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upon an unfavourable exchange the Bank would be sub- chapter
jected to the same drain for clandestine exportation to the
continent, and to the same loss in re-purchasing an ade¬
quate stock to supply the demand, were the system pre¬
vented; as the profit which the goldsmith could derive by
remittance abroad, is at all times nearly correspondent with
the profit, which he makes in the market at home. All re¬
gulations to counteract the melting or export of coin, when
it is the interest of individuals to effect it, are not only
impracticable but impolitic, as the only consequence, were
their execution feasible, would be an indefinite advance
in the price of our produce above the produce of other
countries. The practice, therefore, of clandestine remit¬
tance, which brings our currency to its relative propor¬
tion, and the system of melting, which has a similar
operation, are obvious results, in the existing state of
our currency, of the property of money to maintain its
level. If the excess in the market price of our money
were prevented by the compression of our paper within
its proper limits, no temptation to melt would exi;,t. The
fault is in those who suffer the excess, rather than in
those who take advantage of it.