ill never
be = (_x_ + _y_)/2 but only _x_/2 + _y_; and _y_, which is a very costly
element, will never be bound at all, not by the smallest fraction,
through any possible change in the cost of _x_.

This is a most important consideration; for if the price of gold could
fall to nothing at all, not the less the high price of the
workmanship--this separately for itself--would for ever prevent the
great bulk of society from purchasing gold plate. Yet, through what
other channel than this of plate is it possible for any nation to reach
the gold market by any effectual action upon the price? M. Chevalier,
the most influential of French practical economists, supposes the case
that California might reduce the price of gold by one-half. Let us say,
by way of evading fractions, that gold may settle finally at the price
of forty shillings the ounce. But to what purpose would the diggers
raise enormous depots of gold for which they can have no commensurate
demand? As yet the true difficulty has not reached them. The tendency
was frightful; but, within the short period through which the new power
has yet worked, there was not range enough to bring this tendency into
full play. Now, however, when new powers of the same quality, viz., in
Australia, in Queen Charlotte's Island, in Owhyhee, and, lastly, on Lord
Poltimore's estate in South Moulton, are in working, it seems sensibly
nearer. It is a literal fact that we have yet to ascertain whether this
vaunted gold will even pay for the costs of working it. Coals lying at
the very mouth of a pit will be thankfully carried off by the poor man,
but dig a little deeper, and it requires the capital of a rich man to
raise them; and after _that_ it requires a good deal of experience, and
the trial of much mechanic artifice, to ascertain whether after all it
will be worth while to raise them. To leap from the conclusion--that,
because a solitary prize of 25 lb. weight may largely remunerate an
emigrant to California, therefore a whole generation of emigrants will
find the average profits of gold-washing, golddigging, etc., beyond
those of Russia or of Borneo, is an insanity quite on a level with all
the other insanities of the case. But, says the writer in the _Times_,
the fact has justified the speculation; the result is equal to the
anticipation; in practice nobody has been disappointed; everybody has
succeeded; nobody complains of any delusion. We beg his pardon. There
have been very distinc