59

revenue on the continent will support a greater number chapter
of men than the same revenue in this country, in conse- ^^
quence of the inferior appointment of a foreign army,
yet no inference is deducible from this fact to shew
that the same sum will represent a higher value. No
conclusion can therefore be formed from the inferiority
in the wages of labour and in the military pay of the
continent of Europe below the standard of this country
to clash with the general principle of the level of money.

If, then, it be manifest, both in reason and in fact, that
prices are every where the same, it follows as a neces¬
sary corollary, that money discharges with fidehty and
truth the functions of its office as an uniform measure of
value over the whole world ; and that the impracticability
of a permanent violation of its level imposes a limit upon
its partial excess in any particular country, and necessa¬
rily reduces the currency of all to the same proportion.