of India; to diminish the amount of capital that would otherwise flow into the hands of the people, and to, at the same time, sacrifice all its consequential effects; to diminish employment for labour and increase the causes that aggravate famines and scarcities; to ultimately diminish the financial resources of our Indian Empire; to create a serious cause of dispeace (a useful Scotch word) between us and the people we govern;—­such are some of the effects that must be produced should the Government be successful in carrying out that monetary policy which it has forced on India in the most arbitrary and tyrannical manner.  Can we wonder then that Sir David Barbour, the Indian Finance Minister, said that the measure would have “far-reaching effects, and ought not to be attempted unless under the pressure of necessity?” No such necessity, as I have completely shown, has arisen.  Out of its own mouth, then, does the Government stand condemned.

In this connection it may be interesting to quote the opinion of the great Duke of Wellington, who, speaking in the House of Lords in 1833 (July 5), said, “My lords, I wish the noble lords opposite had taken the advice of Sir John Malcolm upon the subject of forming an independent body in London, representing the interests and carrying on the concerns of India.  My lords, it is persons of this description who interpose an efficient check upon the Government.”  Unfortunately for India there is no such body, and the final decision on this great question has rested with a Cabinet composed of men who know nothing of Indian interests, and who, indeed, have no time to attend to them, seeing that their thoughts require to be almost exclusively devoted to a consideration of those vote-catching, parochial politics with the aid of which alone the Government can hope to maintain its balance on the political tight-rope.

I may observe, in conclusion, that, as regards the effects of the depreciation of silver on a silver-using country, we have, in the case of Mexico, circumstances exactly parallel to those in India, and in the “Times” of October 21st, 1893, a most interesting analysis is given of the report of our consul at Mexico—­Mr. Lionel Carden—­as regards the effects on that country of a further serious depreciation of silver.  Mr. Carden sums up his conclusions on the hypothesis that the present value of the dollar, which is 3s. 1d., falls to 2s. 6d., and proceeds then to examine into the effects of such a fall on the country considered as a whole.  He estimates the losses to the Government and the railways which would arise from the sums they have to pay in gold, and then puts against them the advantages that the fall in silver would confer on miners, agriculturists, and manufacturers.  His final conclusions are as follows: