No attempt was made at the subsequent sessions to return to the formalities and dignities of procedure which the startling nature of the opening speech had so effectually banished. The debates were man to man business consultations of the most earnest and practical description. Nobody had any pet theories to put forward or any hobbies to ride. There was a single-minded purpose on the part of every man to seek and find an escape from a danger which, in the estimation of them all, grew more threatening and more appalling every hour. They recognized at once the necessity for reaching an early solution of their problem. The secrecy of their deliberations might itself excite suspicions. Their home governments would soon become displeased over their reticence. In fact, the British ministry intimated very promptly to the English delegates that their silence regarding the proceedings of the conference was unsatisfactory. It became necessary to limit the time during which the policy of secrecy should be continued. The delegates finally informed their superiors at home that they had bound themselves to preserve silence in regard to all matters coming before the conference for one month. In cases where this was a violation of instructions, cabinet ministers were informed that the step seemed justified by certain exigencies of the situation, and that the end must justify the temporary defiance of authority. In the early stage of their deliberations, the temptation was strong upon the delegates to adopt the easy and obvious plan suggested by Brent at his first appearance before them. If the entire mass of gold should be loaded once more upon a ship and sunk in the fathomless depths of mid-ocean, the unique problem would be completely solved, and none like it would ever arise probably to distract the brain of man. But there was something inherently revolting and intolerable, especially to these men of money, in the thought of thus destroying untouched and unused the greatest mass of what the world regards as wealth which had ever come into the possession of men. Reason told them, so they all agreed at the outset, that to attempt to employ this treasure in the monetary world would destroy or reduce to almost nothing the value of all gold, now held in the belief that it was the securest form of wealth. They did not need to go beyond the _a_, _b_, _c_ of finance and political economy to make that truth apparent. Two or three of the older delegates recalled the agitation in the money markets of the world which followed the California gold discoveries of 1849. There had been a loud clamor, especially in the United States, for the demonetization of gold, for the same reason that silver was attacked as a monetary metal when its production increased in large proportion. The yellow metal had been almost in disgrace for several years, while its modest white rival had possessed in a higher degree the essential quality of stability.