ine in value.

Suppose, then, that such a law, national or international, should go
into effect to-day, would anyone be so fatuous as to part with his gold
until the effect of the law could be discerned? If the governments at
the same time should exercise the same good sense, they would retain
their gold and disburse their silver, but such conduct would defeat the
very object of the law. If, on the other hand, they should release their
gold, retaining their silver, they would give fresh point to the
oft-proved saying, "The fool and his money are soon parted." A
_bona-fide_ attempt on the part of one or more powers to change the
market ratio of the metals could result only in transferring government
gold to private coffers, and in a general fall to the silver basis with
all its attendant evils. Meanwhile the gold would continue its functions
as money in new transactions, but at its market value, never by any
chance reaching the public treasuries except on the same basis. The
inconvenience of transacting business with a metal some thirty times as
heavy, value for value, as that to which they had been accustomed would,
without further reason, speedily induce the governments to a restoration
of the gold standard at any cost.

As for the legal-tender quality, it cannot be denied that governments
here possess a peculiar power which individuals cannot exert; but that
fact does not make the exercise of that power morally right. The
quality of legal tender infused into the debased dollar cannot but add
temporarily to its exchangeable value in a degree gradually diminishing
with the exhaustion of the accumulated credits. When, however, the last
debtor in the series is reached, and there is no longer a Peter to rob
for the sake of Paul, the fraudulent coin must inevitably sink to the
value it had as bullion prior to the act that created it.

Upon such fallacies as these it is sought to erect the elaborate
superstructure of the civilized world's monetary system! Some of the
more advanced thinkers among the self-styled bimetallists, realizing
that some deference must be paid to the lessons of experience, which
offers not a solitary instance of the concurrent use of the two metals
under a fixed ratio, argue that, even so, the chief blessing of
bimetallism--a less variable standard--will have been secured in the
automatic oscillation from one circulation to the other. If this
oscillatory feature is the object sought, the adoption of