show, the necessity of eliminating these temporary changes of value
in gold before you could judge properly of the permanent
depreciation. He proved, that in the years preceding both 1847 and
1857 there was a general rise of prices; and in the years succeeding
these years, a great fall. The same might be shown of the years
before and after 866, _mutatis mutandis_.

And at the present moment we have a still more remarkable example,
which was thus analysed in the Economist of the 30th December, 1871,
in an article which I venture to quote as a whole:

'THE GREAT RISE IN THE PRICE OF COMMODITIES.

'Most persons are aware that the trade of the country is in a state
of great activity. All the usual tests indicate that--the state of the
Revenue, the Bankers' Clearing-house figures, the returns of exports
and imports are all plain, and all speak the same language. But few
have, we think, considered one most remarkable feature of the
present time, or have sufficiently examined its consequences. That
feature is the great rise in the price of most of the leading
articles of trade during the past year. We give at the foot of this
paper a list of articles, comprising most first-rate articles of
commerce, and it will be seen that the rise of price, though not
universal and not uniform, is nevertheless very striking and very
general. The most remarkable cases are--

January December
L, s. d. L, s. d.
Wool--South Down hogs per pack 13 0 0 21 15 0
Cotton--Upland ordinary per lb. 0 0 7 1/4 0 0 8