From these remarks it would appear that Mr. Fullarton expected from the abandonment of the Bank and Mint regulations a much more rapid depreciation in the value of gold bullion than would otherwise take place, and I agree with him in thinking that that would be a speedy and effectual method of letting down the value of the metal, which would then fall rapidly under the influence of the new supplies. But Mr. Fullarton does not appear to have noticed the fact, that a change of this kind would leave the value of the English currency and the level of English prices unaltered. It would be the abandonment of the gold standard, and the preservation of the currency at its present value, by allowing the value of all new and uncoined gold to sink below it. This would be a change exactly the opposite of that which was made by the Bank Restriction Act. Under that Act the gold, which was then acted upon by a demand excessive in proportion to the supply, was allowed to rise above the ordinary value of the currency. If our present currency were artificially closed up, by shutting the Bank and the Mint against new gold, except at a market price, the currency, for reasons stated in the First Part of the present work, would remain as steady as it did under the Restriction Act, and the value of gold bullion would rapidly sink below the value of coin and Bank paper; but the adoption of any such measure would evidently alter the position in which the State stands with regard to the national creditor. The public might view it as an unfair change in the terms of all long contracts, which, according to the popular opinion, must become less onerous, on account of the gold influx, to those who have to make payments; and it is not easy to say what effects it might produce upon the operations of foreign commerce. Perhaps the most serious consequence of all would be a new kind of forgery against which there could be no protection. The bullion being once let down considerably below the value of the coin, it would be coined privately, and the sharpest eye in the Bank of England would not be able to detect a bad sovereign of pure standard gold.

G. Woodfall and Son, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.