y, that the
qualities of 'beauty and utility' possessed by gold will be for a long
time guarantees for its 'scarcity' whatever be its abundance. Its fine
colour and brilliancy are not its only beauties. No metal is so
ductile, so malleable, so indestructible by fire or chemical tests. It
does not rust, it scarcely tarnishes, and it admits of the most
exquisite workmanship. India alone would absorb the results of many
years' digging; and when direct steam communication commences between
it and Australia, gold will begin to flow into that great country,
with its hundred million of people, in one continued stream, to supply
their insatiable desire for it. They habitually invest their savings
in gold ornaments, which they wear on their persons; and at this day,
it is not uncommon to see the wife of a native under-secretary, whose
salary and property altogether do not amount to much more than L.300 a
year, wearing gold in this manner to the value of L.500. The treasure
of this kind possessed by the rich natives is probably extraordinary;
and so great is their desire to accumulate it, that it is impossible
to keep up a gold-currency in the country: the coin is immediately
melted down, and made into ornaments.

But whatever amount of gold is absolutely required at present as a
circulating medium, and whatever amount is likely to be absorbed by
the requirements of luxury, an amount far greater is likely to be
needed to keep pace with the increasing prospects of prosperity in
this country. Now that the restrictions on trade are nearly all
removed, Britain may become the centre of the world's commerce:
situated as she is in a temperate climate, between the Old and the New
World, her harbours never closed by ice, there is nothing to limit the
extent of her markets, nothing to check the development of her
resources, nor the division of her labour. The extraordinary impetus
given to emigration by the discovery of the gold-fields, has already
begun to create new and great countries; and every emigrant that
leaves our shores becomes a source of wealth and strength to the
mother-country, which has cast off the fetters that so long restrained
its enterprise, and is open to trade with all the world; while the
discovery of rich coal-mines in most parts of the globe, favours the
communication by steam-power between both hemispheres, and almost from
pole to pole; and while we hear of new discoveries that may make the
air a motive power ins