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 things. They had outstanding a debt on which they were paying 5 and 6 per cent., and they were suffering under an inconvertible currency. During the nine years 1871—9 they had exported on balance £76,084,000 in gold. Trade and commerce from 1873 to 1877 were extremely depressed, more depressed than with us; but in a moment all was changed. By means of the vast supplies of grain they exported and sold to Europe, they were enabled to pay off a considerable portion of their debt, to reduce the interest on the remainder, and to establish their currency on a metallic basis. The process adopted was to call in their bonds; and to buy gold in the markets of the world, as Italy, for a similar object, is now doing. Some of these bonds were held by us, some by other nations; we paid for them when we bought them years before, and we got money or money's worth when we parted with them. As to the gold, some gold went away—not more than we could easily spare, seeing that with an increased volume of business money remains at from 2 to 2½ per cent. In 1880-1 the United States imported on balance £18,500,000 in gold; but while Free Trading England exported it to the extent of two to three millions Protectionist France exported six or seven millions. I attach no importance to this fact, however, I only use it as an argumentum ad hominem; for gold, like everything else, is a commodity, and tends to go where it is most wanted, and can be paid for. All that happened amounted to this, that America, by the extraordinary coincidence of her possessing three abundant harvests, while Europe suffered under three deficient ones, was enabled to pay off some of her debt, to reduce the interest on the remainder, and to put her currency on a metallic basis. All this should have been within the ken of a writer who lays claim to "a mind capable of comprehending facts," and who sets himself up as an instructor on the Free Trade question. But, all is ignored, and we are made to carry away a dim sort of idea that, in order to pay our way under our Free Trade system, we are selling our bonds, and are being drained of our gold; a state of things which only exists in the minds of such writers as this Quarterly Reviewer.