Page:Treatise on Currency and Banking.djvu/20

 and operation of banks of circulation, upon the public prosperity, he differs from some of his personal friends, and from many others engaged in the management of such institutions, for whose intelligence and purity of character he entertains the highest respect. But the truths of science cannot be forced to accommodate themselves to man's imperfection or interests. If what he advances be not such truths, they can be easily refuted, and he invites the severest criticism to be applied to his doctrines, in order that their solidity may be tested, and if found to be false or unstable, that their true character may be exposed. If, on the other hand, the principles which, he asserts, be in reality, as he honestly believes them to be, incontrovertible truths, he will not do any of his readers the injustice of supposing, that they would reject them, because they are not profitable.

With these preliminary remarks, the author will briefly state, that the plan he has adopted, is one which he thinks the best calculated to simplify the subject to those who have not heretofore made it a study. He has divided the volume into four books. The first treats of the laws which regulate a currency composed entirely of the precious metals; the second, of those which regulate a currency composed of coin and convertible paper united; the third, of those which regulate an inconvertible paper currency; whilst the fourth treats of some miscellaneous matters, which could not have been well comprised under either of the former heads.

In the language and style of the work, the author has sought rather to render his positions intelligible