359

which it supplied the place, or which would circulate, if chapter
there were no paper, was sufficiently true for all practical
purposes ; but by what reasoning Lord King would be
enabled to maintain its truth, I am at a loss to conjecture.
In the Chapter on the Causes of the Depreciation of
Money, I attempted to prove, by a reference to Sir George
Shuckburgh's table, that the depression had proceeded,
during the first fifty years of the i8th century, to lo per
cent., and during the last fifty, to 61 per cent., beyond
wdiat the proceeds of the American mines could effect;
and if the reasoning, which I afterwards constructed to
shew, that the excess in each instance resulted from the
pubhcation of paper, be admitted, it necessarily follows,
that paper must have proportionally exceeded the value
of the gold and silver, which would otherwise have circu¬
lated, or the superadded depression could never have
occurred. It was perfectly consistent in Dr. Adam Smith
to support the vahdity of the position, because he denied
the fact of the depression ; but as Lord King has not only
admitted, that the depreciation has taken place, but that
the issue of paper is the cause of the depreciation, it is
impossible to conceive with what consistency he can
endeavour to vindicate its truth.

But, whatever were the sentiments that were floating in
his mind, in favour of the position, at the time that he wrote
it, they appear not to have had any durable influence;
for, notwithstanding his assertion, that it was sufficiently
true for all practical purposes, he laid it aside the mo¬
ment that it w^as advanced, and so far was he from
deducing any practical inference from it, that he never
once alluded to it through the whole  conduct of his