ON VARIATIONS IN THE VALUE OF THE MONETARY STANDARD. 297 



able considerations, like the celebrated resolution ' declaring the throne 

 vacant after the flight of James TI., of which Macaulay says that ' its 

 object was attained by the use of language which in a philosophical treatise 

 would justly be regarded as inexact and confused. . . . The one beauty 

 of the resolution is its inconsistency. There was a phrase for every sub- 

 division of the majority.' 



There seems no more to be said, if what is required of us is a political 

 measure rather than a scientific measurement. But, if otherwise, there is 

 desiderated & 'principle by which to effect a synthesis between the purposes 

 separated by our analysis. Perhaps it would be wisest frankly to ac- 

 knowledge the arbitrary character of the proposed operation — 



qu£e res 

 Nee modum habet neque consilium, ratione modoque 

 Tractari non vult. 



If a more definite answer is insisted upon, one might propose for 

 imitation the Scotch practice of ' striking the Fiars ' - by means of a 

 jury. A committee of experts agreed as to the general scope of the 

 inquiry might be brought together, or put in communication.^ Each 

 member should independently form a numerical estimate based upon the 

 data submitted to all. The mean of all these estimates constitutes the 

 best possible value. It is thus that juries having to assess damages 

 frequently proceed. The principle is illustrated by the following experi- 

 ment. Ten gentlemen agreed each to guess the age of all the others and 

 to state his own. The statistics so obtained evidence that a better esti- 

 mate is afforded by the mean of several judgments than by the individual 

 opinion. (For details see Mind, Jan. 1888.) 



No doubt it is a delicate problem in the higher Metretics, what degree 

 of divergence in principle between authorities would be fatal to the 

 collation of their judgments. Jurymen who differed materially as to the 

 law or facts of a case could not with reason or advantage take a mean 

 between their individual assessments. Similarly our monetary jury must 

 be supposed to be agreed as to the general scope of the inquiry. Minor 

 differences of opinion might be waived. The discrepancy between the 

 various received formulse for the Consumption Standard '' would not be 

 fatal, or rather would be favourable,^ to the combination of all the 

 estimates into a mean result likely to be less fallible than any one of the 

 measurements thus averaged. The methods of Messrs. Sauerbeck, 

 Mulhall, Sidgwick, Marshall, Palgrave, GifiTen, Lehr, and perhaps it 

 may be added, Drobisch, and the one which is specially recommended in 

 this memorandum,^ may be advantageously mixed. But, on the other 

 hand, those who hold with the present writer that, in the construction of a 

 standard for general purposes, a unique importance should attach to the 

 items of National Expenditure — the average budget — the numerous 



• ' It was moved that King James the Second, having endeavoured to subvert the 

 constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between king and 

 people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the 

 fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated 

 the government, and that the throne had thereby become vacant.' — 3facaulay, cha.Y).x. 



' See W. K. Hunter's description of this practice. 



^ M. Dabos, in his Etalon, is perhaps the only writer who has frankly asserted 

 that the value of gold is a metaphysical matter to be decided by cultivated intelli- 

 gence. 



* Above, p. 264. ^ P. 266. « Section IV. 



