4 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



The Appreciation of Gold 

 To the Editor of the Times. 



Sir — I should be sorry to misrepresent Sir John 

 Lubbock or anyone else, but I think he will find upon 

 examination that I was strictly accurate in what I said 

 with regard to the appreciation of gold and the members 

 of the Gold and Silver Commission at the meeting of the 

 Surveyors' Institute on Monday last. 



What I said of them, taking it from the full report of 

 that association, was this : — " AH of them acknowledged, 

 in a greater or a less degree, the fact of the appreciation 

 of gold." 



The statement is quite accurate, and is borne out to 

 the letter in section 47, part II., and section 11, part III., 

 of the report of that Commission. 



With regard to the test which he submits to me, it is 

 based on an assumption which I believe to be entirely 

 fallacious — viz., that rents have fallen only 20 per cent, 

 since 1874. 



Official figures upon this point are notoriously mis- 

 leading. They do not include remissions, which equal, 

 I believe, and quite possibly exceed, the amount of the 

 permanent reductions. 



Taken together, I am confident that 40 per cent, 

 would be nearer to the truth than 20, and if that is so his 

 test does not apply. 



As to the opinion I expressed that gold had ap- 

 preciated 30 per cent., it is with diffidence that I presume 

 to differ from your correspondent, who ought to be a 

 great authority. 



But the figure which I took — and I purposely put it 

 low — was based upon the estimates of such acknow- 

 ledged experts as Mr. Giffen, and upon the well-known 

 index numbers of Messrs. Sauerbeck, Soetbeer, and 

 Mr. Palgrave, as well as upon those of the Economist ; 

 and I must leave it to your correspondent to settle with 

 those gentlemen, who, unlike myself, can claim to be 

 authorities, the much vexed question — viz. how much 

 or how little gold has appreciated since the time I name. 



It is something that Sir John admits the fact at all. 



If it was 5 per cent, at the time of the Commission it 

 must surely have increased since then, and if Sir John 



