have coined as little as the law allows them; consequently up to this time there is so little silver in cir culation that it cannot take the place of gold. Resumption has been in practice effected in dear gold; and the greenback of the past seventeen years has now become worth its nominal value in gold.

Practically, then, the United States are at present in the same position as the States of the Latin Union, France and the rest; that is to say, although gold and silver coins are both legal tender, the quantity of silver coined is so restricted that gold is the real measure of value, and silver coin, so far as it circulates (and we know that it circulates largely in France), bears an artificial value far above its real intrinsic value. But there is this important difference, that whereas the Latin Union fix a total limit to their silver coinage, the United States have only fixed the amount to be coined monthly. If the present law stands, silver coin must go on accumulating, and in the end it must inevitably bring down the value of the dollar of account, cheap silver dollars displacing dear gold dollars. Under the existing law this is a mere question of time.

To realise the importance of this question we must remember that it is not only a question of the currency, or of the payment of the public debts and obligations, but of all private debts and obligations. Every man who borrowed a dollar in 1864 must now pay back a dollar two an! a half times more valuable. Every man who borrowed a dollar in 1868 (after the war was well past and over) must pay back nearly one

and a half times; every man who borrowed in 1875 or 1876 must pay 10 to 15 per cent. more; every mau who borrowed in 1877 must pay 2 to 6 per cent. more. No doubt this is a heavy tax on debtors, and a great increase in the value the creditors can claim. There are so many debtors in the States that it is no wonder there is a strong feeling on the subject, the more so as the debtors are the mass of rural proprietors and others throughout the country, while the creditors are the capitalists in the large towns and in England.

It is most unfortunate that the Act of 1873 was ever passed. If it had not been for that there could have been no ground of complaint, and the debtors would have had the benefit of the cheap silver to which the law under which they incurred the debts entitled them. Then, again, if at the time of the passing of the Resumption Act of 1875 provision had at the same time been made for coining the silver dollar, no one could have reasonably complained. The greenback being then at about 15 per cent. discount, it could be no hardship to make it payable in silver coin, according to the original contract, for even that would have enhanced its existing value. There would thus have been a happy and easy transition from greenbacks to silver worth a little, but not very much more, than the greenbacks of 1875, without disturbance or difficulty. As it is the creditors claim their pound of gold under the Act of 1873, and denounce the Act of 1878, which only returns to the state of things prior to 1873, as spoliation.

It was the real hardship to debtors of a return

to a gold standard, excluding the old silver option, which produced the recent unreasonable and unsuccessful agitation for a return to greenbacks; but it curiously shows how much the question is one between the farmers and people on one side, and the capitalists on the other, that the strength of the agitation was not so much in the indebted and depressed South as in the rich State of Massachusetts and the steady agricultural State of Maine, both model New England States.

The return to silver money would be the less a hardship on creditors, as the authorised standard in America puts gold to silver at about 16 to 1, instead of 15 to 1, the European standard; consequently the present cheapening of silver is a smaller departure from the old standard by upwards of 3 per cent.

I may mention that one is apt to be puzzled by the existence of another authorised dollar coined in the U.S. mints, called the 'trade dollar.' It is larger than the standard dollar, weighing 420 grains, and is not a legal tender, being coined for use in China and Japan, where it was supposed that a dollar of that kind would be preferred. I believe it is not very successful. The present state of things has brought about this curious result, that the larger trade dollar, not being a legal tender, is not worth a dollar in America, while the smaller standard dollar, enhanced in value by its scarcity, passes for the value of a dollar in gold. That is quite an artificial state of things, and can hardly last,

AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT.

It may be of interest to some of you that I should tell you something of what I have gathered on the subject of emigration to America. I should be sorry to see you go, of course, but at the same time there is this to be said in favour of America, that to any man who goes there, and especially to a Scotchman or an Irishman, that country is not in any degree a foreign country. There are some peculiarities, but they are all on the surface, and you would soon get over them. It is wonderful how soon one adapts oneself to local customs and habits when the people and language are really identical with those of our own country. The manners of the Americans are our manners, their ways are our ways, and their hearts and sympathies are the hearts and sympathies to which we are accustomed.

When we come to consider the question whether it is a good thing to emigrate to America, I would say, as a general rule, it is a country only for those who are willing to work with their hands, and work very hard indeed. It is not the place for a man who looks to earn his bread by his brains only, and with a moderate amount of work. No doubt if a man is extraordinarily clever he may get on in any part of the world; and if such a one is well fitted to get on in this country, he may not improbably also get on in America, if he begins early. In America there is

much greater room for extension than here; but as a rule the people who earn their bread by their brains, instead of their hands, are not so well paid, and therefore average people of that class I would recom mend not to go to America. I have been surprised at the low salaries paid there, and at the extent of the head-work done at a low rate of remuneration, although no doubt some people make large fortunes. If a man is not ready to work hard with his hands, if he hopes to earn his bread by his education and by headwork, I think, on the whole, unless he is very smart indeed, he had better stay at home or go to some of our colonies, and not try to rival the Americans, where the educated class are very keen and smart. After all if a man has moderate ideas and does not look to be a millionaire, some of the educated professions seem to be not yet over-stocked in this country-for instance, medical men are hardly procurable for Her Majesty's service and there are many employments of various kinds throughout Her Majesty's dominions.

To the man of the well-to-do classes with a few thousand pounds I would say that the land and the products would be somewhat strange to him, going from this country, and therefore, unless he lays out his money very judiciously, he might gain his experience by losing it, the result, in a good many cases, of young men going out with money. If a man has money he should take care to look about him before he invests in America. There is a view taken by some of my acquaintances that a fine young man, who does not care for indoor work, might farm in