[pg 44] saw through the weak point of the proviso on which the Government was called upon to act. He argued that the currency notes were payable only in the current coin of the country, which in India was the silver rupee, and to hold a portion of the reserve in gold which could not be tendered in payment of the notes was seriously to endanger their convertibility in times of political distrust or commercial panic.⁸⁴ He therefore ventured beyond the scope of the agitation, and pronounced that instead of allowing gold a back-door entry into the currency system it ought to be made the standard of value in India. He did not agree with Mr. Wilson that the substitution of gold for the silver standard would be “to break faith with the creditor.” Nor was he much deterred by the fact that before the silver currency could be reduced to a subsidiary position the introduction of gold in India would give rise to a double standard for the time being; for he argued that “all nations must pass through a transition stage of a double standard before they arrive at a single standard.” Accordingly he proposed that (1) sovereigns and half-sovereigns of British or Australian standard should be legal tender in India, at the rate of one sovereign for Rs. 10; and that (2) Government currency notes should be exchangeable either for rupees or sovereigns at the rate of one sovereign for Rs. 10, but that they should not be exchangeable for bullion. ⁸⁴ Cf. his Minute dated June 20, 1864. _Vide_ Papers, etc., on Gold in India, p. 147 _et seq_. He was even opposed to holding silver _bullion_ in the paper currency reserve, for this involved on the Currency Department the obligation to get the silver coined, which was a matter of time having regard to the limited capacity of the Indian Mints at the time, while the notes issued were payable _in coin on demand_. There was a run on the Paper Currency Department, which found itself short of coin.