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still come in, they should neither be coined, nor represented, 

 nor notes issued upon other securities, further to increase the 

 money. As this would be binding the issues to a smaller 

 limit than sometimes obtains, the debtor interest might com- 

 plain of it ; but, to increase the money, and give it the same 

 stability, would require increased notes and a raised standard 

 of value between them and the gold. Equity would say, that 

 if you make any restriction, you shoidd raise the standard in 

 behalf of the debtor interest, and restrain the issues in behalf 

 of the creditor in equal proportion. But, in practice, it would 

 be found an infinitely more easy thing to restrain the issues by 

 a few millions of pounds, than to diminish the pound by a few 

 grains. The standard, therefore, would be let alone. 



"The next point requiring attention is, to provide an elastic 

 or free appendage to the currency, to exhaust the forces of 

 perturbation, with the smallest amount of disturbance to the 

 system : as the springs of a railway carriage, or the pole of 

 a rope dancer, or the ballast of an aeronaut. Now, the whole 

 currency, limited to the condition of a moderate commercial 

 activity, would consist of the inferior metals for change, the 

 coined gold, the paper representing gold, and the authoritative 

 paper issued on government securities. There is only one 

 portion of this mass that can be detached and taken away, 

 to meet the various exigencies of foreign relations without 

 deranging the system at home; and that is the represented 

 gold. This fund might be enlarged to the extent of the 

 existing gold; because that portion which is coined might be 

 represented. But, as the coined gold is the chief part of the 

 money that exists in that division, which is indispensable for 

 the payment of wages and the smaller dealings of the multi- 

 tude, if entirely represented, it could only be so, to a large 

 extent, by small notes. Against these there exists a prejudice, 

 not, however, resting on very serious considerations. For the 

 supposed loss by forgery is at least equalled by the wear and 

 tear of the coined gold; and any other inconvenience is not 



