The _Times_ itself takes this view. After stating that “no one doubts that Australia, like India, China, and other countries, has contributed to the prosperity of our trade by developing its own resources, pastoral, metallic, or otherwise,” it makes this important admission: “It is also true that Australia and California, by increasing enormously the quantity of gold in the world, have diminished its value; so that, _even if the wealth of the country had not increased, its amount, as represented in gold_ [_i. e._ its value in money] _would certainly have been larger_.” This alteration in the value of money since 1853 is the main explanation of the fact which seems to Mr Gladstone “so strange as to be almost incredible,” but which he coolly attributes to “the legislation of Parliament setting free the industry and intelligence of the British people.” This, he says, is “the real and new cause that has been in operation,” and which has so marvellously increased the wealth of the country 20 per cent in eight years! But if this were the case, surely he need not cut his estimates so fine. A nation that has grown so enormously rich in a few years’ time could well afford to keep a good balance at its banker’s—_i. e._, in the Exchequer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES 1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.