Mn. LOWE'S REMEDY FOR THE SILVER DIFFICULTY.
(TO TIM EDITOR 01' THE " SPEOTATOR:)
SIR,—In ease Mr. Lowe should not send a rejoinder to the answer given to him in your last number, may I presume to ask a question or two in support of his view? Suppose that, in a country requiring, for the convenient performance of its commercial business, ten millions of sovereigns, composed of, say, 113 grains of gold each, an absolute Government should refuse to coin more than five millions, might not each of these five millions become worth more than 113, and very likely worth at least 226 grains P Next, suppose the Government to withdraw the sovereigns, and to issue in their stead five millions of incon- vertible) £1 notes, agreeing, of course, to accept them in pay- ment of all Government dues, and declaring them in all other respects legal tender ; would not the notes, like the sovereigns they bed displaced, be worth 226 grains each P Finally, suppose the Government, after a while, to render the same notes con- vertible, by offering a sovereign in exchange for any one of them, brought to the Mint for the purpose, but at the same time care- fully abstaining from issuing sovereigns, except in exchange for notes. In all probability some notes would then be converted, but inasmuch as notes are for certain purposes more convenient than-S?overeigns, a certain number, although convertible, would not be converted, but would remain in circulation. The total of notes and sovereigns together being still only five millions, while the business of the country could conveniently absorb ten millions, every note, as well as every sovereign, would presum- ably be worth at least 226 grains, or twice the weight of' gold contained in a sovereign. Would not that be a case of convert- ible notes being rendered, by restriction of their number, worth more gold than was contained in the sovereigns or other gold coin represented by them am, Sir, eze., W. T. TNORNTON.
[What we maintain is, that in boarding countries notes are not more convenient than gold, but BO much less convenient that money-changers would collect notes to secure the gold, and sell it, as they do now, in rouleaus.—En. Spectator.]
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