This consequence is deemed by some not very material: and there are even persons, who from a fanciful predilection to gold, are willing to invite it, even by a higher price. But general utility will be best promoted by a due proportion of both metals. If gold be most convenient in large payments, silver is best adapted to the more minute and ordinary circulation.

But it is to be suspected, that there is another consequence more serious than the one which has been mentioned. This is the diminution of the total quantity of the specie, which a country would naturally possess.

It is evident, that as often as a country which over-rates either of the metals, receives a payment in that metal, it gets a less actual quantity than it ought to do, or than it would do, if a rate were a just one.

It is also equally evident, that there will be a continual effort to make payment to it in that species, to which it has annexed an exaggerated estimation, wherever it is current at a less proportional value. And it would seem to be a very natural effect of these two causes, not only that the mass of the precious metals in the country in question, would consist chiefly of that kind, to which it had given an extraordinary value, but that it would be absolutely less, than if they had been duly proportioned to each other.

A conclusion of this sort, however, is to be drawn with great caution. In such matters, there are always some local and many other particular circumstances, which qualify and vary the operation of general principles, even where they are just; and there are endless combinations, very difficult to be analyzed, which often render principles, that have the most plausible pretensions, unfound and delusive.

There ought, for instance, according to those which have been stated, to have been formerly a greater quantity of gold in proportion to silver in the United States than there has been; because the actual value of gold in this country, compared with silver, was perhaps higher than in any other. But our situation in regard to the West-India islands, into some of which there is a large influx of silver directly from the mines of South America, occasions an extraordinary supply of that metal, and consequently a greater proportion of it in our circulation than might have been expected from its relative value.

What influence the proportion under consideration may have upon the state of prices, and how far this may counteract its tendency to increase or lessen the quantity of the metals, are points not easy to be developed; and yet they are very necessary to an accurate judgement of the true operation of the thing.

But however impossible it may be to pronounce with certainty, that the possession of a less quantity of specie is a consequence of overvaluing either of the metals, there is enough of probability in the considerations, which seem to indicate it, to form an argument of weight against such overvaluation.

A third ill consequence resulting from it is, a greater and more frequent disturbance of the state of the money unit, by a greater and more frequent diversity between the legal and market proportions of the metals. This has not hitherto been experienced in the United States, but it has been experienced elsewhere; and from its not having been felt by us hitherto, it does not follow that this will not be the case hereafter, when our commerce shall have attained a maturity, which will place it under the influence of more fixed principles.

In establishing a proportion between the metals, there seems to be an option of one of two things-

To approach as nearly as it can be ascertained, the mean or average proportion, in what may be called the commercial world; or

To retain that which now exists in the United States:-As far as these happen to coincide, they will render the course to be purified more plain and more certain.

To ascertain the first with precision, would require better materials than there are possessed, or than could be obtained, without an inconvenient delay.

Sir Isaac Newton, in a representation to the treasury of Great-Britain, in the year 1717, after stating the particular proportions in the different countries of Europe, concludes thus-"By the course of trade and exchange between nation and nation, in all Europe, fine gold is to fine silver as 14 4-5 or 15 to one."

But however accurate and decisive this authority may be deemed in relation to the period to which it applies, it cannot be taken, at the distance of more than seventy years, as a rule for determining the existing proportion.

Alterations have since been made, in the regulations of their coins, by several nations; which, as well an the course of trade, have an influence upon the market values. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe the state of the matter, as represented by Sir Isaac Newton, is not very remote from its actual state.

In Holland, the greatest money market in Europe, gold was to silver in December 1789, as 1 to 14.88; and in that of London it has been for some time past but little different, approaching perhaps something nearer 1 to 15.

It has been seen, that the existing proportion between the two metals in this country, is about as 1 to 15.

It is fortunate in this respect, that the innovations of the Spanish mint have imperceptibly introduced a proportion so analogous, as this is, to that which prevails among the principal commercial nations; as it greatly facilities a proper regulation of the matter. This proportion of 1 to 15 is recommended by the particular situation of our trade, as being nearly that which obtains in the market of Great-Britain, to which nation our specie is principally exported. A lower rate for either of the metals in our market, than in theirs, might not only afford a motive the more in certain cases to remit in specie rather than in commodities; but it might in some others, cause us to pay a greater quantity of it for a given sum, than we should otherwise do. If the effect should rather be to occasion a premium to be given for the metal, which was under rated, this would obviate those disadvantages; but it would involve another, a customary difference between the market and legal proportions, which would amount to a species of disorder in the national coinage.

Looking forward to the payments of interest hereafter to be made to Holland, the same proportion does not appear ineligible. The present legal proportion in the coins of Holland is stated at 1 to 14-9/10. That of the market varies somewhat at different times, but seldom very widely from this point.

There can hardly be a better rule, in any country, for the legal, than the market proportion; if this can be supposed to have been produced by the free and steady course of commercial principles. The presumption, in such case is, that each metal finds its true level, according to its intrinsic utility, in the general system of money operations.