INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT GOLD-MINES. 217 



in the form of native gold, in pieces as large as a bean 

 or a lupin, which lost only one-eighth in the tire ; and 

 that the rest, though requiring more purification, gave a 

 considerable product ; that, some Italians having asso 

 ciated themselves with the barbarians to work the mines, 

 in the space of two months the price of gold fell one-third 

 throughout the whole of Italy ; and that the Taurisci, 

 having seen this, expelled their foreign partners, and sold 

 the metal themselves.&quot; The wider markets of our day, 

 the greater demands of a vastly-increased metallic 

 currency, and the multiplied uses to which gold is now 

 applied, would prevent any such supply as that described 

 by Strabo from sensibly affecting the money or other 

 markets of our day. But if, as is now seriously asserted 

 as the result of all our experience of the California!! mines, 

 np to the time at which I write, they are likely to double 

 for many years to come, the annual supply of this 

 precious metal, the value of gold, in comparison with 

 other articles, must certainly fall j that is, if gold be 

 retained as the standard of value, the prices of all other 

 articles must nominally rise. The effect of this upon 

 general commerce, and upon the welfare of the labouring 

 classes, must be decidedly beneficial, though, to persons 

 of realised capital, which is held in money, it must be an 

 increasing source of loss. A very great stimulus will, 

 doubtless, be given by it to the material progress of all 

 northern America, and especially of the United States. 



Monday , 24tk. I left St John this morning on my 

 way to Boston. The frozen harbour of St John, and the 

 cold and stormy season of the year, had laid up all the 

 steamboats along the coast. I had no other resource, 

 therefore, but to face the severity of the weather, and 

 . proceed by land. My first day s journey was to St 

 Andrews, by the unpleasant road I described in a former 

 chapter. I started on wheels, but found the road icy 

 and dangerous, from the half-melted and frozen snow. 



