a new gold-field opened in New Zealand; and silver demonetized by his own country, Germany, and the other principal countries of Europe.  M. Emile de Lavelaye (Ninteenth Century Review, September, 1881), states, “that the present annual supply of gold is no more than sufficient to meet the requirements of the expanding commerce of the world.  The scarcity of gold has induced so great a fall in prices that they are now lower than in 1850.  It is estimated that North America has contributed L14,000,000 of the stock of gold in the world.”  We have already shown that the annual product of gold has increased, at one period, thirteen fold, and is now, notwithstanding its rapid decrease, five fold greater than at the commencement of the present century; that prices have not been in the least degree affected by the increased supply of gold; and that North America has contributed $2,374,000,000 of the stock of gold in the world.

Gold has faithfully performed for the last forty-two years, and, in view of its abundance and prospective increase, will continue to support its role of a fixed standard of value, and a firm basis for the bank-note circulation of the principal countries of the civilized world, which is evidently growing gradually metallic, as a comparative statement of the amount of bank-note circulation issued, and the amount of specie held by the Bank of England, the joint stock banks, and the private banks of Great Britain the Bank of France, the State banks, and the National banks of the United States, at different periods, will exhibit: 

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1840.
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| GREAT BRITAIN. |     FRANCE.          | UNITED STATES.
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Circulation  |  L34,976,524   |  220,005,695 francs. | $87,872,171
Specie       |    8,751,342   |  225,406,807   "     |  35,207,690
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1850.
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Circulation  |  L34,948,765   |  481,552,000 francs. | $118,984,112
Specie       |   19,843,026   |  458,820,000    "    |   45,379,345
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1862.
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Circulation  |  L39,574,862   |  725,417,563 francs. | $126,599,167
Specie       |   22,917,846   |  324,915,234     "   |  102,507,559
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1885.
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Circulation  |  L37,215,968   |2,912,386,475 francs. | $112,027,858
Specie       |   28,146,893   |2,065,937,158     "   |  139,747,080
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Gold has robbed silver of the prestige claimed for it two centuries ago by Locke,—­“that