In fine, and to resume, the idea of money must first be separated from that of the intrinsic value of gold, or any other commodity, and confined to the mere capacity of representing all commodities, and so of facilitating the exchanges of wealth. This, it has been abundantly demonstrated, can be as well, and for various reasons, better done by strips of paper, properly stamped and signed, than by gold or any other metal. In the next place, these strips of paper, signed by the Government, with the credit and wealth of the whole country, are better than individual promises; though the issuance of individual promises should not and need not be prohibited, as we do not now prohibit anybody from making or receiving private notes, drafts and checks. Again, the Government Money need not be redeemable, but only convertible into new strips of paper when the old ones are worn out, and into commodities when they are used in trade, and into other Government Securities bearing interest, as I have pointed out. Still again, money has also been held to be a correct measure of values. This it ought to be, indeed, but has never been so, because it has never been measured itself. Of what use would yard-sticks be, used for measuring cloth, but which had never themselves been measured by anything? The system which I have stated for measuring money itself is believed to be perfect. It is not the individual dollar, relatively to the half dollar or the hundred dollars, that has failed to be measured or fixed; but the rate of increase relatively to other values, of _all the Government currency afloat_. By the convertibility of any excess of issue sinking its value below a certain standard into interest-paying bonds, any over-issue is immediately absorbed, while a deficiency of issue will be revealed by the fact that absolutely no bonds will be sold. In this manner the whole operation will be self-adjusting from day to day; the value of the aggregate of Government money will be accurately measured and kept uniform; and any interest or temptation which the Government might have to an over-issue would be immediately neutralized by the absorption of such surplus into bonds, upon which the Government itself would be paying interest; or, in other words, assuming an unnecessary and useless burden, in the face of the people and of its own economies. Can anything more perfect be devised? If so, let us have it by all means; if not, let this device be adopted. A self-adjusting, self-regulating admeasurement of the value of money would make it a true measure of other values, and is a suggestion which, if it can be secured, is of unequaled importance. Another somewhat similar idea was glanced at in passing—that of a definite method of determining scientifically the equitable rate of interest. This I cannot stop now to explain. It will, however, only be when we come quite down to that basis, that the full value of this financial system will be experienced.