articles no
cheaper than paper could; and therefore it was not called depreciation.
The idea of _dearness_ established itself for the idea of depreciation.
The same was the case in France. Though every thing rose in price soon
after assignats appeared, yet those dear articles could be purchased no
cheaper with gold and silver, than with paper, and it was only said that
things were _dear_. The same is still the language in England. They
call it _deariness_. But they will soon find that it is an actual
depreciation, and that this depreciation is the effect of the funding
system; which, by crowding such a continually increasing mass of paper
into circulation, carries down the value of gold and silver with it. But
gold and silver, will, in the long run, revolt against depreciation, and
separate from the value of paper; for the progress of all such systems
appears to be, that the paper will take the command in the beginning,
and gold and silver in the end.

But this succession in the command of gold and silver over paper, makes
a crisis far more eventful to the funding system than to any other
system upon which paper can be issued; for, strictly speaking, it is not
a crisis of danger but a symptom of death. It is a death-stroke to the
funding system. It is a revolution in the whole of its affairs.

If paper be issued without being funded upon interest, emissions of it
can be continued after the value of it separates from gold and silver,
as we have seen in the two cases of America and France. But the funding
system rests altogether upon the value of paper being equal to gold and
silver; which will be as long as the paper can continue carrying down
the value of gold and silver to the same level to which itself descends,
and no longer. But even in this state, that of descending equally
together, the minister, whoever he may be, will find himself beset with
accumulating difficulties; because the loans and taxes voted for the
service of each ensuing year will wither in his hands before the year
expires, or before they can be applied. This will force him to have
recourse to emissions of what are called exchequer and navy bills,
which, by still increasing the mass of paper in circulation, will drive
on the depreciation still more rapidly.

It ought to be known that taxes in England are not paid in gold
and silver, but in paper (bank notes). Every person who pays any
considerable quantity of taxes, such as maltsters, brewers, di