responsibility to do the needful in the matter, committed the same kind of mistake as a man who, in the words of Prof. Nicholson,²⁰⁹ “should suppose that the ship cannot sink because there is no leak in the particular cabin in which he happens to sleep.” ²⁰⁸ _Ibid._, par. 16. ²⁰⁹ _Money and Monetary Problems_, 1895, p. 90. That the attitude of inaction was unwise was soon brought home to the Government of India. Within a short space of two years it was obliged to reconsider the position taken in 1876. In a despatch dated November 9, 1878,²¹⁰ the Government of India observed:— ²¹⁰ P.P., C. 4868 of 1886, p. 18. “6. It was to have been expected that a subject so encompassed with difficulties should not receive any early settlement, and it was probably the wisest, as it was certainly the most natural course, to allow further time to elapse before attempting any final solution of the grave problem it [pg 126] involved. The improvement that took place in the value of silver in the year 1877 favoured this policy of inaction; and it is only now, when a fresh fall has brought down the rupee to a value hardly greater than that which it had in July, 1876, that the serious nature of the risk which our existing currency law entails on us is once more forced on our attention by its practical effects on the Home remittances. “21. The uncertainty that has now for some years prevailed with reference to the value of silver, and the consequent disturbances in the exchange, have … been causes of continued financial difficulty to the Government … and it is not possible to doubt that similar results must have been produced by these disturbances in the trade transactions of the country, or that investments of foreign capital in India, either for trading or other purposes, must have been very seriously interfered with by their influence. “23. Such we hold to be a true statement of the present difficulties and prospective risks of maintaining the existing Currency Law, and we feel assured that they have not been in any way overstated. It remains for us to inquire whether any practical remedy could be devised that should not be open to serious objections, or the risks attending the adoption of which should not be so great as to prohibit it. We feel most fully the heavy responsibility that will rest on us in dealing with the currency of India; but it is plain that the responsibility for doing nothing is no less great. Whether the law is left as it is, or whether it is changed, the result will be equally due to our action, and we cannot, if we would, avoid facing this grave question.