220 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



with full knowledge of that law, and there have been few complaints. 

 When, of recent years, it has happened that, owing to the gold disco- 

 veries, gold has become slightly cheaper, and it being more profitable 

 to pay in gold, France has quietly slided into a gold currency 

 standard under the operation of the old Double Standard Law. Now, 

 in India, the fear is that at the convenient rate of 10 Rupees per 

 Sovereign, a change of currency and standard might be much more 

 imminent and immediate than it was in France 50 years ago, when the 

 law was made. If the gold diggings continue to produce plentifully, 

 the sovereign might very rapidly displace the rupee ; and those of us 

 who have served our best days for a pension calculated in rupees, or 

 lent money for an annuity in rupees, might think ourselves injured, if 

 we receive instead cheap sovereigns. For it must also be remembered 

 that the double standard, or rather change of standard, in France and 

 other countries, has hitherto had a remarkable effect in steadying the 

 relative value of the precious metals. An immense quantity of gold 

 has thus been absorbed, and an immense quantity of silver thrown on 

 the market. But if, a few years hence, all the countries willing to 

 receive gold have been supplied, and the influx continues, then what is 

 to become of the surplus ? Then perhaps the relative value of gold 

 may be seriously lowered, and pensioners, holders of Government Secu- 

 rities, and others, might have serious grievance. I by no means assert 

 that a gold standard in this country is not on the whole the best. I 

 would only suggest that the subject is at present one to which there 

 are two sides, and not by any means very easy. 



Major Lees made some further observations on the necessity, in dis- 

 cussions on currency and the standard, of avoiding a confusion of 

 terms, as such had in times past led to the commission of serious 

 errors. He added that the law introduced into France by Monsieur 

 Gaudin in March 1803 made the franc the monetary unit or standard, 

 and that the ordinance admitting the parallel circulation of gold did 

 not in any way abrogate the right of the lender to the State of 

 200 francs to receive back a kilogramme of silver, or its equivalent, in 

 satisfaction of his claim on the State, whenever it should be liquidated. 



At the request of the President, the Secretary read an extract 

 from Mr. Cowie's paper on the temples of Cashmir, in introducing 

 which the Chairman explained that it was too full of technical architec* 



