TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 191 



indeed wlio would prophecy the value of silTer as compared with gold a few years 

 heuce. I certiiinly shall not attempt to do so. There are countries, China espe- 

 cially, of which wo know very little ; and I apprehend that the course of the silver- 

 lUcarket will very greatly depend on tlie action of the States of the Latin Union 

 and the United Slates of America. The disposition of the Government of India 

 seems to be to adopt a waiting policy; and there are not sufficient data to enable 

 any one to pronounce with contidence that this com-se is -wi-oug. " When in doubt 

 what to do, try how it will answer to do nothing," is a maxim of much value. 

 The only plan to which personally I have a little inclined is to put more silver into 

 the rupee ; and that would not be safe till we are sure that the change in the 

 relative value of the precious metals is permanent. 



On one point only in connexion with this subject I sliould like to say something 

 further. The belief has been expressed, and the Silver Committee has accepted the 

 suggestion, that India is likely to absorb an increased and increasing quantity of 

 silver for currency purposes. This I greatly doubt. It is said that in many parts 

 of India silver is yet little known for purposes of exchange, most transactions being 

 conducted by the primitive method of barter. This I think quite a mistake. I 

 have as vdde an experience of India as most men ; and I know no part of India 

 where traffic is by barter for want or ignoi-auce of coin, except the most remote 

 hill regions of the most savage and unexplored aboriginal tribes which are yet 

 hardly known even geographically. The Hindoos are a very old people ; they used 

 coin freely when we had none ; and they have not forgotten the use of it. I should 

 say that the special feature of their transactions is the use of a great deal of coin in 

 cases where we should iise notes, cheques, or bills. And nw impression is the 

 opposite of that which has been suggested. I am inclined to think that as more 

 modern ways are learned less coin will be required, not more. When I first went 

 to India very large quantities of coin were hoarded. Every prosperous native 

 prince who managed his finances well according to native ideas hoarded very large 

 sums in coin. On the occasion of successions, minorities, and otherwise we ascer- 

 tained the reality of these hoards. The weight and power of a prince or noble was 

 estimated by his store of treasure. So in grades below, there was much disposition 

 to put by stores of rupees ; and the prosperous peasant, like the Frenchman, either 

 buried rupees in his hut or made them into ornaments for his family — a little 

 capital to be converted into cash when necessity arose. Till very recently paper 

 money was wholly unknown ; and even yet it is used but to a very minute" degree 

 compared with its use in European countries. 



Now that the country is more opened up every day, that there is more confidence 

 in the British peace, that new channels of enterprise, new wants and idesis are 

 developed, I believe that the habit of hoarding coin diminishes. Natives, princes, 

 and nobles spend their money in many new ways. When they accumulate they 

 lend it to the British Government to make railways in their territories, or mider- 

 tiike enterprises of their own, or put it in " Government paper." Smaller people 

 travel by railway, enter into speculations, and utilize their money instead of hoarding 

 it. Li one direction, as people become richer the ornaments on their wives and 

 children may become more valuable ; but in another direction, there is less hoarding 

 of capital in this form. 



In a country where the coin of legal tender is so bullcy as silver there is much 

 greater occasion to use paper money freely than where the cm-rency is gold. I see 

 not why, as confidence in our notes increases, they may not come to be used ten, 

 or twenty, or fifty times as much as at present, why notes for large sums and silver 

 for smaller sums shoidd not dmstitute the currency for transactions above 

 those for which copper suffices. If the tendency of things should be at all in the 

 direction which I have indicated, it would follow that while we might understand 

 the absorption of a vast amount of silver in the past half century, we might also 

 suppose that the tendency thus to absorb that metal will not continue. 



I would ask your permission now to turn for a moment to the subject of educa- 

 tion, and to suggest that here of all things there is the amplest room for substituting 

 scientific inquiry and a scientific treatment of that great economic agency for the 

 empirical system hitherto followed. Ij.et us try to work out what are the "objects of 

 education, and by what methods they may be best attained. How far and at. what 



