o (herein), the United Kingdom, the
United States, and the Latin Union, were to accept and strictly
adhere to bimetallism at the suggested ratio. We think that if in
all these countries gold and silver could be freely coined and
thus become exchangeable against commodities at the fixed ratio,
the market value of silver as measured by gold would conform to
that ratio and not vary to any considerable extent."

Mr. Leonard H. Courtney, one of the monometallist members of that
commission who signed the report, has since become an avowed bimetallist,
as have many other prominent Englishmen. Among them may be mentioned
Professor Alfred Marshall and Professor Sidgwick, of Cambridge University;
Professor Nicholson of Edinburgh; Professor H. S. Foxwell, Professor of
Political Economy in University College, London; Professor E. G. Gonner,
of Liverpool; Professor J. E. Munro, of Kings College, London; and many
others.

Mr. Courtney says, in his article in the _Nineteenth Century_, April,
1893: "Is it true that gold is this stable standard? I was one of the six
members of the Gold and Silver Commission who could not see their way
clear to recommend bimetallism, and reported: 'When we look at the
character and power of the fall in the price of commodities, we think that
the sounder view is that the greater part of the fall has resulted from
causes touching the commodities rather than from an appreciation or
increase in value of the standard,' In the same paragraph we had said: 'We
are far from denying that there may have been, and probably has been, some
appreciation in gold, though we may hold it impossible to determine its
extent.'" Now, then, he goes on to say: "Let me make a confession. I
hesitated a little about this paragraph. I thought there was perhaps more
in the suggestion of an appreciation of gold than my colleagues believed;
but while I thus doubted it, I did not dissent. I am now satisfied that
there has been an appreciation of gold greater than I anticipated when I
signed the report, and I should not be able to concur in that same
paragraph again. We have been passing through a period of an appreciation
of gold, and no one can tell how long it will last. This is a serious
matter. The pressure of all debts, private and public, has increased. The
situation is serious. It is a dream to suppose that gold is stable in
value. It is no more stable than silver. It has undergone a considerable
apprecia