BKSIDKNTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION F. 335 



dislike. Thwarted in his object of fair-play, he petulantly ex- 

 claimed that a national paper currency was to the bankers 

 what a policeman was to a thief. I find that your Mr. Verrall, 

 like Augustus Caesar, has found how dangerous it is to pro- 

 pound an honest currency. The Eoman was wise before at- 

 tempting the deed, and thereby saved his political position ; 

 Mr. Verrall made the discovery at the expense of his place in 

 the Legislature — but, still, magna est Veritas et prcevalebit. 

 The present system, backed up by the gold and silver delusion, 

 will die hard, because it appeals right along the gamut of 

 human covetousness, from the shrill scream of the cheap-jack 

 to the guttural base of the millionaire, offering to each and 

 every a means of overreaching his less-informed neighbour. 



I have already indicated tliat I propose to relegate gold and 

 silver to the position of commodities, to be bought and sold for 

 what they are worth, asmen, \Yomen, and horses still continue 

 to be. I would like the civilisation of to-day — not by proxy of 

 its members, but in a grand procession — every now and then to 

 pass along the slums and into the dens of each abode of poverty 

 in these islands ; this done, tliat afterwards every outcast be- 

 cause of his poverty, with his wife and his childreii in their 

 garments soiled by labour, or tattered for the want of its wages, 

 there being nothing for them to do, should proceed along your 

 gayest thoroughfares and into your wealthiest churches, that 

 civilisation might become better acquainted with the totality 

 of its present outcome. This better acquaintance with the 

 state of the case might lead to the aggregate of the people 

 taking the management of their affairs out of the hands of the 

 few into their own. Is it a hopeless task for these colonies, in 

 the freshness of their youth and in the honesty of their pur- 

 pose, to form a Government that shall emit such an amount of 

 representative value as shall be adequate to the need of the 

 country ? 



This emission by the Government once established and 

 understood by the masses, the descensus Averni of over-issue 

 would be checked by the knowledge gained from observing the 

 financial effect of each succeeding issue on the trade, commerce, 

 and agriculture of the country. In half a generation the public 

 danger of being harmed by the jugglery of bankers' associa- 

 tions, with closed doors, assisted by their confederates outside, 

 capitalists of every grade, would have passed away, because the 

 people would have become sufficiently enlightened to testify 

 their wishes througli the ballot-box. I may be told that I am 

 very dogmatic on a subject that is very deep. Permit me to 

 reply that among students of other schools of finance I might 

 not be listened to unless I had the assurance that comes of 

 conviction. A legislator the other day in your Assembly alleged 

 that " an hour had been wasted and the honourable member 



