that
;6398,085 should be paid to the Scots as an
equivalent for the customs, taxes, and excises to be
levied upon that kingdom in consequence of the
English debt, jC~o,ooo,ooo, though estimated at
~17,000,000. This equivalent, if it may be so
called, was applied in the following manner :-
"Firstly, to pay off the capital of the Scottish
India Company, which was to be abolished in
favour of the English Company trading to the East
Indies.
be useless in the English Treasury till the year
1727, when the royal burghs began to wake from
their stupor, and to apply the interest of the
~40,000 towards raising a little fund for improving
the manufactures and fisheries of the country."
'' An Act of Parliament " (the Act quoted before)
'' now directed the application of the funds to the
several purposes for which they were designed, and
appointed twenty-one commissioners, who were
entrusted with the management of the same and
other matters relative thereto."
In Lefevre's Report of July zoth, 1850, it is stated
that "having regard to the origin of this Board as
connected with the existence of Scotland as a
separate kingdom, and to the unbroken series of
