equence of the change upon the interests of the public, who
are the dealers.

Now, although we hold, that upon every principle of public expediency
and justice, the legislature are bound to regard with particular
tenderness the interests of a body of men, who, like the Scottish
bankers, have not only established, but administered for such a long
time, the monetary system of the country with stability, temperance,
indulgence, and success, equally removed from weak facility and from
grasping avidity of gain; we must, nevertheless, allow that the
interests of the public are paramount to theirs, and that if it can be
shown that the public will be gainers, although the bankers should be
losers by the change, the sooner the metallic currency is established
amongst us the better. Here is the true test of the clause in the
Treaty of Union, providing that no alteration shall be made on laws
which concern private right excepting for the evident utility of the
subjects _within_ Scotland. There shall be no interference with
private rights if that interference is not to benefit the public; if
it does so, private right must of course give way, according to a rule
universally adopted by every civilized nation. In speaking of the
public, we, of course, restrict ourselves to Scotland; for although
the Treaty of Union is not, strictly speaking, a federal one, and in
the larger points of policy and general government is very clearly one
of incorporation, it has yet this important ingredient of federality
in its conception, that the laws of each country and their
administration are left separate and entire, as also their customs and
usages, so long as the same do not interfere with one another. It is a
sore point with the supporters of a metallic currency, and a sad
discouragement to their theories, that they have never been able in
any way to shake the confidence of the Scottish public in the
stability of their national bankers. It was no use drawing invidious
comparisons between a weighty glittering guinea, fresh started from
the mint of Mammon, and the homely unpretending well-thumbed issue of
the North; it was no use hinting that a system which professed to
dispense with bullion must of necessity be a mere illusion, which
would go down with the first blast of misfortune, as easily as its
fragile notes could be dispersed before a breeze of wind. The shrewd
Scotsman knew, what apparently the economist had forgotten, that the
piece of go