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a loss, since the causes that drive out gold generally depress 

 them, and the causes that bring it in generally elevate them. 

 The office of the bank would be as trustee of the nation, to 

 take in gold when it was offered, and to pay it out, or show 

 securities, when it was demanded. To do this would be all 

 that was necessary to her credit ; not the fulfilment of an im- 

 possible promise, which requires the screw and destructive 

 manoeuvres to escape from the obligation. Because an expan- 

 sion of currency, equal to a state of moderate prosperity, has 

 a mean amount of bullion proper to it, which will be retained 

 on the average of a series of years, as the tidal ocean retains 

 its mean level, or a climate retains its mean temperature. If 

 the bullion fall below this amount, the impulse of its departure 

 must re-act with an equal impulse to make it return; and, 

 providing for the temporary inequality, it may be left to its 

 own oscillation, without constraint. If the population and 

 business of the country increase, the quantity of money, to 

 keep its value equable, should likewise increase. And the 

 average amount of gold retained through a decade of years 

 would be a proper criterion to regulate the increase. Instead, 

 therefore, of breaking up commerce to restore every accidental 

 departure of gold, (as a workman who, for every difficulty, 

 pawns his tools,) only provide that it may be left to its own 

 re-action, and it will sustain an equable currency and an equable 

 commerce, agreeable to its mean amount ; and the utmost 

 advantages that can arise from a mere instrument will be 

 afforded to honest industry, for the promotion and enjoyment 

 of wealth. 



